When she’d first applied for Cambridge several years ago, the wait to find out whether she was accepted had been grueling. She’d spent countless hours checking her email everyday, dutifully went outside to check the post, and even talked herself out of calling the school to see if she could receive an answer sooner.

Those few days had been the longest wait of her life, she’d thought, but that was nothing compared to waiting to see whether the Kingmaker had accepted her deal, or if he was sending someone back in to get rid of her permanently.

She’d been bouncing her leg up and down—anything to quell the anxiety she felt—when someone had finally reentered the room, making her heart lodge in her throat when she saw it wasn’t the Kingmaker. But, he’d only untied her long enough to take her from the room and into another, this one lacking even the chairs the other one had.

It was empty, with concrete floors and softly padded walls.

She had almost been thankful that she wasn’t restrained until the door swung shut and the lights flickered on one by one, revealing the faint rust colored splotched along the floor—a shade of muted red that could never be mistaken for anything other than what it was. Blood.

But as her gaze drifted around the room, the floor wasn’t the worst this room had to offer. On the back of the doors were dents—in metal—and score marks across it as if … Ada’s fingers ached at the thought.

Someone had tried desperately to escape this room.

“It’s fine,” she told herself.

She wouldn’t die in here.

The Kingmaker was a man of logic, no matter how deadly she knew him to be. If he still thought she had something of value he would keep her alive, but that didn’t make the worrying any easier.

Minutes felt like hours when you were waiting to see whether you would live or die.

She wasn’t sure how long she sat alone in this room, too afraid to even move as she waited, but the audible click of the lock coming undone before the heavy door swung wide had her lifting her gaze to the man that entered.

Skorpion.

She’d thought he was tall before while she’d been sitting, but now as she stood in heels, he still towered well over her.

He wasn’t classically handsome like the Kingmaker—he looked more brutal. Meaner. Maybe more attractive for the same reasons.

Seeing him, Ada knew she should have been afraid, worried about why he had come instead of the Kingmaker, but it wasn’t a reality she was quite ready to face just yet.

But even as his presence sparked uncertainty, she wasn’t nearly as afraid as she should have been. Despite his size, he seemed rather nonthreatening.

He stepped further into the room, eyeing her blatantly, starting from her head to her feet and back up again. She was glad she couldn’t read his thoughts, not when his expression made her think they weren’t positive.

It felt like he was staring through her, and whatever he saw, he didn’t like very much.

But whether he liked her was immaterial. “Has the Kingmaker reached a decision?”

He seemed disappointed by the question, or maybe the look was because of her, she couldn’t be sure. “Let’s go.”

He lacked the accent that colored the Kingmaker’s words. American instead of Welsh. His voice was gruff and slightly gritty, deeper than any she had ever heard. One that commanded attention when he started speaking.

Ada cleared her throat, wanting to speak, ask where he was taking her or what was going to happen to her now. Instead, she remained silent, stepping toward him instead. He didn’t move out of the way however, rather stood in place until she was close enough that she was forced to look up at him.

Confusion came first as he merely stared at her until dawning realization hit as he gestured for her to extend her arms.

“Is this really necessary?” she asked, even as she did as she was told.

Not only had she been forced here against her will and couldn’t possibly have had a weapon on her, but where the hell would she had found one in this room in the short time since she’d last seen him?

“I doubt they searched you,” he said in that same dark voice that really shouldn’t have had any effect on her. “Never know.”

“I’m not the threat here.”

He was, and so was his boss.

It didn’t matter what she thought of it, however. He was going to search her whether she liked it or not.

He stepped behind her and before she could even blink, his hands were on her, starting at each of her wrists and working his way in. The heat of his touch burned right through the thin material of her blouse, making her far more aware of every inch he gained.

He moved down her spine, around her hips, and lower still, until every nerve ending in her body was firing. This went beyond thorough. It was hard not being aware of him, especially with each pass of his fingers. Once he got to her legs and drifted back up, beneath the edge of her skirt, she couldn’t help but jump, even as she chastised herself for reacting at all.

She had an image to uphold—cold and aloof—she couldn’t let him ruin that.

“I’m not hiding anyway,” she said as she stepped away from him.

She thought she might have saw his mouth twitch. “Being thorough.”

Once he finished, he straightened. “You sure you wanna make a deal with the devil?”

The question threw her for a moment.

Belladonna’s henchman hadn’t said a word during their entire meeting, and most others rarely spoke without express permission.

And never had she heard a single one of them question someone about their choice in business with their boss.

Her façade dropped for a moment, too surprised to maintain it. She shook her head. “I don’t see how I have a choice.”

“We all have a choice,” he said. “It’s a question of if you’re making the right one.”

He didn’t wait for a response —not that she had one to give—before grabbing her arm and walking her from the room and down the lengthy hallway back the way she’d come.

There was no point in trying to discern where she was, nothing stood out. Not the bare walls painted gray, nor the concrete floors that were dull and cracked in places—not even the exit sign that hung above the doorway they walked through.

Ada was starting to believe they were moving through an endless labyrinth when they finally came to a stop in front of another closed room door.

Skorpion raised his fist and knocked twice before pushing the door open and gave her a gentle shove inside.

Seated at an industrial-sized table was the Kingmaker.

“Miss Edgar, have a seat.”

She glanced back at Skorpion, wondering if he would leave now, but he stepped in right behind her and shut the door.

“Let’s cut to it, shall we? You have something I want, and I have something you need. If you’d like to make a deal, I’m inclined to offer you one.”

“I don’t understand,” she said, confused. “You don’t have anything I want.”

“No?”

He removed his phone, his thumbs moving rapidly over the screen before he turned it around for her to see.

She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to be looking at until her own face stared back at her, a red number blinking above it.

There was a price, quite literally, on her head.

One-hundred thousand dollars alive, half of that if dead.

Either way, whoever found her would be getting a large sum of money. Worse, it wasn’t the only price. There were others, offering different rewards.

One, she thought, for every client she’d stolen from.

But between the various amounts, it was only a fraction of what she had taken. To them, she wasn’t worth the money she’d taken—they only intended to make an example out of her.

She couldn’t bring herself to respond as he pocketed his phone. There were no words.

“Fortunately for you,” the Kingmaker said, “I don’t get out of bed for less than a million, so your life is safe with me for the moment. Now, I would be inclined to drag this bit out, ensure you that your options are few, but I neither have the time or inclination to do so. Besides, you have family to think about.”

Fear climbed up her spine, her gaze shifting to Skorpion. “Leave my family out of this.”

“I’m not interested in your family, Miss Edgar, so long as you cooperate. If I did, they would already be here sitting where you are wondering if this is the end.”

“I already agreed to tell you what I know. What more do you want from me?” she demanded.

“I’m offering you a better deal, actually. In exchange for everything you have on Belladonna, I’m offering your family my protection.”

“But if you could find them,” she said, “someone else can.”

“They’ll be moved to a secure facility, one known only to myself and the team that works for me. Consider it my form of witness protection.”

It sounded too good to be true, and she knew firsthand that all things that sounded too easy weren’t what they seemed.

“And after?”

He arched a brow, not responding.

“Once you have what you want, what happens then?” she pressed on.

He didn’t blink. “Nothing that concerns me.”

“So my life is of no consequence to you?”

“Why should it be?”

“I have information,” she said quickly, thinking on her feet.

“You’ll give me what you know on Belladonna regardless, and she’s the only one I care about.”

“If you’re in the business of information like they say you are, then you’ll want what I have. Belladonna wasn’t my only client. Not only will I tell you what I have on her, I’ll tell you everything I know about the firm and it’s clients.”

“What, exactly, would I need to give you in exchange for this information.”

“So long as I’m aiding you, you’ll keep my family safe.”

He nodded once. “Is that all?”

It had been a moment ago, but now … “And two million dollars.”

She could practically feel Skorpion’s gaze boring into the back of her head, but she focused solely on the Kingmaker who sat forward a little in surprise.

“You’re clearly overestimating your worth. My acceptance of your first proposal is payment enough.”

“But under the terms of your original agreement, you only wanted what I knew about Belladonna, not the rest of the firm’s clients. If you want what I know, you’ll pay me two million dollars.”

Because after this was all over, she still needed to help her family, and to do that, she needed the money. Two million dollars would go a long way in ensuring they were safe for years to come.

She owed them that.

“Do we have a deal?”

The Kingmaker didn’t speak, instead stroking his jaw a moment. “If the information you have is worth as much as you think it is, I’ll give you what you want, but if it’s not—”

He didn’t have to finish—they both knew what he didn’t say.

“For the time being,” he went on, “I’m assigning Skorpion to watch over you.” He gave a lazy wave of his hand to the man standing at her back. “You’ll be kept in a safe house and not allowed any contact with anyone, for your own protection.”

Or rather to prevent her from contacting her family and further warning them of what was coming.

He pulled out a slender box, popping it open and removing the twin gold bracelets from inside.

“These are ankle monitors,” he explained before passing them over to Skorpion. “Should you, at any time, be anywhere I don’t like, I’ll know it.”

Skorpion knelt next to her, fitting each one to her ankles and when he stood back up, she heard the staccato beep to signal they were secure and working.

It was official.

No matter where she went, whether in this building or wherever Skorpion decided to take her, she belonged to the Kingmaker.