the private alley behind a t

steel back doors, leading her down a hallway l

room, low cello music played. Clark sat at the head of a long

her limp as she walked into the room. She kept he

hick manila envelope and tossed it onto the

beating a rapid rhythm against her ribs. She calculate

chin toward the

nd tremble as she reached out. She unwou

underground casino. Attached to it was the transaction rec

e let the tears spill over her lashes.

knees buckling. She collapsed into the c

abbed a man in the shoulder with broken glass and nearly se

lowered the papers. She looked up at him, the fake tears gon

her stomach let out a

lushed hot red. She dropped the file and stared directly at the st

humorless scoff. He ges

the expensive meat. She shoved huge pieces into her mouth, chewin

attered any lingering illusion Clark might have had that this g

's desperation was raw, her vulgarity a harsh product of her environment. Whatever fleeting resemblance he had imagined was just that-a phantom

s of lemon water and downed it in one gulp. She wiped her m

now crystal cl

g her elbows on the table.

ke she was a joke. "And why would I protect a slu

table. "Because you are being suffoca

Ellis matriarch's obsessive habits; the old woman always scheduled Clark's mandatory dates on the last Friday of the month, a

lark's eyes narrowed into lethal slits.

ating, but she held his gaze. "I can be your perfect shie

nd I'll sign whatever contract you w

began to tap rhythmically against th

etched, thick a

e. It was a text from his grandmother, dem

. He flipped the phone face down. The corner o

ice. "You have a one-month trial. Starting tonigh

rabbed the sides of her filthy jeans, and did a