“If I didn’t, you’d start to think you had the upper hand.”
He leaned closer, not enough to touch me, but enough for me to feel the heat radiating off his body. “Sophia,” he murmured, his voice as smooth as velvet, “I don’t need the upper hand. I’ve got the only hand that matters.”
I rolled my eyes, shifting to face the window. “You got me in the car, Dallas. Say what you came to say.”
Dallas reached into the armrest and pulled out a small silver flask, offering it to me like we were old friends, and I stared at it, unimpressed.
“No, thank you,” I declined, pushing his hand away.
Dallas smirked again before taking a long sip and screwing the cap back on. “Just trying to loosen you up. You’re tense.”
“I’m tense because I’m sitting next to someone I should’ve killed the moment he showed up.”
“Then kill me,” he said softly, turning his head toward me. “Go ahead. Right here. Take me out. But if you don’t… I’m taking you out.”
“Wait! You’re what?” I asked, confused. “How the hell did we go from A to Z that fast?”
“Easy. We have this thing between us that you don’t want to exist. I get that, but it does. It’s here. It’s loud. It’s in every damn breath we take when we’re in one another’s presence.”
“I don’t know what you think you’re feeling, but it’s not mutual.” The lie was bold, but I let it hang there, daring him to call my bluff.
Dallas grinned like he could see right through the front, and maybe he could. I had heard that he was a master of reading weakness and of sensing blood in the water. And judging by the look he was giving me, perhaps that was true.
He let my words flatten between us, then reached into his jacket pocket and set a battered envelope in my lap.
“Open it,” he said.
I hesitated, eyeing it like he might’ve slipped a bomb or a tracking device inside, but curiosity always won. I cracked the seal, slid out the folded document, and my heart gave three quick kicks against my ribs when I scanned the heading: APPLICANT CONFIRMATION — EROS.
My mouth went dry, and Dallas watched me, clearly enjoying the slow horror suffusing my features.
He had my application. He knew.
“How—” I could barely get the word out, “—the actual fuck did you get this?”
Dallas’ expression didn’t change, but he lifted his chin, a smug little tilt that told me he lived for this shit. “You’re not the only one with connections,” he drawled. “You should be more careful about covering your tracks.”
I snapped the envelope shut, shoved it into my bag, and glared at the side of his face. If my hands hadn’t been shaking, I might have clawed his eyes out.
“Are you threatening me?”
“I’m making you an offer.” His tone had all the patience of a man giving a toddler two flavors of poison. “Give me one night where we act like normal, decent people for three hours. After that, you can go back to pretending you hate me, and I’ll keep your big secret between me and you.”
I wanted to lunge at him, rip his tongue out, but instead, I kept my head and played the game. “First, you threaten me, and now you’re using blackmail.”
He clicked his tongue, feigning disappointment like I was letting him down. “It’s not blackmail. It’s leverage. Don’t act like you’re not fluent in the difference.”
I pressed my nails into my palm, holding his gaze so he’d know he hadn’t scared me. “What’s the catch?”
Dallas smiled wider. “No catch, no strings. Just one night—a real date, somewhere discreet.”
I snorted, but in truth, his proposition was disarming. I scanned his face for a tell—something that would expose this as a trap, but his expression remained unreadable.
“And if I say no?”
“Then I’ll have to hand the evidence I have of your extracurricular activities”—his finger tapped his suit pocket casually— “directly to your brother, and you know how he’ll get if he hears of it from me. Everything I do puts him in a bad mood. Imagine something as big as this.”
Just like that, the walls I’d built around my secrets started dissolving faster than an ice cube in a bullet wound. Naeem finding out about my budding side hustle, or worse, about me cozying up to a man who basically wore a target pinned to his designer lapels, would end not just my freedom, but me. The only thing surface-cold about my brother was his stare. Every other part of Naeem burned and destroyed everything in his path.
