Page 84 of Hell to Pay

“They won’t let you in without a woman,” I reminded him. “Someone with a brand.”

He stalked to the wall and braced his body with his hands, then bowed his head like he was praying.

He punched the wall and a hole opened up in the plaster. “Goddamn it, Lilah!”

I jumped a little, because I’d seen Rafe mad lots of times, but never this kind of mad.

“It’s the truth.” I hated that my voice shook, hated that it wasn’t because I was scared of him but because I hated seeing him in so much torment. Hated knowing it was because of me, because I couldn’t let this go.

The room fell into silence, Rafe’s head still bowed to the wall.

It was Jude who broke the silence. “Bottom line, it’s not your decision. This is Lilah’s call.”

I looked at him in surprise. “Mine?”

Jude nodded. “It’s been your call all along.” He looked at Rafe. “Isn’t that right?”

Rafe turned around slowly. His face was flushed, and in the moment before he composed himself, I saw the fear in his eyes and knew it wasn’t for himself.

“We’re going to walk through this piece by piece. If there’s something we can’t figure out, something that doesn’t work, we pass.” He looked from Nolan to Jude to me. “Agreed?”

“Agreed,” Jude said.

Nolan nodded. “Agreed.”

I chewed my lip. “How do I know you’ll act in good faith? That you won’t be looking for reasons to say no?”

He held my gaze. “Would it do any good to ask you to trust me?”

Two months ago, a “trust me” from Rafe and a dollar wouldn’t have bought me a cup of coffee.

But something had changed.

“Yes,” I said.

The room was so quiet I could hear myself breathing.

“You have my word I’ll do everything possible to make it work,” he said. “To make it safe. So, will you trust me?”

I nodded. Because against all odds, I did.

54

LILAH

“I can’t go in there.”

We were standing outside a gleaming white store, gold letters spelling out the word GUCCI. Parisian fashionistas streamed by us on the sidewalk, looking effortlessly chic and carrying an array of designer shopping bags, ten-thousand-dollar handbags, and little dogs with coifed fur and bows in their ears.

Definitely not my scene.

“You need a dress,” Nolan reminded me. “Something that will match the mask.”

We still didn’t know if the masks were regulation or if everyone chose their own, but Rafe had been working with a drone to get the layout of the estate and the plan was to send it up before we went in to get a look at the other guests.

“Okay, yeah, I need a dress, but not a dress fromGucci,” I said.

Jude draped an arm around my shoulders. “That’s exactly what you need, boss. The party’s going to be full of rich assholes, remember? You need to be in character.”

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