“I was at the grand opening ofAllurelast night,” I said.
“You were?” Delilah said. “I didn’t see your name on there.”
“You saw?”
“Well yeah, I cover the casino beat. If there were an artist of note on there, I would have gone to do some interviews.”
I was almost insulted before I remembered “Sasha Carter” was very much not an artist of note.
“I used a fake name. I… didn’t want to alert Cassius.”
“I see,” Delilah said. The other two girls’ faces remained mostly the same, but their eyes were attuned to me. I had their full attention. “And did you see Cassius?”
I gulped.
“Yes.”
A long pause came. I swore the waiter looked like he was about to approach our table, but upon seeing the intense silence between us, pivoted to a different, warmer table.
“Which is why I said a couple of events,” I said. “He’s invited me to theRed Courttomorrow. He said he wants to take me to cleanse his soul of the dark thoughts he’s had for the past several years. I’m… suspicious, to say the least.”
“Understandably so,” Bridget said. “I’d have run for the hills.”
That was probably the rational thing to do, if not literally. Sliding under the arm of the man whose brother I accidentally killed seemed like a trap.
But it was so much easier to say I would do so from afar than up close. And for the same reasons I’d ruminated on constantly, there was a logical reason to it.
And… well… more to it than that. I wouldn’t say as much out loud, though.
“I didn’t come up withKing of Hearts, but I sure wish I had,” Delilah said. “I won’t go into your past with him, since you know it better than us. But just be aware that crushing hearts isn’t just a romantic thing, Sarah. He probably knows theRed Courtis your dream as an artist. He doesn’t need to love you or even like you to break your heart over it. You could say he’s broken men's hearts by crushing their ambitions; it’s not the same, of course, but it speaks to the many meanings of it.”
Oh, I knew. I knew what a vengeful and cruel Cassius could do. I had seen and heard enough stories from our past to know it.
“And you, Talia?” I said. “Might we make it three for three in saying I’m crazy?”
“Me?” she said with a laugh. “These billionaires play games I have no interest in getting involved with. I won’t pretend Cassius isn’t smoking hot or that the money’s nice. But they’re wicked smart and wicked dangerous. If any of my bosses or the Valesinvited me to something like that… maybe it’s easy for me to say no, but I think I’d try to find a way out.”
“Even if it was the professional opportunity of a lifetime?”
“Even if,” Talia said. “Because they can break you as easily as they can make you. You going with Cassius might put you on display, sure. But two things could happen, I think. One is this is a game he’s playing to ruin you, and we can only guess at how he’ll do so. But the end result would be the same either way. However, the second could be he doesn’t want to ruin you. He genuinely wants to atone for whatever thoughts of revenge he’s had with his brother.”
Talia sighed. The waiter again seemed to steer clear of our table; for how nervous I was about Talia’s answer, I almost didn’t mind.
“What happens if another billionaire wants your artwork and starts charming you?” she said. “Cassius becomes jealous. Possessive. Maybe even obsessed. It sounds nice. But you had better be careful about getting into a game like that. I’ve seen the women who fall into the Morrils’ arms. It’s delightful to feel in their control. But cross them, fuck them over? The hell I see them experience is absolutely miserable.
“So if you want my opinion? I’m with Delilah and Bridget. This screams dangerous to me.”
I nodded. I couldn’t disagree with anything the three of them said. Though they were single, they were all smart women; they didn’t suffer fools, and the men they had dated were good men. It just hadn’t worked out.
But something funny happened as the waiter finally came and greeted everyone, giving me a chance to process the conversation.
The more I sat with what they said, the more I found the idea of accepting Cassius’ invitation an alluring opportunity.
Yes, Cassius could break hearts. But I knew from my time with him that when he wanted to treat you well, you became a queen to him. No man had ever treated me better or obsessed over me like Cassius could. Buried beneath the King of Hearts was a genuine man with a heart.
And, of course, at the end of the day, there was still the practical reality that my career could use the exposure theRed Courtwould provide.
So maybe I had come here looking for extra opinions. Maybe I had come here looking for a reason to be talked out of it. Maybe, as I smiled at the waiter and asked for a mimosa, I was doing something incredibly foolish.
