I hope she didn’t die lonely.
I’ll go to the will reading. It’s a week from Monday. I don’t expect to inherit much, given I didn’t really know Great-Aunt Vivienne, but maybe she wanted to gift me another ring, or a pair of earrings to match the ring I’m wearing. I don’t know. Something sentimental.
For now, I have to push it from my mind. Because tonight I’m going to do the scariest thing I’ve ever done.
DAMIANO
There’s nothing better than getting ready for a night out when you know it will end in fucking.
I straighten my tie before realizing I don’t want to wear a tie. Removing it again, I return it to its place in my closet. I have on a dark gray suit with a white shirt. My face is clean-shaven, my hair recently trimmed.
I look good. If Seth and I win a bid at the auction tonight, I don’t think any woman would complain.
Speaking of people who complain, I pick up my phone and dial Seth. “Are you ready?”
“You know, you could walk downstairs and ask me. Or even take the elevator.”
Sometimes I think it would be better if he lived in my penthouse with me, but he insisted on his own space. This was probably a smart decision. We might kill each other, otherwise.
I hang up and take the elevator to his floor. When the elevator doors open, Seth is waiting. He steps inside and jabs the button for the ground floor.
“You don’t seem excited about tonight,” I say carefully.
He shrugs. “I have a bad feeling. Probably ate something off at lunch.”
Doubtful. The truth is, he seems bored. Bored with Low Vice, bored with the auctions. He’s even bored with our business, despite the high-stakes, sometimes life-and-death situations we resolve.
When did my friend become so apathetic?
“You’re not still hung up on…” I can’t recall the woman’s name.
“No.” Seth sighs and repeats, “No.”
We start down the elevator.
I can’t resist poking at his old wound. “Good, because it’s been, what, two years?”
“Thank you,” he says abruptly. “For the reminder.”
I grin. “Anytime, old friend, anytime.”
He’s embarrassed now, for how lovesick he was for some girl he hadn’t even touched. His friend Gage Jannik’s girl—Leah, that was her name. And he should be embarrassed. His behavior was beneath him.
But who among us hasn’t done something incredibly fucking stupid when it comes to love?
2
SETH
Another auction at Low Vice. Naked people parading across the stage, waiting to be bid upon by rich fucks like myself and my buddy Damiano.
Yawn.
I watch, unimpressed, as the first three people take the stage. One after the other—two women and a man. Each is quickly “bought” for two hours of kinky adventures. Half the proceeds go to the club, half to the auctionee.
Betsy leaves the stage and returns with our fourth victim, a young woman.
I jerk backward in my seat. The woman has light brown hair, a pouty smile, and a body I had to consciously ban from my fantasies for several years.
