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We stop at a black car I did not see arrive, engine already running.

Dmitri opens the door. Not the back this time. Dmitri waits. I get in. He comes around and sits beside me. The heavy door thuds as it shuts.

I watch as the city slides past. My new work, whatever it is, has already started.

The only question is how far I will need to go to show my new master that I am truly worthy of his faith…

Dmitri’s apartment looks different when I am wearing all of my clothes.

Still huge. Still cavernous in a way that I can’t quite wrap my head around just yet.

But the paintings are darker at this hour. The windows hold the city like a private screen.

Hardy meets us with a tray that does not rattle…

“Sir. Boy. Your drinks,” Hardy says, his voice respectful and the essence of calm.

Vodka for Dmitri.

For me, sparkling water with lemon in a crystal glass.

Thank you,” I say.

Hardy nods. English. Precise. Eyes that miss nothing and offer nothing. He leaves us in the living area as if we have always belonged in it.

Dmitri drinks.

I hold my glass and try not to look like I am measuring exits or formulating emergency escape plans.

“How long has he worked for you?” I ask.

Dmitri pauses. “A long time,” he says. “Do not worry. Hardy is loyal. Trustworthy.”

“I’ve learned that trust has to be earned,” I say.

His gaze cuts to me. Approval, maybe. Or the start of a test.

“I agree,” Dmitri says. “And when it is betrayed, there is no coming back.”

The shiver goes through me before I can stop it. Not theater. Not the good kind of fear I chase on purpose…

The other kind.

Dmitri is everything Jacque warned, and much more on top of that.

This man does not give second chances. I have seen that in his voice. I have felt it on my ass too.

I don’t know what he does to people who fail him in rooms without cameras, and I am smart enough not to ask for the story tonight.

This is the door and it’s opening before my eyes.

This is the life I said I wanted. Fast. Dangerous.

A master who answers to no one.

I will not flinch in his living room like a tourist.

“What does the training involve?” I ask, my voice steady in between sips of the sparkling water.