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Out of nowhere, our server reappeared and handed Cardez an envelope. He set it on the table between us.

I looked at it, then at him. “What’s this?”

“Open it.”

I wiped my clammy hands on my dress. A sour taste filled my mouth as I pulled out the contents. It was the Blackwater incorporation documents and the wire transfers from his shell companies dating back to the end of July.

My mouth dropped open. I’d run through every scenario—except the one where he already knew I had stolen from him. There was no angle to work, nothing to deflect with, no way I could try to talk myself out of it because all of the evidence was right there in my face.

“Cardez—” I stammered. “I can give you the money back. All of it. I just need time.”

“Oh, I know you have the money.” The coldness in his voice made me shiver. “If it was just about that, I would’ve drained your accounts and taken my shit back plus interest.”

“Tell me what to do and I can fix it⁠—”

“Nah, we’re not doing that.” He leaned back in his chair. “You know what’s wild? I knew something was up with you months ago.”

My head started swimming.

“I ran a background check on you. Nothing personal—I do it with everybody. I overlooked the wire fraud charge because you were what? Twenty-one? That’s some young dumb shit. But then I went through your apartment while you were at work.”

“What the fuck?” I croaked.

He wagged a finger at me. “You don’t get to be upset about that, Princess. Not after you took almost half a million dollars from me. Now, I went through your place because I was curious. You were so damn guarded and I just wanted to see what you were really like. The three burners in your nightstand stuck out to me. Because why would a woman who works at a nightclub need so many phones? But it’s so you can run your scams.”

Tears pricked the corners of my eyes as I bit down on the inside of my cheek.

“I sat on all of it. Told myself that everyone was allowed to have a past because I didn’t want to believe you were fucking with me for my money.”

“Dez—”

“All I’ve ever asked was for you to be straight with me, Belle. That’s it. ”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

He looked at me hard. “I want to know why. I want to know why you let me—” His jaw ticked. “You stole from me, Belle.”

“It wasn’t like that,” I managed.

“So why?”

How could I explain it? That yes, it started as a job and turned into something else? That I wouldn’t have taken another dollar if Gideon wasn’t blackmailing me? That the more this relationship grew, the further I got from the woman I used to be?

All of that would sound like hollow excuses. And I couldn’t say the real reason out loud—that I never told him because I didn’t want him looking at me the way he was right now.

“Remember when you asked if I was Don Corleone?” he asked. “Was that part of the

act? Because you must’ve done your research before you decided to make me a mark.”

“I did,” I answered honestly.

He leaned forward with his forearms on the table. “I don’t think you really understand who I am. Because if you did, you’d know that people who steal from me don’t get dinner. This is the most generous I’ve been with anybody. Believe that.”

My throat closed up as my hands started shaking in my lap.

“You thought you had a nigga so pussy whipped that I wouldn’t find out?” He chuckled darkly.

I heard him set something on the table and looked up. A crimson velvet ring box now sat on the table.