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Cardez moved like I’d been a permanent fixture in his life and he was just waiting for me to catch up. The guilt lived in the margins of moments like those. It was a low hum that I’d gotten used to carrying. One hundred and fifty thousand dollars that I’d taken from a man who was making space for me in his home.

The money was nothing to him, a drop in an ocean he’d probably never notice. But it wasn’t nothing to me. It was the last bit of proof of who I’d been when I met him, a version of myself I was leaving behind.

I looked up at him. His sharp jaw set in a hard line, working through something in his head. He’d been like this since he picked me up—present but distracted.

I reached up to stroke his chin. “Hey. You okay?”

“Yeah.” He set his phone down and glanced down at me. “Work’s been…” He trailed off and ran a hand over his du-rag covered head. “I got a lot on my plate right now.”

Cardez never talked to me about work, but I noticed the patterns. He was always stepping out of the room to take calls, and more often he’d cut a night short, talking about “I gotta handle something.” Kiss me on my forehead and be gone.

I wanted to know. Partly because I’m nosy. Mostly because I was starting to care.

“Stay tonight,” he said eventually.

“I have Pilates in the morning.”

“I won’t keep you up too late.”

I elbowed him lightly. “You know you can talk to me, right?”

He nodded but didn’t look at me right away. “I know,” he said. “Not tonight, though.”

“Okay.”

His arm tightened around me slightly as I closed my eyes, letting myself just be present in this moment.

I told myself he was allowed to have his secrets because I still had mine.

Seeing Gideon leaning against the wall of my building immediately blew my post-Pilates high. My steps slowed before I caught myself and corrected my posture, keeping my stride even and my face neutral. But my heart was racing. That old anxiety started creeping up my chest, the one I used to get when I was starting out.

“Hey, Gideon,” I said as I approached.

“La’Belle.” He pushed off the wall. “That’s your name, right? La’Belle Evans?”

Everything in me went still.

“We need to talk.” His hand closed around my arm, his fingers digging into my skin as he steered me to an empty side street.

I rubbed my arm. “How long have you known?”

“My father’s office gets a copy of the guest list every year. I don’t usually look at it, but after seeing you I got curious. You were the only name I didn’t recognize. You damn sure weren’t on there as Nadia Spencer.”

Fuck.

A lump formed in my throat.

“La’Belle Mafia.” He chuckled. “Why’d your mama give you such a trashy ass name? I gotta say though, it’s on brand. Explains a lot, actually.”

“What do you want, Gideon?”

“I want the two hundred thousand dollars you stole from me.”

My stomach dropped hearing him saying it out loud.

“I—”

“Please don’t insult me with the innocent act. We both know what you did, so just don’t.”