Page 22 of Twisted Temptation

“Where are you taking me?” he asks shakily.

“Somewhere you can’t run away from and steal another seven hundred thousand dollars,” I say.

“I wouldn’t run. I swear to God. I’m done with gambling.”

“I’m taking the opportunity away from you.”

He’s quiet for a moment. “Please don’t hurt my daughter. Do what you will to me, but Sunny is a good girl. Tell me what you want me to do, and I will do it. Just … don’t hurt her.”

I turn to look at him. “You’re not in any position to ask anything of me.”

We reach our destination thirty minutes later, and Deno pulls down the private road. The large gate opens, then closes behind us as we pull up to our destination.

I’ve brought people here before. This is the bottom of the barrel.

Deno kills the engine.

“Out,” I say to Joseph.

He can barely stand. He knows what’s coming next.

Two men wait on the steps for us. As we reach them, I nod to them, and they take his phone, his belt, and anything else he could use to escape what’s coming next.

“Does Sunny know what’s about to happen to me?” Joseph asks.

“She’ll know what I want her to know,” I say.

He looks defeated, his eyes full of remorse.

“Please, bury me next to my wife,” he says softly.

I don’t reply.

The men let him inside, and I follow.

Ten minutes later, I leave.

It’s done.

10

SUNNY

There's a man in the penthouse.

At first, I think I’m hallucinating because I didn’t get much sleep last night and I’m probably delirious.

He appears as I stand in the kitchen, still dressed in the yoga pants I slept in, with a piece of toast halfway to my mouth and jam on my fingers.

He’s tall, trim, and dressed immaculately in a charcoal suit. He’s somewhere in his mid-fifties with silver-streaked hair and impeccable grooming.

We stare at each other across the room.

Honestly, if this is the part where he’s come to kill me, I’m too fucking tired to care.

"You must be Miss Meadows,” he says in a clipped British accent.

"The one and only," I say. “And you would be…?”