TABOO A DEAL WITH THE SHADOW ALPHA

ADDISON

Back in the Castino building, the city lights twinkled far below my floor-to-ceiling windows, but they felt like a million miles away. I was trapped in a thorn filled cage of my own, with a week to find a golden key.

I curled up on my massive white sofa, pulling out my phone. Devin had, true to his word, sent a text with a few names and numbers. No pleasantries, just a list. My life currently was solely reliant on this list.

The first name was Matthew Rhys. I typed it into the search bar. A picture of a guy in a hoodie popped up, standing in front of a flashy office with a neon sign. A tech bro. His company had done well, sure, but a quick scroll through a business profile showed his net worth was... modest. Modest for our world, anyway. He was still climbing. My mother would eat him alive. She'd take one look at his casual clothes and call him "unserious." I sighed. "Not influential enough," I muttered to the empty room, swiping his picture away. Next.

The second name made my stomach clench a little. Bane Killian. Now that was a name that sounded like money and power. He was older, in his forties, with sharp, handsome features and a cold smile. A proper business tycoon. But a few more clicks told the real story. There were articles, not about his mergers, but about his mergers and the models on his arm. A whole series of them. "Notorious playboy," one headline read. "Heartbreaker Bane strikes again."

I could just imagine it. I'd bring him home, and my mom would be thrilled... until the first scandal broke. I'd be humiliated, and she'd blame me for not being able to "keep him." It would be a different kind of prison. "Too risky," I whispered, feeling a wave of hopelessness. "He's a womanizer."

There were two others. One was based in London, which was just impossible. The other was twice my age and, according to a society blog, notoriously reclusive and rude to everyone. My heart sank lower with each profile. This was impossible. They were either not enough, too much trouble, or completely out of reach.

And then my eyes landed on the last name. The one Devin had mentioned so casually.

Axel Rex.

I tapped his name, and his profile loaded. The air in my room suddenly felt still. The photo wasn't a casual snapshot. It was a press photo, probably from a charity gala. And he was... breathtaking.

He wasn't just handsome. He was devastating. He had dark, almost black hair, styled perfectly but with a slight wave that looked like he'd run his hand through it. His jaw was strong, his features carved like he was some kind of god. But it was his eyes that held me. Even in a photo, his deep green eyes seemed to look right through me. He wasn't smiling. He had an intense, powerful stillness about him, like a predator perfectly calm before it moved. He wore a black tuxedo that fit his tall, muscular build like it was made for him-which it probably was.

I stared, my thumb hovering over the screen. I'd seen pictures of him before, in financial magazines, but I'd never really looked. Now, I couldn't look away.

I scrolled down, reading his profile. Rex Corporation. Billionaire. Real estate, tech, private equity. His business record was flawless. No scandals. No messy divorces. No history of dating a string of models. In fact, there was almost no personal information at all. He was like a ghost. A powerful, gorgeous, and mostly important almost perfect.

And then I saw it. The detail that made my heart jump into my throat.

Primary Residence: Penthouse, Castino Tower.

He lived here. In this building. The mysterious owner of the top-floor penthouse, the one I'd never once seen in the lobby, never shared an elevator with. The man was my neighbor, and I hadn't even known it. I then remembered Devin had said he lived here, but I wasn't paying much attention to his words.

A wild, crazy hope bubbled up inside me. This was it. He was perfect. Richer, more powerful, more influential than Feign could ever dream of being. My mother would be speechless.

But just as quickly, the hope was crushed by fear.

How? How on earth was I supposed to "woo" a man like that? A man who clearly valued his privacy above all else. A man who could probably have anyone he wanted.

I imagined walking up to his penthouse door and knocking. Hi, I'm your neighbor, and my mommy is making me find a rich boyfriend. Wanna be mine? Or would you date me?

He'd have security throw me out. He'd see me as cheap. An irritating social climber. A gold-digger. The kind of woman he probably had to avoid every single day.

I tossed my phone onto the couch like it had burned me and stood up, pacing across the soft rug. My reflection in the dark window looked pale and worried.

"This is insane," I told my reflection. "He'll never go for it."

But then I heard my mother's voice in my head. "One week, Addison." I saw Feign's smug, possessive smile.

I looked back at my phone, lighting up on the couch. At Axel Rex's intense, green-eyed stare.

He was my only real shot. And I had no idea how to take it. The plan was crazy, but the alternative-going back to Feign-was a nightmare. I had to try. I just had to figure out how to meet him without looking like a complete fool.