The Ruby Shackle: Bound To The Billionaire

Audie Wilcox kicked off her heels. They hit the marble floor of the side corridor with a clatter that was too loud for 2:00 AM, but her feet were screaming. She leaned against the wall, pressing her cheek against the cold plaster.

She took a breath. In. Out.

She needed to lower her heart rate. She needed to look like a girl who had just come back from a bad date with a mechanic, not an operative who had spent the last four hours assessing the perimeter security of a dive bar.

She turned to the antique mirror hanging in the hallway. She widened her eyes. She practiced the tremble of her lower lip. The "frightened doe." It was her best look. It was a look that required no words, a performance of pure, silent terror that had saved her life more than once.

The motion sensor light at the end of the hall flickered.

The smell hit her first. It wasn't the usual lemon polish the maids used. It was heavy. Acrid. Expensive tobacco.

Basil Dean was smoking indoors again.

A hand shot out from the shadows.

It was a blur of movement, black leather gripping her wrist. Audie's training screamed at her to pivot, to drive her elbow into the attacker's solar plexus, to snap the radius bone.

She didn't.

She forced her muscles to turn to water. She let out a pathetic, high-pitched gasp and slumped against the wall, letting the attacker take her weight.

"Late," a voice rasped.

Basil Dean dragged her. He didn't walk; he moved with a predatory stillness that was more unnerving than a storm, his grip on her wrist tight enough to bruise. He pulled her toward the library, past the rows of unread first editions, to the mahogany paneling in the back.

He pressed his thumb against a scanner hidden behind a bust of Caesar. A red light scanned his eye.

Beep.

The wall slid open.

He shoved her inside. Audie stumbled, catching her toe on the carpet, and fell to her knees. It was a calculated fall. Clumsy. Helpless.

The steel door hissed shut behind them, sealing them in the soundproof panic room. The air here was recycled and stale.

Basil towered over her. He looked like a wreck. His tie was undone, his shirt unbuttoned at the collar, revealing the pale skin of his throat. His eyes were bloodshot, rimmed with the kind of exhaustion that came from medication, not lack of sleep.

He held up a photograph.

He threw it at her face. The glossy paper fluttered down, landing on her lap.

It was a picture of her. At the diner. Smiling at Arthur, the mechanic with the grease under his fingernails.

"You smiled at him," Basil said. His voice was dangerously quiet.

Audie picked up the photo with trembling fingers. She looked from the photo up to his face, her own expression a mask of confusion and fear. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but only a choked little sound came out. She shook her head, a frantic, silent denial.

"I don't care what my mother said," he snarled, misinterpreting her silence as an unspoken appeal to his family's instructions.

Basil slammed his fist into the padded wall beside her head. Dust motes danced in the vibration.

Audie flinched, curling into a ball. She held her breath, forcing her heart to hammer against her ribs. She needed him to feel it.

He crouched down. He grabbed her chin, his leather gloves cool and smooth against her skin. He forced her to look at him. His thumb pressed into the soft hollow of her throat, right over her carotid artery.

He was checking her pulse.

Audie let the panic flood her system. She thought about the mission failing. She thought about the CIA finding her. Her heart rate spiked to 140.

Basil's eyes narrowed. He felt the erratic thrum under his thumb. The tension in his shoulders dropped an inch. He liked the fear. It grounded him. It made him feel like he wasn't the only one losing his mind.

"You don't smile at him," Basil whispered. "You don't smile at anyone like that. Only fear. You show them fear. You show me fear."

Audie squeezed her eyes shut, hot tears leaking from the corners. She gave a series of sharp, desperate nods, her body shaking. It was a promise delivered in the only language he allowed her.

She reached out, her hand shaking, and grabbed the fabric of his trousers at the knee. It was a pathetic gesture. A plea for mercy from a master.

Basil stiffened. He looked down at her hand clutching his expensive wool suit. He didn't kick her away.

He reached for the bottle of whiskey on the metal table. His hand shook-a tremor he couldn't control. He poured a glass, splashing amber liquid over the rim.

Audie watched his gait as he turned. He was favoring his left leg. The old skiing injury was flaring up in the damp weather. Information. Always information.

She crawled toward him. She pressed her face against his knee, rubbing her cheek against the fabric like a cat seeking warmth.

Basil froze. He reached down, tangling his fingers in her hair. He pulled, forcing her head back, exposing her throat.

"I could make him disappear," he said softly. "A car accident. A fire. It's so easy, Audie."

She shook her head violently, a low whimper escaping her lips. "No," she whispered, the single word raspy from disuse. "Please."

"Then take it off."

Audie blinked. Her eyes asked the question. "What?"

"The dress. It smells like cheap diner food and another man's lust."

Audie reached for the zipper on her back. The sound of the cheap polyester parting was loud in the silence. She let the dress pool at her waist.

She was wearing generic cotton underwear. Her body was covered in fake bruises-makeup she applied every morning to sell the narrative of a clumsy, abused girl.

Basil stared at the marks. His eyes were dark, unreadable. He wasn't looking at her with desire, but with possession. Like she was a broken toy that belonged only on his shelf.

He stripped off his white dress shirt and threw it at her.

"Put it on."

She scrambled to obey, buttoning the oversized shirt with fumbling fingers. It smelled like him. Sandalwood and distress.

The steel door slid open.

"Go," Basil said, turning his back to her. "Tomorrow, the mechanic is gone."

Audie grabbed her dress and ran. She didn't look back. But as soon as the door sealed shut, her posture straightened. The fear vanished from her eyes, replaced by a cold, hard zero.