The Ruby Shackle: Bound To The Billionaire

The Grand Hall was a sea of silk and diamonds.

Corine Morrow glided through the crowd. She wore a dress made of emerald silk that looked like liquid money. As the hostess, she was in her element, a shark in her own aquarium.

She found her mother near the champagne tower.

"Eleanor, darling," Corine purred, kissing the air near her mother's cheek.

Eleanor stiffened. "Corine. I see you're enjoying the party."

"Immensely. But where is Basil?"

"He's around."

Basil descended the grand staircase. He wore a tuxedo that fit him like armor. He looked bored. Dangerous.

Corine intercepted him at the bottom of the stairs.

"Basil. You look... alive."

"Corine." He didn't stop walking.

"I saw something interesting at the gate," Corine said, matching his pace. "Our little ward. The mousey one. She was wearing a bracelet."

Basil stopped. He turned to her slowly.

"A Pigeon Blood Ruby," Corine continued, her voice carrying over the low hum of the party. "Vintage setting. Looked remarkably like the Dean family collection."

Eleanor appeared at Basil's elbow. "What? A servant wearing family jewels? That's theft."

"I gave it to her," Basil said. His voice was ice.

"You gave a charity case a fifty-thousand-dollar bracelet?" Corine laughed. "What exactly does she do for you, Basil? Polish the silver, or something else?"

Heads were turning.

Audie was watching from the gallery above. She heard every word.

She was trapped. If Eleanor investigated, she'd see the tracker. If Corine kept digging, she'd find the truth.

Audie ran back to her room. She tore through her first aid kit.

She found a roll of beige medical tape.

She wrapped her wrist. Layer after layer, covering the gold, covering the ruby, until it looked like a thick, clumsy bandage for a sprain.

She grabbed a bucket and a mop. She smeared some soot from the fireplace on her cheek.

She walked down the back stairs and into the edge of the ballroom.

"There she is!" Corine pointed.

Audie shrank back, holding the bucket.

Corine marched over. "Let's see it."

Audie held up her taped wrist. She sniffled. She pointed at the stairs, then at her wrist, then made a falling motion, her face a pantomime of pained apology.

Corine narrowed her eyes. "I saw a ruby."

Audie looked confused, then pointed at a nearby chandelier, then back at her wrist, as if to suggest it was merely a reflection.

"Unwrap it," Corine commanded. She reached out.

Basil stepped between them. He blocked Corine's hand.

"Enough," he said. "You're making a scene, Corine. And you're boring me."

He offered his arm to Corine. "Dance with me. Or leave."

Corine looked at Basil, then at Audie. She smiled. She knew she had hit a nerve.

"I'd love to dance."

She took Basil's arm. As they walked onto the floor, Corine looked back over her shoulder at Audie.

It wasn't a look of defeat. It was a look of target acquisition.

Audie clutched her bucket. Her wrist throbbed beneath the tape.