The price of desire

wouldn't lea

ves into her memory. You don't know who you're dealing with. There

pping softly against the glass like a warning. She c

tened me because of you

ff her phone and trie

-

lighting, the music, her coworker Jonah's endless chewing of mint gum. S

he gave in and

ive my numb

y came i

o.

hesi

age last night. Bloc

was a

h

ou tonight? S

dn't s

-

ilver Jaguar with leather seats and no driver. He wore a dark coat

lot in SoHo. Inside was a private rooftop garden-complete wi

said quietly. "One of the

cross the stone path. "Wh

It means my past

him. "Tell m

k right away.

nly when I was nineteen. Heart attack-or so I thought

ke

g triad. A U.S. senator with v

ted a financial empire and a list o

tty

't you tol

I trust end up d

. "And you think they

hing. But I've kept them

"So I'm a

e the first real thing I've felt in year

way, her bre

d a stranger on a tr

ng closer. "But I couldn't

ms. It wasn't lust that passed between them-it was fear, des

-

. When she stepped out of the

is," he said

eps to her building, she noticed someth

est we

gertips. Her apartment was dark.

e left on the cou

white envelope wit

a single

r and

the r

ugh a tele