1. Saoirse

1

SAOIRSE

Four years later

I wake to the sound of glass shattering downstairs. I look at the clock on the nightstand: five forty-five a.m. Annoyance flows through me. He's late, he was supposed to be here hours ago. The concoction that I gave Barry last night is probably wearing off.

I hear more shards hit the ground.

" Nyx ?" Barry groans.

He's still groggy, that's good.

" Hmm ?" I murmur, pretending to have just woken up.

When the sound of footsteps echoes from the staircase, he tries to sit up, clutching his head when he's upright.

" Hide . Someone is in the house." He reaches into his bedside table, pulling out a gun. His movements are in slow motion and it almost makes me laugh. He thinks he can protect me. Even if I hadn't drugged him, there was no chance. He's sixty and still in decent shape, but I wouldn't trust him with my life. There isn't a single person on this earth that I trust that much.

" I thought he was supposed to be asleep," Gage says when he walks into the room, a bandana covers half of his face. He's completely unfazed by the gun being pointed in his direction. Barry's hold on the weapon seems shaky at best. At this point, I'm thinking he may accidentally shoot himself and make this whole thing a lot easier on us.

" He would have been if you had got here when you said you would. You're four hours late," I hiss, rising from the bed.

I see poor Barry's confusion as he tries to piece together why I'm casually chatting with our intruder. " Nyx ?" he says, uncertainty and sadness meshing together in his tone.

I like to think of Nyx as my alter ego. Most of the time she's sweet, demure and just wants a soft life provided by a rich man. But her personality changes to suit each target. Whatever they're looking for, they find in her. Every game has its players, Nyx is mine.

Before Barry has the chance to think, I disarm him, snatching the gun from his hand and walking toward Gage . He pulls the covering off his face and kisses me roughly. After all these years, we've come to an understanding in our relationship. We're partners in crime who fuck. That's enough for me. I've long grown out of the delusion of having one true love. There are no Prince Charmings in this life.

Barry attempts to stand but the drugs in his system are still doing their job as he falls back onto the bed, reaching out to grab his cell where it normally charges on the side table.

" Uh uh," I say, waving his phone in my other hand. I grabbed it after he knocked out last night, not wanting to take any chances.

" What are you doing? You dumb bitch," he slurs.

I laugh. " Come on, Bare . Why would you say something like that?"

Turning my focus back to Gage , I say, " The safe is in the closet."

" What did you do to me?" Barry continues. I'm so tired of this. If G had gotten here when he was supposed to, we would have had this handled without all the extra irritation.

" This isn't the time for questions. And my name isn't Nyx . So , you can stop calling me that."

His eyes go wide. " Who are you?"

That makes me smile. " I would tell you, but then I would have to kill you." I wave the gun in his direction to emphasize my point. I've never taken a life. But if it came down to me or Barry … I'd do what needed to be done.

I can see the fog beginning to lift in his eyes, adrenaline taking over the drugs. I call out to Gage . " How's it going?"

" I'm in!"

" I trusted you," Barry says from the bed, watching helplessly as his own weapon is pointed at him.

" Well , that was your first mistake."

It's been three long months of being Barry Goodman's mistress, but admittedly one of the most profitable games we've played yet.

The objective is simple. Take these men for as much as their worth and leave before things get too messy. When Gage first suggested we could wring these men for cash, I thought he was joking. There was no way. But it turned out to be a lot easier than I thought. Apparently , when men make a little—or a lot—of money, their egos inflate. Gage hadn't been wrong. A lot of wives look the other way as long as their lifestyles are being upheld and they aren't being publicly embarrassed.

Take Barry's wife, for example. They share a bank account, but when he gave me a ten thousand dollar Tiffany necklace, she didn't ask a single question. Nor did she seem to care that her husband was seemingly spending more time at his vacation house in Martha's Vineyard . Hell , she was probably thankful for the time alone. He is pretty annoying. She's welcome . Although , after tonight, she'll have to find another way to occupy him.

Of course, most of his gifts were sold. He may have understood Nyx's style, but he didn't understand mine. Still , I kept the brand new pair of Louboutin pumps. Anytime we need extra funds, these men supply it. In the last five years, between the money I've been bringing in and what Gage makes handling his shit, we were able to buy a new, much larger, house in North Ravenscroft along with a couple new cars.

I don't dance for survival anymore, it's more of a lucrative side gig, and well, Gage still does what he does. He wouldn't be able to leave the streets if he tried, it's who he is. It's not about the money. Ravenscroft is his kingdom and he'll be damned if he gives it up.

He walks up beside me, a full bag in hand. " I got it all. We're going to need you to issue a wire transfer," Gage says to Barry who seems to still be piecing the night's events together. " How does half a million sound, baby?"

I sigh dramatically. " It'll do. I guess."

I leave the picking of the targets to Gage . Rich men, typically somewhere in their fifties to sixties, looking for a young twenty-something to make them feel important. Enter Nyx . How they've accumulated their wealth varies, but most are businessmen with more money than they know what to do with. They all have one thing in common—they frequent XXXtasy . Once the mark has been decided upon, that's when the real fun begins. Nyx gives them a dance and offers to take them to the back. Not one has ever declined.

At first, I thought G was setting me up for something. The level of calm he displayed when he stated that I should do whatever necessary to get these men wanting to see me again was shocking. But he never once has held it against me… I guess because he's profiting too. That and the fact that he knows men like Barry really are no threat to him. Sure , Gage might be a horror, but he's kept me safe. More than I can say for any other man in my life. And toxic as our relationship may be, he's the only constant I've had over these last five years.

A few months is the max I've played a game for, long enough for me to get what I want without having to worry about the men figuring out who I am. Regardless of the time frame, each game has the same grand finale. A stick-up and wire transfer to tide us over until the next, or at least that's what we tell ourselves. Maybe it's just our final way of rubbing salt in the wound.

" I'm not giving you any money. I'll call the damn cops," Barry says, true to his stubborn nature. I guess you don't get to be the CEO of a Big Four firm without being headstrong.

" Go ahead, Bare . Please . I'm sure your wife and children would be delighted to see your latest affair splashed across the tabloids. I can just picture it now. And doesn't your company have some sort of morality clause? Oh , but I'm sure the board of directors would make an exception for you. That is, if all of this doesn't cause your stocks to tank. We both know five hundred thousand dollars is chump change to you, so you decide if it's worth all of that."

He looks at me pleading in his eyes. " Why are you doing this?"

" Because I can, and because you weren't smart enough to see it coming." I raise his wife's diamond earrings from the dresser, watching as they glint in the moonlight before I pocket them.

" His laptop is in the office across the hall," I tell Gage .

Bag still in hand, he exits the room. When he reenters, he has the computer. He places it on Barry's lap. " Initiate the transfer."

I have a bank account setup as Nyx Yarrow , so that there are no questions when I ask for money. Not that we need him to do this. I already know all of his passwords. But there's something satisfying about watching men accept defeat.

" A hundred thousand," Barry suggests, trying to lower the price.

" This isn't a negotiation. You're going to give us what we asked because the alternative…well, it's not so pretty," Gage says.

" And what do I tell my wife when she gets back home next week?"

G shrugs. " Your house was broken into. You don't know who did it, and you're lucky to be alive." All true statements.

Barry casts one more forlorn look in my direction and then begins to type.

An hour later, I'm back home with Gage , a look I know all too well in his eye. These nights always seem to turn him on the most. I'm still in the shirt I fell asleep in at Barry's as he unzips his pants, walking toward me.

" I already found the next one," is the last thing he says to me before his mouth is on mine.