Chapter 1

ONE

COLLINS

“Imma do it.”

I closed my eyes and sighed. “Bro, don’t.”

“ Bro, ” Tallulah urged with that deep voice she used when she was really trying to make a point.

I opened my eyes and looked left to where my best friend was leaning against the pool wall next to me. I arched one eyebrow at her. “Bro.”

She eyed the steam billowing off the pool’s surface, then turned to me with bright-green eyes that practically screamed with mischief. “I wanna.”

“Don’t.”

She smirked. “I wanna.”

I shrugged. “It’s a bad idea.”

“Why?”

“Because then your hair will be wet?—”

“So?”

“So, we have to go to work in forty-five minutes.”

“ Collins, ” she whined, sticking out her bottom lip in a pout. “We’re in a heated pool on the terrace of the penthouse suite and it’s like forty-five degrees outside. The stars are shining, and the moon is bright. It’s a gorgeous night—a night to be wild and embrace our inner wolves. Wouldn’t it feel so amazing to get your hair wet right now? I mean, when in Rome? ”

She wasn’t wrong. It would feel nice. But it wasn’t worth the hassle, or the time required to handle said hassle. “We are not in Rome, we’re forty floors above the casino we work in. You can’t go into work with wet hair. Paulie was pissed that one time you did.”

She reached out and flicked my bun. “Hey, my hair only reaches my shoulders, so it doesn’t take an hour to blow dry like yours. ”

My brown hair was so long it reached my hips. It just grew fast, and I happened to like it that long . . . but she had a point. The length made blow-drying a nightmare. In order to even get in the pool and avoid getting it wet, I had to tie it up into two space buns like a modern-day version of Princess Leia because I simply had too much hair for one bun.

I chuckled and pointed to her vibrant, curly red hair. She’d carefully braided it and tied it up in a ballerina-style bun on top of her head. “Yours is curly and your products are at home. Need I say more?”

She sighed real hard and leaned her head back against the pool ledge. “One of these days, I’m just gonna go full Britney and shave it off.”

I rolled my eyes. “Sure you are.”

“Imma do it.”

I nodded and turned my gaze toward Orion’s Belt. It twinkled against the black night sky above us. “We’ll burn that bridge when we get there.”

“ Ohhh, what are we burning, and can I join?” Lilian’s sing-song voice sounded like chirping birds approaching. I looked down just as she glided through the water to us. She wore a shit- eating grin. “What are you two bickering about over here while everyone else is partying?”

“Tallulah wants to get her hair wet.”

“Collins won’t let me.”

Lilian frowned. Her pale-blue gaze bounced back and forth between us. Her cotton candy-pink hair was wet and plastered to her head. “You know you don’t need her permission, right?”

“My bullshit is her bullshit.” Tallulah pointed to me.

“And my bullshit is her bullshit.” I nodded. “It’s science?—”

“It’s Kevin Hart?—"

“And he knows the facts. He does his research.”

Lilian shook her head. “What?”

Tallulah shrugged. “We’re codependent.”

I grinned, then shrugged too. “It works for us.”

“Two brains are better than one.” Tallulah wagged her red eyebrows and smacked me playfully. “Right, bro?”

“Do you think we have two brains here, or do we share the one?” I cocked my head to the side. “I’m starting to wonder.”

Mitch floated over on his raft, his pale skin shining as bright as the full moon in the sky. The pool water was warm and clear. It extended out to the edge of the building and looked like it would drop off the side in that classic infinity style. Steam danced and swirled over the top of it as a cool breeze drifted our way. “Is this like a twin thing?”

Here we go again. I plucked out the cherry that was floating in my cocktail and put it in my mouth. “We’re not twins.”

“We’re not even sisters.” Tallulah picked up her beer bottle off the pool ledge and took a sip, but I saw the smile she tried to hide behind it.

“You’re the same age and have the same last name.” Mitch frowned and looked around to where the rest of our group were sitting in the hot tub on the other side of the pool. “Yo, they’re twins, right?”

Lilian rolled her eyes. “No, they’re neither twins nor sisters. Though, that’s all I know.”

I sighed. It was always the same. No one understood how we were related. We had this discussion almost weekly with someone new. It didn’t help that we acted like twins. I licked the cherry juice off my lips. “My mother is married to Tallulah’s much older brother.”

Tallulah swirled the beer in her bottle. “I think that makes us in-laws?”

“One of these days, we’re just gonna start saying we’re twins. It’ll just be easier.”

She giggled. “Oh, imma do it.”

“I support that one.”

Alicia adjusted her bikini top, then dove over the edge of the hot tub into the pool. As she swam toward us, Sean and Will followed after her like she was pulling them by a string.

The water rippled beside Lilian and then Alicia’s blue head of hair popped up. She wiped the water off her brown-freckled face and blinked her brown eyes. “Since we’re on the topic, I also don’t understand that. I mean, how old are your moms for that to even work?”

It was always a fun game to me to try and guess how long it would take people to broach the subject. Proper, true blue adults found a way to bring it up within the first few weeks of knowing us. Some were sly about it, others blatantly obvious. But being college students had its perks . . . most of our friends simply didn’t care enough on a deep level to even wonder. They only cared about the superficial. The party. The sports. The material things. The immediate circle of friends and romances. Or at least that was how kids our age acted around us.

Tallulah was my best friend by choice. She was my person and I hers. And because of that, my mom married her brother. We literally introduced them—sure, we’d been toddlers at the time, but it counted. It definitely counted. As a result, we didn’t do a great job of making friends with other people. These were new friends we’d met at the start of summer after we’d turned twenty-one and started going out more.

“Yeah, I saw Tallulah’s mom last week at school.” Will wagged his dark eyebrows. “She’s a smoke show.”

Tallulah frowned. “Careful or I’ll smoke you.”

Sean raised his finger. “I met Sandra that night I dropped them off at home, remember? She’s quite pretty.”

Will pursed his lips. “Not as hot as Victoria though.”

I glared at them. “My mother did have triplets five years ago. That takes a toll on a woman’s body, jackass. Watch your tongue or I’ll rip it out with my bare fingers.”

Both of them threw their hands up in surrender and backed a foot away.

Tallulah looked to me and rolled her green eyes. “Just explain it. They won’t stop otherwise.”

I took a deep breath and nodded. “My mom is forty years old. She adopted me when she was nineteen. Her husband, and Tallulah’s older brother, is thirty-five. Tally’s mother was fifteen when she had him—this is not that uncommon. She then waited a while to have Tallulah. She’s fifty now. It’s not that complicated.”

Tallulah nodded and the group fell silent except for the Ariana Grande song playing in the background. This conversation always bugged me. People made a big deal about it, which was ridiculous since it all happened forever ago. I didn’t like to linger on it—mostly because the next set of questions often asked who my parents really were, who her father was, and all that.

“I mean, I’m sure everyone has some interesting family, right?” Tallulah purred.

I cleared my throat. “I mean, ours isn’t penthouse apartment on Las Vegas Boulevard interesting.”

“Yeah, Lilian. I knew by all your designer shit you were rich, but not this rich.” Tallulah giggled and gestured around us. “Why have we been going to hotel pools instead of coming here? Where are your parents, anyway?”

Lilian just shrugged. “Ignore them. My parents have old money and have never stayed in one place too long. They travel a lot. Who knows which ski resort or spa they’re at now? I don’t bring new friends over because people get all weird about our money. But you two are cool, so I figured I might as well let you in on the fun.”

The guys laughed and splashed each other with water.

I finished my drink, then turned to sit the cup on the tile ledge and my gaze caught on the flash of casino signs all around us. In front of me was nothing but a glass wall overlooking the bright, neon lights of Las Vegas. Sometimes I forgot what was so special and cool about my city. It was easy to get caught up in the hustle and grind on the street and forget to stop and smell the roses. Well, the roses sure did look pretty from up here. It was a Friday night, so the strip was just turning up. Forty floors down, the boulevard was bumper to bumper with red brake lights and people honking. The sidewalk was crawling with tourists who looked like nothing more than ants from this height. The Sapphire Resort and Casino was one of the newer spots on the strip, but it was sure making a name for itself, especially with the private, bougie residences attached. The views were worth the millions it must have cost to live here.

The vivid, blue light radiating off the building at all times was giving the green glow of the MGM down the street a run for its money. Directly across the street was The Wynn Las Vegas, which was a personal favorite of mine and Tally’s. If you looked over the roof of the Fashion Show Mall to the right, you’d find the rest of the strip twinkling and flashing in all its glory. The music from Treasure Island was loud enough to hear from here, as were the pedestrians huddled by the ropes to watch their show. The faux lava from The Mirage’s volcano shot into the sky just beyond it. The Venetian sat diagonally from us. It was a quieter yet elegant force on the strip.

I sighed and rested my chin on my folded arms. The view of Las Vegas never got old. That was part of the reason I chose to stay and go to college here . . . it was just so pretty. I was like a crow, drawn to anything and everything that sparkled. My friends were giggling and chatting behind me, but I let myself get lost in the glittering view in front of me. The chaos of the city called to me in a way I couldn’t explain. It was just alive and bustling. Nothing really changed but it was always new. Everywhere you went, there was something to see. Drama unfolded left and right. It was catnip, and I was addicted to it.

Rihanna’s Work song blared from my iPhone on the couch across the terrace. I groaned and rested my forehead on my arm. “Tallulah.”

“Imma not do it.”

Despite my frustration, that made me chuckle. I pushed off the wall and looked to her. “Come on. That alarm means we have thirty minutes before clock-in time.”

She cursed and groaned as she followed me toward the steps. “Okay, but imma complain the whole time.”

“Oh no, you have to go already?” Alicia whined. “Just call out. I can pretend to be your mom. I do a good mom voice.”

Sean threw his hand up. “I have mommy issues?—”

“ Shut up, ” Lilian said with a snort. She hopped out of the pool and hurried over to the stack of towels on the bench. She spun and tossed one at me as I climbed the steps. “They have like the best jobs ever, so let’s not pressure them into screwing that up.”

“It really is the best—” I hissed as the forty-five-degree air touched my wet body. My bones rattled and shook from the cold. I was the absolute worst with cold weather. My body straight up shut down in the cold. It was like kryptonite for me. The towel slammed into my face, and I dove for it like it was a life raft in the middle of an ocean. “Th-th-th-a-a-an-nks-s-s.”

“Bro, move.” Tallulah wrapped her towel around my shoulders, then gently pushed me forward. “Go. Now. We don’t have time to defrost you.”

I hissed through my shivers and hightailed it through the apartment. My wet feet glided over the slightly gaudy white marble floors like I was skiing down a black diamond trail, but I somehow managed to race my way into the bathroom without falling.

“Just hang the swimsuits!” Tallulah’s voice echoed through the open terrace door.

Thankfully, I already knew where the bathroom was, so I didn’t have to waste time searching for it while freezing my ass off. I really need to talk to a doctor about this. It’s not THAT cold out. Something ain’t right here.

I rushed over to the sinks and turned on the hot water. I knew they were rich by how fast the water actually got hot. The steam immediately billowed into my face. The gold accents the white marble probably cost more than my college tuition.

“There’s a shower right behind you, bro.”

“I just need the steam for a second, bro.” I chuckled and hugged both my towels closer to my body. “You know what happens to my brain when I get cold.”

She snorted. “Defrost mode, I know, but too much and we’ll be oily, sweaty messes for work.” She reached over me and turned both faucets off.

I pouted as she grabbed a new towel for herself and began drying off. Our clothes were in a pile on the floor, and as much as I wanted to stay warm, there was no putting off the inevitable. I tossed my towels aside and dove for my stuff. Every part of me wished I was putting on oversized sweatpants instead of this form-fitting dress made entirely of silver sequins. It was one of my most expensive purchases from Forever 21, which meant this dress actually had lining, so the sequins didn’t stab me. Worth the extra dollars in my mind, especially with the long sleeves.

“Do we think her mother will notice if we steal a spray of her perfume?”

I looked up and found she’d already changed into her burgundy, velvet bodycon dress with long sleeves. “That color looks nice with your hair.”

“Thanks! I’m so glad I bought it—it was on sale too.” She grinned. “Now. . .?”

“Right.” I pursed my lips. “Which kind is it?”

“Chanel Number Five. Screw it, imma do it.” In one quick motion, she scooped the pretty bottle off the counter and lifted it to her neck, then paused. “Wait, is this illegal?”

“We just wore two of her bikinis.” I shrugged and gave her a wink. “So, we’ll burn that bridge when we get there?”

“Good enough for me.” She gave herself a good spray, then turned it on me. “Close your?—”

I gagged and coughed. “Warn first, bro.”

“My bad.” She sat the bottle back while I coughed out a lung.

My pink, faux-leather purse from Target was faded and had more cracks than the Grand Canyon, but all my money went to rent and food. Tallulah’s neon-green faux-suede wasn’t in much better shape. We had champagne taste but beer budgets—the cheap beer, not even the good stuff. Alicia’s giggles from the terrace were a slap in the face.

Tallulah and I sighed at the same time. I pulled my eyeliner out and got to work on making myself dolled up enough to do my job. We fell into our usual comfortable silence as we focused. A simple black-winged eye and bold Barbie-pink lipstick would have to do the trick for the night. I just didn’t have the will power to put more effort into it.

“Does this red clash with my hair and dress?” She pursed her lips and eyed her reflection in the mirror. Her bright-red curls were bouncing against her shoulders as she looked at herself in different angles. “It’s new, but I’m just not sure.”

I frowned as I tugged my hair free from the buns. The brown strands fell in loose waves down to my hips, and I sighed at the release of the tension in my head. “You know, it kinda does, but for some reason I’m kinda digging it in spite.”

“I can roll with that.”

“Ladies, we decent?” Lilian yelled through the closed door.

“Yeah, come in.”

The white, wooden door slid open, then Lilian strolled inside with her pink hair sticking out in every direction. “I just got off the phone with my mom . . .”

Tallulah and I both narrowed our eyes in her direction.

She grinned. “So, my dad has this rule with her that she can’t buy new bags unless she gets rid of some—she kinda has an addiction to bag shopping. As ridiculous as it sounds, she asked me to have you both pick one.”

My eyebrows rose. “Like to keep?”

“Yup. If there are two empty spots on the wall, she can buy more.” Lilian nodded. “Come with me.”

We followed her out of the bathroom and into a closet that was literally bigger than my apartment. My jaw hit the floor. Tallulah cursed. Two of the walls were lined floor to ceiling with designer purses and shoes. With all the red soles in front of us, it looked like the Louboutin section at Saks.

“Go ahead, pick one.” Lilian gestured to the wall. “Go for it.”

In the back of my mind, I registered her leaving us alone in the closet, but my eyes were glued on the bags. “Did she just say pick one ?”

“Gucci, Chanel, Louis Vuitton . . .” Tallulah groaned. “How are we supposed to pick?”

I nodded and snapped my fingers. “Okay, okay. No, this is fine. We’ll use logic.”

“Logic. Right. How?”

“Well, I figure we either take a classic, timeless one like the black Chanel or the OG monogram Louis.” I bounced on my toes as my pulse quickened. “ Or we pick the loudest, most eye-catching one in the room.”

“Three . . . two . . . one?—”

We dove for the wall, giggling like little girls as we made a mad dash for our selection as if this was Black Friday shopping. I snagged a Louis Vuitton tote made entirely of shiny, metallic silver with the LV monogram embossed all over it. Tallulah climbed up a shelf to grab a Gucci purse covered in turquoise sequins with the double G’s. We wasted no time. With a squeal of delight, we dumped all of our stuff from our old purses to the new ones.

“I’m afraid to believe she won’t want these back.”

I nodded and threw the strap over my shoulder, then turned to pose in the full body mirror. “Me either, so I’m gonna enjoy the hell out of it tonight. These should get us some attention— oh my GOD. She has matching shoes.”

Without thinking, I raced over and grabbed the red-soled Louboutin ankle booties that seemed to have been born from my dreams. They were metallic-silver, glittered with gold, and had silver spikes and studs all over them.

“Put ‘em on.”

“ No, ” I hissed and hugged them to my chest.

“I will if you will.”

I bit my bottom lip and glanced over to her. “Just for one picture.”

She nodded. “For our dream board.”

“Do we have one of those?”

She scoffed and gestured around the closet. “We sure as hell do now.”

“I mean there is a mirror in here.”

“Think of the shoes. They’d like some attention, wouldn’t they?”

“They probably won’t even fit.”

“Just for one selfie.”

We stared at them for a moment longer.

“Screw it. I’ll never be able to afford these.” I sat on the bench next to me and unzipped the boots. “I’ve never even put a pair of Louboutins on.”

“We should at least know which of his styles we like,” she said from the far side of the room behind me. “It’s just research.”

I giggled as I slid the shoes onto my feet. They were too big by a good half size, but I was just going to stand there and take a picture in them. The pitch wasn’t as steep as I expected, but I never wore stilettos like these, so I wobbled the first few steps toward the mirror like baby Bambi. I took one look at myself and sighed.

“Imagine what it must feel like to be able to buy whatever shoes you want, no matter the price.”

“I want these.” Tallulah sauntered over to me in the sickest black boots I’d ever seen. They were platform and laced around her ankles just below the rows of silver studs. She stuck her leg out and turned it to show off the red sole. “They’re surprisingly comfortable, for heels.”

“Okay, let’s take a picture?—”

“For our dream board?—”

“—before my heart suggests I do illegal things to keep these.”

She threw her head back and cackled. “Okay, okay, selfie mode.”

We were somewhere around the fifth selfie pose when the closet door swung open and slammed into the shoe wall. Lilian flew in with wide eyes and a paled face. “We have to go. NOW.”

“What?”

“What do you mean?”

“COME ON!” Lilian screamed and sprinted back out of the closet. “NOW!”

I cursed and hurried to the door. “What’s wrong? Is someone hurt?”

“We have to go. Now. Get out the door.”

“LILIAN!” we both screamed.

She flinched and looked up at us with fear pouring from her blue eyes. “I lied. This isn’t my parents’ place. We broke in, and the owners on their way up now.”

“WHAT?” I screamed and my heart sank. Blood rushed through my ears.

“WE brOKE IN?” Tallulah shouted beside me.

“YES! NOW GET OUT!” Lilian shrieked and bolted for the front door, leaving us in the dust. “WE HAVE TO GO!”

“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.”

“We have to go. Just get out! They’re on their way up right now!” she screamed and yanked the front door open. “We don’t have time!”

My heart pounded in my veins. This isn’t her apartment. These aren’t her parents. “Whose bikini did I use?”

“Shit, shit, shit! Nasty!” Tallulah screamed. “Just get the shoes off!”

OH DAMN! I reached for my feet and unzipped the boots, but my feet were sticking to the sole. I spun to Tallulah only to find her fidgeting with the laces.

“Shit! I double knotted them!” Her knuckles were white from how hard she pulled.

“ Were you planning on keeping them ?”

She groaned. “It was a habit, okay!”

I hobbled across the room toward the door, trying to get my boot off, but my foot wasn’t budging. “Damn it! I’m stuck!”

“Why didn’t you put a sock on! Who goes raw dog in someone else’s shoe? Who raised you? ”

“ You double knotted yours! ” I yelled back as heat rushed through my limbs. “It was only gonna be for a second!”

Mitch shouted from down the hall.

I glanced over my shoulder, and my heart stopped. We were alone. The others had gone and left us. “We have to get out of here, bro. Help me get these off?—”

“They’re ours now!” She grabbed my elbow and dragged me out the front door, slamming it shut behind us, then froze. “SHIT! The bags!”

I glanced down to where our new bags were draped over our shoulders. “We don’t have time to switch all of our stuff!”

“Go, go, go, go!” Lilian shouted from down the hall. When we looked up, she was running back toward us with a stricken face and her cellphone pressed to her ear. A massive, black tote bag was draped over her other shoulder. “They’re coming up that elevator! Hurry!”

My stomach tightened into knots. “That’s the only elevator!”

“ Where are we supposed to go?”

Technically, there were three individual elevators, but they were lined up in a row. We couldn’t exactly stand there in the woman’s stolen shoes and purses and not get caught.

“LILIAN!”

She grabbed us each by our elbows and dragged us in the opposite direction. Her tote bag slammed into my side. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I just wanted you to have nice things! You work so hard.”

“So, all that nice stuff you have is stolen, isn’t it?” I hissed. “What’s in the damn bag, huh?”

The door at the end of the hall opened and an older woman in her sixties stepped out. She pushed her fancy, black-rimmed glasses higher up her pert nose and narrowed light-colored eyes at us. “What are you children doing here?”

Lilian forced a laugh as she yanked us to a stop in front of an unmarked wooden door. “Just playing a little hide-and-seek. We’re going now.”

“Excuse me?—”

“Have a nice night!” Lilian dropped her hold on me and shoved the door open. “Go, go, go.”

The old lady yelled something, but the door slammed shut and cut her voice off. In front of us was a staircase. My stomach dropped. We were on the top floor, forty floors up. In heels. Lilian didn’t waste a second. She glided down the steps in her pristine white sneakers like a ballerina, even with that heavy ass bag on her shoulder. Tallulah and I gripped the railing like a life raft and hobbled our way down. Each step sent sharp pain up my heels, through my shins, and into my knees.

“I can’t go down forty flights in stilettos, Lilian!” I growled over the railing at her. “They’ll snap, and I’ll break a leg.”

“IF WE DIE, WE’RE HAUNTING YOU FOR—” Tallulah screamed as her ankle wobbled and she slid down the railing a few steps “—EVER! SHIT.”

“Lilian, stop!” I hurried down and helped steady Tallulah back on her feet. “ LILIAN.”

She wasn’t going to stop, but then her foot snagged on a step, tripping her enough to mess up her balance. The tote bag swung off her shoulder and the weight of it sent Lilian stumbling into the wall with it. She cursed. The bag slipped off her arm and crashed to the ground. Items made of black silk, leather, and sequin spilled out.

“This is ridiculous. How do you even know they’re in the elevator?”

“My friend . . . Charlie . . .” Lilian said between gasps for air as she scrambled to shove her stuff back in the bag. “He works . . . security desk here. He’s my inside . . . guy. It’s how we . . . steal . . . from people here . . . without getting caught.”

Rage filled my veins. I flew down the steps to where she’d stopped on the landing and shoved her into the wall. Her wince only fueled my fire. “ How DARE you set us up like this. What kind of shitty, asshole kind of person are you?”

“Collins, I’m sorry?—”

“No, you’re not!” I screamed and smacked her with my stolen purse. “You’re sorry we’re getting caught. You’re an idiot. This friendship of ours is over. O-V-E-R.”

Tallulah cracked her knuckles behind me. “What kind of monster thinks up some bullshit story about her parents to trick innocent people into stealing? Give us one damn reason not to call the cops on you right now in this stairwell?”

Lilian’s blue eyes were as wide as saucers.

“Because she’s gonna get us out of this.” I grabbed her phone from her hand and pulled up her recent calls. Sure enough, a contact named Charlie was her last call. “And when we get out of this mess, she’s never, ever, going to speak to us again. We’ll get our stuff back and we’ll give her these stolen items and part ways forever. Got it, Lilian?”

She nodded quickly.

“Because I promise you, we will destroy you if you come for us.” I tapped Charlie’s name and put the call on speaker while it rang.

“Lilian, get out of?—”

“Hello, Charlie. This isn’t Lilian.” I turned to glare at her. “Now, Charlie, you saw the owners of the apartment get into the elevators, yes or no?”

“Yes, I saw them get in the middle one.”

“Great. Which floor are they on now?” I eyed the 36 th Floor sign on the wall next to us. “Your screens should have the elevators.”

“Umm . . . right . . .” he cursed and stammered. “They’re on . . . on, um . . . oh! Okay, the elevator just stopped on the thirty-fifth floor—doors closed, going up again.”

“Tell me when they pass the thirty-sixth.”

“Delete our numbers from her phone, bro,” Tallulah said with a growl.

I nodded and proceeded to do just that while waiting for Charlie. “Well, Charlie?”

“Okay, they just passed you. They’re above you now. You should be clear but?—”

“But what?”

He cursed. “Their front door is ajar. They’re gonna know.”

“And the old lady?” Lilian asked meekly.

“She’s standing in the hall with her phone. She definitely knows.”

“Thanks, Charlie. Forget you ever spoke to me and have the karma you deserve.” I hung up and shoved the phone into Lilian’s chest. “Let’s go.”

Tallulah gripped the handle on the door into the hallway, then paused. “What’s the plan here?”

“The three of us are going to calmly and confidently walk to the elevators and take one down. Then we are going to leave the building. Lilian is going to call the others and see who has our clothes. We’ll make the switch, then part ways.” I took a deep breath and pushed my shoulders back. “But we gotta move. Now. Before they realize they’ve been robbed and go looking.”

Tallulah nodded. “Three . . . two . . . one?—”

She yanked the door open and then stepped out into the mahogany hardwood hallway like she owned the place. I grabbed Lilian’s wrist and dragged her into the hall with me, then glanced up and down. We were alone. Everything was eerily silent like in The Shining.

The elevators were to our right, so we headed calmly but quickly in that direction.

Halfway there, a door on the left opened and a man who couldn’t have been more than thirty and looked very much like a model walked out. He looked up and his dark eyes spotted us. He paused in his doorway—and grinned. “ Lilian, hey baby ?—”

“Jose!” Lilian gushed and dove for him, wrapping her arms around his waist and closing the distance between their bodies. “I didn’t know you were back in town. How was Fashion Week in Milan?”

He wagged his eyebrows and backed into his apartment, pulling her with him by the waistline of her skirt. “Want to see my tan lines?”

My heart skipped. “Lilian.”

She looked over her shoulder at us and winked. “Good luck, ladies. I’d keep the stuff if I were you. Buh-bye.”

“ Lilian —”

The door swung closed on an echo of Lilian’s seductive giggles.

“ LILIAN!” I hissed.

“She left us,” Tallulah whispered. “She set us up and ditched us. Bitch. ”

I shook my head and licked my lips. There was so much anger inside of me I was getting heartburn. My stomach tightened into knots and threatened to throw back everything we’d eaten today, but I held it down somehow.

“We have to go. Forget her.” I spun away from the door and tossed my long hair over my shoulder. “Chin up. Tits out. Let’s ride.”

“Revenge later.” She hooked her arm through mine and nodded.

We sauntered to the elevator like we were supposed to be here, like we actually lived in one of these ridiculous apartments. All we had to do was act normal and confident. We were fully clothed and in designer gear, which meant we looked like most of the women who frequented The Sapphire Casino. We can do this. Just walk out of the building like normal.

Please let this work.

The elevator dinged. My heart stopped. The doors opened in slow motion. We braced ourselves for furious tenants to be inside, yet it was completely empty. We jumped inside and slammed on the Close Doors button at the same time. As the doors slid shut, we both sighed with relief, but we weren’t out of the woods yet.

A smart person would call out of work and go home. Hide. Or at least get as far away from the crime as possible. I had half a mind to call my mother and tell her everything. She’d know what to do. Normally, I was that smart person. We just couldn’t lose these jobs.

I reached out and hit the C button for the Casino Level.