Chapter 8 - The Dress
"Turn off the jammer," Adriano ordered softly.
Clara screamed as Adriano stepped into the room.
Lucas didn't move, his hands raised in surrender.
"I said turn it off."
Lucas kicked the small device across the floor.
Adriano crushed it under his expensive leather shoe.
"Did you really think I wouldn't notice a dead signal in my own safe zone?"
Adriano kept the gun trained on Lucas but looked at Clara.
"Did he tell you he's working for the Feds?"
"Yes," Clara whispered, her voice trembling.
"Did he tell you the agent he's working for is Martin Hale's brother-in-law?"
Clara's jaw dropped.
She whipped her head to look at Lucas.
Lucas's face went pale.
"Clara, it's not what it looks like."
"He's the only one who could get me immunity!"
Adriano let out a disgusted sigh.
"He sold you out, Clara."
"The FBI agent isn't going to put you in witness protection."
"He's going to hand the ledger right back to Martin, and then you'll conveniently commit suicide in a holding cell."
Clara felt sick to her stomach.
The betrayal cut deeper than the three years of grief.
Lucas hadn't come back to save her.
He had come back to use her to save himself.
"Get him out of my sight," Clara said, her voice turning to ice.
Adriano smirked.
He motioned to his guards.
They dragged a kicking and shouting Lucas out of the apartment.
"I'm sorry, Clara!" Lucas yelled as they pulled him down the hall.
"I had no choice!"
The door slammed shut.
Clara stood alone in the ruins of her living room with the most dangerous man in New York.
"Are you going to kill him?" she asked quietly.
Adriano holstered his weapon.
"No."
"I'm going to lock him in a very secure basement until we finish this."
"Now, we have a gala to prepare for."
The next twelve hours passed in a blur of terrifying preparation.
Adriano's team transformed her.
A silk, backless emerald-green gown was tailored perfectly to her body.
Her hair was swept up into an elegant, complex twist.
A diamond necklace, worth more than her entire neighborhood, was fastened around her throat.
When she looked in the mirror, the shy, invisible secretary was gone.
Staring back was a weapon.
Adriano stepped up behind her reflection.
He looked striking in a midnight-blue tuxedo.
"You look beautiful," he murmured, his voice low.
"I look like bait," Clara replied coldly.
Adriano chuckled, resting his hands lightly on her bare shoulders.
The warmth of his touch sent a confusing shiver down her spine.
"Martin won't know what hit him."
He handed her a tiny, flesh-colored earpiece.
"Put this in."
"I will be in your ear the entire time."
"If things go wrong, you say the word 'cherry', and I will plunge the entire building into darkness."
Clara took the earpiece.
"And if I get the key?"
Adriano met her eyes in the mirror.
"Then we walk out the front door, open the vault, and end him."
Clara turned around to face him.
"Promise me one thing."
"Anything."
"When we open that vault, I get to be the one who hands the evidence to the press."
Adriano smiled, a genuine, terrifying smile.
"Deal."
An hour later, they arrived at the Mayor's charity gala.
The ballroom was packed with the city's elite.
Clara took a deep breath, stepping out of the car and onto the red carpet.
She spotted Martin immediately, standing by the champagne tower.
But as she walked toward him, the earpiece crackled violently.
"Clara, abort," Adriano's voice hissed in her ear.
"Abort right now."
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"Why?" she whispered.
"Because the woman standing next to Martin holding a glass of wine is the FBI agent Lucas was working for."
