Meanwhile, upstairs in the suite Lucas had arranged for her, Gracie pushed the door open and stepped into the kind of room she understood better than most people.

Wide glass windows. Soft recessed lighting. A massive bed dressed in clean white sheets. The quiet smell of expensive soap and polished wood. This was the lifestyle she had been chasing and maintaining for years ~ temporary luxury paid for by other people’s hunger.

She dropped her bags on the bed and unzipped the larger one first.

Anyone watching from the outside might have assumed it was filled with clothes. It wasn’t.

Inside, carefully packed between folded layers, were the things she actually relied on when money needed to move.

A slim, barely-there mesh skirt came out first ~ black, stretchy, and so thin it looked more like smoked glass than fabric. Next came a matching net top, the kind of material so fine it was thinner than thread in places, open enough that skin, shape, and every small movement would show through with almost no effort. Underneath that were a pair of deep red panties, cut high and deliberate, made more to be removed than worn.

Then the rest of the bag revealed itself.

She laid the items out one by one across the bed with practiced familiarity:

- a rose clit suction toy

- a thick realistic dildo with a heavy base

- a smaller curved g-spot vibrator

- a remote-controlled bullet

- a glass wand

- a Red ball gag

- a pair of adjustable nipple clamps with thin chains

- a compact wand massager

- lubricating gel

- black tape, already half-used from older videos

Gracie stood there for a moment looking at the spread, then sat on the edge of the bed and exhaled slowly.

Before, it had always been controlled. Camera angles. Soft lighting. She would show her breasts, tape her nipples in a black X, talk dirty, bounce a little, and men like Durnik would empty their accounts without ever getting more than that. Distance had been part of the power.

Now distance might not be enough.

If she had to pull that old bastard back under control, she already knew the shape of it. More skin. More movement. Her ass on camera. The kind of explicit clips she used to keep just out of reach. If sweet talk failed, she would give him the version of her he had been begging for in private messages for months ~ only this time she would be the one aiming it.

She picked up the mesh top again and let it hang from her fingers. In the right light it would hide almost nothing. That was the point.

After a while she gathered everything and packed it neatly into the wardrobe, pushing the more obvious toys toward the back and hanging the net outfit where she could reach it quickly. When the time came, she didn’t want to dig. She wanted to be ready.

Once the wardrobe doors closed, she sat back on the bed and stared toward the dark window, already turning the first message over in her mind.

---

Down below, Lucas had already left the hotel.

After a brief dismissal to Connie Blue, he walked back out to the Bugatti without lingering. It wasn’t that he had no interest in staying. He simply had no time for it. Durnik was still moving, still reacting, still dangerous in the messy way wounded men often were.

Lucas dropped into the driver’s seat, started the engine, and pulled away from Bellagio Grand with his mind already shifting toward the next pressure point.

He needed that bastard handled.

Only then would any of this start to quiet down.

Lucas drove home at an unhurried pace.

The Bugatti moved smoothly through the thinning afternoon traffic while his mind stayed elsewhere. Durnik would not stay quiet after a humiliation like that. A man that proud always reached for another move once the first one failed. The only question was what shape the next strike would take ~ and how messy it would get before it landed.

By the time he reached the mansion gates, the sun had already softened into late afternoon light. He rolled the window down, tapped the key against the sensor, and watched the automatic gates ease open. The driveway was quiet. The house looked the same as always from the outside.

That was what made the next part feel wrong.

Usually, the moment his car entered the compound, at least one of them would appear. Mia at the doorway. Daisy coming down the steps. Debbie leaning over the balcony or walking out with some complaint ready on her tongue. It had become routine enough that he barely thought about it anymore.

Today, no one came.

No hurried footsteps.

No voices calling his name.

No familiar rush toward the car.

Lucas parked, shut the engine off, and sat there for a second longer than necessary. The silence pressed in a little too cleanly. He stepped out, shut the door, and walked toward the entrance with a faint edge of alertness settling under his skin. It was a small change, but small changes in a house like this usually meant something.

Inside, the air was still.

He found all three of them in the living room.

Mia, Daisy, and Debbie were gathered around the low table with a scattered deck of Uno cards between them. None of them looked up when he entered. No smile. No exaggerated complaint. No one standing to take his arm or push into his space the way they normally did after a long day.

Lucas stopped just inside the room.

For a moment he simply stood there, waiting for one of them to break the act. No one did. The cards kept moving. Soft snaps of plastic against the table. Quiet breathing. Deliberate disinterest.

He walked over slowly.

Still nothing.

He leaned down and pressed a light kiss to Mia’s cheek. She turned her face away at the last second, just enough to make the miss obvious, and placed another card down like he wasn’t there.

Lucas straightened again, eyes moving across the three of them.

"...What did I do wrong?

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