Infinite Rebate: I Get Richer Every Time I Spend

Meanwhile, Lena was already in a taxi heading toward the cafe Lucas had chosen.

She sat near the window with her bag on her lap, using the small mirror of her compact to retouch her makeup as the city moved past outside. Powder first. Then her lips. Then one careful pass under her eyes. Her hands looked steady, but her mind was not. It kept running ahead of the meeting, turning over every possible question Lucas might throw at her the moment he sat down.

Why did you contact me?

Why should I trust you?

What do you actually have?

Are you still working for him?

She already knew the hard part would not be arriving on time. It would be convincing a man like Lucas that she was not another extension of Durnik’s mess. That she was useful. That she was not bait. By the time the taxi slowed in front of the cafe, she had rehearsed three different versions of her opening and still did not fully like any of them.

She paid the driver, stepped out, and sent Lucas a short message.

I’m here.

Only then did Lucas move on his side.

Back at the house, he told the girls he needed to head out for something and would be back soon. It took a little convincing. They were not used to him leaving so abruptly after everything that had been happening, but once he kept his explanation simple and calm, they let it go. He took his car keys, went downstairs, and pulled out of the compound.

The cafe was not far from his place. That was exactly why he had chosen it. Close enough to reach quickly. Public enough to stay controlled. Far enough from Durnik’s building to keep the meeting clean.

When Lena entered the cafe, she did not wait empty-handed. She took a quiet table away from the main window traffic, ordered coffee for two, and added brownies almost out of restless energy more than appetite. Then she sat with her bag beside her and waited, eyes drifting toward the entrance every time the door opened.

About five minutes later, Lucas arrived.

The car alone made a few people look. It was not loud, but it had presence, the kind that pulled attention even from customers already seated with their phones and drinks. Lena looked up with the rest of them ~ and then her gaze stayed on him longer than she intended.

He looked better than she remembered.

The last time she had seen him properly was at the business banquet, back when the whole room was still wrapped around Maya’s marriage mess and Durnik’s people were moving through the event like they owned the air. That day she had not really taken Lucas in. Maybe she had been too busy following that bastard’s orders. Maybe she had simply not been looking. But now, watching him step out of the car and walk toward the cafe, she had to admit the truth to herself.

He was handsome.

Not in the cheap, overdone way she was used to seeing on men who wanted attention. It was cleaner than that. Controlled. Sharper. The kind of face that became harder to ignore once a person stopped looking past him.

Lena sat up a little straighter without meaning to.

Lucas stepped inside and spotted her at once.

He already knew her face. A man did not forget the woman who used to move around Durnik like a permanent attachment, standing too close at events, handling things no ordinary staff member should have been trusted with. Even if he had never cared enough to learn her full story, he remembered the association. That alone was enough to keep him cold.

He walked over and sat down across from her without ceremony.

Lena looked at him for a little too long.

Not just a normal first glance either. Her eyes stayed on his face, then drifted slightly lower, then came back up again like her brain was busy rewriting the version of him she remembered from the banquet. Lucas noticed. Of course he noticed. The staring was obvious enough that after a few seconds he cleared his throat on purpose.

The sound snapped her back into place.

A faint flush touched her cheeks. "Good afternoon. I ordered something for us."

Lucas did not even look at the coffee or the brownies.

"I’m not interested," he said. "What was the point of this meeting?"

The directness made her posture tighten, but she forced herself to stay calm. "I told you. I want to help you with Durnik."

Lucas leaned back slightly in his chair, watching her the way a person watched a suspicious package. "What do I need your help for?"

Lena blinked.

"And what exactly do you think you can help me with?" he added.

That one landed harder than she expected.

Lena had come prepared to present herself as useful. She had not prepared for a man who looked at her like she was already wasting his time.

Still, she pushed forward. "He’s been targeting you. Ever since things started going wrong around his company, your name has been sitting in his mouth like a curse. I know he sent people after the woman connected to you. I know that failure embarrassed him. And I know he is not finished."

Lucas watched her without moving.

No surprise.

No gratitude.

No shift in his face at all.

The lack of reaction made her stomach tighten. Most men, even careful ones, gave away something. A blink. A pause. A little hunger for more detail. Lucas gave her nothing.

"And?" he asked.

Lena’s fingers curled slightly against the side of her cup. "And I can help bring him down."

"You keep saying that," Lucas replied. "You still haven’t told me why I should care that it’s you saying it."

The cafe noise around them suddenly felt farther away. A spoon hit a saucer somewhere behind her. The espresso machine hissed. None of it softened the way he was looking at her.

"I was close to him," she said.

"I know."

"I handled things other people never touched."

"That only makes you more suspicious."

Lena let out a short breath through her nose, forcing herself not to snap. "If I was still on his side, would I be sitting here?"

"You might," Lucas said calmly. "If he told you to."

That silenced her for a second.

He leaned forward just slightly, elbows on the table, voice low enough that only she could hear it cleanly. "Durnik is not stupid. He is poisonous. He uses money, fear, and women the same way. So when one of his old people contacts me out of nowhere and offers help, I don’t hear opportunity first. I hear bait."

Lena’s face heated, half from anger and half from the humiliation of being read that bluntly.

"I’m not bait."

"That’s exactly what bait would say."

For a moment she just stared at him. The brownies sat untouched between them. The coffee was already cooling. All the little rehearsed lines she had prepared in the taxi felt thinner now that she was actually across from him.

Still, she did not leave.

"He’s planning more," she said, quieter but firmer. "Not just against the girl. Against you. Against anything connected to you. I know how he talks when he feels humiliated. I know the kind of people he reaches for when official methods stop being enough. You need someone who understands his habits from the inside."

"And that someone is you."

"Yes."

Lucas sat back again.

He still did not trust her. Not even a little. Everything about the meeting could still be theater. The urgency. The rejected-woman story. The neat timing. Durnik was more than capable of burning one discarded toy if it meant getting closer to an enemy.

Which was why Lucas had come in the first place.

Not to be convinced by pretty insistence.

To look underneath it.

While Lena continued talking, stacking example after example of Durnik’s pettiness, cruelty, and obsession, Lucas stopped listening only to her voice.

He activated the system.

[Mind Insight used.]

[–15 System Points.]

[Remaining Balance: 245]

The truth came through clean and ugly.

Lena had been discarded. Durnik had kept her close while she was useful, used her body when he wanted it, and thrown her aside the moment someone newer occupied his attention. Her anger was real. Her humiliation was real. The bitterness under her ribs was not performance. She was not sitting here as his loyal weapon. She was sitting here because she wanted the man who stripped away her position and treated her like convenience to suffer for it.

Helping Lucas was not purity.

It was revenge with a practical face.

That made her dangerous.

But it also made her usable.

Lucas let the last layer of her thoughts settle before returning fully to the table. Lena was still talking, still pushing, still trying to force importance into every sentence like enough words might finally crack him open.

He cut in only when he was ready.

"Alright," he said.

Lena stopped at once. The hope that flashed across her face came too quickly, too unguarded.

Lucas met her eyes, still cold.

"I’ve heard enough about what he did. Now tell me something useful."

Her breath caught slightly.

"How exactly do you plan to help?"

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