“Albert Knowle. He’s the guy I want you to be with.”
I cringe. Suddenly, the deal doesn’t sound so great. Kade pulls a sheet of paper from the pocket inside his jacket and opens it. I let my eyes flick over the paper, but it’s too dark for the writing to be legible.
“One of my mines is collapsing—and not in the usual way. I’ve sent a team down to check it out, but I need you to secure a contract just in case they don’t find anything and the mine is faulty.”
“You don’t need me for that. Offer him money.”
“For a mine large enough to replace the one I’m losing? No. I don’t have enough. I need him to sign this at a drastically lowered price. That’s where you come in. Seduce him, get him to sign it and then—”
“Have sex with him,” I finish, my voice coming off a hell of a lot more offended than I intend. Kade smirks—actually fucking smirks and it sends a pang of hurt through my chest.
“No, that’s the good part. Albert would never betray his wife like that.”
An invisible balloon in my chest inflates and I exhale. “Oh, good.”
“I want you to blow him. That’s all.”
The balloon deflates. Did I hear him correctly? “Excuse me? You said he would never betray his wife.”
Kade folds the contract and stuffs it back into his jacket. “He wouldn’t, not with sex, anyway.”
Only sex is betraying? That doesn’t make any sense, then again, Fortunates rarely did. If I loved someone enough to spend the rest of my life with them I’d never entertain the idea of bedding someone else, and the thought of coming between a man and his lady makes me extremely uncomfortable.
“At the end of the day, this is business, Nine, and whether or not Albert and his wife share a strong bond is none of your concern.”
“How do you know he’ll do it? How do you know he’s not faithful to his wife?”
Kade shrugs and pinches at a lock of my hair. I watch as he twirls it around his finger and brings it to his lips. As it unravels, he drags it gingerly between his full lips. “I see him in the Black House a lot and the girls there like to talk.”
The Black House. I’ve heard it mentioned in conversations many times, but have yet to understand what it is. I quirk an eyebrow at Kade and he sighs.
“It’s a fancy name for whore house.”
I flinch. Whore. The word sounds dirty and hurtful. How can you call someone a whore when you forced them into the situation? They’re victims, not whores. In my head, I’m shouting the words at him, but they lack the strength to roll off my tongue.
“You go to the Black House?”
He shrugs again. “Occasionally, when I’m tired of Elizabeth’s voice.”
“And is she your girlfriend?”
He smiles. “Does your curiosity ever sleep?”
“I just want to know what I’m dealing with. She was very mad at breakfast.”
“Elizabeth means well, she just forgets her place.” Kade looks out over the lake. “And no, she’s not my girlfriend.”
Silence falls. It’s not a threatening silence. It’s peaceful… almost tranquil. I let my stare flick over the luminous shapes the moon cast over the surface of the still water. If I was a Fortunate, I’d spend the majority of my days here. I’d sleep here, under the shade of the tall trees and away from the corrupted souls.
“In the camp,” Kade begins, after an eternity of silence. “Was there ever… a boy?”
His tone is almost frustrated and I smirk at his not so subtle way of asking if I’ve ever had a boyfriend.
“No. Everyone was too afraid to talk to each other and the moderators stepped in the second anyone got too close.” I tuck a stray lock of hair behind my ear. “In the camp you’re surrounded by so many people, but you’re always alone.”
A harsh, familiar emptiness settles inside me. It comes and goes in waves. When I’m with Kade, I barely feel it, but when I’m alone in my room, isolation seeps back in. I hate that I want to make him happy, but I can’t help it. It’s the way I’ve been conditioned… or maybe I’m just desperate for any kind of companionship and I’ll do anything Kade wants just to get it.
“Get up,” he orders, pushing himself to his feet. “Let’s head back.”
I rise to my feet and immediately pins and needles shoot down my leg, another painfully familiar sensation. In the camp, our beds were so hard pins and needles were almost a guarantee when you wake up in the morning.
As we leave, I scoop up an oak leaf and gently place it against my breast, underneath the fabric of my dress. I want to keep it… I want a reminder of tonight. Although it was nothing ground-breaking, I feel like I made progress. I feel like Kade and I understand each other a little better now, even if he never acknowledges it. Every time I look at the leaf, I want to feel my stomach flip and my blood burn. I want to feel the same tranquillity I felt sitting by the lake tonight.