her face as if I had seen it—known it. I was fairly good with names and faces, so it was unlikely I would forget a face like hers. She was fucking hot, and I was pretty sure I wouldn’t ever forget a woman like her if I had actually met her before. But still…there was something about her rich green eyes, her pouty lips…
Her eyes made contact with mine as I caressed her pearls. It was a shame I was about to destroy a necklace that cost more than some of these women made all year, but it was the way of the Order. Breaking the necklace was an act to show just how easy it is for The Order of the Silver Ghost to give you riches only to take them away. They had the power to give you all your dreams, but they also had the same power to destroy you with ease.
With a snap of my wrist, I yanked the necklace from her creamy flesh and heard her tiny gasp as I did so. Not wanting to waste any time—since enough time already had gone by at an agonizingly slow pace—I replaced the pearls with the black ribbon.
I hoped she was ready to dance with fire.
And then I heard the words I had been waiting for all night. “Beau Radcliffe, have you chosen your belle for the Initiation?”
I took a step back from the belle who would be at my mercy for 109 days and said, “I have chosen my belle.”
3
Abilene
He picked me. Of course he did.
He had a thing for redheads, and I’d been the only one in the room.
Plus, this wasn’t the first time he’d picked me out of all the other girls in the room. No, Beau Radcliffe had a type, and I’d had the feeling he was the type of man who wouldn’t stray from it if it was offered up on a pretty, glittering platter.
I’d even put crystal jewels in my updo to highlight my fiery locks.
One night not so long ago, the man had counted the freckles on my face with his tongue. I wondered if I’d be in for a repeat tonight as he led me up the stairs by the small of my back.
A small thrill raced up my spine at the touch.
Ridiculous. Tina would have scoffed at me. No personal attachments. It was her number one rule.
As much as my confidence was returning now, it was really only as the pearls had pinged to the floor that I’d really allowed myself a breath of relief.
Getting here hadn’t been a small task.
I’d had to look up Abilene in the white pages to find her address and intercept the limo I knew would be returning for her the next day. That information had been pumped from a former belle prospect who was both bitter about not being chosen and happy to open up after a couple rounds and a hundred-dollar tip. She was on break from her exotic dancing routine and her eyes had gotten round when I produced the cash.
If this was what happened to the belles who weren’t chosen, I was that much more determined to get picked.
So I got myself dolled up the way Tina always used to when she was using me as bait for wallet snatching in clubs—smokey eye make-up and red lips with a pop of gloss. Then I curled my hair and piled it on my head since it was the feature I knew I needed to accentuate for this particular audience of one.
The limo showed up, I came out from beside Abilene’s house where I’d been crouching behind a bush and swanned to the back door like I’d been sweeping into limousines my whole life.
The driver didn’t even say a word, he just opened the door. If he noticed I wasn’t the same woman he’d presented the card to the day before, he didn’t comment. Then again, he barely spared a glance my direction.
How many limo rides and how many women had he seen in his time, I wondered?
I’d gotten myself in the door. That had been part one. Then I endured the doctor’s exam, worked my magic, and voila, now I was here.
Walking up the stairs with my sought-after quarry.
I always got my mark. Always.
I leaned over right as Beau and I reached the top of the huge, grand staircase, “You don’t remember me, do you?”
He almost missed the top step as his head swung toward me, and I smiled coyly.