“I assume Korinne is treating you well?”

“Of course. She’s gone to great lengths to accommodate my curiosity.”

“Good.” Tower stood and rounded his desk toward the door, brushing Kori aside as he gestured for me to walk with him. “I’ve made reservations for you both in my name at Philemon’s. Best filet in the city.”

“Thank you, but that really wasn’t necessary,” I said, and Tower frowned.

“I’m afraid it was. I’m confident that Kori is an excellent tour guide, and she has certain other gifts to share, I’m sure, but her perspective on the syndicate may be a bit…narrow.” He stopped in the middle of the foyer and turned to look right into my eyes, ignoring Kori and his own sister like they weren’t even there.

“Your Skill is formidable and your strength is very rare. That makes you much more valuable than any common Traveler, if I may be blunt, and the trajectory we foresee for your future soars far higher than hers, which, frankly, has already declined from its peak. So go out tonight and eat and avail yourself of any other amenities we have to offer. But please keep in mind that while Korinne is at your disposal, we have many other, more sophisticated treats for you to sample, should your appetite change.”

He glanced at her on the last word, and Kori’s fists clenched at her sides, but she stared at the floor.

Tower pulled her aside then, while his sister tried to distract me with pointless small talk, and I could barely hear the single sentence he growled at her, his hand tight around her arm, though he flinched as if his grip hurt him, as well. “No. More. Bars.”

Minutes later, after another trip through Tower’s darkroom, we stepped into my hotel suite and Kori sank onto one of the couches, her expression carefully blank. She just sat there, staring at her hands, perpetuating the longest silence I’d endured since meeting her.

“He’s full of shit, you know,” I said when I couldn’t stand to see her like that anymore. Kori was like a bonfire, blazing with bright light and sometimes harsh heat, and Tower had just kicked dirt all over her, smothering the flames. I didn’t like seeing her light put out. In fact, sitting there watching her, I realized I hated it. “Ninety-five percent of sophistication is pretense. The other five percent is good wine, and I prefer the latter without the former.”

“What does that even mean?” she asked, without looking up.

“It means that I don’t want to trade you in for a more sophisticated model. I like the sharp edges and surprises.”

I told myself it was okay to say that. To admit a truth of my own, after all the truths she’d already shown me. I even tried to convince myself that telling her was part of my job. I needed her to like and trust me. But I’d obviously managed to say the wrong thing.

“Yeah. You like sharp edges,” she spat. “That’s why you wanted me to stop cussing, right?”

Damn.

“That was just a game, Kori. A stupid game to push your buttons. To see how you’d react, because…” I took a deep breath and leaned forward, hoping to catch her gaze. “Because you never do what I expect. But you’re right. It was a stupid game. Forget about it. The bet is off.”

“Oh, no, the bet’s still on,” she snapped, and a flare of anger finally burned through the shield of ambivalence she’d erected. “I’m not going to break my word. But for the record—” She stopped suddenly and looked away, hands clenched around the edge of the cushion she sat on.

“What? For the record, what?” I could practically taste the gritty honesty of whatever she’d been about to say, and I wanted to hear it, because whatever it was, it came from her soul. It was a truth about her.

“Nothing.”

“No, that was something. I want to hear it.”

Her eyes flashed in anger again. “You can stop pretending we’re on an even playing field, Mr. Holt,” she snapped again, and I flinched over her cold, formal use of my surname. “Until your signature is dry on Jake’s contract, you hold all the power here and I can’t afford to say anything that will make you mad.”

I blinked, surprised. “Why? You think I’m going to go tattle to Tower if you hurt my feelings? Is that really what you think of me, even after I lied about what you showed me today?” I demanded, and her anger faltered, just for a moment. “Tell me what you were going to say, Kori.”

Let me in. Just a little.

“Fine.” She sat back, arms crossed over her chest in a pose that was probably supposed to look unaffected, but really looked defensive. “For the record, I don’t care whether you like sharp edges or sophistication. I don’t care what you like in a woman, and I don’t care what Jake thinks about my social status. If you want to trade me in for a different ‘model,’ go ahead. You won’t be hurting my feelings.”

I shook my head slowly. “That’s not it,” I said, trying not to look disappointed. “That’s not what you were going to say. I can see it in your face.” I would be hurting her feelings if I traded her in. Which seemed to imply that she did, in fact, have feelings.

And finally she nodded. “This job—recruiting you—is my chance to get back into favor with Jake. I’m not cut out to be a recruiter, Ian. But I have to recruit you to get my life back.”

That felt closer to the truth, but there was still something she didn’t trust me enough to show me. But pushing would only drive her further away.