Page 107 of Ride or Die

“One drink.” Riley squeezed Kristi’s arm. “I mean it.”

Kristi smacked a kiss on her cheek and dragged her up the curving staircase.

“One drink. Just one.” Riley followed the gold-veined black marble up and up. Part of her wanted to see what it was like—their friend group usually went out in sketchy warehouses by the docks. This was quite a few pay grades up.

Miranda would cry that she’d missed it. Ki probably wouldn’t care.

Kristi hadn’t invited them, for whatever reason.

At the top of the stairs, they passed through an arched doorway and into another world. The music was melodic and sultry, and Riley’s hips glided side to side on their own.

Plush couches surrounded low tables, and the dim lighting gave everything a dreamlike quality. The staff floated as they delivered champagne to the guests.

Riley raised her eyebrows at Kristi, “Alright, I see you, miss ‘free tickets.’”

Kristi gave her a smile that made Riley’s heart double-beat, and she frowned. It wasn’t even a real kiss, for god’s sake.

“It’ll be fun, and then we can go dance, as promised.” Kristi nudged her towards the bar, and they ordered some outlandish cocktail with notes of stardust and water from Mt. Everest. It cost more than dinner.

“So?” Riley leaned back on her elbows and surveyed the floor. Women floated on the arms of powerful men in suits that cost more than her parents’ mortgage. Riley did not belong in a place like this.

But Kristi did. She took everything in with a predator’s grace, met every glance, yielded nothing.

“I love the taste of money and corruption.” Kristi raised her glass to her lips, and a smile tipped up the corners of her blood-red mouth.

Riley snorted and sank back against the bar. “And what, exactly, does that taste like?”

Kristi sent her a devilish smirk and clinked the rims of their glasses together. Riley grinned back, and it was just the two of them again, like it had always been. The moment flickered out of reach as the cocktail pooled in her gut.

Riley looked over the lounge.

The women looked too young, the men postured too much, and Riley realized she’d rather be home arguing about engine parts or watching crappy vampire movies than doing this. It wasn’t real enough.

Kristi perused the clientele like they were satiating.

For one drink, Riley could pretend she was fine. For Kristi’s sake.

Riley leaned back against the bar and settled, trying to see what Kristi saw. She supposed the tailored suits and the watches that cost more than she made in a year were interesting to look at.

If she squinted.

She gave Kristi a close-lipped smile and sipped her Everest water.

Prickles started at the base of Riley’s neck, and she glanced up. A pair of black eyes met hers from a shadowed corner. She jerked when the bartender started shaking ice in a mixer vigorously behind her.

“We have to go,” Riley said, unable to look away. His eyes aren’t glowing. Definitely not. Her heart beat faster than the music.

Kristi followed her gaze and tensed. “Ah, the dark prince of fraud himself. Just when I was starting to get bored.”

“Please don’t call him that,” Riley said automatically. The main doorway they’d entered through would involve walking past him, and the door behind the bar went down a red-lit hallway. Is Gio here too?

“We’re leaving.” Riley pushed off the bar. Kristi dropped a hand on her arm and held her in place.

“If we take off now, it looks suspicious.”

Riley froze at her tone and turned her head.

“What if he knows you sent the spreadsheet?”