Chapter 32 · Expensive

"I know," I said, and I still didn't let go of his wrist.

Levi didn't pull back. That was the thing about him — he never pulled back, not even when my thumb was pressed hard enough over his pulse to feel it kick. He looked at my hand like it was a line item he hadn't approved yet.

"You want the number," he said, "or you want to keep holding my arm like it's collateral."

"Both."

He smiled at that, the small flat one he used on men right before he ruined them. "Fine. Sit down, Dimitri. This is a business meeting, not a hostage situation."

I didn't sit. I let his wrist go and I put both hands flat on the iron desk between us, the same table they'd had me strapped to eleven months ago, and I watched him notice that I remembered.

"I'm expensive," he said again, sliding the folder across. Renewal contract. My name on the top line, his signature already dried at the bottom like he'd never once doubted I'd stay. "That hasn't changed since the last time I said it."

"Neither has the reason you keep me," I said.