Chapter 7 - A FAUSTIAN OFFER|
Elena felt as though all the air had been sucked out of the room.
"What do you want from me, Adrien?" she whispered, her voice barely audible over the hum of the house's ventilation. "I don't have money. I don't have influence. I have nothing."
"You have yourself," Adrien replied smoothly, his hand moving down from her cheek to cup the back of her neck, holding her gaze locked with his. "I want you to leave that wretched apartment. I want you to quit both of your pathetic jobs."
"And do what?"
"Live here," Adrien stated, as casually as if he were discussing the weather. "Work as my personal administrative secretary. Accompany me to dinners, events, and meetings. Be at my side."
"You want a mistress," Elena spat, bitterness lacing her tongue.
Adrien’s hand tightened slightly on her neck—not enough to hurt, but enough to command total submission.
"If I wanted a mistress, Elena, I could fill this house with a hundred women by midnight," he said coldly. "I want you. I want your mind, your loyalty, and your presence. In exchange, Tommy’s debt is cleared. He will be brought home safely tomorrow, given a clean passport, and placed on a plane to Europe with enough capital to start over."
Elena stared into his silver eyes. It was a golden cage, wrapped in silk and blood.
If she refused, Tommy died in some dark warehouse, and she would spend the rest of her life wiping down tables while drowning in interest payments. If she accepted, she sold her soul to the most feared criminal in the state.
"And if I want to leave eventually?" she asked quietly.
Adrien smiled—a slow, terrifying expression that made her skin run cold.
"No one leaves me, Elena," he whispered. "Sleep on it. The guest suite is upstairs."
He turned and walked toward his study, leaving her standing alone in the grand room.
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Elena walked upstairs to the guest suite. The room was larger than her entire apartment, featuring a king-sized bed wrapped in Egyptian cotton and a silk nightgown resting on the duvet.
She sat on the edge of the bed, staring out at the rain. She had come here to save herself, but deep down, she knew she had just stepped onto a chessboard where Adrien Russo held every single piece.
