"Am I supposed to know her?" Rupert took a sip of his coffee, trying to ease the discomfort in his body.

"She's... the new girl at work. She sent me here to treat you to dinner."

As Fay's name came up, Sylvia shot a glance at the heavy oak door.

Did Fay lock them in here?

Rupert caught her look and said quietly, "You two have some history, don't you?"

"Can I plead ignorance?" Sylvia still felt completely baffled by the whole thing.

Rupert spun the chunky silver ring on his finger, a frown creasing his brow. "Whoever locked that door definitely knew we were in here."

Sylvia caught on instantly.

She held out her hand to Rupert. "Your phone."

"Someone spilled a drink on me. It's fried."

"Really? That's a little too convenient," Sylvia said, suspicion clear in her voice.

"Want to frisk me?" Rupert held both hands up, palms open.

The overhead light made the garnet ring on his hand look even more striking, not

to mention the wedding band sitting snugly on his middle finger.


Sylvia tore her eyes away, pretending not to notice, and racked her brain for solutions.

Rupert followed her gaze, glancing at his own rings, then lowered his head and absently rubbed them.

back, behind the scotch bottles. Inside, there's a safe. Orson keeps

searching, but came

"Where exactly?"

the

toward the

curtain once, at Rupert's last

was Rupert's secret tasting room, all mahogany shelves and dim lights. She

"It needs a

finally

was no

in Orson's birthday.


Maybe Chris? Wrong again.

tried Tristan's birthday. Still nothing. One more wrong guess and the alarm would go off, and then the whole steakhouse would know she and Rupert were

is it, Rupert?"

One hand braced on the shelf he

1125.

Sylvia froze.

It was her birthday.

hadn't celebrated her birthday

safe clicked open. Inside were some auctioned bottles of

to reality and, pretending not to notice the code, grabbed the spare

Rupert. "This is

Rupert and out of the tasting

the phone, his knuckles


come to hate him this

When Rupert finally emerged, his expression

as if he'd

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