"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 a

nodded and went searching, but came up

"Where exactly?"

the way in the back. What do you

the velvet curtain

curtain

through the curtain. This was Rupert's secret tasting room, all mahogany shelves and dim lights. She pushed aside a rack of rare bourbons and found a built-in wall safe, about

called out, "It needs

moment before finally

scowled. This was no

in


Maybe Chris? Wrong again.

and the alarm would go off, and then the whole steakhouse would know

it,

behind her, his breath warm on her neck. One hand braced

1125.

Sylvia froze.

It was her birthday.

she hadn't celebrated her birthday

clicked open. Inside were some auctioned bottles of wine

snapped back to reality and, pretending not to notice

phone to Rupert. "This is

Rupert and out

the


come to hate him

a bit. When Rupert finally emerged, his

if he'd never

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