Adam declines three phone calls from his mother on the way to Nyx. She's calling to ask why she saw Adam's picture in the news—she left a voicemail, wondering if that pretty girl with the gray eyes in the picture next to him was his new girlfriend. Then she went on a tangent about Daphne and how Adam needs to get her out of his crazy ex-fiancé's hands. The little things.

Daphne's birthday is tomorrow morning, but Adam can't wait a single second longer. He won't stay at Nyx for too long; he just needs to talk to Eris. Ask her why in god's name she paid Leonardo's bail. Ask her why the hell she's written down as his lawyer. Ask her why she put him in jail just to take him out.

Adam parks on the street and walks in for two reasons. One, no cop is going to wonder what he's doing at Nyx, and two, Eris won't be able to keep his car hostage again. He gets his ID checked, and then tries to get into the pit, but they won't let him in. Invite-only, they say. Do you have an invite? No.

"I know the owner," Adam says, which he's tired of saying.

The two men at the stairwell glance at each other. One squints at him. "Is he the guy in the staff room?" he whispers to the other.

Nikolas comes up from the stairwell, passing by the other men. Adam steps in front of him. "I need down there."

"Sorry, who are you?"

Adam tilts his chin down. "Not this again."

Nikolas hides a smile. "Sorry. Invite-only."

"Then bring her up here," Adam insists.

"Can't bother the boss for some random man," Nikolas says.

"I'm not some—"

Nikolas pushes past Adam, going to check on the shipment out back. Actual shipment, this time.

Adam tries nearly every other employee in the foyer and the restaurant. He sits at the bar for ten minutes, but no gin and tonics magically appear.

Peter sees him sitting at the bar. He knows that Eris is up in the penthouse, and she probably won't come down tonight until midnight or one. There are no deals tonight, and she doesn't like the club unless it's thriving, which it does best at twelve-thirty. Since she's up in the penthouse, no one will have told her that Adam is here as they usually would.

Peter gets behind the bar and asks Adam what he wants to drink.

"Gin and tonic, please."

Peter gets him the drink, and when Adam gives him cash, Peter shakes his head. "On the boss," he says.

Adam searches Peter's face. "Do you happen to know where she is?"

"Penthouse," he answers. "She'll be down in about two hours."

Adam sighs. He doesn't have time to wait two hours, and he won't be able to get up into the penthouse. Not to mention the fact that Eris probably doesn't want to see him. He didn't believe her when she tried to warn him and called her a child.

"We've got a special," Peter says, cleaning a glass. "Greek classic. I'll bring you it right at the bar."

Adam remembers the price of the special the last time he came here.

"On the boss," Peter says.

Adam glances at him. He's starving, and he really needs to find out what Eris is doing with Leonardo.

Peter smiles, then puts the order in without Adam's confirmation. He doesn't know much, but he knows that the only time Peter got to see Eris smile, it was at Adam. And he likes that smile.

Adam taps his fork against the plate. It's good food, but it doesn't taste Greek to him. He finishes, Peter brings him another drink, and he waits.

Kayla is walking up the stairs to ask Peter where he's gone to when she sees Adam at the bar. There are no deals tonight, no laundering that the cops will be able to find. Nothing sketchy tonight. She passes by Adam, and with her slender fingers passes him an invite to the pit. Eris told every member of the team that the more cops they could get into the pit on a night where everything was clean, the better.

Adam watches Kayla sashay away in her typical style. He recognizes her as the desk lady at guest services, but tonight she's clearly more important. So the car incident had obviously been intentional, too. To delay Adam, of course—so she'd know which day the dealing was on. Damn brilliant.

Adam is smugger than he cares to admit as he passes the invitation over to the men at the stairwell. It's nearing midnight, and up in the penthouse, Eris is putting in those diamond earrings again. She's been going through Leonardo's case, and she feels it's going to be easy. She'll have him on parole in a decade and a half with ease.

That's the thing Eris loves about the law. There's always a loophole and if there isn't, there's always someone to bribe.

Eris is wearing red tonight, which is out of character. She also has her neckline, her shoulders and her collarbones on display, which is even more out of character. Eris' mother used to tell her she had that flawless European skin that shimmered and glimmered in good lighting. Irresistible, she'd said. Tonight marks the first night in a long time that there are no bruises or remnants of bruises on Eris' neck, so tonight is the night she stuns. The gown is ankle-length, and the straps of her heels glitter in the overhead lights of the penthouse. Real pearls curl around her ankles, shining as she walks.

Eris smoothens the silk of her dress and leaves the penthouse. Down through the restaurant, down the stairs. Nikolas meets her at the bottom.

"Oh, you look pretty." Nikolas looks out at the room, then back at Eris. "Hey," he says, leaning closer to place a hand on her back. "Let's go upstairs—"

Eris has seen Adam now, so she's not going upstairs. She cuts Nikolas off, "Why is he here?"

Nikolas looks over at Adam, who's leaned back on a couch with a gin and tonic. There's a girl with him—some blonde that's a regular at Nyx. She's flirted with every man in there twice, so Adam is fresh meat.

"Kayla gave him an invite. I couldn't imagine why—"

"I didn't ask how I asked why." A server brings Eris a martini, and she takes it.

Nikolas sighs. "He was asking for you earlier."

Eris keeps the emotion out of her tone, "And you didn't think to tell me?"

Nikolas looks over at Adam. "Eris, that whole free-pass thing. That was just a joke, right?"

"What?"

"You said he's your free pass, but I don't really know if it's a joke anymore."

Eris has her eyes on Adam, so Nikolas looks too. Adam hasn't seen Eris yet, but he's been trying to get the blonde away from him for twenty minutes. He's wearing a nicer jacket, and the stubble on his face is just enough to be clean. Nikolas looks back at Eris.

"Eris?"

She glances back at Nikolas. Her eyes are sparkling, the golden skin on her collarbones inviting. "A joke. Relax," she says.

It does make Nikolas relax. He didn't even realize he began to sweat a little at her long answer.

Eris couldn't recount her conversation with Nikolas if her life depended on it, and her memory is nearly flawless. But her eyes are on Adam, with his arm over the back of the couch behind the blonde. He looks like he's interested, perhaps, and the blonde is closer to his age. The moment he sees her, he's going to lunge at Eris and talk business. Why she bailed Leo out, why she's representing him. Eris knows it's unavoidable.

She considers running for the stairs, going back into the penthouse and changing into a turtleneck dress. Adam almost assuredly likes a classier look than what she's wearing. And the diamond earrings, which cost six thousand dollars, aren't the kind of thing he'd like on a woman. Not to mention the twelve-thousand-dollar diamond necklace she's paired with it.

"You want to play a round?" Nikolas asks, nodding his head to the poker tables. Eris is nearly impossible to play, since she's practically expressionless. But he'd do anything to take her gaze and put it back on him right now.

Eris drinks from the martini. She's still standing by the stairs, wondering if she should keep the dress but throw the heels. Men don't like women that rival their height. Adam's probably the same height as her with the four inches on, and he wouldn't like that.

"Eris?"

"I have to talk to Adam about Leo," she says.

"No you don't. You don't need to tell the cops anything about anything."

"I'm not telling the cops, I'm telling Adam."

Nikolas is desperately trying to keep her attention. "Adam is the cops," he insists.

Eris goes to step around him, but he pushes her back, causing her to nearly break one of the heels on the step. She pushes back against him, but he takes her by the wrist.

"Nikolas—"

Nikolas makes sure her spine touches the corner behind her. The security at the top and bottom of the stairs are the only people who can really see them, and they don't blink.

"Let's go upstairs, Eris," Nikolas says quietly.

"I'm not—" Eris pushes back, but she isn't strong enough. She's not frail by any means, and she does know how to throw a punch, but Nikolas is just better. "Let go."

"Let's just go upstairs, Eris. We don't need to be here."

Eris just got to be able to wear the straps again. She'll wear the turtlenecks again—tomorrow, the next day. But tonight, she wants to wear the straps. She wants Adam to see that tanned, apparently irresistible skin. Maybe then he'll think she isn't a child.

"Let go of me, Niky," Eris says smoothly.

Across the room, Adam goes to take the next drink from the server, and he sees Eris by the stairs. He almost doesn't recognize her at first—he's never seen her in a colour or anything without a high neckline before—but he knows those eyes. She's with Nikolas, against the wall. Adam almost looks away, as if he's watching something he shouldn't be, but a second later he realizes they're not standing like a couple. He's seen this same situation at every club and bar he's ever been to—some guy putting it on a little too thick to some girl—but it looks out of place on Eris.

Everyone has their secrets. But he never thought Eris, with her stone-faced tricks and chillingly calm aura would have them, too.

The blonde is talking, and Adam can't hear her. He doesn't know if he should do something. He doesn't know if that's anywhere near his place to interfere. If he's even right in assuming what's happening is happening.

Eris, out of the corner of her eye, sees him looking. She takes the heel of her shoe and drives it into Nikolas' foot, which doubles him over. She slips out of his grasp and turns around so Adam can't see her face. She's spilt a little of the martini on the carpet, so she snaps at a worker to clean it. Nikolas grits his teeth at her, then turns and takes the stairs. He's going to go home. Fuck her, he thinks.

Eris smoothens out her dress. She can't go over to Adam now, not after he saw that. She can't go over there.

She figures that if he wasn't convinced that Eris was a child before, he most definitely thinks it now. Tough, cutthroat Eris, who's scared to break up with her boyfriend because she knows it means blood. Ruthless Eris, who gets sick at even the thought of it, running down her face, into her mouth. Sure, it'd be over after. But she'd have to feel the blood, see it, taste it—

Eris is walking to the bathroom. Her stomach is flipping, and she can feel herself getting sick. She leaves Adam to his more age-appropriate blonde who probably isn't a felon.

Adam watches her leave. Maybe she saw him, maybe she didn't. She walks with that same grace, that same control, but he senses something rushed about it. He mutters a polite excuse to the blonde and stands. She's disappeared into the bathroom, so Adam waits by the darts tables just outside. He leans against one, wishing he had something to hold.

Eris has her face in the sink, but nothing comes. It never really does; she's too good at making sure the imagery is gone. She glances in the mirror. Those startling features scream mystery and sensationalism, but Eris has to wait a few minutes before she can keep them straight again. He saw that. Ruthless Eris. Cutthroat Eris. Eris that isn't scared of pain or torture, but scared of a what comes with it.

Eris smoothens out the dress. The martini is left by the sink. And at the last second, Eris decides not to throw the diamond earrings out before she goes back out there. She paid good money for them. She thinks they're pretty.

He's waiting, leaning effortlessly against the darts table like he's being shot for some men's magazine. His arms are crossed, and so are his ankles.

"Take the night off, Adam," Eris says.

Adam resists the urge to smile. She has composure Adam could only dream of having.

He pushes off the table to walk next to her. Someone hands her a martini, and she takes it.

"You bailed Leonardo out," he says. She takes the three stairs into the sunken lounge, sips from the martini once.

"You're also written down as his lawyer," Adam pushes. "Is that right?"

"That's right, Adam," she replies. She taps on the counter of the bar. "Gin and tonic on the rocks," she orders.

"What is your obsession with ordering me drinks?" Adam asks.

"I'm a host. I host. I like people to have their drinks." She taps her finger against the counter rapidly, her eyes scanning the room.

Adam puts a finger on her finger, one because the tapping is distracting and two because he knows that'll get her attention. "Leonardo says you called in the tip on him. If you put him in jail, why are you getting him out?"

Her eyes snap to their fingers. She says nothing.

Adam lowers his chin. "You want his buyers. That's what you want. You get his buyers, he gets less time?"

She looks over the bar. "Why don't I have gin over here?" she asks. "You boys get tips for this kind of service?"

Adam wishes she would just look at him. "Forget the gin, Eris. Why did you take Leo out?"

"I ordered that gin from Whales for you, Adam." She taps her hand on the counter.

Adam wants to reach out and turn her face to him, but he knows that's crossing some sort of blurry line between them. "Eris, damnit. Speak to me."

Eris' eyes are skipping. The slot machine on the far left isn't working. That one couch in the lounge isn't straight. That's fine. It's all fine. She doesn't need to fix it, she doesn't. She doesn't.

"Leonardo's claims against you might give us enough to get a warrant for the penthouse, Eris," Adam lies, just to get her attention.

Her gaze snaps to him. She closes her hand around his wrist and pulls him back towards the stairs just as the server gives Adam the gin. He holds it in one hand, trying not to spill it as Eris drags him up the stairs.

"Eris—what the hell—"

She pulls him across the foyer, into the hallway. The door to the penthouse floor opens for her fingerprint and she walks surprisingly fast down the hallway, Adam in tow. She unlocks the door to the penthouse and shoves Adam inside, spilling the gin down his arm.

Eris spins around to face him as the door closes behind them, the lights automatically starting up. The moonlight shines in through the massive windows, lighting up the gleaming floors, the expensive taste. She lifts both her arms in gesture.

"Penthouse," she snaps. It's the first time Adam has ever heard her speak out of a monotone, other than that thing she whispered to him at the Thai restaurant.

Adam holds his dripping drink away from his body, eyes running over the interior balcony. He's been trying to get a warrant for this place for years, and here it is.

Adam hands the gin to her as he passes by her. He'll start with the main floor.