She sat up, swung her legs over the side of her bed, and stood. Stepping to the golden sink, she used a cloth and washed before taking her dress from its hook and stepping into it. Pulling it up, she fastened it tight around her body. The material was a fine-silver thread, the fabric reflective so that it accented every curve of her toned body.

Ituri watched her with that now-familiar longing. Good. She had him right where she wanted him.

“Sure you gotta go?” he asked.

“The Jewel doesn’t run itself. For a lot of the patrons, they’re still feeling their way. Wondering how it’s going to work with Dan gone. Vik, Shin, and Kalen have pretty well figured out that nothing’s changed. They’re good with it. Some of the clientele, however, are still coming to grips with the fact that sweet Ali isn’t a pushover.”

“So I hear.”

She checked herself in the mirror one last time. “Ah, so what exactly do you hear? What’s the word down at Corporate Mine? Out on the street?”

“That you’re one tough bitch, just as bloody as Dan Wirth, and every bit as heartless.” He gave her a thoughtful squint. “I know you. You’re smart, Ali. And you’re anything but heartless. I know that you’ve done some things. Been tough on some who’ve tried to take advantage. And you’ve had Kalen Tompzen beat a couple of Wild Ones. Is that how you really want it?”

She turned, cocked her head. “No other way I can have it. Not and get where I want to go.”

“And just where is that?”

“The very top, Desch.” She lifted a hand to fix her hair. “And, no, I’m not talking about toppling Kalico from her gilded Corporate throne. I don’t want her empire, so you can relax. Believe me, Donovan is big enough for the both of us.”

She could see the slight flicker of relief behind Ituri’s eyes. The man was as dedicated to Kalico Aguila as the rest of the Supervisor’s acolytes. Which was another reason to avoid any kind of confrontation.

Left in the wreckage of Dan’s passage, Allison Chomko would either survive by her cold wits, or she’d lose it all. When Dan found her, she’d been wounded, grieving, and vulnerable. He’d seduced her, drugged her, used her, and finally prostituted her. When she’d sobered up, came to, and realized what he’d done—what she’d allowed him to do—either she could finish the destruction he’d started, or take matters into her own hands no matter the cost. She’d chosen the later.

“Desch, I don’t have any illusions. Dan beat them out of me.”