There was nothing that the truly wealthy could not have, and how lucky they were.

“No offense, but I think I’m going to take off.”

Jim put down his empty and grabbed for his leather jacket. He’d had his two Buds, and one more was going to put him into DUI territory, so it was time to pull out.

“I can’t believe you’re leaving alone,” Adrian drawled, his eyes going over to Blue Dress.

She was still standing beneath that ceiling light. And still staring. And still breathtaking. “Yup, just me, myself, and I.”

“Most men don’t have your kind of self-control.” Adrian smiled, the hoop in his lower lip glinting. “Kind of impressive actually.”

“Yeah, I’m a saint, all right.”

“Well, drive home safe so you can keep polishing that halo. We’ll see you tomorrow at the site.”

There was a round of palm slapping and then Jim was making his way through the crowd. As he went, he drew looks from the black-chained and spike-collared, probably in the same way all these Goths did when they were out at a mall: What the hell are you doing here?

Guess Levi’s and a clean flannel shirt offended their leather-and-lace sensibilities.

Jim chose a path that kept him far away from Blue Dress, and once he was outside, he took a deep breath like he’d passed some kind of test. The cold air didn’t bring quite the relief he wanted, though, and as he walked around to the back parking lot, his hand went to the pocket of his shirt.

He’d quit smoking, and yet a year later, he was still reaching for the Marlboro Reds. His frickin’ habit was like having an amputated limb with phantom pain.

As he made the corner and walked into the lot, he went past a row of cars that were parked grilles-in to the building. All of them were dirty, their flanks spackled with salt from the road treatments and months-old white-snow grime. His truck, which was way down at the end of the third row in, was exactly the same.

He looked left and right as he went. This was a bad part of town, and if he were going to get jumped, he wanted to see what was coming at him. Not that he minded a good fight. He’d gotten into a lot of them in his younger years, and then been trained properly in the military—plus, thanks to his day job, he was in rock-hard shape. But it was always better to—

He stopped as a flash of gold winked at him from the ground.

Crouching down, he picked up a thin gold ring—no, it was a hoop earring, one of those guys that plugged into itself. He cleaned the grunge off and glanced over at the cars. Could have been dropped by anyone, and it wasn’t very expensive.

“Why did you leave without me?”