“You sure we’re at the right place?” I felt like I was going to be looking at the insides of a place that made paint cans or something. Instead, a man stood impassively guarding the door.

“Hey, I’m here to see Julian.” Austin stood still as a statue as the man assessed us.

“You giving him her? ‘Cause he’s not taking visitors tonight.” He looked me up and down.

Austin lifted his chin but didn’t agree to anything.

“He’d make time for her. Shit. She’s amazing. He loves those long legs.” He dragged his gaze from my heels to my chest.

I got the willies marching up and down my spine. As the man let us in the building, I got a very serious sensation that we were out of our depth. I flashed to Austin. He smiled at me, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

We were escorted through the warehouse by another man. I tried to keep my eyes down, not wanting to see too much. This wasn’t good. I felt like I had snakes in my chest.

I squeezed Austin’s hand hard. He pulled me closer and put his arm around my waist. “It’ll be okay.”

When we were finally shown into Julian’s room, I was shocked to see that it had a huge round bed, a bar, and a desk all in the same space. It was the very embodiment of a multipurpose room.

Julian was wearing a light blue silk robe and a pair of boxers. I’d never been around hard drugs, but the color of Julian’s eyes had to be bad. He was curling his upper lip a ton and doing a weird sniffing thing like he was part bloodhound.

Austin recoiled a step and then proceeded forward. “Where is he?”

Julian moved slowly but had great flourish with his hands. “No small talk? Aren’t you famous on TikTok now or some shit? Like, let’s talk. Let’s party.”

“You threatened to kill him, so maybe we just talk numbers.” Austin had a steely gaze and his shoulders back. He was either confident or doing a great job acting like he was.

“Well, he doesn’t pay back his loans. Then I give him more time. Then he makes a ton and what does he do? Fucking gambles it all.” Julian walked closer to us and Austin moved a bit so he could put his body in front of mine.

“What’s the number, Julian?” Austin tilted his head like he was losing patience.

“You know, you don’t get to come in here and tell me about my business and how to do it. You’re some sort of social media freak.” Julian staggered a little and then grabbed the back of the velvet chair in the sitting area to steady himself.