“No, Dimitri, it’s fine…” Ryan starts to protest.

But Dimitri’s already halfway to the bedroom. We’ve been dismissed.

“All right, bye, thank you for everything,” Ryan rushes to say.

I hate how furious and flustered and thrown off course I feel, just from spending one single minute in Dimitri’s presence. But maybe it’s for the best—maybe this is exactly the raw, hateful energy I need to fully convince Ryan he can never work with that man.

Ryan follows me out of the suite. I turn to face him the minute the door closes behind us, but he shakes his head, pressing a finger to his lips, and ushers us farther down the narrow hall, toward the elevator. I jab the up button.

“What was that?” he says finally. “Are you really okay? Is Hallie okay?”

“I’m fine, she’s fine,” I insist.

We enter the empty elevator, and the tight quarters make it feel impossible to keep my thoughts to myself. We’re so close, he can probably hear what I’m thinking.

“What were you talking about?” I demand.

The edge of my voice sounds hard. Angry. Ugly.

“I’ve made up my mind. I want to work with Dimitri at Powerhouse,” he admits.

For a moment, I feel too bitter to speak.

“But you know he’s not a good guy,” I say.

The elevator doors ding open on the seventh floor, and I follow him to his room.

“I know you’ve said that,” he says carefully.

I grab his arm and stop walking. “That’s not fair.”

He sighs and pulls his arm away. “Okay. It’s not, you’re right. I’m sorry.”

Now, in his hotel room, I stare at him expectantly, waiting for him to produce any explanation that makes sense. He sits on the edge of the bed, and I join him reluctantly. My heart pounds. I just want this conversation to be over with.

“I think this is a mistake,” I tell him plainly. “Dimitri would crush Hallie. You see how rudely he treats me, don’t you? He’ll be ten times worse to her, day in, day out. He’ll yell at her if she doesn’t perform up to his insanely high standards of perfection, and then he’ll scream at her if she dares to cry or fight back. He’ll call her cruel names. He’ll make her keep a diary of everything she eats and he’ll review it once a week while she stands on a scale in a leotard. He’ll punish her for gaining half a pound. He’ll isolate her from her friends. Ryan, I know you think he’s a legend, but he’s a nightmare.”

Ryan bites his lip and shakes his head. I can’t tell if it’s in disbelief or disagreement.