She felt Volkan at her back and turned to look at him, her heart beating like there was a tiny drummer hammering away in her chest. She was really hoping he wouldn’t turn out to be a creep and try to trap her in the room. She’d read a click-bait story on the internet once about a woman who was murdered by a guest while cleaning his hotel room.

There was no chance she could take Volkan physically, but if he touched her wrong, she was going to make darn sure she left forensic evidence all over him, starting with teeth and nail marks.

She flinched when he reached for her, but he only took her wrist in a light grip, lifting it between them. She held her breath as he pressed a piece of paper into her palm.

“That was five minutes. I look forward to our next meeting.” He glanced past her to the man blocking the door. “Henry.”

Henry opened the door and she rushed through it, cart in tow. The door closed, leaving her alone and shaken in the hallway. She uncurled her fingers and looked down at the paper he’d given her. It was a $100 tip.

As she boarded the elevator and headed back down to the kitchen, she wondered about their next meeting. There wasn’t a single doubt in her head that there would be one.

Chapter Two

Yasmin was having trouble keeping her eyes open and was glad when her South American archaeology class finished. She stood and stretched, yawning widely, before packing her books in her bag and pulling it over her shoulder. She left the classroom with her friends, Vanessa and Lilly.

“You look like you’re about to fall asleep standing up,” Vanessa commented as they headed out of the building, stepping into the bright afternoon sun.

“I picked up a shift at the hotel last night,” she admitted. “I didn’t get home until after four.”

“Girl, you have to stop doing that,” Lilly said, shaking her head. “You snored your way through that entire class, and Dr. Holling said today’s material was going to be on the exam and none of it’s in the textbook.”

Darn it. “Can I borrow your notes?” Yasmin asked hopefully.

She hated picking up night shifts during the week, but the hotel paid well and she was trying to work herself back into the manager’s good graces so he’d give her better shifts in the future. Unlike Lilly, Yasmin had to pay for her education. Her father was a retired bus driver and her mother had stayed home to raise Yasmin and her sister. Her parents needed every penny they had for their retirement.