I bring the glass to my mouth, moving through level two. A direct replica of level one, only flipped so the bar is toward the back. Booths line parts of the large area, with cages floating up ahead. The walls are a deep red, the furnishings all chrome. Staff are moving around, prepping for opening. I head to the back and up the escalator to level three, with the same display on either side. The walls are a milky shade of beige with mirrored ceilings again and the bar toward the side. The booths are a little less private now, with a light in every area to show silhouettes. There are also options to take one of the private rooms off to the side.

I stop at the bottom of the escalator to level four. Tomorrow is the first day I get to meet Wolf, since Ruby wanted to take it a tad slower into letting him know what’s happening. I don’t want to be drinking all fucking night. Aside from Ma telling her she needs to go out for a couple of nights and blow off some steam after taking over Victor’s job for years, I know that it’ll take more than that to get little Ruby La Rosa out of the house.

The escalator leads me up to level four. White walls, bar furnishings, and leather sofas are scattered around the room. LED lights line each sofa, where poles are lined throughout the room. Chairs are placed casually, and the whole back wall is a mirror, as well as the ceiling. No private rooms here. This is a free-for-all space. The last time someone got lost on level four, they went crying to the police, trying to press charges. It didn’t work. You sign an NDA and your rights away the second you set foot through L’artisaniant .

I make my way to the bar, where a young girl around Poppy’s age is lining up the bottles against the cabinet. She spins around and jumps when she sees me. “Shit! Sorry!”

“You all ready up here?”

“Yes,” she answers, and my eyes fall to her name tag. Cassie. “We’re ready.”

“How old are you?” I ask, not hiding the way my eyes crawl over her body.

Her cheeks turn pink. “Twenty-three.”

“Alright…” I’ll double check that shit. She looks young as fuck, but then we do that. We find the young ones because they make good bait for the creeps that Anonymous hunt.

I grab my phone out of my pocket, swiping it unlocked when I see Victor’s name flash over the screen.

“What’s up?”

“We’re going to need to talk this week about something that has come up.”