She grabbed my sleeve.

"You can't fight them… they'll sue you…"

"They have lawyers, they have connections. We can't afford this…"

I crouched in front of her and wiped the liquor and blood from her face with the back of my hand.

"Mila, who the hell said anything about fighting?"

"I'm here to take you home. That's it."

Zane had already pulled his phone from his pocket.

"Mr. Perry, there's a situation on the top floor. Some thugs causing trouble. Bring people up, now!"

He hung up, tilted his head, and looked at me with a smirk.

"Susannah, you really think you can roll in here with a couple of punk-ass kids and run wild on my turf?"

"Just you wait."

Less than five minutes later, a stream of people filed into the suite.

Leading them was a man in his early fifties, hair slicked back, wearing a tailored suit.

Lucas Perry. Vice President of the company's Greater American division.

Behind him trailed two attorneys carrying briefcases and over thirty corporate security guards in matching black uniforms with earpieces.

My dozen or so guys looked like amateurs next to this crew. The gap was obvious at a glance.

Lucas scanned the wreckage on the floor, then glanced at the client rolling around clutching his hand. He let out a short snort through his nose.

Then he looked at me.

"You?"

He pulled out a handkerchief and wiped his hands.

"Young girl like you. Should be in school. Instead you drag a pack of street rats into a five-star hotel to smash things up."

"You know what that's called? Breaking and entering. Aggravated assault. Organized criminal violence."

He turned to the two attorneys beside him.

"Did you get it?"

One of them nodded and tapped the body camera on his chest.

"Recording since we walked in, Mr. Perry."

Lucas strolled to the sofa and sat down, crossing one leg over the other.

His attorney opened a briefcase and pulled out a stack of papers.

"This is the training agreement and non-disclosure clause that Ms. Pruitt signed upon employment."

The lawyer pushed his glasses up and held the documents out in front of me.

"Per Article Seven of the agreement, should the second party unilaterally breach the contract during the training period, the second party shall compensate the first party for training costs, client-resource losses, trade-secret exposure, and other comprehensive damages totaling…"

"Fifty million dollars."

Fifty million. Mila wouldn't earn that in a lifetime.

The lawyer kept going.

"Furthermore, tonight's gathering was a standard corporate hospitality event arranged by the company."

"Ms. Pruitt attended voluntarily. Here is the event consent form bearing her personal signature."

The lawyer let out a cold laugh.

"The young lady simply had too much to drink. We have continuous hotel surveillance footage to prove it."

"You, on the other hand, led a group of civilians to force your way into a private suite, leaving two prominent businessmen with serious injuries."

"I trust I don't need to spell out the consequences for you."

The signature on that consent form was one Mila had been forced to write.

I could see it for exactly what it was. A trap they'd built in advance.

Zane sidled over, straightening the collar I'd yanked crooked, and stood there with his hands on his hips, grinning at me.

"Susannah, this is how the big leagues work."

"Broke little nobodies are supposed to sit there and take it. Who told you to play hero?"

"You're a punk from a roller rink who can't scrape together five grand, and you think you can go toe-to-toe with our corporation?"

Mila was behind me, shaking from head to toe.

She tore free of my grip and dropped to her knees in front of Lucas Perry with a hard thud.

"Mr. Perry… please… let Suse go…"

She slammed her forehead against the floor, over and over, each impact loud enough to hear.

"I signed the agreement myself, it has nothing to do with her… I'll go, I'll go entertain the clients… just please don't go after her…"

Her forehead was scraped raw from pressing it against the floor, a bright red mark spreading across the skin.

Watching her kneel there, begging those animals, made my eyes burn.

I grabbed her arm and hauled her to her feet, then backhanded her across the face.

She froze.

"Mila Pruitt, you stand the hell up straight."

"You kneel to these animals one more time and we're done. I mean it."

She bit her lip. Tears rolled down in long, unbroken strings.

Footsteps flooded the corridor, dense and closing fast.

Combat boots thudded against the carpet.

Over a hundred elite security guards, scrambled from the corporation's local headquarters, sealed off the entire top floor.

The fire doors at the stairwell were locked from the outside. The elevators were set to exit only.

My crew was boxed in the hallway, a wall of black uniforms on both ends.

No way out.

Lucas Perry didn't rush. He just sat on the couch, watching me.

Muffled thuds echoed from the corridor. My guys, dropped one by one with stun batons.

Screams, back to back.

Less than two minutes and the hallway went dead silent.

A security captain walked in, blood on his boots, and gave Perry a nod.

"Mr. Perry, everyone outside has been neutralized."

Perry nodded, satisfied.

He stood and strolled over to me, taking his time.

"Little street punk. Little, little street punk."

He sighed.

"You really thought you could grab some guys, bust in here swinging, and that would fix things?"

"In this city, how much do you think fists are worth?"

"Capital. Legal teams. Media. Networks. You haven't even heard of half the things that could grind you into nothing. Any single one of them would do."

He reached into the inner pocket of his suit jacket, pulled out a stack of hundred-dollar bills, and bounced it in his palm.

Smack.

Ten thousand dollars, hurled straight into my face.

The bills fanned out and scattered across the floor.

Zane Lambert sidled over, crouched down, and slapped his knee, laughing.

"Ha ha Haha! Mr. Perry, that's generous! Put a price tag on the little street punk!"

Perry looked down at me, voice quiet.

"Kneel."

"Lick the spilled wine off the floor."

"Then have your little friend there finish taking care of our two executives."

He tilted his head toward Mila, trembling in the corner, then turned back to me.

"Do that, and I let this go. You take your people and get out. Tonight never happened."

He stepped forward, bent down, his mouth almost touching my ear.

"Refuse."

"And both of you disappear from this world tonight."

"Fifty million in debt. I'll hang it on your families."

"Your mom with her little flea-market booth. Your uncle pedaling his delivery bike. Think they can handle that kind of weight?"

He straightened up and adjusted his cuffs.

I didn't say a word.

I stood there, head down, staring at the hundred-dollar bills scattered around my feet.

Mila moved.

While every eye in the room was locked on me, she bent down and picked up a triangular shard of glass left on the carpet from the shattered coffee table.

She pressed the point against her own throat.

She wasn't crying anymore.

"Suse... just go."

Her voice was barely there. Completely calm.

"You can't take me with you. Go. The penalty is mine to carry... just leave me alone..."

The sharp tip had already broken the skin. A thin line of blood trickled down.

I kicked the glass out of her hand.

She froze.

I crouched down and wiped the blood seeping from her wrist with my sleeve.

Then I stood up and turned around.

Bills lay scattered across the floor beneath my feet.

In front of me stood Lucas Perry, smug as ever, and Zane Lambert with that sleazy grin plastered across his face.

Out in the corridor, every last one of my crew had been dropped to the ground.

I drew in a breath.

Then I threw my head back and laughed.

Lucas's eyelid twitched. He took half a step back.

Zane's grin froze mid-smirk.

Even the security guards tightened their grip on their stun batons.

I laughed until I was done, then raised my hand and wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes.

Then I pulled out my phone.

"Zane, Zane, Zane."

"You didn't actually think I was just some street punk scraping by on handouts, did you?"