Nina stared at the email on her phone, the words blurring as her eyes burned with unshed tears. FINAL NOTICE: PAYMENT DUE IN 72 HOURS OR ENROLLMENT WILL BE TERMINATED.
She sat on the edge of her narrow hostel bed, the thin mattress sagging beneath her. Two thousand, three hundred dollars. That's all that stood between her and losing everything she'd fought for over the past three years. Her 4.0 GPA, her research position, her scholarship that depended on full-time enrollment all of it would vanish like smoke.
Her phone buzzed. A text from her mother: "Baby, I'm so sorry. Your father's treatments… we just can't help this month. Please forgive us."
Nina's chest constricted. She typed back quickly: "It's okay, Mama. Don't worry about me." But her hands shook as she sent it. It wasn't okay. Nothing was okay.
She'd already exhausted every option. The financial aid office had nothing left to offer. The bank had denied her loan application no credit history, no cosigner. She'd picked up every shift at the diner, tutored until midnight, even sold her laptop and bought a cheaper used one.
There was nothing left to sacrifice.
The walls of her tiny room pressed in on her. She grabbed her jacket and fled into the night.
Campus sprawled before her, alive with students who didn't know what it felt like to count pennies for ramen. Laughter echoed from the dorms. Couples strolled hand-in-hand past the fountain. The food trucks lining the quad smelled like heaven a heaven she couldn't afford.
Her feet carried her to Café Luna, the only place that felt like refuge. She ordered black coffee and claimed her usual corner table. From here, she could pretend to study while her mind raced through impossible calculations.
Maybe I could defer. Take a semester off, work full-time, come back…
But she knew the statistics. Students who stopped rarely returned. And her family needed her to finish, to be the first one to graduate, to prove that all their sacrifices meant something.
"Well, look who's slumming it tonight."
The voice cut through the café's ambient noise. Nina's gaze lifted involuntarily toward the source a group of men at a corner booth, expensive suits and heavy watches marking them as outsiders in this student haven.
The Moretti crew.
Everyone on campus knew about them, though no one spoke about them directly. Mafia connections, the rumors whispered. Money laundering. Protection rackets. The kind of men who made problems disappear along with anyone who got in their way.
And at the center of the group sat Adrian Moretti himself.
Nina had seen him around campus before, always from a safe distance. He was impossible to miss well over six feet, broad-shouldered, with the kind of sharp features that looked carved from granite. Dark eyes that seemed to catalog everything and everyone. The kind of man who walked through the world like he owned it, because in many ways, he did.
She'd heard the stories. Girls who disappeared into his orbit and emerged changed some wealthy and kept, others broken and discarded. He was dangerous in ways that had nothing to do with violence and everything to do with the kind of power that bent people's will.
Tonight, those dark eyes found hers across the café.
Nina's breath caught. She looked away quickly, heat flooding her face. Don't engage. Don't even look.
But she could feel his gaze on her skin, heavy and assessing, like fingers trailing across her shoulders.
She forced herself to stare at her textbook, though the words swam meaninglessly. Her coffee had gone cold. Her heart hammered against her ribs.
Just leave. Get up and leave.
"That textbook must be fascinating."
Nina's head snapped up. Adrian stood beside her table, having materialized like smoke. Up close, he was even more imposing tall enough that she had to crane her neck, with a presence that seemed to consume the air around him.
"I…" Her voice came out strangled. She cleared her throat, lifted her chin. "I'm studying."
His lips curved into a slow smile that didn't reach his eyes. "No, you're not. You're catastrophizing." He pulled out the chair across from her without asking and sat, moving with the fluid grace of a predator. "The question is… what disaster are you imagining?"
"That's none of your business." The words came out sharper than intended, fueled by exhaustion and fear.
Adrian's smile widened, genuine amusement flickering across his features. "There she is. I was wondering if you had any fire under all that terror."
Nina's fingers tightened around her coffee cup. "I'm not afraid of you."
"Yes, you are." He leaned back, studying her with unnerving intensity. "But that's not what's eating at you right now. Money problems?"
Her stomach plummeted. "How did you"
"I notice things." His gaze traveled over her deliberately. "You've worked three different jobs this semester I've seen the uniforms. You buy the cheapest coffee and make it last for hours. You've lost weight. And you've got that look."
"What look?" she whispered.
"The look people get when they're drowning and can't see the surface anymore." His voice was matter-of-fact, not cruel, but the accuracy stung worse than mockery. "How much do you need?"
The question landed like a physical blow. "What?"
"To fix whatever's breaking you. How much?"
Nina's mouth went dry. Every instinct screamed to lie, to deflect, to protect herself. But exhaustion and desperation cracked her defenses. "Two thousand three hundred dollars. Tuition. I have seventy-two hours or I lose my enrollment."
Adrian didn't even blink. "That's nothing."
Bitter laughter escaped her throat. "To you, maybe."
"To anyone who knows how to get it." Something shifted in his expression not quite sympathy, but a flicker of understanding. He reached into his jacket and extracted a black card, setting it on the table between them. "Take it."
Nina stared at the card like it might bite her. "I can't"
"You can." His voice dropped lower, intimate despite the public setting. "But I'm not a charity, Nina. Nothing in this world is free. You know that."
Her name on his lips sent an unwanted shiver through her. "What would you want?"
Adrian leaned forward, and she caught his scent expensive cologne, cedar and smoke. "Your time. Your company when I require it. Your discretion about anything you see or hear." His gaze held hers, unflinching. "Think of it as employment."
Every alarm bell in Nina's head rang at once. "I don't I'm not going to"
"I'm not asking you to sleep with me." His lips quirked. "Not unless you want to. I'm offering you a transaction. You provide something I need, and in return, your problems disappear."
"What could you possibly need from me?"
"Authenticity." The word was spoken softly, but it carried weight. "Everyone in my world wants something. They smile and lie and scheme. But you…" His eyes darkened. "You're real. Desperate people don't have the luxury of pretense. And I find that… refreshing."
Nina's heart raced. She looked at the card, then back at him. This was insane. Getting involved with Adrian Moretti was like stepping into quicksand once you started sinking, there was no escape.
But the alternative was watching three years of work dissolve in seventy-two hours.
"I need time to think"
"No, you don't." Adrian stood smoothly, adjusting his suit jacket. "You've already decided. You're just fighting yourself about it." He pushed the card closer. "My number's on the back. When you're ready to stop pretending you have better options, call me."
He walked away before she could respond, returning to his table where his men watched with varying expressions. One a broad man with a scar bisecting his cheek shook his head slightly. Adrian ignored him.
Nina sat frozen, staring at the black card.
Her phone buzzed. Another email from the bursar's office: REMINDER: 71 HOURS REMAINING.
With trembling fingers, she picked up the card and slipped it into her pocket.
She told herself she was just keeping her options open.
But deep down, she knew she'd already made her choice.