Dalliance - Z.M. (An Exquisites Original Story)

72; Flight of the Stars

Chapter 72

"Hold you close standing on the edge of no tomorrow.
Still deep in us, get that rush,
So I still follow."

(Raine's POV)

"We got a lead."

Dario stands in front of us with a grin on his face, his arms spread in a dramatic manner. Other than him, there is nobody but Zayn and me in the office and neither of us look particularly happy to be there. Still, he announces the reason he gathered us first thing in the morning proudly. He has always been a relatively theatrical man.

"She finally talking?" Zayn speaks up as he sits on the chair on the other side of the board room table. I keep my eyes on Dario, not wanting to even look at him because every time I do, my insides seem to burn with profuse anger.

"Yes," Dario confirms as he rests his palms on the table and arches forward so that his eyes are focused in ours. "We caught ourselves a big fucking fish."

I rest my elbows on the table and lean towards him with an excited smile. "Who is she?"

"Head of personal security for Moon herself," he tells me as my eyes widen. "She has stayed by Moon's side for the past five years, day in and day out. She overhears everything, meets everyone, and arranged nearly every meeting in the near future."

Jackpot.

"How do we know to trust her?" Zayn asks.

"Well, we don't," Dario pushes himself up to grab two folders from the ones in front of him, distributing them between Zayn and I. "But she's got a family we can use for leverage, which I have. That's the only reason she's talking."

I flip open the folder to see pictures of Jada with what looks to be her son who couldn't be much older than five. My heart plummets. What a dangerous thing to be a mother with a profession like this one.

"We're not going to do anything to the kid though, right?" I look up at Dario with hopeful eyes.

"You know we won't," he says quietly as he brings his whiskey up to his lips. "Kids are always out of the question, but she doesn't know that."

I take a breath of relief.

The door of the office opens, capturing all of our attention. I bite down on my bottom lip as Apollo walks in, looking over the room with his analytical gaze. As soon as his eyes linger on me for a moment too long, I have to tear my sight away from him before we give anything away, but that was enough time for my stomach to churn at the memory of last night.

"Perfect timing," Dario announces as Apollo takes the seat opposite of me. He crosses his arms over his chest and leans back on his chair, dragging his eyes from me to Dario because he has to. I do everything in my power to suppress the smile that's begging to spread on my lips.

"Jada has spoken," he says again. "We can get the location to Ruiz's annual investor's gala."

"Really?" Apollo asks with an impressed raise of his eyebrow.

"What is that?" I ask, curious at his expression. I've never heard of anything like that until now.

Dario and Apollo exchange proud glances before he turns his attention to me. "Every year, Ruiz throws a grand gala, gathering all of his majority investors for a yearly celebration, as a token of his appreciation, I assume. He attends it, Moon attends it, literally every significant person who works for him or his company is there."

Dario walks over to the bar cart and pours three more glasses of whiskey as he continues. "The location of the event is so prestigious that it's only released one week before the date to a handful of very trusted people. Everyone else finds out twenty-four hours before." He walks the drinks over to us, setting one down in front of each of us. "We have never gotten close enough to anyone for us to get the location but our little ace has just given us a very, very interesting lead."