Chapter 3

I shut up.

So Elaine had blocked it. Julian had never gotten what he wanted.

I said nothing else.

Julian took me to his apartment — a rundown building on the edge of the city, nowhere near the center of New York, no elevator. His place was on the top floor. I was out of breath by the time I reached it, only to find he didn't even have a biometric lock — just a regular key.

Standing in the dark stairwell, baffled, I finally had to ask:

"Julian... did you go broke?"

He pulled out his keys and, unexpectedly, laughed. "No."