ALICE Ch 363

“All right, what’s the emergency?” Riley yawns as she enters Annette’s room. If this turns out to be a booty call, Annette is in for some bad news. Riley’s on her period, and Adella ate too much at dinner. They won’t be doing anything sexier than brushing their teeth tonight.

Annette is still wearing her work clothes, and there’s big, crazy lady energy in her eyes. “I can’t reach Bea Ruiz.”

“Viv’s secret agent? So? She’s doing secret agent stuff. She’ll call you back when she isn’t busy,” Riley says.

“She was supposed to call tonight.”

“Things happen,” Adella says, scowling at the magnificent view. Annette has a lovely room; the one that Riley and Adella share in Singapore is about the size of Riley’s old bedroom in Gurlberg.

“Yeah, but—but—what happened today—Bea is suspicious of Mio. And Patty. She thinks they’re collaborating through Irina Orlova.”

“No chance. Mio is pure competitive crazy. I’ve known girls like her.” Riley smiles points to indicate Adella out of sight. “Chicks like that will not lose on purpose.”

“They will if they don’t give a shit about the sport. There’s a lot we didn’t know about Mio because all of her socials are in Japanese, but she doesn’t like Formula One. Apparently, she’s a really fucking good rally driver, and that’s all she cares about doing. I think someone could compromise her, and that hit today is hard to explain. I’m starting to think she might have been compromised from the start. When she was brought to us—sometimes we all fall for it. When something seems too good to be true.”

“OK, we might be getting carried away with the secret agent stuff,” Riley says with a laugh. “Compromise her? Come on.”

“You don’t think Irina would do that? This is the last thing that Bea sent me. This morning.” Annette stomps across the room and shows Riley her phone.

Riley frowns. “Huh,” she says, and Adella looks over her shoulder.

“When was that taken?” Adella asks.

Annette licks her lips. “Six weeks ago.”

The pic isn’t the best quality, but Lotte is lovely and memorable, and they aren’t likely to mistake someone else for her. In the photo, she’s seated at a café table with Irina Orlova, and it doesn’t look like they’re talking about the weather.

FF1

Making out on the couch is much more complicated than it should be.

Lora and Bianca have been intimate, but part of Lora’s brain still hasn’t wrapped itself around the idea of being with a woman. It’s not that it feels wrong, exactly, because it definitely feels right. There’s just this unquantifiable sense that she’s going to be in trouble for it somehow, yet that also stirs something inside her.

She’d like to unpack how if Bianca were a guy, then she’d feel more comfortable because she would know what to do. Not knowing what to do is what has her on the back foot. As an anxious person, that’s a big deal. But as Bianca softly kisses Lora and slides a hand into her shirt, it becomes increasingly clear that Lora’s body is doing her thinking for her. She feels strange and tight in her core; there’s a heat between her legs, and her nipples are so painfully awake that her bra is torturing her. Her heart hasn’t beaten this fast since secondary school. She has completely forgotten that she and Bianca are not alone in this room.