Fair Trade

Just as Yuri Petrov said, the security on the 17th floor was so tight that even an ant couldn’t get in.
Maybe they had heard in advance that she was coming.
Right when she was arriving, the only door to the room opened and Romano came out.

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“Giulio is looking for you.”

“I know.
I just talked with him on the phone.”

Sei followed Romano inside.
Giulio, who had just finished showering, walked out to the center of the room.
Not wearing a thread, he looked at Sei, grinned, and picked up his gown.

“Why are you dressed like that?”

She was still dressed as a housekeeper.
Because she was confined by the damn Yuri Petrov for two days, she wasn’t able to take a shower and she was summoned as soon as she received her bags.

With a deep sigh, Sei followed him and answered.

“There was a situation.
I met a bad client.”

“Do you want me to kill him?”

“You don’t have to do that.
By the way, why did you call me? I thought we would pretend to not know each other.”

Sei really hated his unperturbed tone.
She also hated the goosebumps it elicited.
She was fed-up with his nonchalant way of treating others’ lives like that of trivial bugs.

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Giulio, who was staring intently at Sei’s stiff expression, dropped a dress from a hanger onto the bed.
It was a Chinese-style dress that wrapped around the wearer’s neck, revealing both their shoulders.
Her eyebrows twitched when she saw it.

“You have to go into the game room with me.”

“… Game room?”

Standing in front of the mirror, he applied a toner and raised his head, stroking his shaved chin.
Giulio had slightly dark skin and clear sculpted features.
His dark brown eyes never left Sei who was standing in front of the bed.

“I have something for you to do.
Change into this dress.
Before that, take a shower.”

Under Giulio’s gaze, Sei picked up the dress.
But she didn’t like it.
Her neck wasn’t the only place she had to hide from the eyes of others.

While she was having trouble picturing herself with the dress on, Giulio suddenly approached her from behind and put his hand on the button of her blouse as if trying to undress her.
Surprised, Sei quickly turned around.

“I have to put on makeup.
So, I’ll go to my room and… wear this there.”

“Well, whatever.”

“I’ll see you at the casino entrance in an hour?”

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“In 40 minutes.”

“Okay.”

Just when Sei hurriedly slung the dress on her arm and was about to leave the room, Giulio, who was taking a tuxedo out of the closet, called out her name.

“Sei.”

She smiled without replying, seeing a pair of women from out of the corner of her eyes when she was trying to turn around.

Two women wearing gowns just walked out of the opposite bedroom, looking with somewhat annoyed expressions when they saw Sei.

They were Caucasians, but they had pitch-black hair.

The women with long straight hair were following Romano off to someplace else.
Probably, they were the call girls Giulio had called in from the beginning.

Only after the women completely disappeared from sight did Sei turn around.

“Yes.”

“There is news that Yuri Petrov is on this ship.
I used some people to bring him to the game table, but we don’t know who among the five people is Yuri Petrov.”

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Sei had a hallucination that someone was strangling her.
While she turned her gaze to the crimson sea, Giulio’s eyes, as he leaned against the console, smoking a cigarette, turned chilly.

“You are the only one who can speak Russian.
So, remember all the conversations you hear in the game room and report them to me.
I will make the decision.”

“What would I get from this? If it’s Yuri Petrov… it’s the Red Mafia.
What if my life is put in danger?”

“If you do it properly, I’ll raise the next fee to four times.
Isn’t that enough to fill up the leaking account right now?”

“I told you that’s not me…”

Giulio clamped his lips and blew the smoke in Sei’s direction, and then approached her with a cruel smile.
The man’s sturdy body could be seen through the open gown.

Sei averted her gaze again.
Then, with the cigarette between his fingers, Giulio leaned over and bit her earlobe.

“If you don’t like it, you can be my mistress right now.
Wouldn’t that help clean up your work? I’m Italian to the bone, so I am also pretty romantic.”

Fuck, have all romantics in this world frozen to death?

After licking her auricle, seeing Sei standing unresponsive like a stone, Giulio snorted and retreated.
Sei raised her shoulders, wiped her earlobes, and turned around.

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“I will try my best, but I believe that my life is precious.
So… I hope you won’t treat my life like one of your playthings.”

A neat rejection.

Giulio shrugged it off and took off his robe and started putting on his tuxedo.

Sei left Giulio’s room.
She walked down the black carpeted hallway, followed by Lorenzo, who had become fatter since the last time she’d seen him.
Embarrassed, she skillfully hid her expression, turned around, and said nervously.

“That’s enough! Can’t you see? I’m a housekeeper! If anyone sees me with you, a member of the mafia, I will be reported right away.
Don’t make me stand out.
You guys were the ones who said you wanted to find out who Yuri or something was.”

“Tsk.
You’re feisty.
Okay.
I got it, so go to your room quietly.
We’ll see you at the casino entrance in 40 minutes.”

Sei climbed into the elevator, and after the door closed, her legs relaxed and she leaned against the wall.

As she wiped her face with her hands, she felt like crying because she was starting to wonder how she ever ended up in this type of situation.

Next, the elevator stopped on the 14th floor.
As the door opened, Kirill, who had been waiting for her, moved his head with a fed-up expression.

Sandwiched between the 17th and 14th floor.

It was, indeed, the perfect expression to describe her.