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called her name again and smiled when she refused to turn back. After all, that was how we’d gotten this far to begin with.
    “Declan.” She finally faced me with small, fake smile. “It’s over. We both got what we wanted. The clock struck midnight and the magic is gone. Now we can go our separate ways.”
    I frowned as I stepped towards her and shook my head.
    “Coraline, the story doesn’t end when the clock strikes midnight. That’s when it starts and we have to make our own magic.”
    She smirked, shook her head at me, and opened her door.
    “Goodbye, Mr. Callahan.”
    She started her car and drove away without another word.
    Sitting back in mine, I took a deep breath. Dialing, I waited for him to answer.
    “Mother isn’t happy that you missed Sunday brunch,” Liam stated.
    “I kissed her Liam. On Friday and again today, before we had sex.”
    There was a moment of silence before he spoke. “You kissed her…on the lips?”
    I nodded even though he couldn’t see. “Yeah.”
    “I thought that was your line in the sand. You never kiss them on the lips, Declan. You fuck them and leave…you’ve been like that since we were teenagers.”
    “That’s the problem…with her there is no line in the sand, Liam. I want to see her again.”
    “Why are you so hung up on her? You don’t know anything about her.”
    “I don’t, but she’s different.” That was the only thing I could think of. “She is beautiful, smart, and different. Do I really need any other reason to be attracted to her?”
    “Attracted? No. Obsessed? Yes. Especially when you know that it can never become anything more than a fling. She’s not one of us, Declan, so just get it out of your system before Father catches on that this is more than just some screw for you.”
    How could I get her out of my system when every time I was near her I just wanted to touch her more?
    “Declan.”
    “Yeah.”
    “Stay away from the good girls. We either break them, or they break us. And just in case you were wondering, I took care of the club owner and got the tax. Father is looking into them and he might need us. Don’t forget who you are what you do,” he said before he hung up. I hated it when he got serious.
    Logic told me he was right and that I should stay away from Ms. Coraline Elizabeth Wilson. She had a clean record and had never even gotten a speeding ticket. She went to church. She didn’t drink, and at first, I’d thought she was an alcoholic…I would have preferred it actually. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find anything that indicated she was. All the comments on her graduation speech were from people congratulating her, and saying that a better person couldn’t have earned it. In our family good people were chess pieces…disposable. It was the way it needed to be.
    Why am I even thinking of the family? We hadn’t even gone out on a proper date yet.
    Why was I thinking of a proper date?
    “Declan, get yourself together,” I told myself for the umpteenth time since I’d met her.

THREE
    “Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action comes, stop thinking and go in.”
    ―Napoléon Bonaparte

CORALINE
    I’d kept my phone turned off for the last two days. I didn’t want to stare at it, wondering whether or not he would call, when I already knew the answer to that. So my plan was to do what I came to Chicago to do in the first place—work. I was now in the corner office of WIB, looking out at the Chicago skyline. At twenty-three I was officially able to take part in every meeting, have own office, and my own staff. Who needed anything else?
    Who needed Declan Callahan?
    “Come in,” I said loudly to the office door.
    “Ms. Wilson?” Tyrone Stevens, the second youngest board member, entered my office. He was dressed in a blue-striped suit and was at least a decade older than me. He stood just about an inch or two shorter than me, and his skin was a shade darker than mine.
    His dark brown eyes