The Research Assistant's Contract
Lesley stepped with extreme care across the plush carpet of the luxurious hotel penthouse suite. His breath was short, hitching not from exhaustion, but from the genuine fear of being caught red-handed. He had snuck out of his guest room under the cover of the quiet night, with a single, secret goal: to pluck one of the deep red roses from the bouquet that, just a few minutes earlier, he had so fiercely dismissed in front of his superior.
