Shay walked into the living room with a tray that held two tea cups, placing it onto the coffee table that sat between her and Derek. The flavorful steam wisped around the room, causing the man to place his phone on the arm of his one-seater couch. He leaned forward, taking his cup and stirring it around with the gold tea spoon that rested on the edge of the white China.

"Took you long enough." He muttered, an appreciative smile decorating his lips as he inhaled the aroma of the Jasmine tea, sighing in relief.

"You know it takes long to make it taste good." Shay added, leaning back as she waited for her cup to cool down before drinking it.

She watched him bring the cup closer to his lips, wondering how he didn't flinch at the boiling temperature of the liquid easily making contact with the inside of his mouth before trickling down his throat.

His tongue clicked in satisfaction of the taste.

"I could say the same for God when he decided to make you." Derek teased, his raspy voice pairing well with the cocky grin that was plastered upon his lips.

Shay bit her inner cheek, knowing exactly what he was doing. There was no way Derek could do what he had done in the recent days and expect the blonde to shut her mouth about it.

"No amount of kissing up is going to make up for the fact that you almost killed our money making machine." The woman bitterly spat, crossing her arms as she leaned back in her seat.

Derek scoffed at her comment, shaking his head as he took another sip – hoping he could have just one, stress free day.

"They don't like smokers, I did what I had to do." Derek defended, looking up at her with a cold glare.

"And what if she died? Let me remind you, Derek, this isn't the first time you've almost killed someone, remember the last girl?" Her eyes narrowed as he stopped sipping his tea, watching him furiously place his cup on the tray as some of the liquids spilled over the edge.

"Why do you care so much about her well-being all of the sudden?" The man inquired, staring at her dumbfounded face for an answer.

"I don't, but had she died that night, I could have lost my share of the deal."

"As if you aren't fucking half of Wall Street." He sneered, shaking his head.

The snarky remark caused Shay to shift uncomfortably in her seat, diverting her gaze away from the stubborn piece of shit. She pretended to be interested in the new addition of paintings mounted upon his living room walls, hoping not to strike up another argument with the man.

"But the last girl-"

"I remember it very well, Shay. But you still got your share the last time didn't you?" Derek looked at her for an answer, getting off on the fact that he was most definitely right in this situation. "Didn't you?"

"Yes. I did!" The blonde retorted, her chest heaving in fear that she'd stepped on a wrong nerve. "But still, I don't think we should risk repeating what we did."

"Oh please," He picked up the cup, taking another sip from it. "She can barely walk, let alone open her own pack of cigarettes."

"Really? Then I guess the vomit in the backyard isn't hers?" The woman tilted her head in a condescending way, plastering a forced smile upon her rosy lips.

The man's interest was piqued, causing him to look up at the blonde with his brows furrowed in curiosity while his body leaned forward.

"Oh, you didn't know?" She pretended to seem shocked, though it was obvious Derek wasn't supposed to know about the incident in the first place, but Shay wanted to play with fire. "From what she told me, she tried to smoke one of her cigarettes and ended up vomiting halfway. Explains the chunky shit show she left behind." Her brows raised in faux shock, going over to graze her tea cup once again in hopes that it would have cooled down on the exterior.

His chest heaved in anger and embarrassment, despite his plan having worked. The man's ego wouldn't let him suppress the fact that Karsen had most likely been smoking his competitor's brand under his roof, or around it – either way, he was pissed.

"I mean, your plan worked, didn't it?" Shay mocked, sneering at his reaction to her story.

He chose to stay quiet on the matter, wanting to calm himself down by slurping the Jasmine infused liquid from his cup.

"Anyways," Shay started, hoping to avoid any further back and forth with such a stubborn piece of shit. "What's the plan?"

Derek licked his lips at the question, comfortably leaning back.

"We'll take a flight to Moscow. Gustav will pick the three of us up from the airport and take us back to the house – just to make sure she is what we promised them. After a few days, in order to avoid suspicion, we'll take the first flight back to New York."

Shay's lips pursed themselves in order to stop her from chuckling hysterically at his idea, thinking he was expecting way too much from the brunette.

"Voluntarily?" She added. "Wow, you really have high hopes for this one, don't you."

Derek's face contorted itself into a grimace, his mouth gaping itself open to spew out the most hateful words not even a dictionary would be able to string together.

"Are you generally that retarded, or has being choked caused the oxygen to stop going to your brain?" The man inquired rhetorically. "Of course we're going to have to drug her. She didn't want to stay here, let alone voluntarily taking a flight to some foreign country."

"And how exactly are you planning to do that?" Shay asked, grazing the tips of her fingers across the china cup one last time before picking it up with ease, waiting for his response. "You can't give her what you gave the last girl, she'll probably end up buried six feet below before those Russian assholes give us the same fate."

"That's not your problem to worry about. All you have to do is make sure she's not aware of her surroundings." He placed his empty cup on the tray, watching the blonde nod her head obediently.

"It worked by the way," Shay added after taking a sip of her lukewarm tea. "She had some weird hallucination yesterday morning."

"What was it?"

"She told me the strip of teeth on her lower gums were falling off. She asked me to get her some oral glue so they wouldn't fall off again." She continued, taking another sip of the drink.