“Woah.” With bug eyes, I glanced up at her wild expression.
She turned back to the counter, snatching something else and I leaped off the floor before she could throw it. I ducked behind the table as a metal drinking canteen bounced off the floor behind me. Her breaths were punchy. I waited until I heard her shuffle towards me, then I lurched up and with two diving steps was in front of her. I grabbed her wrist and pushed her up against the wall. Slamming her hand back, I tried to dislodge the Leatherman from her hand, its corkscrew feature ready to pierce my eye.
“Stop it!” I yelled in her face and her eyes jerked towards me.
She went stock still, her lips parting in recognition.
“Zach,” she whispered.
The tool fell from her grasp, clattering against the floor. Letting go of her wrist, I placed my hand on her hair and tugged. The wig fell from its place revealing a splash of blonde.
“Shit.” I flung it across the room and backed away from her. “Shit!”
She stayed silent as I threw my bag on the floor, my eyes raking over the sparse apartment. There was a mattress on the floor in the corner with a threadbare blanket flung over it. The only other furnishing was a lone table with two rickety chairs tucked beneath it. I leaned against the back of one of them, my palms pressing into the wood.
“I didn’t want it to be true,” I finally uttered.
“How’d you find me?” She sounded scared, her eyes darting to the door as if more were about to follow. Maybe the cops? She deserved it.
I gripped the chair, keeping the thought to myself.
“I recognized you. I saw you on the street weeks ago ripping some guy off. You know, where you bumped into him and then blamed him for breaking some statuette that was already sitting headless in the box. Am I right?” My voice was terse and cutting.
She flinched and stretched her neck as if trying to lean away from the guilt.
“So who’d you swindle this time? Some old lady? Some innocent family man? How much did you get?”
Her lips pinched tight. I could see each of my questions stung. She blinked and looked to the floor, her teeth munching on that sexy bottom lip of hers.
“What do you want, Zach?” She sounded tired, beat up by my discovery.
I had expected some sneering smile or arrogant smirk, even anger would have been better than defeat. With a frown, I reached down for my backpack and slowly unzipped it. Pulling out my pad, I gripped it so tightly the pages started to scrunch.
“I want to know who you are.”
A tendon in her neck pinged tight, but her lips remained sealed. She wasn’t going to give me anything.
Fine.
I picked up the pad and couldn’t help my scathing tone. “I’m trying to figure out if you’re Taylor, the party animal who likes to prey on loser guys and take them for all they’re worth.”
Her eyes grew round, her skin paling to snowy white.
“Or maybe you’re Riley, the girl who dates rich prats hoping to swindle them for as much as you can until you leave them hanging in a shopping mall one day. Or are you in fact, Peyton a girl who likes to get it on with old guys while her friends take pictures!” I slapped the pad down.
“You’ve been investigating me?” Her anger was so heavily laced with fear, it was hard to match it. My insides jerked as she fought for composure, blinking at what I could only assume were tears. “Get out!” She pointed to the door, her hand trembling.
“I’m not leaving until you tell me the truth! Who are you? Some slut who’s come here to try and blackmail some wealthy guy in town or are you after my friends? It can’t be me, because I’m not loaded. Man, you must have been disappointed that day we first pulled up at my house.”
She licked her bottom lip, looking to the ceiling as if my words weren’t killing her. “You were never the mark.”
“But I was your in though, right? I was easy prey, use me to get to Elliot or maybe Liesl. Make us feel all comfy around you and them bam, steal our money and disappear. What con were you going for this time? Which one were you playing?”
“I wasn’t,” she whispered.
“Bullshit!” I lifted the chair lightly and slammed it back onto the ground. I wanted to throw it across the room, my insides were raging so bad. How could she stand there looking so broken? She was supposed to be this horrible, selfish bitch, but all I wanted to do right now was wrap her in my arms.
Damn her.
“You’re going to use us and cut us loose. Then you’ll disappear into thin air until you turn up in the next town and go after another set of gullible victims who fall for your charms while you plan to rob them blind.”
“Shut up! You don’t know anything about me.” Even her yell sounded pathetic.
It stole my shout, whisked it from my lungs until all I could come out with was a soft denial. “I do know you. I know those beautiful eyes of yours.”