She glanced away in confusion. She had been so cocky, so certain she knew who her enemy was. Had she missed all the signs that it might have been someone else? No, it was Eric. It had to be. Maybe this man didn’t know who’d hired him.
One thought chased another through her overloaded brain. Eric was a dick. But he was no fool. He had hired this man to torment her, to embarrass and frighten her. But he wouldn’t send anyone to kill her. So then, her life was safe. Although she wouldn’t feel safe until James and Bogart arrived. They would come. They had to come.
She looked up and swallowed the burn of acid at the back of her throat. “Why were you hired?”
“You think I’m stupid, don’t you? I ain’t stupid!” He took two steps toward her, staring hard as if he were trying to gauge where to place a shot.
She breathed in through her nose, fighting off panic. Her stomach cramped hard. Angry Shay had deserted her. Whoever was still home was talking.
“What do you want?”
“That, for sure, is a better question.” He did a curious side jerk with his head, like a parrot trying to size up a stranger.
She tensed as his gaze moved from the hood still covering her hair down over her torso. She could feel his eyes pause, greedy for the feminine contours of her breasts. She crossed her arms over them. He continued to ogle her in a familiar way, as if he had done it before and often.
I been watching you all week. Oh God! What had he seen?
“You got any money? And don’t lie. I can tell when I’m being lied to. I don’t like liars.”
Shay looked away, because she couldn’t speak while staring into the abyss of those black eyes. “I wish I did.”
“Then I guess you can pay me another way.”
She felt her face go red as she met his leer. No need to guess what had entered his mind. Keep him talking. “What do you want money for?”
“For me not to kill you, for starters.”
He was looking at her with the blank stare of complete indifference. She was looking into the face of a stone-cold killer.
“You thought I was here to mow your grass for cash?” He grinned for a second then it vanished.
He moved in so close that she could smell the rank pig sweat of a man who hadn’t bothered to change his clothes in days. She looked away as he reached out and jerked back her hood, wincing when he caught some of the hair beneath in his fist. He grabbed her chin and jerked her face up to his.
“Look hard, slut. And think.”
The gun loomed up before her. The most hypnotizing thing on the planet, she realized, was the barrel of a gun.
She kept swallowing, again and again, as he bruised her chin with the clamp of his fingers.
“I figure someone owes me. So here’s what we’re going to do. You can either get me some money or—”
The “or” did it.
She threw up on his expensive sneakers.
“Fucking shit!” He danced out of range in a delicate two-step. “Goddamn it!”
Shay merely shook her head and let the heaves continue, helpless to stop and yet gaining hope that he’d be so grossed out he’d walk away.
Shay stayed doubled over until the heaves subsided and let the awful acid burn in her throat remind her that at least she was still alive and untouched. Then she carefully wiped her mouth and chin with her sleeve. The feeling of relative safety didn’t last long.
He slapped her hard, his palm connecting with the side of her head with shocking force. She bit her tongue and tasted blood. “Don’t do that again.”
He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her upright. “I don’t like hurting women. I like women.” The tenement row flashed between his lips. “But I got needs. And needs require money. So you can do me and you a favor and give me some.”
Shay risked everything by looking directly into his empty eyes. “All I have is in my purse.”
She held his gaze a long time, longer than she thought possible, as her knees loosened and threatened to buckle. She understood that what he did next would be entirely beyond her control.
He dropped her arm. “Might as well check.”
He moved backward until he reached the table where he dumped the contents of her purse. Gaze darting back and forth between her and the things on the table, he quickly sorted them. Finally, he tore four singles from her billfold.
“There’s nothing here!” His face went dark with anger as he came toward her. “You trying to punk me?”
“No! I swear.” She grabbed her middle and faked a couple of heaves. Not surprisingly, he stopped short. Maybe sex in a puddle of vomit didn’t appeal to him. Good.
Shay let out a shaky breath, nothing faked in that.
Her cell rang.
He glanced back at the table. “Who’s that? You expecting the cop?”
Lie! She shook her head ever so slightly. “Probably my girlfriend. She’s coming to spend the weekend with me.” She pointed a very shaky finger at the groceries. “That’s dinner.”
His eyes became slits, narrowed between little pillows of reddened flesh. After a moment he backed up and rifled through the mess he’d made until he found her cell phone. She knew who had called by the way his expression changed when he saw the caller ID. “Fucking bitch!”