At first I was nervous, constantly glancing out the window and having to redo my measurements. Maybe I was a little afraid that I’d be caught unaware again, even though I’d checked the locks three times.
Two hours later I had a matching pair of lined, navy curtains. These would go in the bedroom. For someone who’d repeatedly had sex in alleys and cars, I felt remarkably skittish about the yawning bay window there. Anonymous sex was one thing—it practically counted as public already with just the stranger I was fucking. Sex with Colin was the very opposite of anonymous. The opposite of a hookup—a mating. Love and sex, together. I was so fucked.
I heard a rap on the back door. I peeked around the window. The cop was here.
I grabbed my props: a paring knife slipped into my back pocket, an old broken cell phone that still did voice recordings, and an index card. Through the window in the door, he waved a manila folder at me. The pictures. He was probably worried I wouldn’t let him in. Little did he know I expected him.
I opened the door.
He leaned casually against the doorjamb. “Hey, honey.”
So tempting to slam the door in his face, smashing it. Maybe later.
“Philip Murphy’s shipping routes, and you agree not to arrest me on false charges.” I held up the index card, and a twisted smile spread across his face. It occurred to me that this guy might actually be considered handsome. His features were fine, and his eyes that rare green. Never to me, though. There was something in his eyes that I knew enough to fear. The kid who pulled bugs apart just to watch them writhe.
“Good girl,” he said, reaching for the card.
I held it away. “I have a few more conditions.”
He laughed. “And I give a shit, why?”
“Because I’m the one with the information you need, for one. I’m also the girl you molested while my daughter slept upstairs. I doubt your boss would be thrilled to hear about that, especially on prime-time news.”
He licked his lips, taken aback; then he regrouped. “I could take that from you—easy.” His gaze raked my body, a sneer on his face. “And you liked what I did to you.”
“I don’t think so,” I said, but I let my eyes blink wide. A fake, seductive innocence.
He grinned. “Girls like you play hard to get.”
“Maybe,” I said with exaggerated thoughtfulness. “Why don’t you come here and find out?”
I lay back against the wall, feigning submission. My acting skills left something to be desired, but he went for the bait. They always did.
As he leaned toward me, I smoothed my hand down over his bulge and cupped his balls. And wrenched them, hard. In a second I had our positions reversed—him slumped against the wall, me holding him by the balls.
I put the knife to his throat. “Touch me again, and I’ll fucking kill you.”
He swallowed hard, and his Adam’s apple bobbed against the point of the blade. “Don’t do anything stupid,” he ground out through barely parted lips. “You’ll have to let me up sometime.”
“Hurt me, and I’ll go to the news. Your boss. I’ve got a recording of this conversation, where you just admitted to blackmail, among other things.”
He curled his lip. “And you’d let Colin find out about your little boyfriend?”
I shrugged as if unconcerned. “Go ahead and show him. If he gets mad, that’s my problem. He’ll still protect his own. All I’d have to do was point you out, and your partner would be picking your broken bones up off the street.”
His eyes glittered emerald. “You stupid bitch. I could kill you right now.”
I jammed the knife into his skin, and a small prick of blood trailed down his neck. “I’ve left a message for Colin with your name. Anything happens to me, and you’re dead.”
That wasn’t quite true, but I had given Shelly enough of a clue that she’d probably figure it out. I could see this man thinking it over, realizing I had him.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” I mocked.
He gritted his teeth and emitted a low growl. I liked him better this way, panting, feral. It was more honest. “What are the conditions?”
“You never come back here again, understand? No matter what happens. If I see you around here, I’ll speed-dial Colin, and Philip’s weight comes down on you. Anything happens to me, same thing. Either way you’d be fucked. You go away and never come back. Deal?”
A pause, with only his harsh breaths and the sound of my blood pumping to fill the silence.
“Deal,” he ground out.
I pushed away from him but kept the knife pointing at his jugular. I had him, but animals behaved stupidly sometimes, especially in captivity.
He didn’t attack, though, but held out his hand for the card.