“But I thought he was the one who liked to be tied up,” Dieter said.
She laughed as if the very idea amused her. “Who told you such? Nein, he would never allow anyone else to tie him up.” She cracked the small riding crop in her hand at them.“Schnell, schnell. He will be here momentarily.”
Neither of them moved until after she’d entered a room on the left.
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“We were fed bullshit,” Ace said from between clenched teeth.
He grabbed his cell phone from his pocket and buzzed Retter, who was in the building across the street with the recording equipment. “We have a problem, Retter. My informer lied. Bender doesn’t get beaten.
He does the beating.”
“What?”
Ace clenched the phone so hard his hand was shaking. “You heard me. What do we do?”
He could hear Joe in the background telling Retter what to do after Retter had filled him in on what was happening. “It’s too late to call this off without blowing our covers. Rhea will just have to go through it.”
Ace saw red.“Hell, no.”
He hung up while Retter started to yell at him.
“What did he say?” Dieter asked.
“Something I didn’t want to hear. I’m pulling Rhea out.”
“If Retter said—”
Ace cut Dieter’s words off with a staggering punch that rendered him unconscious. Ace grabbed the huge bear of a man and shoved him into the towel closet, covered him with towels, then shut and locked the door.
God help him, Dieter would beat the shit out him later.
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But that was later.
Right now he had a damsel who was about to get seriously distressed.
Rhea was checking out her stockings in the mirror when the door to her dressing room opened. She frowned as she saw Ace.
By the look on his face, she could tell something was wrong. “What’s up?”
“I’m getting you out of here.”
“Why?”
“Bender is a psycho and he is going to beat you. Not the other way around.”
Rhea went pale at this disclosure. “What did Retter say?”
“I don’t give a shit what he said. Retter is an idiot and I’m not going to send you in there so that fat bastard can mangle you. This is my case and I’m—”
“This is my job, Ace. It’s what I do.”
Ace cursed in frustration. “Will no one listen to reason?”
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Narrowing her gaze at him, she put her hands on her hips to let him know that she thought he was the one being unreasonable. “Ace, we have to nail this bastard. If he confesses—”
“And if the bitch lied about who gets beaten, doesn’t it stand to reason that she lied about the confession bit as well?”
“Maybe she didn’t. We have to get this guy off the street, and if this is the way, then this is the way.”
That didn’t make a bit of sense to him. “Fine, I’ll kill him and we—”
“We’re not assassins, Ace. We work by law and order.”
His fury roiled through him at that. “You don’t know Tee very well, do you? I hate to be the messenger, Rhea, but Tee is a cold-blooded killer.”
“Oh, please.”
Rhea started for the door.
Unable to stand by and watch her be hurt, Ace ran for her. He grabbed her before she could stop him.
“What are you doing?”
He pulled the handcuffs out of his backpocket that he was supposed to reserve for Bender and slapped them over her wrists.
“Ace!”She tried to squirm out from his hold.
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He took the scarf from her neck and used it to gag her. “I’m sorry, Rhea. I can’t let you do this. You’re right. Someone has to go in there. But by God, it won’t be you.”
Picking her up, he carried her to a locker and set her inside even while she fought against him.
Rhea was furious. Ace could see it plainly in her brown eyes as he shut the door and locked it. But it was better she be pissed than dead.
“All right, Krux,” he said to himself under his breath. “It’s time to do the nasty.”
Personally, he’d rather be dead, but what was a little dignity compared to Rhea’s life?
“Well, it worked for Tim Curry.” Ace surveyed himself with a critical eye. He definitely wouldn’t win a beauty pageant. With any luck, Bender might even be half-blind.
Or half-drunk.
It was dark in the rooms…maybe Bender wouldn’t notice much.
Maybe.
“I am so fired,” he muttered. But it would be worth it.
He hoped.
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Pulling his garter belt straight, he headed down the hallway to the room where Bender should be waiting.