She grabbed the bags of clothes, but I stood in her way. “You know I can’t accept those,” I told her.
She stood firm, pursing her lips like a mother scolding a child. “And what did I tell you about respecting your elders? You’re going to take these clothes even if I have to shove them up your ass. It’s the least you can do for lying to me.”
Storming toward the door, I let her go and hung back with Ronnie who laughed under her breath. “You’ve done pissed her off now, child. At least this time it’s not me who did it.”
“Gee, thanks.” We walked outside and right out front was her limo, with Harold waiting by the back door, talking to Diane. Before getting to the car, I stepped in front of Ronnie, blocking her path. “I need a favor.”
“Like what?”
“If I’m putting my identity on the line, I need something in return. I need to talk to your girls. There are a couple of men I’m investigating and I want to know who have spent time with them.”
“Are you going to tell them you’re with the FBI?”
“No, I’m going to pretend I’m just like them and interested in working for you. It’s come down to the point where I have to find out more about these men. We can’t lose another girl.”
Sighing, she pushed me toward her car. “Let’s go then.”
We all got in and as soon as Harold shut the door, Ronnie lifted the privacy window. Across from me, Diane was on the edge of her seat, waiting for the window to seal us off. I counted down the seconds until she blasted off on me. Three . . . two . . . one.
“I can’t believe this whole time you’ve looked right in my face and blatantly lied to me. Is your name really even Aylee?” she asked, her voice laced with hurt.
“Yes, my name’s Aylee McFadden. I didn’t want to lie to you, but it’s my job. I know my betrayal hurts, but I had to find out as much as I could about the people I’m after. I have a feeling you already know something by the way you tried to keep me from whoring myself out to your friends.”
Her eyes went wide. “Drake? You didn’t . . .”
“Have sex with him?” I finished, watching her cringe. “Hell no. I searched his house and couldn’t find anything. I’m not ruling him out just yet. Unfortunately, I have others to investigate as well.”
Ronnie spoke up next. “And how do you think the police got the tip off about those men?”
I looked over at her. “Other than the eyewitness, I don’t know. They didn’t reveal the source.” She nodded over at her sister. I gaped at Diane, completely in shock. “It was you?”
She sighed. “I see William’s friends with Veronica’s girls all the time. Sometimes they’d be passed around multiple times in the same night. When they started turning up dead, I kept getting this uneasy feeling in my gut. The guys didn’t seem to care their playthings were being killed. They’d simply move onto others.”
Ronnie patted my leg. “My girls know their profession is dangerous. I’ve lost a couple over the years, but never four within six months. When Diane and I started getting suspicious, that’s when I temporarily shut down my business. I wasn’t about to lose anymore girls, but it doesn’t matter what I do, I keep losing them.”
“That’s why I called the police,” Diane confided. “I didn’t want William to know I was doing it, so I made sure to keep my name anonymous. He refuses to believe that any of them could be capable of murder.”
“You don’t think he has anything to hide do you?” I asked regretfully.
“No,” she exclaimed, shaking her head, “not my William.”
“But you haven’t told him about your conversation with the police?” She shook her head. “Does that mean you’ll keep today a secret from him too?”