Shame on Me

“Did you just say your ex-husband’s name while my penis is still inside of you?”

 

Looking away from my phone, I see the irritated look in Matt’s face and I instantly feel bad.

 

“I’m sorry! This is a little awkward. I saw his name on my caller ID. I have no idea why he’s calling me.”

 

Matt reaches over and grabs my phone, bringing it up to his ear without taking his eyes off of me. “Sorry, Andy. Paige is busy right now; she’ll have to call you later. And by later, I mean never.”

 

He quickly ends the call and tosses the phone onto the floor. “I hope that was okay. I don’t need your ex-husband in the room with us. I’m not quite finished with you yet.”

 

He shifts his hips against me and I let out a moan. “That is perfectly fine with me.”

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER 16

 

 

 

 

Paige? Oh, my God, Oh, my God, Oh, my God. Who the hell was that who answered your phone? Fuck, it doesn’t matter. It’s really bad. Those people I told you I owe money to . . . they grabbed me outside of work. They’re going to kill me, Paige! They want their money by the weekend, or they said they’re going to start cutting off my fingers. MY FINGERS, Paige! I need my fingers! They want a hundred grand now. I need you to—”

 

 

 

Holding my phone out in front of me with a shaking hand, I look up when the voice mail cuts off. Dallas Osborne, a friend and private investigator with a neighboring PI agency, stands quietly by my desk with his hands on his hips. His face gives nothing away. I called Dallas as soon as I listened to the voice mail, and he said he’d meet me at the office so I could play him the message. He’s listened to it three times now, and each time, he’s said nothing other than a quiet “play it again.” Lorelei stands next to him, wringing her hands together with a look of worry on her face. I didn’t want to involve my friends in this, but Lorelei was at the office finishing up some work when we all showed up. She hasn’t said a word yet, and I’m afraid of what will happen when she finally does open her mouth. She is not going to be happy with me that I’ve let things go this far without telling Kennedy.

 

I’ve already listened to this voice mail a hundred times since Matt and I woke up this morning, and I’m freaking out enough as it is. I don’t know if I can handle Lorelei’s wrath as well. As much as I hate Andy, I would never want to see him dead. It’s all fun and games to imagine lighting your ex’s penis on fire until you get a call from him in the middle of the night saying someone is going to kill him.

 

“What do we do, Dallas?” I ask as I set my phone on top of my desk.

 

“We need to call Kennedy. That’s what we need to do,” Lorelei states.

 

“I already called Kennedy. She’s in Indianapolis with Griffin serving a subpoena. I figured it was best not to worry her,” Dallas explains.

 

“Are you kidding me right now? She SHOULD be worried. I knew I should have told her what you were up to weeks ago.”

 

“Oh, pipe down, lawyer. I’ve got this under control.”

 

Lorelei puts her hands on her hips and stares angrily at Dallas. “Who the hell do you think you are? You don’t even work here.”

 

Dallas crosses his arms over his chest and stares her down. “I’m the guy who’s going to get you out of this mess. Don’t you have a case to try or something? Go away.”

 

Lorelei huffs indignantly, and if she wasn’t such a lady, I’m sure a whole bunch of profanities would be flying from her mouth right now. For some reason, Lorelei and Dallas have never gotten along. He thinks she’s too uptight, and she thinks he’s a Neanderthal.

 

“You are a pompous jerk!” Lorelei shouts.

 

“Really? That’s the best you can do? Are all your clients on death row now?” Dallas taunts.

 

“Can we please get back to the problem at hand?” I interrupt. “What are we going to do about Andy?”

 

Dallas looks at Lorelei smugly one last time before turning his focus to me. “We wait for Andy to call back with the drop-off location. In the meantime, you need to figure out a way to get a hundred thousand dollars by the weekend.”

 

“You can’t be serious,” Lorelei says. “We need to call the police.”

 

“Woman, I’ve already talked to the police, so don’t get your panties all in a bunch,” Dallas replies with a roll of his eyes.

 

“You did NOT just call me ‘woman’!”

 

Ignoring the fight in front of me, I turn to look at Matt and see the worry written all over his face.

 

“I’ll give you the hundred grand,” Matt tells me.

 

I shake my head at him and put my foot down. “You are not going to help me with this. He’s my ex and I’ll deal with it. I’m not some poor, defenseless female who constantly needs rescuing, contrary to my actions last night.”

 

Tara Sivec's books