“Where’d you find it?” Frowning, he pinched the camera between two fingers and made a noise.
Abruptly, the idea of mentioning that there might be nude photos of myself floating around gave me cold feet. Biting my tongue, I reached to take the camera back. Hector let me have it, his thick eyebrows lowering an inch. “Never mind that, do you know much about how they work?”
“Usually they send pictures or video to some online server.” His fingers brushed over mine, his voice falling. “Listen, if something is going on, you know you can tell me.”
I knew the look of a man who was willing to trade favors. This was a bad idea. Putting on a sweet smile, I backed up. “You know, I realized I’ve got to get to work. See you.”
Hector nodded. He didn’t take his eyes off of me, not until I turned my back on him, and then I had to just guess. If I can’t find out about the camera from him… the only person to talk to is Jack himself. But he left, where would be go? It was hard to picture him fleeing, not after his admission about wanting revenge on Mister Big.
I didn’t have a clue where to begin. Blind with the peaks and valleys of feeling like a fool for letting Jack close to my sister and I, as well as the desire to want to think he did nothing wrong, I drove around the city. I checked everywhere I could in a two-hour span. I even scouted out the airport, thinking it wasn’t entirely impossible for him to be abandoning his plan and vanishing to another country.
Jack was a ghost.
I can’t keep this up, I decided, noticing I was going to be late to work. I wasn’t a damn bloodhound; if Jack was still in this city I’d find him. It didn’t have to be tonight.
I was a zombie at the club. I moved through the motions, but I was too busy panicking in my head to focus. Most guys don’t care if you’re dead inside, though; they tossed money my way regardless of if I remembered their face or their name.
I didn’t notice my shift was over until the lights flashed on inside the empty club. “Come on,” Spider, the DJ, shouted at me. “Grab your damn ones and go clean up. I’m heading home.”
Nodding, I scooped up the crumpled bills and hurried downstairs. The dressing room was abandoned. Something crunched under my heel; a compact case of blush. The deep rouge looked like blood, I hurried to clean it off the floor.
Rubbing alcohol wipes over my body, I removed every trace of sweat and strange men. Looking in the mirrors reminded me about the bathroom camera. I’d never felt so sick before.
Changing into my jeans and a sweater, I wedged my sore feet into my sneakers and headed upstairs. In the dark hallway, my brain a giant knot, I barely heard him at first.
“Harper.”
Turning, I spotted Mister Big behind me. He was standing by the door to his office, and one small move of his wide jaw told me he wanted to see me in private. Fuck, had he noticed me come in late?
“Hey,” I said, following him inside. It was so quiet; had everyone else left? This was becoming a weird habit of mine. “Everything okay?”
His office was all sharp edges and hard colors; black trim, rich red rug, a desk bigger than some people’s beds. He stood in front of it, hands behind his back and his smile rather coy. “You tell me.”
Shit, he did notice. “Listen, Callum—”
“Call me Mister Big.”
I stopped short. He only asked for that when he was genuinely furious. “Okay. Mister Big, I didn’t mean to show up late. I’m always on time, surely you can overlook this.” The club had a penalty system; being tardy cost two hundred dollars. It was a steep price, I’d never faced it before.
“What were you so busy doing that you lost track of time?”
Unsure how to answer that, I hesitated. That was my first mistake. “Cena had trouble going to sleep.”
“Liar,” he spit. “Try again.”
Sweat warmed between my shoulder blades. He was acting strange; what was going on? “I’m not lying. It’s what happened.” And there was my second mistake.
Sighing, my boss swayed closer. He was fast for such a large man. “Then we’re going this route.”
“What route? Callum—”
The back of his hand landed solidly on my cheek. I didn’t fall, but only because he caught me by the throat with a meaty palm. Each finger sank in, holding on as I scraped at his wrist in surprise. “It’s Mister Big, you lying bitch,” he snarled. “I know what you did today. I know you went to the bank to take out money, I know you went to the airport to buy tickets for you and Cena.”
The cells in my brain had to be dying, because otherwise, what he said made no sense. “Wrong… that’s wrong.”
His smile was so sweet it was cloying. “Thought you’d take your sister and run. As if it wouldn’t be as simple as me calling the police on you. We’ve been over this before.”
“No,” I wheezed. “I wasn’t…”
“You’re as stupid as your mom. She thought she could leave me, too.”
My brain jump started—hot sickness invaded my guts. She’d tried to leave him? I’d never heard that before. I’d never even guessed she was unhappy until I’d found her body. It was then that I’d readjusted my understanding of the world.
I’d seen her growing silence… her fading health… and known it was because Mister Big was in charge of her life. I’d blamed myself for introducing them. I’d blamed myself for her suicide.
His grip constricted on my throat. Thin lines of black began to crawl into my vision. In one swing, he knocked me into his desk, sending everything on top tumbling to the ground along with me.
“She thought she could take you and Cena away. But I had men following her, just like you. Watching. I knew the second she looked up plane tickets for you girls on her fucking laptop. She’d even sent herself copies of the photos I had of you from the dressing rooms, trying to blackmail me.”
Like a terrible dream you remember after you wake up, everything he said began to flow together. I’d met Callum when I was at a middle school pageant. He’d “discovered” me, given me his card, and I’d brought him to meet my mother. I mistook his hungry eyes for excitement at my skill. Not attraction to my teen body. I was young and innocent.
Like Cena.
“No one seems to understand me,” he said against my scalp. His fist knotted there, holding me still. “No one gets the thrill of being so much bigger than those young girls. I feel like a giant. How can that be so terrible? And Cena.” Fuck, when he said her name, my heart broke in two. “She’s starting to look just how you did when you were fourteen. She’s maturing so quickly.”
The flickering defeat inside of me found a waft of air. My terror… my righteous disgust for my little sister… it gave me strength.