Page 129 of Wicked Sin

Tears slide down my cheeks. “Thank you,” I whisper. “I missed you all so much.”

“It’s okay if you want to take some time before you get back to peer counseling. There’s lots of admin work.”

I shake my head. “I can do this. I want to do this.”

“Great.”

And that’s it. Back to work.

Surreal.

But wonderful.

The next shoedrops a week later. Luke and I go car shopping—for a used car, which is wild. And fun. I sell some jewelry, and it turns out that you can absolutely buy a car for a rough trade-in value on a gaudy diamond bracelet and three pairs of earrings, if the earrings are big enough and the car is old enough.

To celebrate, I go window shopping on Rodeo Drive. Luke has to work tonight, until midnight, and I’m happy to fill the time with something fluffy.

But when I return to my car, there’s a woman standing next to it.

My pulse picks up. I don’t like the way she’s looking at me.

“Ms. Reid, I’m Melinda Gray. I’m a journalist.”

“No comment.”

“You don’t even know what I’m going to ask.”

“The answer won’t change.”

“Do you want to talk about Gerome Lively? Did he rape you?”

I jerk backwards. How could she know that? I look her over. She’s generically pretty, in a never-had-plastic-surgery kind of way. Ordinary. Straight brown hair, polite smile that reveals neat white teeth. She had braces probably, and her clothes are decent quality. Not wealthy, but not desperate. “Who are you?”

“I told you. I’m a journalist.”

“Lots of people call themselves that these days.”

She holds out a card. “I’m only interested in the truth, Ms. Reid.”

I’m not going close enough to her to get it. But I also don’t want to have this conversation in the middle of a busy shopping area. “Then you haven’t been around for very long. The truth doesn’t sell magazines.”

“Actually, I’ve been around long enough.” She pushes a strand of hair behind her ear, and there’s something familiar about her face now. That gesture.

“Have we met before?”

“A few times.”

I try to place her. “Here? Or in Washington?”

“Back east.”

I frown.

“I worked with the Horus Group.” She smiles. “Back then I went by Ellie. I was the receptionist there for a while.”

“Quite the career shift.”

“Not exactly.”

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