Page 63 of Lake
Those eyes looked at me again, so cold and disgusted it actually made me shiver.
“Like you’re one to judge,” I scoffed.
“My women work hard. So what if they like sex, no one should judge. But they don’t give anything away forfree. Clubwhores…” She shook her head slightly and tsked at the thought.
“Hey now,” I said sitting straight up and pointed a finger at myself. “Not aclubwhore.”
“Then what?” I could tell that I’d confused her on some level.
“Just a girl here on a job trying to get it over with so she can get back home. And yes, nothing wrong with liking sex.”
“I could like you.” I could have sworn she was almost… smiling.
“Yeah, well, not sure how I feel about you right now. And that has nothing to do with yourbusiness.”
“While we wait for the men, why don’t you tell me why you’re here.” Her shoulders dropped a fraction of an inch and I took that to mean that she had relaxed, as much as her body would allow her to. Or she would allow herself. I wasn’t quite sure which one it was yet.
I couldn’t imagine being a madame was easy work. A woman in the sex business, yeah, those required some big lady-balls.
I broke down and told her a little bit about why I was there sitting in front of her building for the third night in a row.
“Wait,” I said and paused as things bounced around in my brain. “The detective… that wasn’t random, was it? It was you?”
She answered with a small shrug and a beat of silence hung in the air.
“Everyone has a price,” she said coolly. “And a need.”
“I don’t want to know,” I replied as I held up my hand. I definitely didn’t need to think about the detective’sneeds. Or him naked.
But now that part made sense. At least I knew the good ole detective wasn’t stalking me, so there was that.
“There is nothing here.” I studied her for the truth in her words. “I own this block and every building is empty, except this one here.”
I let out a sigh and sagged back into the chair.
Rubbing my temples, I wondered what the hell was going on. I knew it, that something was off. I’d felt it from the first night I’d spend in the SUV watching all the nothingness around me.
Which made me start to think about the building I was in right now. I hadn’t seen anyone drive by or go in the door that they brought me through. Odd. But then again, I didn’t know what the back of the building looked like or if there was perhaps another way to get inside. That had to be it. Why would people that wanted to keep their indiscretions hidden walk right in from off of the street? Right?
Whatever.
I didn’t give a crap about all that.
So I shook my head and looked back at the woman whose name I still didn’t know.
Before I could ask, there was a knock at the door.
A moment later, the men entered and as soon as Lake’s eyes met mine, I could see the flood of relief run through his body.
I turned my attention back to the woman, curious at how all this shit was going to go down, only her eyes were currently locked on someone that was not me. And by the way her lips were slightly parted and her back was ramrod straight again, I could tell that she had been caught off guard.
“You okay, darlin’?” Iron’s voice said from behind me. I turned back around to give him my attention, only he wasn’t looking at me. But it was clear the question was for me, right? After all, they were here to rescue me… right?
“Fine,” I said. “I’m sorry I—”
“No worries, we look after our own,” he replied cutting me off.
What the hell did that even mean?
