Page 19 of Nightmare For Hire
I look at the screen. “Shit. Shit. Maybe he put a tracker app on when I was asleep or something.”
There’s a crunch of gravel, and I turn to meet the hulking merman walking my way. I’m even taller than six foot three in my boots and Mick still has a few inches on me. The merman is huge. Huge and sexy. His hair flows around his shoulders like mine. He used to tell me all about merman culture. They pride themselves on their hair. Most of them are vain, from my observations of his stories.
He presses a hand to his sculpted chest. “Me tamper with your phone? Never.”
“Is that fucker there?!” Devon shouts from the other end of the call.
“Why am I not surprised?” Mick rolls his eyes. “She likes to fill your head with all sorts of silly things. Like self-worth and positivity. You’re nothing but a pretty face and a great ass.”
“Fuck off, Mick!” Devon shouts.
I’m frozen in place. His words swirl in my head and mix with everything my parents told me before they were shipped off to jail. I’m always bad. Bad. Bad.Bad.I’m a nobody that only has worth because I’m pretty. I’m only useful because I have holes to fuck. Hands to jerk. A body to cover in filth.
After being saved from my parents’ trafficking ring, I thought about destroying my looks, to make myself undesirable, but my therapist talked me out of it. He helped me through so much and I won’t let Mick ruin over a decade of progress.
“You’re so pathetic,” Mick says. “Staring at me with those dead eyes.”
I blink and focus on the man, knowing exactly how to shut him up. “You have a problem, Mick. I know your secret and you’ll never know if I’ll tell the wrong person.”
“Secret? What secret?” Devon shouts.
Mick growls. His hand goes to my throat and squeezes. I keep eye contact and suck in a breath before he completely closes off my air. He doesn’t know I still practice breath control, even after all these years.
“You’ll get locked up for masquerading around as a human,” I whisper out. “Maybe they’ll try to send you off to the monster world, and won’t that be unfortunate?”
Mick’s eyes go wide. There’s a wild look to them as he narrows on my phone. Thankfully, I have long arms to go with my long legs and he can’t get to my phone when I move it out of reach.
“Go away, Mick.” It’s hard to talk around his hand. “Move back home and leave me alone.”
He squeezes my throat harder, then pushes me away, releasing me.
I cough and rub my throat. “You hate monsters. Why are you here? Why work in a hospital that caters to monsters?”
“Keep your fucking mouth shut or I’ll have to do something about it.” He turns and stomps away.
“Maybe you should be the one to watch your back.” I can’t believe I said that.
I bring my phone back to my ear.
“Cy! Cy! Are you there?! Talk to me!” Devon panics.
“I’m here. Sorry.” I turn the call to speakerphone and lower the volume. Then look through my phone for apps I don’t recognize.
“Shit,” Devon snarls. “I hate that asshole. Did he do anything to you? Do I need to come kick his ass?”
I snort at the image of her tiny stature trying to beat up Mick, and we’re both laughing.
“What did you mean, you know his secret?”
“I can’t, Devon.”
She sighs. “I know. I know. You’re too good sometimes. I’d blab all over social media, get the press involved.”
“If I decide he really needs to be punished, I’ll let you know.” Shit. Found the app. “He really did bug my damn phone.” I take a screenshot to remember to look into the app later, then delete.
“You sure you don’t wanna spill his secrets?” I can just imagine Devon’s blonde brows wiggling.
“No. Not yet, anyway.”
