That was good, though. If there was a list on it, they’d find it. They’d see if Helena Stelton’s name was on it. Elizabeth could leave it alone and…
I hesitated. Go on a date with me? Shaking my head, I walked into the bedroom and found all three of them sitting on the bed together. Self-doubt made me gruffer than I meant to be.
“It’s time to go. Get your shit together.”
Elizabeth tossed me a concerned look and stood up. “Is everything okay?”
“I just think hanging out in a murder victim’s house for fun might be a bad fucking idea.”
Devon closed the Playboy he’d been looking at. “That kitty’s got claws. Come on, girls. Maybe the cranky one has the right idea. I’m starting to think this party is dead, anyway.”
“Devon!” Sammie slapped him with a magazine. “You can’t say that!”
“Okay, up and out.” I pointed to Sammie and Devon. “How’d you get here?”
“Cab.”
I looked up at the ceiling and groaned. “You took a cab to a murder victim’s house? I’m assuming you paid with your credit cards, too?”
Elizabeth coughed and looked away when I lowered my eyes to her.
“Not you, too? Jesus. Okay, lesson one of doing this shit: when you’re trying to do something sneaky, don’t leave a fucking trail.” I glared. “I’ll drive all of you home. Can you wait outside while I clean up?”
Devon and Sammie saluted me and hurried past me out of the bedroom. Elizabeth lingered and started straightening the magazines on the bed.
My mood had plummeted and I just wanted her out of the room so I could get to work and get the fuck out of there. “You, too. Out.”
She ignored me and kept picking up magazines. She stacked them on the side of the bed and stared down at them for a few seconds before gathering the pill bottles and wiping them down with a pillowcase she snatched off of one of the many pillows on the bed. When she dropped the pills back into the side-table drawer, she wiped the table down, too.
“I’ll do it, Elizabeth.”
She tossed an annoyed look over her shoulder at me. “I’m not helpless. I can do it.”
I leaned against the doorframe and watched as she methodically went from surface to surface in the room, cleaning it all. When she was done, she opened the suitcase and dropped the magazines in.
“I guess I just obtained a rather impressive porn stash.”
“Sure you don’t want the pills for your older boyfriends?”
She cut her eyes at me and elbowed me in the side as she strode past me. “I don’t know what crawled up your ass, but you’re being mean.”
I caught her arm and pulled her to a stop. “I’m sorry.”
She stared up at me and chewed on her lip for a second before nodding. She held on to my shoulder and stood on her tiptoes so she could press a kiss against my cheek.
I stiffened, hating that she was probably feeling the scars with her lips.
“After I solve this case, you should take me to dinner.” She smiled up at me as she lightly ran her fingertips over the scars on my arm. “Maybe we can recreate that bathroom scene from earlier.”
I held my breath until she moved away from me and let it out in one big exhale as I watched her hips sway. She was going to be the death of me.
Chapter 14
Elizabeth
The car ride to drop Sammie and Devon off was awkward. Branson had gone into himself, while Sammie and Devon were giddily going through the porn stash they’d decided to split amongst themselves. I was contemplating my attraction to Branson while also trying to decide what my next move was in my investigation.
I had a card I could play, if I had to, but I really didn’t want to. One of my ex-boyfriends, Ben, was a low-level hacker. He’d gone to jail while we were dating for hacking into a local police station. He hadn’t been very good at that point. A few years had passed, though, and last I’d heard, he’d gotten pretty decent at it.
On the other side of my brain, I was wondering what about Branson made me so crazy. Besides his looks, there was something about him that had me tangled up. It wasn’t every day that a man held my attention. Branson, though, he did more than hold my attention. He fucking captured it and held it prisoner. He didn’t seem to actually want it, though. Kiss aside, he sent me all kinds of negative signals. I just wasn’t reading them.
After we dropped Sammie and Devon off, the truck was so silent that I felt like every breath I took was highly pronounced. It only took about a minute of that before I had to break the silence. “I did good finding out about the list.”
“You didn’t find the list, though.”
“All right, Negative Nancy.” I crossed my arms. “I just started. I can still find it.”
“How?”
I told myself not to fight with him, but it was a losing battle. “I have connections.”
“Like who? Sammie and Devon?”
“One of my exes is a hacker, thank you very much.”
Branson sent me a look that implied I was insane. “Bad idea.”
“You think everything is a bad idea. Have you ever heard an idea you didn’t hate?”
“Yeah—the one I had about you backing off.”
“That idea sucked. That idea sucked so bad that it ran Hoover out of business.”
“Cute.”
“You’re just mad that you didn’t come up with the hacker idea.” I wanted to take the words back because I knew I’d turned into a ten-year-old, but I couldn’t help it.
“Come on, Elizabeth. Don’t be stupid.”
And just like that, I remembered why I was single. I set my jaw and faced out the window. I wasn’t stupid. Easily poked, maybe, but I wasn’t stupid.
“It’s a bad idea. Everything you’re doing is a bad idea.”
I just nodded and squeezed my hands into fists. I was going to prove him wrong.
“Now you’re quiet?”
“What’s your deal? Why are you such an asshole sometimes? I don’t get it.”
“I’m just trying to keep you out of trouble.”
“Well, don’t fucking worry about me. I’m not your problem.” I pointed at the street we were approaching. “Turn right here and then make a left at the next light. My building’s on the right.”
He got quiet and stayed that way until we pulled up in front of my building. When I tried to get out, he reached across me and pulled the door closed. “Just stop for a second.”
I slapped his hand away and shoved the door open. “I’ve got some calls to make. Don’t worry, though. I’ll try not to be stupid.”
I got out and slammed his door shut before heading up to my door. Max, a kid from the building, was stretched out along the steps. He looked up at me and grinned when he saw me.
“Damn, girl.”
“Hey, Max. How’s it going?”
“Let me walk you up.” Branson appeared at my side and took my elbow.
I thought about pulling away from him, but I didn’t want to make Max think I was in trouble. I still gave him a glare and couldn’t help poking him. “I hope they tow your truck.”
“If you want me to stay, all you have to do is ask.” The quick remark seemed to catch us both by surprise.
I wanted to test him and see if he was willing to put his money where his mouth was. “Will you stay?”
We made it to the landing on the second floor and he stopped to look down at me. “Do you ever think about what you say before you say it?”
“Way to deflect the question that you dared me to ask, Mr. Wright.” I climbed to the third-floor landing and stopped to catch my breath for a second. I looked up at the next flight of stairs and sighed. “Want to carry me up?”
He reached for me and I let out a scream laugh that ricocheted through the stairwell. He gave me an exasperated look. “You really are insane.”
I hurried up the stairs and let myself onto my hallway. I walked down to my door and opened my purse to search for my keys. A doo
r somewhere on the hallway slammed shut, but when I looked around, it was still just me and Branson there. “Weird.”
“Why the fuck do you live here?” He looked around at the walls and ceiling and made a face. “It can’t be safe here.”
I found my keys and yanked them out. “My grandma lived here for most of her life. She left it to me. It’s perfectly safe and I like it. Don’t be an asshole.”
I let myself into my apartment and turned to face him. He stepped forward but I put my hand up and stopped him in his tracks. “I don’t think so. You called me stupid. When you learn to play nice, then you can come in.”
I expected him to be angry, but he just grinned. “Goodnight, Elizabeth.”
Smiling, despite myself, I blew him a kiss before pushing the door shut and locking it. Even though I wanted to stay there and listen to him walk away, I made myself retreat into my apartment and into the bathroom.
I showered and changed into a big T-shirt before curling up on my dad’s couch and pulling out my phone and notepad. I was still annoyed at Branson, even though the anger I felt was fleeting. I wanted to prove that I could solve the case. I also wanted Helena to be caught for what I was sure she’d done.
And justice for Paul Porter. Of course.
I scrolled through my phone until I got to my ex’s number and then I dialed. I knew he’d be awake because Ben did his best work late at night. He’d never gone to bed before the sun came up.
“Yep?”
I made my voice sound pathetic and pretended to be crying. “Ben?”
“Elizabeth? What’s up? You okay?”
I fake-cried harder and crossed my fingers, hoping that all the lying I was doing wasn’t going to ruin my karma for life. “N-no. Ben, I’m in trouble. I need your help.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I messed up,” I sobbed. “A guy from work tricked me. I thought he was nice. I thought he was a good guy. I slept with him and then he dumped me and said that he was going to add my name to this list he keeps. He keeps threatening to show everyone. He wrote all kinds of stuff about me on it, Ben.”
“Fuck. What can I do for you, Lizzy?”
I winced at being called that, but kept it together. “Can you find the list for me? I don’t want him to send it out. I don’t want him to have it, Ben.”
I heard Ben jabbing the keys of his keyboard and cursing. His voice was intense as he focused on me. “Personal or work computer, Lizzy?”
“Work. At the Stelton Firm. His name was Paul Porter.”
“Was?”
I smacked myself in the head. “Is. Sorry. It just helps if I don’t think of him as being in my present. He really hurt me.”
Ben’s line was filled with angry typing and swearing. He muttered about the Stelton Firm’s pathetic security and a few minutes later claimed that he was in. “Paul Porter. I’m looking through his files now.”
I reminded myself how giant of an asshole he’d been while we were together because the gratitude I felt was overwhelming. I liked how concerned he was for me, though. It was nice.
Branson was concerned in a different way. A way in which he thought I was a total train wreck and needed to be put away. Even though I wanted to climb him like a tree, I didn’t want to feel like a nutcase while doing it. There I was thinking about him again, though. Even when Ben was breaking into a large corporation’s system for me.
“What a fucking dick. The document is named Stelton Shaft Climbers.”
“Will you just send it to me, Ben? I don’t want you to see whatever he wrote about me.” Eat your heart out, Branson. I was going to solve the case and he would have to crawl at my feet and beg for forgiveness for calling me stupid.
“You’re not even on it.” Suspicion came into his voice. “What the fuck, Elizabeth?”
“I guess he was lying to me?”
“This asshole indeed made notes. They’re detailed. There’s no way he forgot to put you on it if he slept with you.” Ben laughed. “He’d still be waxing on about you. Tell me why you really want it.”
I cursed my affinity for smart guys. “Dammit. I just need it. I’m working a case.”
“A case? Aren’t you still a secretary?” Smart guys and assholes.
“That’s my day job. I’m doing some private investigating right now.”
Ben laughed. “Come the hell on. No, you’re not. Why do you really want this list?”
“Yes, I am. I’m really working on a case. Just send it to me, please. I need this, Ben.”
“Meet me at Jackson Square this weekend and I will. I’ve got two tickets to see this amazing Lynyrd Skynyrd cover band.”
I scoffed. “I know you’re still dating Karen, Ben. Don’t be a jerk.”
“Meet me or I’m deleting this gross little list.”
“Fuck you, Ben. I’m not helping you cheat on your girlfriend. Just send me the list and we’ll pretend you didn’t say any of that when I bump into Karen at the mall next time.”
“Oops. I deleted it. No one else needed to see that list, anyway.” I could hear him lean back in his chair and grin. It was the exact sound I used to hear all the time when he thought he’d gotten one over on me. “You should’ve been nicer.”
I sat up and slapped the couch. “Dammit, Ben. I needed that for the case. You’re such an asshole!”
“And you should focus on your day job and stop lying to your exes to get them to do your dirty work.”
I gritted my teeth. “Did you see anything about a woman named Helena?”
Ben laughed. “Goodbye, Lizzy. Call me if you change your mind about the tickets. It’s going to be a good show and there’s that hotel next to the square that you always liked.”
I hung up and fell back on the couch. Staring up at the ceiling, I narrowed my eyes and wracked my brain for the next thing I needed to do to figure out what happened to Paul. The list was gone, so I’d have to find a different way.
Chalk one up to Branson for the time being.
Chapter 15
Branson
Charlotte Crier was having a meltdown in the dressing room of a JCPenney’s. I was stationed outside of the door, trying not to hear anything. The entire store was full of people wanting to see her and she was pitching a fit and begging her manager to just let her go home.
No one else was in the part of the store we were in. Her manager, an intense man named Gerald, had cleared it out to act as a backstage area of sorts for Charlotte. Anything for Mrs. Crier. That wasn’t enough for her, though. I’d seen her eyes when she saw the place. It was too small, too run-down, too whatever for her.
I kept my eyes alert and my mind mostly clear as I waited for them to get the show on the road. There was no way for me to keep it completely clear. Not since Elizabeth had come into my life, anyway. She was constantly at the back of my mind. I spent half the time worrying that she was going to get herself killed and the other half wondering if she was actually interested in a man like me. That second part wasn’t just vanity on my part. I was selfishly hoping she really did want me so I could delve into the chemistry between us.
“Mrs. Crier will be coming out now.” Gerald came out of the dressing room and looked around. “Stick close to her. We want you in the photographs.”
Instantly, I chilled. “I don’t do photo ops.”
“You do today. Stand near her. The cameras will do the rest.”
I watched him walk away and felt like reaching out and snatching the little rat off of his feet.
Charlotte walked out a few seconds later, her face red. She glanced up at me and then looked away quickly. Her back straightened and she set her jaw. “I’m ready.”
Something about her eyes made me hesitate. I didn’t normally speak to her because she was always hiding away, but she looked… sad. “You okay, Mrs. Crier?”
She looked up at me and her eyes filled up with big tears. She blinked a few times, though, and then she was back to her normal self. It was like it’d never happened. “I’
m ready.”
I shook my head and led her out to the main floor of the store. A table was set up near the cash registers for her. A rope was put up, keeping the hundreds of women who were there lined up. Cameras off to the side flashed as we walked to the table.
Grimacing, I balled my hands into fists and forced air in and out of my lungs. I didn’t like the lights. The flashes were too much like bombs going off. The sounds of people shouting didn’t help. It would be all too easy to find myself in a flashback.
Anxiety made my skin tingle. It started in my hands and feet and moved to the rest of my body until I felt like ants were crawling all over me. My mind worked in vicious circles, between the present and past. The stimulus around me sent me back to the explosion that’d killed Luke and almost killed Mercer and me. It sent me back to the blinding pain. Then there was the realization that the cameras were capturing my face. I wanted to hide it.
Charlotte suddenly turned back to me and leaned over. “I’m going to be sick.”
Without hesitating, I took her by the elbow and dragged her out of the room. I pushed the door to the bathroom open and did a quick check to make sure it was empty before letting her in and then standing with my back pressed against the door, reorienting myself.
I was not at war. I was home. I was on friendly soil and there were no explosions going off. I was okay.
I couldn’t help but think about the pictures, though. I’d seen pictures of my face right after I got home. It photographed even worse than it looked in person. The idea of photographs made me sick. I felt the perverse desire to go back out and smash the cameras. I wanted those pictures destroyed.
“You okay? You looked worse than me out there.” Charlotte came out of the bathroom, her eyes red.
“Don’t like cameras.”
She nodded and looked like she was about to say more when Gerald came around the corner with her husband. Instead of the relief I expected, Charlotte stiffened and replaced the soft look on her face with a stern one.
Black Dog Security- Complete 5-Part Series Page 24