Pleasant Extortion (The Extortionists 1)

“Now.”

“What do you say we get out of here?”

“Are you asking the detective or the lady?” Flirting with danger had always been her MO. She loved the excitement and adventure found in working a case, but this? Well, this skated along the lines of seducing trouble, and she wasn’t just trying to draw it out. Her attitude was cocking its proverbial hip, crooking its finger back and forth, and striking a pose. Come and get it!

A hard look of raw masculinity washed across his face. “Are you batting those long eyelashes at the biker or the man you think can help you solve this case?”

“I never said I thought you could help me.”

“Then why have you spent the last two hours with me, Detective Keen?” He leaned forward, now close enough that she could smell a hint of his fresh wintergreen aftershave.

“So the lady has your interest.”

“The detective doesn’t want it.”

“Why would you say that?”

“Because I rolled into this town on a day like no other. Your citizens are grieving a loss of sizeable magnitude, one so great I can’t even begin to fathom the heartache, and here you sit.” A slight hint of disgust lingered in his expression. “More concerned with taking me back to my room and fucking me than finding out what I know that might help you solve your case.” He stood, retrieved his wallet, and threw down a twenty-dollar bill. “Go home, Detective Keen. Go home and think about that.”

She gasped in horror as she looked up at the cold, empty eyes staring back at her. A man who obviously wore several faces no longer appeared interested in her. Instead, he seemingly wanted to belittle her. Before she could supply a rebuttal, he stormed out of the diner.

What on earth had she done? Trembling, she rose and started for the door. She’d almost reached the exit when she noticed a poor, homeless man. She’d seen him around town. Tonight, he was dressed in a coal-black raincoat. The large fellow seemed to slump into his weathered outerwear in an attempt to hide from her, or maybe even the entire world.

She couldn’t blame him. After she’d made the foolish mistake of flirting with the new man in town, she wanted to find a hole and bury herself. She’d like to dig deep enough so she could lay low until the town’s stranger disappeared once and for all.

* * * *

“He’s still here.” Randon lightly touched the drapes. Peering around the dated beige window treatments, he secured the phone between his ear and shoulder. “I’m pretty sure I just saw him at the local diner.”

“Did anyone else see him?”

“I hope not,” he muttered.

“Why didn’t you approach him?” Kurt asked.

“There was an unexpected complication.”

“Innocent bystanders?”

“Yeah.”

“Does this innocent bystander have a name?”

“You won’t give up. Will you?”

“Considering I know your days as a bachelor are numbered? Probably not. Throw in the fact you’ve been acting guarded since you arrived in that Podunk town? Not a chance. What’s she like?”

“The detective?”

“She’s a cop? Fuck, man! What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking there’s something to this mating shit. Trust me, Kurt. If I had the power to choose my partner in life…” He stopped talking and narrowed his gaze on the movement outside.

“You’d what? Bolt?” Kurt laughed.

“Let me call you back.” Randon flipped his phone closed and waited, watched.

A silhouette briefly appeared in the shadows before the street lamps flickered with yellow lights thanks to the activated motion sensors. The dimly lit road became much brighter. A woman’s form moved swiftly across a narrow path leading to the public parking lot. Behind her, a stealthy creature stalked her like prey. He couldn’t help but think of those old horror movie flicks where the perpetrator’s shadow was four or five times the size of an average person.