Her Secret Life

And...

“You found him,” she said to Michael, not taking her eyes off the creep. It wasn’t the gift she’d come to his office to find, but she knew the boy was Michael’s gift to her just the same.

Her lover hadn’t said a word. She understood that, too. He wouldn’t. Not in front of the kid.

He was the one who’d held her legs together. Bruised her ankles.

The one who’d been so inebriated he’d had to give up on the fun of raping an innocent woman to go puke.

“Where’d you find him, Michael?” she asked. “I don’t have to ask how. I assume you traced him through the photos. He’s a local kid who downloaded one of them, right? I’m assuming he’s showing you which site he got it off from?” The two men were looking at each other. The younger one with such unmistakable pleading that she broke off.

“What?” For the first time, she allowed her gaze to leave the creep long enough to get a full look at Michael.

He looked about as sick as the kid. But his focus was on her.

“What’s going on?” she demanded. She felt hot and cold at once and was breaking out in a cold sweat. She couldn’t figure it out. Wasn’t getting it. Why was Michael looking at her like that?

“You know him?” Michael’s question sounded as odd as he looked. It made no sense to her. Of course she knew the teenager. That was why Michael had him there, right? For her to identify. And then Michael could get him to name the other two.

This one, he hadn’t been the leader.

“Of course I know him,” she said. “And you do know he wasn’t the leader, right? He was the puker.” She couldn’t suppress her shudder of disgust. With Michael there she didn’t feel afraid.

And yet her skin crawled. “I’m assuming the police are on their way?” She was Doria. Sounding mean. In control. Disgusted. Doria could handle this and Kacey could fall apart in Michael’s arms later. Both women shook from the inside out.

The sound that came from Michael’s throat was more animallike than human. He swallowed. And suddenly she was afraid for all three of them. Michael was going to kill the younger man and they’d all lose. He’d go to prison. And then her life truly would be hell. “Michael?”

Had he been waiting for her to ID the kid? Had he not yet been sure? And now, faced with one of her attackers...

He wasn’t looking at her now. He was staring at the other guy. Both men looked unhealthy. Ashen.

“Willie?”

She heard the word come from Michael’s mouth and thought she must be hallucinating. That she wasn’t handling the moment, coming face-to-face with one of her attackers, as well as she’d thought. Even Doria was struggling—too sickened by the whole thing to do her job.

The guy’s chin dropped to his chest, his entire body racked with shudders. “Mike... God... I’ve wanted to tell you...and...you said she was a client. I had no idea what they were going to do. Not until they grabbed her. They were just trash-talking, like always. I didn’t know what to do. I had some insane thought that if I held her legs together they couldn’t...you know. But I wasn’t going to be able to stop them. I was trying to figure out what to do, how I could help, and then I recognized her from that picture on your computer and I thought I was going to puke. As soon as I was off her I ran for help...” He dropped his head to the table and sobbed.

Kacey’s mouth opened. No sound came out. Her heart split wide. No blood spilled.

“Michael?” She could barely whisper.

One of her attackers was his own brother?

The kid he’d loved and sacrificed for all these years?

The kid he’d thought he’d finally reached?

He didn’t look at her. Didn’t come near her.

“Go, Kacey. Please, oh, God, please get out of here. Go to Sara. Now. Please.”

There was no love in his voice.

Willie had been the one at her feet. The one who mentioned the photo.

And just as he’d told Michael, he’d run off right afterward.

He’d just said Michael had said she was a client.