My heart skipped again before it slid up my throat.
“What won’t Buck tell me?” I forced out.
“That, many weeks ago, Tia Esposito’s car was sold to a used car salesman. She took some cash and a trade. Smart move, but too late. Ten miles from the dealership, her new car was found abandoned on the side of a road, door open, her bags in the trunk, her purse in the front, no sign of her except the blood.”
Oh God.
The blood?
Oh God!
That could not be good.
There was no way that could be good.
I closed my eyes, put my hands over my face and dropped my head.
“No,” I whispered to my hands, tears stinging my eyes.
“Yes,” he whispered back.
I dropped my hands and looked at him as one tear slid down my face.
His gaze followed it, lighting as it did like he enjoyed seeing me cry. He mumbled something in Bosnian and his hand came up, finger crooked, and he traced the tear with his knuckle with creepy reverence.
I pulled my head away, and his hand dropped.
“It was a lot of blood, Clara, too much,” he went on.
I felt my lips quiver as my throat blocked and he watched my lips with eyes alight.
I forced down a swallow and asked, “Buck knows this?”
“Everyone does, pretty-pretty, everyone but you. Tucker and Sylvie Creed are working this job for Aces. They went to the scene themselves, and I know for certain they reported everything to Hardy four weeks ago.”
Four weeks?
Four weeks?
“Where was this?” I asked.
“Nevada.”
On her way to Seattle.
On her way to safety.
My idea.
“Have they found her?”
He shook his head. “No, pretty-pretty.”
It was also creepy, him calling me that.
Actually, everything about him was creepy, and I didn’t need creepy when I found out bad news about my best friend.
No.
I didn’t need creepy ever.
“Why didn’t Buck tell me?” I asked him a question, the answer to which he couldn’t possibly know.
But he answered anyway.
He pressed up closer and leaned in, and when he did, I shrank back against the headboard.
“You. You need men for reasons. This was your reason for needing Hardy. He knows this. You…” he lifted a hand, I shrank back farther, and he dropped it, “a man will want to keep you. He does. So he won’t tell you.”
“I’m not with Buck for Tia,” I whispered.
He leaned closer, and I couldn’t shrink back because I had nowhere to go.
“We all use each other, Clara. Now that I’ve told you what you need to know, I will tell you what I need you to know. Then you are free to leave. My men have brought your car. It’s outside. Or you’re free to stay. This will be your choice. But what I need you to know is that I’m happy for you to use me any way you like, and in return, I will use you any way I like. I’ll take care of you. I’ll buy you nice things. You’ll be treasured. Now, I’ll leave you to think about that. You can stay or you can come back. I will wait for you.”
Then he leaned super close, my body went solid, he shoved his face in my neck and I heard him sniff as his nose traveled up my jugular.
“Pretty,” he whispered.
I shivered as he lifted his head, gave me his psychopath-defining grin, got up and walked out of the room.
I stared at the door and didn’t move.
It took a while for me to look around the room.
It was nice. Heavy furniture, dark wood, silk drapes.
Expensive. Almost ostentatious.
Dark.
Suffocating.
I spotted my purse on the foot of the bed lying there next to my keyring.
I twisted, scurried down the bed, snatched them up and ran the heck out of there.
24
You Live in the Sunshine
I was in such a state, it took me a long time to figure out where I was when I left Babic’s house.
This meant I got even more lost.
By the time I found my way to something familiar, I wasn’t in a state, I was a mess.
I’d been kidnapped.
Tia’s car had been found, filled with lots of blood.
Buck knew, and he didn’t tell me.
I drove through Ace in the Hole’s big parking lot, around back to the loading area by the warehouse where I normally parked.
As luck would have it, or maybe not, Buck was coming out of my office and spotted me.
I knew this because I saw him walking out the door as I parked, his gait swift and determined.
I set the parking brake, killed the ignition, and got out on jellied legs.
“Fuck, babe, where have you been?” he called as he approached. “You go to a Safeway in Tucson to buy—?”
He stopped talking when he got close enough to get a good look at my face. Then he started jogging as I moved out of the door and slammed it, my eyes locked to him.