Lies That Sinners Tell (The Klutch Duet 1)

I had on tan, vegan leather pants, an off the shoulder, chocolate bustier top and camel colored strappy heels that made me tower over the majority of the men there. I’d had a blowout because the hair stylist at my shoot earlier in the day was a good friend who’d had some spare time. So my hair was sleek, long and styled in a way that no matter how hard I tried, I could never replicate at home.

My phone buzzed in my purse, which I only noticed immediately because I’d been completely ignoring the middle-aged man wearing head to toe Affliction trying to chat me up, hyperaware of any kind of vibration.

I was my fourteen-year-old self with my first boyfriend, staring at my phone, waiting for him to text and refusing to leave my room for anything just in case I missed it.

Gritting my teeth, I willed myself not to check it, even though an escape hatch from this conversation was sorely needed. Jay could wait. He had to wait. I’d already given him enough, I didn’t need it to become clear that I was sitting by the phone, ready for him at any moment of the day. The agreement was weekends. That’s what he’d claimed. That’s what he owned.

I finished the conversation after I politely declined an invitation to dinner. Then I not so politely declined an invitation to watch a movie in his home movie theatre.

It was only then that I slipped away to a corner to check my phone.

A car will be waiting for you outside the art gallery at eleven o’clock.

Jay.

He knew where I was.

Of course he knew where I was.

Someone was following me. He was keeping tabs on me. It was invasive. It was controlling. Definitely not a normal cornerstone of a relationship. Then again, this wasn’t a relationship. In all honesty, knowing someone was still monitoring me was sort of a comfort considering it had only been a month since I’d escaped that hellish attack. Even the interaction with the Affliction guy had left me feeling a bit shaken, which it shouldn’t have. I’d been in this town for almost a decade, and having been a female all my life, I was used to overeager men thinking they were entitled to my attention. But now that I knew that they also felt entitled to my body, to my future, to cause me harm, my backbone wasn’t as iron as it used to be. Which was why Affliction guy had approached me in the first place. He sensed weakness.

Knowing that Jay had someone out there, likely someone who wasn’t afraid to beat a man half to death if need be, gave me a security that had been stolen from me a month ago.

Sure, I was going to do everything in my power to rebuild that security, that strength, so I could convince him to cancel this surveillance detail. But for now, I was going to take what I could get.

And I could get Jay.

For a weekend.

I said my goodbyes to Zoe, who did not ask any questions but squeezed my hand and gave me a look to communicate she was there if I needed her. Her reassuring smile reminded me that I didn’t need a man with crazy goons and money for security. Or safety. My friends provided that.

Karson wasn’t driving the car this time. It was a well-dressed, ordinary looking man with a good haircut and impressive muscles. He wasn’t talkative, which was good since I didn’t feel like chatting. Instead, I watched the lights of the city go by and tried my best not to let my thoughts eat away at my insides.

The car stopped in front of Jay’s house at exactly midnight. Like magic. A reverse Cinderella if you will. It hit me then that I was probably going to be staying here for the weekend, with nothing, not even a clean pair of underwear or a toothbrush. Then I remembered the closet full of designer dresses, cashmere and silk. The toothbrush that was sitting in Jay’s bathroom. It gave me a sense of safety which mingled with the unease swirling in my gut as I ascended the porch steps.

There weren’t any lights on when I walked up, not even a sensor light. It was only the moon and my memory that helped me to not fall on my face. I paused at the door, unsure if I was supposed to knock or just let myself in. Jay knew I was coming. He’d timed it precisely for my arrival to fall within the timeline of our arrangement .

I decided knocking was wrong. The door was unlocked, the house even darker than it was outside, but for the dim glow from lights near my feet.

It was as quiet as a tomb beyond the faraway sounds of waves crashing against rock, and goosebumps arose on my bare arms. With no signs of life, foreboding settled over me as I walked through the silent hallway, Jay nowhere to be seen.