Extreme Danger (McClouds & Friends #5)(137)

She could no longer make out his eyes, it was so dark, but she could actually feel the cold emanating from him. “Nice recovery,” he said. “But you really think I’m that stupid? Why should I believe you now when you lied to me before? You didn’t say anything about visiting a Gavin Street town house to see your brother. You lied, Becca. Why?”

“No.” She squeezed her eyes shut and whispered, “I, ah, I thought that stop to see Josh was no big deal—”

“No big deal? Really. Your thought processes fascinate me.”

His grating, ironic tone was chilling. “OK, I thought you would be angry,” she blurted. “It just came up. He called me, and you’d been so intense about safety, and so I just—”

“I am angry,” he said. “You cannot imagine how angry I am.”

She rattled her cuffed hand against the scaffolding. “This is a pretty emphatic message,” she said tartly. “Nick, get real. Wake up. You can’t leave me here. You are wrong about me. I’m not with Zhoglo.”

“What’s this, then?” He retrieved her purse, which had fallen to the floor and rummaged inside, pulling out an envelope. “Explain this to me, sweetheart.”

She stared at it, utterly perplexed. “My new purse—I bought a replacement. But that? Never seen that before in my life. What is it?”

He pulled out a fantastically thick wad of bills. “Fifteen thousand bucks,” he said. “For services rendered.”

She stared at it, shaking her head. She felt hemmed in, on every side, like the walls of a box were closing in on her. “No,” she whispered.

“You must have shown Zhoglo one hell of a good time for that kind of money. Were you as passionate with him as you are with me?”

“No. Never. They must have planted it while I was talking to Josh,” she said, but she could feel the wall that blocked her words from him. They bounced back, sounding even to her own ears like the meaningless babble of a liar, caught out.

“Or was that money you took for f*cking me?” Nick went on. “When I see the guy tonight, I’ll have to thank him. I have never been worked over like you worked me over. I’m not even the same man.”

That was literally true. He was transformed, and she hated the transformation. “No, you’re not,” she said. “And I would never do what you are accusing me of, Nick. Never in a million years.”

He groped around inside her purse again, took out a small, flat black device. “And this, too. I’ll get rid of it when I leave.”

“What is that?” She peered at it, trying to make it out in the dimness, but he’d already slipped it into his pocket.

“Don’t play dumb. It’s boring.” He took out her cell phone, pocketed that. “Here. You take this.” He reached inside her jacket, feeling for the inside pocket, and slipped the thick wad of cash carefully inside. She could feel its weight tugging on her shoulder like a brick. “Keep it safe, beautiful. God knows, you’ve earned it.”

She shrank away from his touch. “Don’t touch me.”

“No?” His hands slid down and fastened around her waist. “Aw, come on. It’s how you’ve been managing me all along, babe. Don’t you want to give your sexual wiles one more try? I’m up for it.” He grabbed her free hand and pressed it against his erection. “Amazing, isn’t it? How the body and the mind just don’t connect. My dick doesn’t care about this convoluted bullshit. It just wants to have at that * one last time—”

“Nick, stop it. I can’t stand this.”

“Besides, you know how you go wild for extreme.” His voice was a deep, ticklish growl against her ear that made shivers of conflicting emotions race down her spine. “Remember how turned on you got for Zhoglo’s live sex show? What could be more extreme than being handcuffed and f*cked in an abandoned warehouse? Talk about illicit sex. You’ve been paid, and I’ve been betrayed…and fifteen K should be good for one last whack, right?”

She shrank away. “I would rather die!”

He stepped away from her. “Not an option. That’s what this whole thing is about, Becca. You, not dying.”

She squinted at him. “Oh, come on. You’re protecting me, by chaining me up in a warehouse?”

“Yeah,” he said. “I’m doing the meeting, Becca. I’m going to let them take me to him. And I’m going to kill that f*cker while he’s gloating. That’s my plan. You wait here. Out of harm’s way. You can’t harm me. He can’t harm you. It’s the best I can do for you.”

“But…but you can’t go to him,” she faltered. “He’ll—”

“Kill me? Cut me up? Oh, yeah. That goes without saying.”

She stiffened, lurching towards him, and was brought up sharp by the painful tug of the metal cuffs. “Oh, God, Nick. You can’t.”

“Please don’t pretend you care,” he said. “It makes it that much worse. Now listen closely. I don’t have much time. Truth is, I’m genuinely sorry to leave you here. This place gives me the creeps too. I would rather have used my own house, but it’s too far to drive there and back. There are six big bottles of water. Some food, enough to keep you going for a couple days. But I doubt that you’ll have to wait that long.”