The Fall(17)

It should have sickened me but it didn’t, the thrill tingling against my skin as I slid in between his sheets. My act of defiance meant I would sleep in his bed, even if it was the last place on earth I wanted to lay.

I pulled the covers over myself, cocooning within them as I closed my eyes. I would get through this. I would be okay.





Sofia Amaro had been a busy girl.

Leading the charge against organized crime, she had made it her personal mission to fight what most of us knew was a losing battle. There was no cure for a disease that continued to regenerate, and criminals had a knack of evolving faster than the tactics employed to stop them. And it hadn’t been just her father who had felt the pinch. If you believed the propaganda circulating from the Chicago PD, every thug in the city had a target on their back.

Which was bad for business.

Everyone’s business.

It meant every lowlife worth his salt would be coming out of the woodwork trying to end her. I completely understood why they’d be gunning for her ass too, and it wasn’t just to collect the bounty either. This was about their livelihood, their ability to do business in the future, and it was about their f*cking pride.

Within hours I had at least twenty to thirty instances of internet chatter, her name pinging left and right, with all kinds of suggestions on what a better use of her mouth would be. Here’s a hint, most of them involved the use of a cock. Whether she’d be alive when they shoved it in there was still open to debate. Some argued they needed to take some restitution first and necrophilia not being their thing. Can’t say I ever understood the appeal of f*cking a corpse, but I didn’t really give enough of a shit to be disgusted by the behavior either. And as long as it wasn’t my dick, who the f*ck cared? What I did care about was collecting my paycheck, and for now that meant keeping her breathing. So my mind wandering over uses for her mouth while interesting weren’t helpful, especially when getting her out of her neighborhood wouldn’t be enough.

I’d been careful last night. Checking the rearview to see if we were getting tailed, but nothing had given me reason for concern. Just to be sure, I took the long way, adding a few extra miles before lapping around.

Whether or not she returned to the piece of shit rental after I handed her over to her father was none of my biz, but while she was with me she wasn’t going back. That would be stupid.

And stupidity seemed to be a theme that continued too, with the sunrise bringing a variable I hadn’t counted on.

When she’d packed up her shit last night she neglected to mention the off-duty detective work she had been compiling while moonlighting. Because being a cop wasn’t bad enough, clearly. Instead she’d taken it upon herself to compile shit while she was off the clock as well. And the thumb drive that had held a database she was putting together wasn’t the sort of thing you wanted lying around. Especially if that shit fell into the wrong hands. And I didn’t mean the cops. So much for not going back to her place.

She looked rested as she stared at me across the room, my bed giving her the respite it hadn’t given me last night.

“Just tell me where the f*cking thing is.”

Taking her to her house in broad daylight wasn’t an option, especially not after I’d successfully evact’d her. Going back in was a whole bunch of complications, not to mention the stupidest move ever.

“I can come with you. I’ll be in and out quicker because I know what I’m looking for.” She checked her nine, sliding an extra clip into the pocket of her jeans.

Man, she was a pain in the ass. Firstly, that she’d be so stupid leaving that shit behind, and secondly thinking she was coming with me.

“Here are your options.” I was quickly losing patience with this shit as I held up my hand. “You either tell me where it is and I go in cleanly, or I lock you in the basement and tear your place apart and find it myself. Neither of those scenarios involves you moving your ass from this house. You got me?” I pointed to the chair she’d lifted her ass out of, our morning meeting not going to plan after she fessed up about the f*cking computer files.

“You aren’t locking me in a basement.” Her eyes got wide, not looking convinced that it wasn’t where she was going to end up. “I’m still holding a gun.” She held it up like I needed the reminder.

“I don’t give a f*ck if you are holding a rocket launcher, the fact is remaining unchanged. If you hadn’t been so stupid in the first place and left it behind, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion. And I have a very low tolerance for stupidity and conversation, you might do well to remember that.”

I should have asked for more f*cking money, if only to cover the truckload of freaking Advil I was going to need for the headache. Seriously, what the hell was wrong with shutting the f*ck up and letting me do my job?

“You’re calling me stupid?” Her eyelids peeled back in surprise, obviously not having entertained the thought. “You gave me barely any time to pack. It wasn’t the most pressing thing on my mind,” she spat back defensively. “It’s in a locked drawer and the files are password protected. No one besides the two of us even knows about it, there is nothing even hinting to its existence on my hard drive.”

“You’re staying here.” I took a couple of steps closer, my body looming over hers. I was done with negotiating. “Tell me where the f*ck it is.”