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  Now I had to face it.

  I had taken an innocent girl hostage. Hell, I’d almost killed her without knowing. I felt sick just thinking about it.

  My hands untied the ropes binding her to my bed automatically, without thought. I took off her blindfold. She stretched, all feline curves and sensuality, and rubbed the raw part of her wrists where she had pulled against the bindings.

  I was emotionally drained and physically exhausted. Her body would rid itself of the drugs soon, but I felt as though I needed stimulants to carry me through what was to come. I had to find Susan Steadhill if I could ever let her leave. I would go tonight. I’d stop by Jake’s and ask him personally if he had any leads. He hated calling over the phone; he insisted that the government monitored every word.

  I had to find her. I had to kill her and kill Mr. Steadhill. Then Vale would get off of my case and I would be able to think clearly about all this. I wouldn’t have to kill Sara if I could find Susan. I couldn’t let her go, but at least I wouldn’t have to kill her.

  She yawned, her hand brushing my back, and I lay down beside her, cradling her. So innocent. The way she looked up at me, I could swear that she actually loved me. After all that; after I’d teased her and tortured her for the truth. Guilt flooded my system.

  “I have to tell you something, Sara,” I said.

  “Yes?”

  “I have to keep you here. With me.”

  She blinked drowsily.

  “I am here with you.”

  “I know. And I want to let you leave. Eventually. But now, I can’t. I have to find Susan Steadhill.” I got up, pulled my clothes back on.

  “Now?”

  “Yes.” I buttoned my shirt up. She watched me, her tongue wetting her lower lip as I buttoned the top button. Maybe there was another way. Maybe I didn’t have to let her go.

  “Sara, you said you loved me.”

  She blushed. Oh, hell. My cock stiffened again at the bashful look on her face.

  “Do you… would you want to stay here with me?”

  “What do you mean?”

  The look in her eyes: fear. She was scared of me. And rightfully so. I couldn’t ask her to stay in a prison indefinitely.

  “Never mind.”

  “Rien—”

  “Never mind. We’ll figure it out later.”

  “Do you want me to sleep here?” she asked, frowning.

  “Do whatever you want.”

  She sat up, pulling the sheet around her body. Bending down, she stooped to pick up the green dress.

  “I think… I think I’ll sleep in the library.” Her eyes didn’t meet mine. Jesus. If she had told one lie, it had been that. Maybe she had loved the sex; whatever it was, her feelings had obviously vanished along with the drugs in her system.

  “Do you need me to help you there?” I asked.

  “I’m fine.”

  “The door will lock behind you automatically.”

  “Okay,” she said softly. She stood up to leave. I didn’t watch her go.

  In the bathroom, I splashed water on my face. I rubbed my eyes and stared into the mirror. Who was the person staring back? Some idiot in love. Some fool who thought he could keep a real girl in a fake prison. How had I fallen for her so bad? I sighed. One mistake, and all my life’s work was in jeopardy. One stupid, beautiful mistake.

  Sara

  I went back into the library, the sheet draped around my shoulders. My head was spinning. I had told Rien I loved him. He wouldn’t let me out, though. Wouldn’t let me out unless—

  He had to know where Susan Steadhill was. Okay. I had an idea. It wasn’t a great idea, but it was a start.

  I pulled on the green dress. Rien had slit through the strap, so I tied it back together. There. I wasn’t presentable, but at least I wasn’t buck naked. The silk fabric fluttered against my ankles.

  I opened the bookcase and tiptoed through. Outside of the window, the lights of Los Angeles twinkled in the night.

  Mr. Steadhill was sleeping on the operating room table. I took a deep breath and pulled off his gag. He yelped, and I shoved the gag back in, putting my finger to my lips. He stared at me with one good eye, then nodded. I eased the gag back up.

  “Listen,” I whispered. “I think I’ve figured out how to get out of here.”

  “You have?”

  “There’s another way, through the front,” I said, making every detail up as I went along. If he believed me, he might tell me how to reach his wife.

  “Untie me and we’ll go.”

  “I can’t. He—uh, he’s got your vitals hooked up to one of the alarms. If you take them out, it’ll go off.”

  “Who cares? I want to get out of here!”

  “Anyway, the door to the library is locked.”

  “Library?”

  “Shut up and let me talk!” I hissed, trying to make it seem like it was urgent. “I can’t get back in. He’s the only one with the key.”

  Mr. Steadhill frowned, and the scab above his eye twitched. My dress strap fell down and I pushed it back up.

  “So what? You can’t leave either? Why’d you even bother—”

  “Wait. He lets me sleep in his bedroom. I can sneak out at night. I can’t get you out right away, but I can get the police to come and get you.”

  “Alright.”

  “First,” I said, hoping to God that he would play along, “I need to know where your wife is.”

  He fixed his eye on me, and the half of his face that still remained twisted into a scowl.

  “I killed her.”

  Rien

  Stupid me. Stupid girl.

  I followed her to the library after a minute, just to make sure she hadn’t tried to escape; it was silly of me to have let her out of my sight in the house. Even with the remaining barbiturates swirling in her system, she might have managed to lie.

  Behind the wall, I could hear her moving around, and the door was locked tight. I considered opening up the door to talk to her again, but I didn’t know what I’d say to her. There wasn’t anything else to say, was there?

  No. I had to go find Susan Steadhill.

  I picked up my medical bag from the bedroom and made sure that I had all of the necessary supplies. A sedative preloaded into a syringe. I put it in my pocket for easy access. I checked once more that all of my security system was up and running. It wouldn’t do to have her trying to escape. Everything checked out. Great.

  Heading out, I flipped off the lights and opened the front door. I dropped my bag to the ground in surprise.

  Vale was standing in front of me. He raised his gun to my face.

  “Where exactly do you think you’re going?”

  Sara

  I stared down incredulously at Mr. Steadhill. My mind reeled.

  “You… you killed her?” I felt like retching. I felt like he’d stabbed me in the gut. It was him. Mr. Steadhill. He was the murderer.

  I felt completely betrayed. Rien would have let me go, but I felt terrible about letting Mr. Steadhill die without doing anything to save him. Now, though… he’d killed her. I couldn’t think anymore.

  “She was sleeping around behind my back. When I confronted her, she said that we would split after we got to Brazil. She would go her way, and I’d go mine.”

  I swallowed, trying not to seem too shocked. My brain raced a hundred miles a minute. I had to hide my true feelings from him, or he wouldn’t talk to me. Killer. Killer. That was all I could think. He killed and lied and lied about killing. He was the murderer.

  “You didn’t want her to come with you to Brazil, then?”

  “Are you kidding? That stupid whore. She deserved to die.”

  I swallowed back my disgust. He’d killed Susan. He might have killed me before fleeing to Brazil. Would he have killed me? I was the only one who would have known about him. Looking at his leering eye, I would have sworn that he could read my mind.

  I shut out those thoughts from my mind. There was only one thing I needed
to know.

  “Where’s the body?”

  “What?”

  “Your wife’s body. Where is it?”

  “Why do you want to know?” His one eye squinted suspiciously at me.

  “Look, this place is on lockdown. Even if I go tell the police what’s going on, they’ll come by and ask Rien and he’ll just lie to them. It’ll give him plenty of time to kill you and get away before they get a search warrant.”

  “You don’t think they’ll believe you?”

  “The police? I could just be another L.A. loon making up stories to get attention. But if I can show them a body, they’ll come in here guns blazing. It’ll give you a better chance, at least.”

  “But then…” Mr. Steadhill coughed. “They’ll know I killed Susan.”

  “I’ll tell them that it was the doctor who did it. Once they have hard proof, they can bust through the door and save you. Come on! It’s our only chance!”

  It was a story that I hoped he would believe. After a short pause, he nodded. Relief flooded my system.

  “Okay,” Mr. Steadhill said. “Okay. I—”

  The door to the library burst open. I grabbed the nearest scalpel off of the medical table, ready to defend myself. Ready for anything. Or so I thought.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Rien

  “Vale, you gotta stop showing up like this.” I stared past him. There was nobody else around.

  “You have the teeth?”

  “I’ll get them for you. Tomorrow.”

  “Now.”

  “You said tomorrow.”

  “That’s what I said before. Now I’m saying tonight. Where are you going, Rien?”

  “Can’t a guy go out for the night?”

  “With a bag full of medical supplies and a syringe in his pocket?” His eyes darted down to my shirt. “Take it out.”

  I pulled the syringe from my pocket and put it down slowly on the floor.

  “Vale—”

  “I don’t want any more lies. Get back inside.”

  I turned around and went back into the house. He closed the door behind him.

  “I got some bad vibes off of you last time we chatted,” Vale said, his eyes sweeping the house. “So I thought I’d come over a bit sooner and make sure you weren’t going anywhere. Lucky me, huh?”

  “I’ll get you the teeth, Vale. By tomorrow.”

  “See, I want them now.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Why not?”

  I sighed. I couldn’t lie to him forever.

  “There’s a girl.”

  “A girl?” Vale cocked the gun.

  “Not Mrs. Steadhill. The wrong person came.”

  “The surveillance tapes showed—”

  “She was an actress. Pretending to be Mrs. Steadhill.”

  “Alright.” Vale looked like he was trying to sort the whole mess out in his head. “Okay. So the rumors were true after all. Susan is somewhere out in the world, maybe dead, maybe not. Where is she?”

  “That’s who I was going to go looking for,” I said. I hoped he would let me go. Give me some time to figure out how to deal with it. Even if the best way was to run away from Los Angeles entirely.

  “Where’s the girl?”

  “She doesn’t know anything. She’s innocent.”

  “You didn’t kill her yet?”

  I leveled a gaze at him.

  “I’m not that much of a sick fuck, Vale.”

  “Right. You’re such a bleeding heart. You know what this means?”

  “I know what it means.”

  “Must be some girl, that you can’t kill her. Show me.”

  “She’s locked up in the library, okay? She doesn’t know anything.”

  “Show me.”

  Sara

  I gasped as Rien burst into the room. There was another man holding a gun to his head.

  “Well, great. Now she’s seen you too,” Rien said to the man. “Are you happy now?”

  “This is the girl?”

  “Rien?” I asked, the scalpel shaking in my hand.

  “It’s alright,” Rien said. He turned to the man who still held the gun trained to his head. “This is the girl I was telling you about. Sara.”

  “Doesn’t look like she doesn’t know anything,” the man called Vale said. “Looks like she knows a lot, actually. Looks like she’s standing over a dead body.”

  Mr. Steadhill moaned and the man stared in awe at the operating table.

  “Are you serious?” he asked. “That guy is still alive?”

  I couldn’t stop staring at the gun that was pointed directly at Rien’s head. I wanted to scream, to rush over and save him. He looked so calm, like he wasn’t worried at all about the muzzle of the gun against his skull. But I was terrified for him.

  “Help me,” Mr. Steadhill rasped.

  “They’re both alive?” Vale turned to Rien, shoving the gun harder against his temple. Rien’s head tilted to the side and my brain went blank. “Are you fucking kidding me? I’m going to kill you, I swear to Christ I will. Both of them—”

  “Mrs. Steadhill is dead,” I said quickly. My heart was thudding in my ears. He couldn’t kill Rien. No.

  “Don’t tell them! Why would you tell him?” Mr. Steadhill said, his scream echoing in the operating room. I could feel the panic rising in my throat. “You bitch! You stupid—”

  I shoved the gag in his mouth with my free hand. My hand holding the scalpel was still shaking, but I couldn’t put it down. I was scared to death that Vale would pull the trigger. I was scared I wouldn’t be able to defend myself.

  “He killed her,” I said. “Not Rien. Mr. Steadhill. He killed his wife.”

  “Oh, that’s just lovely,” Vale said. “Good thing I came here to get all the answers to my questions. I knew there was something going on with you, Rien.”

  “Please,” I said, stepping forward. “Don’t shoot him.”

  “What are you, the fucking police? No. I’m the fucking police.” Vale pulled a second gun from his jacket and leveled it at me. “And look at this. Now I’m going to have to kill both of you stupid fuckers.”

  “Vale—”

  Was that a flash of fear in Rien’s eyes? Panic choked me.

  “Shut up, Rien,” Vale said, hitting him on the back of the head with the barrel of his gun. The crack of the barrel against his skull echoed across the room. Rien winced in pain and I shrieked.

  “Don’t! Don’t kill him!”

  “Shut up, both of you!” Vale screamed.

  “Why?” I gasped.

  “Why?”

  “Why—why do you have to do this?” My throat was closing up, but I couldn’t just stand here and die.

  “Let me put it simply, sweetheart,” Vale said. His voice was lower, but somehow that seemed even worse. “This—” he waved one gun in the direction of the table, “—is a goddamn mess. Here we have a special ops who can’t do his fucking job of killing people, even though that’s the thing he loves best.”

  He smacked Rien again on the back of the head with the gun and blood ran down Rien’s cheek. I wanted to attack Vale. I had just met him, but I wanted to punch him through the face. He leaned forward and yelled into Rien’s ear.

  “I’m not even supposed to know about it, but I do. Because I’m the one who sends you jobs. Only you haven’t done your goddamn job!”

  “Vale—” he started, but Vale cocked the gun that was aimed at me and Rien’s mouth slammed shut. He looked more terrified that Vale would shoot me than anything else.

  “I’m sorry, Rien. You’ve been good. It’s been good working with you. But this is a mess I need to get rid of. I’ve got a federal witness half-dissected on an operating room table who just admitted to killing his wife, whose body I’m still missing.”

  I inhaled sharply. He had been about to tell me. He had. I racked my brain for what I could do to make Vale stop.

  “And we’ve got a civilian who’s going to blab about this whole fuck
ing thing to Rolling Stone so she can get her name in the papers.”

  “I won’t!” I cried.

  “Yeah? You’re an actress. You’re smack dab in the middle of a murder scene. You’d get a shitload of attention if you spread this shit around. And what, you’re just going to frolic out of here and not tell anyone? I don’t want to kill you, darling, but there’s not a lot of options here. I’m sorry, I really am. If there was any other way, I would take it.”

  “Trust me, I won’t—”

  “How do I know I can trust you? Huh? Convince me.”

  “I—“

  “Five seconds to convince me. Or I start my cleanup with the good doctor here.”

  How could he trust me? I couldn’t let him kill Rien. I couldn’t let him kill me. I saw Rien breathing deeply, and I could see the terror in his eyes. I looked down at Mr. Steadhill, who was still straining against the straps. And I knew what I had to do.

  Stepping forward, I pressed the scalpel against Mr. Steadhill’s neck. And I followed the line Rien had drawn for me.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Rien

  I gaped as blood spurted from Mr. Steadhill’s neck.

  “What the fuck,” Vale gasped beside me. He lowered his gun to his side, amazement on his face.

  Sara stepped back, the front of her green dress already soaked in blood. The scalpel dropped to the floor with a clatter.

  “Sara—”

  I rushed to her side. She stumbled back, clutching at my arms, and I caught her. Blood pooled on the ground, and Mr. Steadhill’s eye stared up blankly at nothing. He was dead. Sara bent over, retching air. I held her by the waist. Finally she shuddered and stood up shakily. She looked at Vale.

  “I won’t. Tell. Anyone.”

  “Jesus,” Vale said breathlessly. “Jesus.”

  Sara swallowed, her eyes darting back to the blood that still dripped from the table.

  “There,” I said to Vale. “Are you satisfied?”

  “What about Susan Steadhill?”

  “I think… I think her body is under the Santa Monica pier,” Sara said. She spoke softly, but in the silent room her voice carried.

  “Did he tell you that?”