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I look …
I flounder, my mind drawing a blank.
And then it hits me.
In my vision, I look like the sort of woman Kristian Cameno would be proud of to have on his arm.
Is it possible that he truly thinks I’m beautiful enough to wear that dress, those heels, that lingerie?
“Why don’t you start from the beginning?” Jackie says, walking over and sitting on the arm of the chair.
She reaches down and gives my shoulder a squeeze.
“It’s okay, sis,” she says. “I’ve got all night. I’m not going anywhere.”
I take a deep breath and then I start at the beginning.
I tell her about Alexis calling and going to the open house – which she already knows about– but this time I add in finding the drugs. I tell her how Kristian came to visit me.
I tell her how we kissed, and what he said.
I belong to him now.
I tell her how happy that made me.
I leave out the orgasm. She doesn’t need that much detail.
“But I think it must be some sort of twisted trick,” I murmur.
Jackie smooths her hand over my shoulder. It’s the same gesture she’s done a hundred times before when the ups and downs of high school and then grownup life battered me down.
It’s a gesture that says, Don’t worry. Your big sister’s here. Everything’s going to be okay.
“You must really like this guy,” she murmurs.
I glance at her. “That’s not what I expected you to say.”
“What did you think I was going to say?”
“Well—that I should’ve contacted the police when I found the drugs. Or that I’m crazy for not running a mile when he said I belonged to him.”
Jackie smiles wryly. “Maybe all of that’s true, but I’m not going to tell you how to live your life. All I know is that you like him. Your first instinct was to assume this was a trick. Why, Kimberly? Why did you immediately go there?”
I bite my lip, remembering the way he glared at me as he brought his come-slick finger to my lips. I was so freaking horny then, my body alight with a thousand different wants and needs.
And yet I was also certain he was going to laugh at me the moment I did it.
“You sick bitch,” I imagined him saying. “I can’t believe you actually did that.”
“Because I’ve never had a boyfriend before,” I rage. “I’ve never even had anything close to a boyfriend. Nobody’s ever shown any interest in me. Let’s face it, Jacks. I’m just not the sort of girl men fall for.”
“Well, this man clearly has,” she says fiercely. “You know how much I hate it when you talk like that when you put yourself down. I freaking despise it.”
“I know,” I sigh. “It’s just so hard sometimes. Especially when it happens to be true.”
“I don’t think it’s true at all,” she says. “And clearly neither does this Kristian Cameno. You told me he said he wasn’t a drug dealer. You told me he got offended when you called him that.”
“Yeah, he did,” I sigh. “But maybe he was lying?”
“You don’t think he was lying,” she says, narrowing her eyes, reading me like she always can.
It reminds me of Kristian, the way he can read me.
It reminds me of the way he narrowed his eyes at me and gazed right into my soul.
The difference is it makes sense with Jackie. She’s my sister.
Kristian is a stranger.
But it doesn’t feel that way.
“What happens if I put on the dress and everything, and then it turns out to be a trick? Maybe he wants to humiliate me because he still thinks I took some of the drugs or something. He’s clearly a criminal of some sort, if not a drug dealer. Or, at the very least, he’s involved in that world. Shouldn’t that scare me, Jacks? Shouldn’t that make me want to run?”
“Oh, Kimmy,” Jackie murmurs, giving my shoulder another squeeze. “I can’t answer that question for you. You’re not a kid anymore. You have to make that decision yourself. But whatever you decide, I’ll support you. And if something bad does happen, you know I’ll be here to put you back together again.”
I giggle, reach up and place my hand atop hers.
It was one of the ways she used to soothe me as a kid.
Don’t worry, little baby. I’ll put you back together again just like Humpty Dumpty.
I sigh and glance at the box, wondering if I’ll have the courage to wear it when the time comes.
I almost leap from the chair when my cellphone blares from the coffee table.
Chapter Eight
Kristian
I sit in my office, idly toying with the golden letter opener.
The day has been busy.
I’ve gathered up all of Maury’s product and ordered it incinerated in a morgue far outside the city, where the fumes won’t be noticed or bother anybody. I’ve checked in with the men guarding Maury, discovering that he’s going through some white-knuckle withdrawals.
