“I’ll put a word in with the boss,” I told her, and I heard her light laugh. “Sleep,” I commanded.
“I will,” she told me, and her eyes were already closed. “Onyx?”
With a sigh, I looked over my shoulder. “Yes, Angel?”
“Thank you.” Her voice drifted quietly over the quiet of the room, her eyes still closed.
“Don’t mention it,” I said as I left the room and shut the door. After undressing, showering, and getting myself ready for bed, I lay on top of my bed and checked in with Cooper.
“You starting tonight?”
“Yup, no time like the present.”
“Careful,” I warned him as I stared at the flatscreen on my opposite wall. “You’re starting to care.”
“Can’t stand it when fuckers touch my stuff,” he mumbled.
“And Angel?”
“Nothing’s changed. She’s still a stuck-up bitch.” He hesitated. “But it’s going too far now. Time to take the bastard down.”
“Agreed,” I said before he said goodnight.
Lying down, I closed my eyes. I could still taste her. Feel her. Her pussy clamping down on my cock as I fought not to come inside her. Kissing her had been rash, but I didn’t like being lied to directly. Especially by her.
I knew why she left that morning. She saw women’s lingerie, she put two and two together and got fourteen, and then she realized she’d fucked up. Instead of owning her mistake, she had scurried away to a hotel.
She ran.
I thought about it.
That’s what the note said. That she ran. They knew her? More than we thought they did? Sitting up, I reached for my phone and opened the list I had of her clients.
I was checking the people closest to her first. Clark Fitzpatrick had been my prime suspect until Cooper had run a background on his whereabouts, and it looked like Clark was going to be ruled out.
Skimming the list for what felt like the hundredth time, I phoned Cooper again. “What now?” he complained. “You need pussy advice, phone Jer.”
“If I did need advice about that, you would never be the one I called,” I told him honestly. “You run a background check on her?”
Cooper was silent. “Not since college,” he said slowly. “What are you thinking?”
“She left my house, she left her house, she’s now left the hotel.”
“With good reason,” Cooper said and then thought about it. “Running.”
“The note said it. She said the fucker told her that tonight. He knows her more than she thinks he does.”
“I’ll run a check. Exes?”
“I did them already,” I told him. “Ex-boyfriend is usually the culprit.”
Cooper laughed loudly. “I need to check you, Onyx? You an ex or a current?”
“Fuck off.” I hung up.
He was right, though. I probably shouldn’t have fucked her. Then or now. Putting my phone down again, I stared at the ceiling. Oh well, too late now for regrets.
The sound of screaming woke me, and I ran to her room to find her twisted in her sheets, sweating and crying, experiencing a nightmare. Did I leave her? Her whimpering brought me closer to her bed.
