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“I didn’t give it to you.”Okay then. Who is this woman?
“What are your rates? How do I pay you?”
“Call it a favour for a friend of a friend.”
“No, I wouldn’t feel right doing that,” Ava insisted. “Look, it’s important to do this the right way. I need to pay you.”
The woman sighed as if she was running out of patience, and Ava winced. She didn’t want to piss her off, especially not when she’d agreed to help them, but Ava drew the line at getting things for free.
“My fee depends on what I find. I’ve taken a quick look at the photos. They’re professional, so it’s likely a pap. I’ll find out whether they were following Bryce, or if they were tipped off. If someone sold you out, and they’re a piece of shit, I’ll take my fee from their assets. I decide whether they’re a piece of shit and how much I charge. You get no say in it at all. If that’s not satisfactory to you, then we leave it and we both walk away right now.”
Ava swallowed. Take her fee from their assets? Ava didn’t know what exactly that would entail, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to either. There was no way it could be legal. “What about if they’re… not a piece of shit?”
The woman huffed out a dark laugh. Her voice was smoky and seductive, and Ava was a mixture of scared, a little excited, and a whole lot intimidated by her, whoever she was. “They rarely are. Tell me, would you consider a person who sneaks into someone’s backyard, takes photos of them being intimate then sells them, decent?”
“No, but—”
“Neither do I, but I keep an open mind. In my line of work, I find information that people are trying to hide. Trust me, it’s rare that I’m not paid. It actually makes a nice change when I don’t.”
“Are you sure? I mean—”
“Yes.” This time her voice was sharp, and Ava snapped her mouth closed. There was a clicking on the other end of the line like the press of a computer keyboard. “If it makes you sleep better, donate some money to Bryce’s e-safety charity, or the one you run.”
Ava swallowed. Clearly this woman had done her research on them. Her voice came out as a squeak, timid when she was usually confident. “Okay. Yeah, we can do that.”
The line went dead, and Ava pulled her phone away, blinking. The whole conversation had been surreal. Who was this woman? How did King know her? Ava jumped when Bryce’s strong arms slid around her waist, laughing when he playfully kissed everywhere he could reach.
“Why are you up so early?” he whined, fake crying.
“I just got off the phone…”
Twenty-two
Cole
A
va’s hand shook as she flipped her phone over, looking at the caller ID as it rung. He had to give it to her. The woman Ava had spoken to was precise. Two days to the hour from her original call and she was on the phone again.
An anvil sat perched precariously in Cole’s gut. He was ready for it to fall and take his already average mood with it. Fear sat heavily in him. He was terrified of finding out that one of the very limited group of people—Ava and Bryce’s families and a group of friends he could count on one hand—had betrayed them. He desperately wanted it to have been just bad luck.
Was it possible that they were in the wrong place at the wrong time and seen by someone who took more than a passing interest? He wasn’t sure what was worse—being stalked or betrayed.
Cole sucked in a breath and held it, counting each heartbeat as his pulse thudded through his veins. Lightheaded, he threaded his fingers through Ava’s and gripped her hand, holding onto her for dear life as he slowly exhaled. She was his calm in the storm, his safe place, and he needed her in that moment more than anything.
The only thing missing was Bryce’s presence, his exuberant happiness like a ray of sunshine over them.
Ava answered the call, putting it on speaker. Cole was surprised that the woman actually spoke to people. From the way Ava had talked about her, she was more than a little weird. Surely some sort of incognito message popping up after their computer screen blanked out and a lone curser appeared would be more appropriate. Who didn’t tell people their name? Then again, giving out a name meant that she could potentially be found—social media, at her job. Then she’d have to be available to talk to people. Cole could relate to wanting to avoid that. Peopling at all was seriously overrated.
“Hello,” Ava squeaked. She cleared her throat and shot a freaked-out look—wide-eyed and bunched eyebrows as she bit down on her lip—toward Cole before she continued, “Ava here. You’re on speaker phone with my boyfriend Cole.”
“Ava, Cole, I have news. Are you somewhere private?” The woman’s voice was smoky. It immediately made him think of whiskey and cigars, dark corners in bars, and a red slinky dress on a beautiful woman. Except there was no seduction or sensuality in her voice. She was all business.
No wonder Ava was intimidated. He was a little of that himself.
“Yes, we’re in one of our houses. We’re the only people here,” Ava responded as Cole pulled away from her and closed the last of the blinds to the room. Anyone outside could probably hear them—there was a gaping hole in the kitchen floor that they were standing right next to, but at least they couldn’t see them. They were rarely inside now with blinds open anymore. It was depressing and made for constantly feeling like they were closed in, but at least there wouldn’t be any more photos.
“Good. The photograph was taken by David Collingwood. He’s a professional photographer but doesn’t usually dabble in paparazzi images.”
