Goosebumps rose on her arms.
“But I can’t let you collapse just yet.” His smile hardened a bit. “Like I said, I need a moment of your time.”
She backed up a step. And suddenly, the idea that Ethan might be trailing her—that idea wasn’t so scary. The devil you know…
Is far better than the one you don’t.
“Who are you?” Carly asked him, notching up her chin.
He pulled a wallet out of his pocket. No, not a wallet—ID. Real official looking ID. “I’m with the FBI, ma’am. My name is Special Agent Victor Monroe, and I need to talk with you about Quincy Atkins.”
No, no, no. Her heart stopped beating. She stared up at the special agent and actually felt her world start to collapse around her. This couldn’t be happening. He couldn’t know what she’d done. Could he?
Victor Monroe’s head tilted to the right. “Are you okay, Ms. Shay? You’ve gone quite pale.”
“I-I’m still recovering, like you said.” She put her hand to her temple. “And it’s warm today. I-I need to get inside and cool down. Our talk will have to wait…”
But when she tried to step around him, the FBI agent—Victor—moved into her path. “It can’t wait.” Suspicion had sharpened his gaze. “Can’t help but notice…you don’t act at all surprised to hear that a federal agent wants to question you about a missing crime lord.”
Her heart was racing now—seeming to shake her chest. And her mouth had gone bone-dry.
“Do you know where Quincy Atkins is, Ms. Shay?”
Hell. That was exactly where she suspected he was. But she wasn’t about to tell the FBI special agent that fact. “How would I know? I think I saw some special on 20/20 about him. The man’s been missing for years.”
His hand reached out and curled around her shoulder. At that touch, Carly flinched. It was her normal reaction to being touched. Only…I didn’t flinch when Ethan touched me. She’d figure out that messed up thought later, but for the moment… “I want you to take your hand off me.” Her voice was cool. “I don’t know anything about Quincy Atkins and his disappearance, so I don’t have anything to say to you.”
Victor’s jaw hardened as his hand immediately dropped. “I’m here to help you.”
“I doubt that.” Carly wondered how he’d even learned about her…and her connection to Quincy. Someone had tipped off the FBI, obviously, but just who was that someone? She marched briskly for her building.
“I have reason to believe that you may be connected to Quincy’s disappearance.” The agent was shadowing her steps. Making her way too nervous. “And if I have reason to believe that…” He sighed. “Then others will believe it, too. You may find yourself…hunted.”
At that one word, hunted, Carly turned to face him. “Are you trying to frighten me?” She thought he was.
He didn’t deny her accusation. Instead, Victor said, “When you were seventeen years old, you were put in a psych ward for three weeks. That was two weeks after Quincy Atkins vanished. That timeline is interesting, don’t you think? Especially since I know you worked as a dancer at Quincy’s club, and word from some of the people who knew him back then, well, they said Quincy took a special interest in you.”
“A special interest,” she repeated, disgust sharp in her voice, “in a seventeen year old girl.”
He stepped even closer to her. She didn’t like it. Fear rose within her. Because this agent—he could destroy her life. She knew it. He was staring at her with speculation in his eyes, and the guy could probably smell the blood trail that led straight to her.
“I can be an enemy,” Victor told her. “Or I can be a friend. It all depends on you.”
She shook her head. “What are you asking? For me to make some kind of deal with you?”
“You don’t strike me as the killing type,” Victor told her.
Then you don’t know me very well.
“But if you know who did kill Quincy Atkins, if you know what happened…your life could be in danger. I can help you. The FBI can protect you. We can—”
“You can move the hell away from her, asshole.”
Carly’s breath heaved out at that low, deadly command. A command that had come from Ethan. Her gaze shot to the left, and he was there, glaring at the FBI agent and his golden gaze seemed to burn with fury.
Two things were clear to her in that moment. One, Ethan had kept following her. So that meant he’d probably been close and overheard her whole conversation with the FBI guy.