“He doesn’t do that, but he likes fear. He thrives on it.”
“Dark fucker, isn’t he?” I nod. “Kind of like me. Well, since you two are no longer an item, I want Sean. I bet I can make him cry.”
“He’ll make you cry and beg for mercy.” I know she’s teasing, trying to get a rise out of me, but I don’t take her bait.
Mel slaps her hands on her jean-clad knees, “Well, if that’s all, then I—”
Mel is ready to walk away, but the offer from Black is still bobbing up and down in my thoughts. Every time I consider it, I think it’s ridiculous and shove it back down, but it pops up again. I blurt it out before she can finish her sentence. “Black offered to make me madam.”
Mel is half standing, with her butt sticking out and her hands still on her knees, when she pauses. Her jaw drops and she sits back down. “White girl say what?”
“Hey, that’s my catch phrase.”
“Yeah, it didn’t sound right coming out of this luscious mouth. But enough of that. Black seriously offered?” I nod and go into the details. When I finish Mel is uncharacteristically silent. “What’d you say?”
“She told me to think about it.”
“Are you going to do it?”
“I don’t know.” I’m picking at my nails as I speak. “I’m kind of thinking that it depends on what happens with Sean, but then I’m depending on Sean for everything. Black tapped into one of my biggest fears and twisted.”
“I’d let you stay with me, but I’m screwed everyway ‘til Tuesday until they catch whoever shot my twin.”
I blink at her. “She looked like you.”
Mel puts her hands on her hips and tips her head to the side. “Yeah, we’ve been through this already. You saw her, thought she was me…”
My brain is grabbing at strings and my neck prickles. I don’t know what it is, but something is off. I can’t place my finger on it. “Wait a second.” I pull out my phone and call Black.
“What?” she snaps.
“The girl you sent to check on us at the hotel—what’d she look like?”
Black sighs dramatically into the phone. “Avery, I don’t have time for your—”
I’m insane and cut her off, saying each word staccato. “What. Did. She. Look. Like?”
Black huffs and spits out a description. “It was Tawny—dark hair with ghastly gold streaks, caucasian with olive skin, green eyes, about five foot seven, and a buck ten.”
“And she died?”
“Yes! Avery, we’ve been over this already.” Miss Black is yelling at me, but she’s wrong. Her information is totally wrong and she doesn’t know. “Unless you have something helpful to add, or you’re accepting your new position, I suggest you hang up.”
Done. I disconnect and stare at Mel. “There’s another dead body.”
CHAPTER 7
“What? Who?” Mel’s golden eyes go wide.
“The girl that was in the room—the one who looked freakishly like you—wasn’t the girl Black sent over. It was someone else. Black assumed the dead call girl was hers. She never saw the body and the police still haven’t released her name, but I saw her.” I shake my head and shiver. Continuing, I think out loud, “That means the original hooker that Black sent to our room was either in on it or she’s dead.” I tell Mel what Black told me.
“I know Tawny and that wasn’t her. I’m calling her.” Mel pulls out her phone and dials. After a second she hangs up. “It went straight to voicemail.”
“Her battery is dead.”
“Or she’s at the bottom of the bay.” Mel tenses and presses the edge of the phone to her lips.
“Mel, I don’t like this. What if it’s just some random person killing off Black’s girls? I mean, they tried to take a shot at me, they tried for you, and Tawny’s missing.” My throat’s grown so tight that I can’t swallow. “What if this has nothing to do with Sean and everything to do with Black?”
Mel’s golden gaze cuts over to me. “I don’t trust Black, period. But offering her own staff up to be slaughtered isn’t like her. Especially you and me. We’re her bread and butter. No one out earned me until you came along.”
I add, “Black has a pretty big fear of being poor.”
“I can’t blame her.” Mel rubs her hands over her face and shakes her head. “It makes no fucking sense. Someone is playing us and I’m inclined to think it’s one of the fucked up Ferros since all this started when Sean came around.”