vii.

She was beautiful. More beautiful than anyone in this business should be, mainly because the world didn't need to be looking at her.
Not at those long legs.
That waterfall of dark hair, the intensity in those aquamarine eyes.

No one needed to see it.

No one needed to know that she had a tattoo of two butterflies on the inside of her left ankle, one pink, one purple…
No one needed to know the way she whimpered when you slammed her into the wall…

The way she pleaded with me.
The way she cried for her brother.
The way she howled that either he or Jericho would come save her…

She insisted he loved her – that was amusing.
If he loved her so damn much, why was he the one who'd done it…?

Of course, I knew better. I knew that she wasn't dead, and that he hadn't been one inkling responsible for her disappearance. He was as broken up about this as anyone could humanly be…
Which was the vast majority of the problem.

He's not cared about – anyone before.
And now it was obvious he had some connection to the nymph stuffed in the closet.
His mind had been on her lately…not on winning…

It'll be a pity when I'm finished with her.

Why don't you take the day off, I'd told him, get yourself together, shove Reese's disappearance in the back of your mind. She's not worth worrying about anyway…

He'd been…rather destructive when I'd said that.
Not taken it well at all…

He'd taken the day, though. Which gave me…time with Reese.
Even if she squirmed when I put my hands on her.
Even if she cried every time.

She…was breaking down.

I'd have to get rid of her soon.

And…we already had a suspect. A place to deposit Reese's lovely body when she finally broke…
When I'd have to clean up the evidence.
Yes…this was going nicely.