by Anne Conley
“Where did you say you met him?”
“He was at Bar Night. Not with our office, of course, but that’s where I met him. At Stella’s.”
“Has he done anything suspicious? Asked personal questions? Made inappropriate moves on you? Anything?”
She shook her head. “No, nothing at all like that. He’s really a nice guy, Evan. We’re just friends.”
“Friends don’t just show up at work, acting all possessive and growling at co-workers,” Evan replied. She was so real, here in her kitchen, all casual elegance, wearing yoga pants and her tank top, sitting on her granite countertops.
But her innocence shone as she scoffed. “He doesn’t do that.”
Evan could no longer hide his frustration at her insistence on seeing the good in people who were obviously out to get her. “Your problem is, you’re blind, Paige. You’re surrounded by suspects, but you don’t see any of them for who they really are. You don’t know this guy. His background is just as fake as he is, and you’ve eaten it all up. He’s using you for something, but I just can’t figure it out.”
“So, just because I live my life choosing to see the good in people, I’m at fault here?” Her fucking green eyes shone widely at him, and he had to contain his own scoff at her foolishness.
“When your safety is at stake, yes.”
“My safety isn’t at stake. It’s The Crimson Lady you need to worry about. This isn’t personal.”
“What happens when The Crimson Lady escalates to killing people, Paige? Because that’s next. What will happen to you when your reputation is ruined, your business is bankrupt, and you have nothing left? What about that isn’t personal?” He stood. “Get a grip on reality.” Her blind trust in everybody was probably a good trait to her, but to someone in Evan’s line of work, it was stupidity. “I mean, honestly, Paige. You spend all your time thinking the best of others when you should really worry about yourself more. When was the last time you did something for yourself? Huh?”
He knew he was rambling, could hear the words tumbling out of his mouth rather quickly, way before he thought about any of them. But they were all true. Here she was, at nine o’clock on a weeknight, still working on her laptop, probably something easily delegated to someone else.
And she was pissed at him. Her cheeks flushed red, her eyes filled with a dazzling fire, and her slender fingers clenched into iron fists perched on her hips.
“I’ll have you know, I fucking love my life. There’s not a single thing about it I would change, except to have The Crimson Lady gone.” She bit the inside of her cheek, and Evan wondered what she’d left out, because it was obvious she wasn’t saying something.
He softened in the face of her vehemence, mostly because the fire in her eyes and the flush to her cheeks was one of the biggest turn-ons he’d ever seen.
“I know you do.” His finger trailed down her cheek, feeling the warmth of her flesh. “Do me a favor, though. Stop hanging out with Koen.” Her eyes danced with anger at him again. “At least until I get this all sorted out.”
“I won’t. He’s a friend. I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but I don’t have a lot of those just lying around.”
“You have the people at the office, they worship you. I don’t trust him, and until I know he’s not behind this, I don’t want you to see him.”
“Or else?”
“What?”
“That sounded an awful lot like an ultimatum.”
She was madder than he’d ever imagined her, but dammit, she didn’t seem to realize the danger she was putting herself in. He’d listed the suspects for her, and she’d dismissed them all out of hand. As far as he was concerned, Koen was one of the top three, and she was going to just continue on with whatever relationship she imagined she had with him. Friends, whatever. Koen wanted between her thighs so badly, and it was obvious to anyone who saw them together. Why she couldn’t see it was beyond him.
“It was. You have to understand, you’re in danger here. If you don’t see it, I’m sorry, but this is my business. You hired me to do a job, and part of that job is keeping you safe.” Because her safety had become his biggest priority. “And until I figure out who is behind The Crimson Lady, you have to hold Koen at arm’s length. I have to insist.”
“Insist? You insist?” She was standing and yelling at him now, and Evan needed to shut her up. So he kissed her. He’d thought of little else in his spare time besides her warm flesh under his body. At night, when he tried to shut off his brain for sleep, she was there, moaning and writhing. During his workouts—when he punished his body to get her out of his mind—she was there. Her pliability, her responsiveness, her generosity, offering herself to him with complete and total abandon.
All of those memories came rushing back to him when his lips touched hers. He couldn’t control himself. He’d only meant to shut her up, but when she whimpered into his mouth as she opened to his seeking tongue, all he could think about was sinking into her hot depths once more.
Another reaction. Why couldn’t he kiss her under normal circumstances? After a little romance? Why was it always in response to his own snapping control?
He moaned as his hands gripped her waist, hauling her body against his. The crush of her breasts against his chest, the pounding of her heart next to his, the feel of her soft warmth against him—all served to completely unravel his control.
When her phone rang, the tones broke through his lusty haze.
“Don’t answer it. Please,” he groaned against her mouth.
“I have to at least check it. It might be about work.” She broke away from him to look at her phone sitting next to them. Koen’s picture flashed across the screen, and she looked at him, guilt-filled eyes, biting her lip.
“Don’t. Please, Paige.” He sounded so weak, and hated it, but if she answered this phone call, she was making a choice. As soon as she leaned away from him, he knew exactly what her choice was.
“He’s my friend, Evan,” she whispered. Then she answered.
He left.
I watched the silver Audi as the hooker struck up the conversation with her John, knowing this would probably be their last deed, whether good or not. Hope they enjoyed it. Through the binoculars, I watched the kid with the red backpack approach the car. Right on time.
Swiveling my focus over to the hooker, I watched her lick her John up before sucking his dick fully into her mouth. I was hard already, just at the idea of what was about to happen, but watching her fat lips wrap around that guy’s cock did something. Then I imagined the herpes she just gave him and shriveled a little.
The John’s head was thrown back, eyes closed, and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him, resorting to this disease-riddled woman for his pleasure. His mouth made the ‘O’ of a silent scream of pleasure. Did his wife not give him any at home? Was he spurned, like me?
Signaling the youth with my phone, I watched the kid walk up to the car and toss in the water bottle filled with gas and then spark the lighter before dropping his marbles and walking away.
Nice. I watched the flames lick to life, then gleefully smiled as they jumped out of the car, screaming.
My own dynamic duo would be sweating soon, then they would be my final ones. I couldn’t wait.
Paige’s PA entered her office, already speaking, with no knock, as was usual for the energetic young woman. She stifled her sigh and lowered her laptop screen, vowing to return to today’s extraction attempt of The Crimson Lady as soon as she left.
“Cake or cupcakes for Presley’s baby shower?”
Paige had almost forgotten. The baby shower the office was hosting for Presley was this week, and she had said she wanted to plan the damn thing… Like she really had the time.
“Cupcakes. That way we can get different flavors. And call the deli across the street for a sandwich tray. Should we do soup?”
“Do you want to bring a bunch of soup bowls?”
“Not really, but I want it to be nice fo
r Presley.”
Mandy flashed her a sympathetic smile. “It will be. Nobody will miss soup if you don’t have it.”
“Okay. See if they have something else nice to serve that wouldn’t require a bunch of extra utensils. Like maybe…”
“I’ll get it done, Paige. You go back to what you were doing.” She left with a breeze of fruity scents, and Paige smiled to herself. Mandy was always trying to take care of her, and she appreciated the effort, but sometimes it was hard to relinquish control of things.
The door had barely closed when Dan came in. “I’ve got the new storyboards for next year’s game, if you want to look at them. I emailed them to you.”
“Sure, I’ll take a look. I could use a break from getting this bitch out of my game.”
Minimizing the code window for Realm of Worlds, Paige pulled up her email and browsed through it. Opening the email, there were three files to look at.
The first one was okay, but the low res graphics still needed some work. The images were unrecognizable, and Paige knew serious gamers used them to boost their performance level while playing. The second one had a garish color scheme, in her opinion, but she made a note to have some focus groups look at it, in case it appealed to a different demographic.
The third one looked great, but as she got further into it, the images faded to black and The Crimson Lady popped up, her face taking up the entire screen. Her wiry red curls waved around like Medusa’s snakes, and the eerily intelligent eyes glared back at Paige with malicious intent that made tendrils of dread course through her veins.
“You are mine, Paige Lawson,” she whispered, and then threw her head back, a cackling laugh spilling from her throat, red curls flowing around her head, like she was in a windstorm or her hair was alive. It was chilling, and Paige slammed her laptop shut to end it.
“Dan!” she yelled.
He came back, looking around her office door hesitantly. “Yes?”
“Did you put her in the storyboards?” Her voice shook while her entire body trembled. She didn’t know how much longer she could take this. Even though she told herself she deserved it for getting distracted and not giving The Lady the attention she deserved when she first popped up in her system.
“Who?”
“Who else? The Crimson Lady! Are you playing some sort of crappy joke?”
Dan came into the office fully, wringing his hands. “Of course not. She wasn’t in there when I looked at them this morning.”
“Fuck.” Dropping her head into her hands, Paige wondered if she’d imagined it, or if somehow, somebody had hacked into Dan’s account and put her there. She was willing to bet money on either one.
She hadn’t slept at all last night, and the prospect of imagining things was probable. Evan had filled her thoughts last night, sleep evading her. She’d made him angry.
Her initial reaction to his dictating who her friends were was an over-reaction, and she knew it. He was just looking out for her safety, and if she was honest with herself, Neil wasn’t a super-close friend or anything. She hadn’t known him that long, and she didn’t truly trust him with much. But he was fun to hang out with and a nice distraction from difficult days. She didn’t really understand Evan’s suspicions about him. He certainly didn’t have any motive to hurt her business; he was a lawyer, for crying out loud.
Of course, the phone call that had driven Evan out of her house was simply Neil telling her goodnight. It was a phone call she should have ignored. Nobody needed anything from her.
She’d decided in the wee hours of this morning that Evan was right. She needed to cool things off with Neil while this investigation was ongoing. As long as Evan suspected him, she’d stop hanging around him. She could do that. For Evan.
Not that she could tell Evan that. He’d holed up in his office with his door shut all day. Gene was the only person allowed in. She could always send him an email, but The Crimson Lady’s appearance in what she just opened made her think twice about that. She’d just wait and tell him when the opportunity arose.
She managed to find the guts to open her laptop again, only to find The Crimson Lady gone from her screen. With a sigh of relief, she determined it had been her imagination, caused by a total lack of sleep.
Paige finished answering emails and resumed her attempts to extricate The Crimson Lady from Realm of Worlds. She could tell Evan was in his office, doing the same thing, running some pretty complicated code on her. But whoever had programmed her in had made her practically immune to their efforts. Whatever they tried against her, she learned from, and built up defenses against, so they couldn’t use it again. She could hear The Lady laughing at them.
Neil burst in her door, all smiles, about an hour later.
“You ready to go to dinner? I’ve got something really special planned, Paige.” He swooped down to her and dropped a kiss on her cheek before standing and watching her expectantly.
“Um… I can’t.” She pleaded with her eyes, feeling like this was a breakup.
“What do you mean?”
“I’m really, really busy right now. I need to buckle down and get rid of this woman. I don’t have time to do anything fun, Neil.”
“Did you hear what happened today?” At her confused head shake, Neil’s eyes gleamed with excitement. “A seventeen-year-old boy was caught burning a hooker and her John in his car. She was giving a blow job and he poured a bunch of gas and lit ‘em up.”
“Oh my God! How horrible!” She felt sick to her stomach, knowing exactly what Neil would say next.
“Yeah, he admitted The Crimson Lady told him to do it and where to find them and everything. She’s dead, but he’s still living for now.”
“What are you smiling about? Neil, this isn’t good. Not good at all.”
His smile fell, and he replaced it with a properly chagrined look. “I’m sorry, I know it’s not. But you need to get your mind off this stuff. I’ve had some issues, too, with somebody messing up my bank accounts.” His face twisted into a grimace, and Paige felt a shudder course up her spine at the face Neil made. “It’s taken a while to deal with but I finally got it straightened out. Come with me and do something just for you. Let’s have a little celebration of life, you know? Forget about all this other stuff.” He waved his hands around vaguely and the gesture irritated Paige.
“I can’t tonight. Especially not now. I’ve got to get her off my mainframe. I’ve got to figure out how she’s telling kids to do this stuff. I can’t see you until this is all over.”
“What do you mean?” His innocent expression still on his face, she hated to tell him.
“I need to be alone for a while.” Forcing some specificity into her words, she continued, “A couple of weeks, at least. Until we catch who’s doing this. I can’t hang out until then. It’s not right.”
“Fuck, Paige! Is this about Rocco?” His eyes flashed angrily, and Paige felt a ripple of fear.
“Um, no. Don’t be stupid. I need to work until she’s gone. I don’t have time for celebrations of life. Besides, what would happen if the media got hold of that little tidbit? I’d be the Super-Bitch, having a celebration of life the same day one of my game characters killed an innocent woman. I’m not going out tonight.”
In a flash of anger Paige had never seen Neil show before, he swiped his hand across her desk, knocking everything to the floor.
“Neil!”
“Fuck you, Paige. This isn’t over,” he sneered before stalking out, slamming her door behind him.
Paige was shaking as she sank into her seat. Having never seen Neil act like that before, she certainly never expected him to over-react like that to her declaration. She’d never heard him curse, nor display fits of temper like that. She was having a hard time wrapping her head around it. Maybe Evan had been right to suspect him. Had he acted like that with him?
She composed herself and went to Evan’s office to talk to him. His door was shut and locked, and Gene had gone for the day. So had the rest of th
e office. Suddenly not wanting to be there alone, she packed up her stuff and left, too.
She called Evan’s cell phone on her way home, but he never answered. She didn’t leave a message, not really knowing what to say. All the things she wanted to say were totally inappropriate, like, “I miss you, I want you, come over and make me forget everything.” What she needed to say couldn’t be said in a voice message, “You were right, Neil should be a suspect. He just wrecked my office in one fell swoop.” Instead, Paige gave up, relegating herself to being alone again.
When she got home, she settled in for a long night of attempted code-breaking, knowing her attempts, once again, would be fruitless.
Mr. Rocco,
I know Paige has hired you to work The Crimson Lady case, and I’m sure she’s tickled to have an excuse to get you on her team. Knowing I’m probably a likely suspect, I wanted to draw your attention to the fact that Dale Stygman faked his death and has been working for me for years. His obsession with taking down Paige escalated right before the takeover incident, and I had to let him go. Since his work with Pat-Tek was ‘under the table’, so to speak, there is no record of his employment with me. However, I fear for Paige’s life at this point and am worried he’s going to do something drastic in his machinations. I have no proof he’s behind The Crimson Lady, as it would be my word against his, and in the attempt to keep my privacy private, I don’t want to be drawn back into court. I’m tired of courtroom walls. I just want you to look at him more closely.
Regards,
Roger Patton
Evan sat back from his laptop and ran his hands through his hair, blowing out an exasperated breath. Of course, Patton would know he was a leading suspect and try to deflect attention. You’d think he’d be smarter than to pin it on a dead man, though, wouldn’t he? The email raised all sorts of red flags for Evan and reeked of desperation. It was one man’s last attempt to point the finger at anyone else, and it only made Evan look at Patton closer.
