Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 102184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 511(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 511(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
“Right. But what makes her different? What makes her stand out?”
“Maybe she’s not different.” He palms his coffee cup. “Maybe there’s another connection between the girls. Maybe we’ve been looking at this all wrong. Maybe he’s not after Greedy Girls, maybe there’s something more.”
“More?” I rack my brain, trying to think of anything that could tie all these women together. “Maybe there’s nothing and this man just kills women?”
Finn shakes his head. “Maybe Devereaux is the connection.”
Ugh. Forget it with the man I love already.
“How so?” I ask, wanting to know where he’s going with this thought.
“Maybe he was sleeping with them all?”
“There was definitely nothing going on between Luna and Devereaux,” I say through a monstrous cloud of jealousy.
“How do you know?”
I take a sip of coffee. “Luna was incredibly open about her life. She would have mentioned it. Or at least hinted at it. She was one of those types of people.” I hate thinking about Luna in the past tense.
“You sure?”
I remember the way Devereaux and Luna interacted, and there was no chemistry between them at all. “I’m sure.” I believed Devereaux when he told me he’d never sleep with an employee.
Even though that’s technically what I am.
I still have to believe him.
He’s never given me any reason to doubt him.
“Then what else could it be?”
I chew at my bottom lip. “Did you get anywhere with the senator?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “The senator’s not involved. We can’t question him. We’ve tried to get anyone to link him to Taylor Haws, and we can’t.”
“Yeah, I figured. I may have something,” I say. “Sugar and Brandon are running a prostitution ring out of the club. Pay to sleep with a Greedy Girl without being a member.”
“Interesting.”
“And, yes, they’ve asked me to join,” I tell him before he can ask.
“Were they all working with Brandon?”
I know he means were the women killed working with Brandon, and I shake my head no. “All except for Luna.”
Once again, she’s the odd man out.
“Maybe she figured out what the others were doing and planned to rat them out?”
I think about that. Luna could have easily figured it out. It’s possible Raven confronted her about becoming a girl for them. Anything’s possible at this point. “That could be a possibility,” I say.
“I’m going to go undercover as one of their girls.”
Finn’s eyes narrow. “Are you kidding? We haven’t approved this with Katherine. You’ll need a wire and a team outside if you meet with any men.”
“I’ll be fine.”
Finn gives me a look like he has zero faith in me. “Do you think it could be Brandon killing these girls?”
“Well, you said his truck was on Luna’s street the night she was murdered.”
“Fine. See what you can figure out. If you get anything questionable from them, I’m bringing them in. We can at least charge them with the ring until we get more evidence to make the murders stick.”
I nod. “I agree.”
“Ok, keep up the good work, kiddo.” He smiles. “No doing anything without me knowing about it.”
I nod. “Sure thing.”
I leave the coffee shop and head to meet my sister at my house. First, I have to make one important stop. A stop that could change my world and turn it upside down.
When I get to my house, Ashley’s already waiting for me in the driveway.
“Long time,” I tell her.
“It’s been nearly a week, and I haven’t heard a peep out of you.” She throws her arms around me.
“I know, listen…” The words don’t want to exit my mouth.
She stares at me. “What?”
“There’s something I have to tell you, but let’s go inside first.” I move to open the front door.
“You’re scaring me.”
“Yeah, I’m scaring myself.” We head into my kitchen, and I drop the pharmacy bag on the counter. “I made a stop after my meeting with Finn.”
She sits on a barstool. “A stop where?”
“Drugstore.”
“Um, ok. What do you have?” She opens the plastic bag and pulls out three pregnancy tests. It’s almost comical how her eyes grow to the size of saucers. “Chloe, are you pregnant?”
“Well, I don’t know. I’m going to take these and find out, but I’m late.”
She drops the contents on the counter and wraps me into a hug. “Go pee. Now. I need to know.”
I laugh, even though this situation couldn’t be more fucked up. “Ok, I’m going.” I can barely breathe as I stride down the hall toward the bathroom, taking all three tests with me.
Ashley follows me and gives me a thumb up before I close the door.
With my hands shaking, I go through the steps of opening each test and peeing on the stick. Once I’m done, I set all three sticks on the counter and drag Ashley inside the bathroom with me.
“Now we wait,” I say, closing the toilet lid to sit on the top of it.