Page 61 of Girl, Reformed

Leatherworth turned away from the mirrorand eyeballed his interrogators like two pieces of meat. He gave Ella the onceover, but he lingered on Luca for what others might deem an uncomfortableamount of time.

‘I’ve got something serious you can lookinto,’ Leatherworth smiled at the rookie.

‘Quit the innuendo,’ Luca snapped, ‘orI’ll put something else in your endo. Harry Shepherd. The name ring any bells?’

Leatherworth held his hands up insurrender. ‘Relax, princess. I’m just yanking your chain.’

Poor choice of words, Ella thought as shesized him up. Leatherworth was a hulk, no doubt about it. Judging by thosechemically enhanced biceps, he certainly had the strength to choke the life outof three people and haul their bodies into pillory stocks.

But as she considered it, she rememberedthat both Aleister Morgan and Officer Macklin had said the perp was on thesmaller side, maybe a tad overweight and with buzzed hair. Leatherworth herewas the polar opposite.

Ella's eye twitched. On paper, thisoiled-up dom wasn’t her unsub. Disappointment crept in, but she kept herself inthe game. If this not-so-gentleman knew the victim, he might still havesomething useful to share.

‘So, you know Harry?’ she asked.

‘Maybe,’ Leatherworth said. ‘What's it toyou?’

‘It's important, Mr. Leatherworth. Like,life and death important.’

The beefcake just crossed his arms. ‘Sorrydoll, no can do. Loose lips sink ships.’

Luca surged forward, that pretty mug sethard as a slab of granite. ‘Yeah? Well how's this for loose lips - your buddyHarry just turned up deader than disco about an hour ago.’

Bullseye.

Leatherworth reeled like Luca had sockedhim right in the abdomen. All the color drained out of his face faster than aflushed toilet, leaving him pasty as a corpse in a meat locker.

‘Harry's...dead?’

Ella just nodded, watching thoseoil-slicked muscles seem to shrink in on themselves. Suddenly, the guy seemed alot smaller.

But with the truth out there, Ella saw theraw, ugly anguish of loss on Leatherworth’s expression. It sucked the air outof his lungs, and at the moment, it confirmed that this domination-Casanovawasn’t the psycho she was looking for. The unsub was a squirrelly littlegoblin, not the Incredible Hulk's roided-up cousin.

But Leatherworth wasn't off the hook yet.Not by a long shot. He had secrets locked up in that thick skull, and Ellaplanned on rattling them loose.

‘So,’ she said, casual as a Sunday stroll.‘You and Harry.’

‘Harry’s a… client.’

Ella noted the tense. In the wake of anunexpected death, it took a while for the conscious mind to catch up.

‘But he trusted you. Told you things.’

Luca cleared his throat. ‘So you and Harrynever...?’

A bark of laughter, more reflex thanhumor. ‘Please, honey. I'm a dom, not a prostitute. Contrary to popular belief,we can keep it in our pants.’ His gaze raked over Luca, a flash ofheat that sent a whole different kind of color rising in the rookie's cheeks.

‘You saw him recently?’

‘This afternoon, like I do every Friday.’

Ella asked, ‘Anything you can tell usabout Harry, anything at all, might help us figure out who might want to hurthim?’

The grief was back, etching lines in thatchiseled face that hadn't been there before. ‘He was a sweetheart. A realgentle soul, y'know? Most the jerks I deal with, it's all macho posturing,who's got the biggest hog. But Harry... he just wanted to feel safe. Caredfor.’

Ella considered this, held it up to thelight of what she knew about the other victims. The loudmouths, the abrasivetypes who caused ruckuses in pizza shops. Neither Archie nor Georgia wee gentlesouls, not until you scraped down to the soft and squishy bits.

‘Did Harry ever talk to you about hislife, his problems?’ she asked, grasping for threads.

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