Page 60 of Such A Bad Girl

“Me, too.” My admittance hung heavy in the air between us. I didn’t miss the flicker in his eyes. I didn’t say anything else, but I had every intention of explaining fully, when the time was right.

Half an hour later, we pulled up to a rundown storage facility.

“Let me do the talking,” Kaylee instructed, as we were walking inside the management office.

“We need your surveillance footage,” Kaylee said as we walked in. “A missing woman was last seen in your parking lot and we need to see if there might be any clues.”

“I only give that to the police,” the manager replied, standing up as we walked in, her eyes raking over us as she sized us up. She was an older woman, with wiry gray hair that stuck out all over her head, and a stern no nonsense grimace on her face.

“I am the police,” Kaylee said. “Time is of the essence here. Please, ma’am.”

“Maybe this will speed things up,” West said, as he pulled out his wallet and started peeling hundreds off a thick stack and laying them on the counter between us.

Her eyes widened at the sight.

When he stopped, she raised a brow and crossed her arms.

“Goddammit,” I said, pulling out my own wallet and grabbing every bill in there and slamming it on the counter. “That’s at least three thousand. If you want more, fine, but show us the fucking footage! It’s fucking life or death we’re talking about!”

She jumped at the anger in my voice. She scooped up all the money and headed toward the monitors in the corner. “Fine, but I will want more.”

“I’m not surprised,” I said, shaking my head at her greed.

She ignored my comment and sat down at the desk.

“What time do we need to look at?”

“Last night. Around ten,” Kaylee said. “We’re looking for a white Aston Martin.”

“Oh, yeah, I had that towed this morning. Nice car. Smelled like roses inside.”

I groaned at the thought of Everleigh’s signature smell still in the car. “And you didn’t think to call the police?” I demanded, my anger rising quickly.

“Why?” She shrugged. “Figured it was stolen.”

“Was there anything inside?” Kaylee asked. “Did you look?”

“I didn’t see anything,” she said, as the monitors flickered on and she started scrolling through dark and grainy footage.

“There!” I pointed, when I saw Everleigh’s car come into focus. “Is that her?”

“I think so,” West said.

I watched her park and a few minutes later she got out, milling around by the car as she looked around hesitantly. God, she was so beautiful, even in this grainy footage. My heart soared at the sight of her.

But not a moment later, a hooded figure walked up behind her, pressing something to her mouth and my joy turned to absolute horror.

In seconds, Everleigh fell to the ground.

“Oh, shit!” I roared, my heart pounding with fear at the sight.

The figure ran away, then a van appeared a few seconds later and the same person hopped out. They went around and opened the passenger’s side of Everleigh’s car and grabbed her things and threw them in their van. Then, struggling for a long time, they managed to finally drag Everleigh’s lifeless body into the van, slamming the side door with her inside before driving away.

“That doesn’t look good. Damn,” the woman said.

Everleigh was in real danger. I knew she was, but this confirmed it.

Kaylee sprang into action. “Freeze the frame on that van’s license plate!”

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