Page 78 of Red My Lips

Tattooing is impossible without my muse. I haven’t even been able to sketch a design since Jill walked out of my office without so much as a backward glance. When she left, she took my soul and my passion with her—ripped it right out of my body without hesitation or mercy.

I will find her, I have to.

I’ve been tracking everything—phone records, email addresses, spam social media accounts. Jill knew what she was doing when she left and she certainly didn’t take it easy on me. She’s effectively disappeared without a trace, which has left me scrambling for anything to cling onto, any fucking lead to follow. Even with Anders’ help, we’ve found fucking nothing so far.

The little something to remember her by that she left in the safe was her phone completely wiped to factory settings—sim card included—and the tube of Crimson Sin lipstick. My lipstick. Neither of those items can help me find her, they just remind me of what I’ve lost. Every time I lay eyes on the tube of lipstick, the knife in my heart twists painfully.

I need to get her back.

An alert sounds across my office where Anders is working on his laptop. Awareness trickles through my body when he glances over at me. “I just got a hit on that stolen credit card you wanted me to track.”

“What’s the location?”

“Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.” Anders’ voice is heavy with skepticism, but I’m already up and reaching for my keys. Looks like I’ll be on the next flight out.

“Send me the address, I’m going to Puerto Rico. Stay on Lana, she’s still our best bet.” Energy spikes through me, forcing me to let out a heavy breath. “Finally, we’re getting somewhere.”

I knew tracking that credit card would pay off eventually, and now I have a thread to pull. It won’t be long before it leads me straight to who I’m looking for.

You can run, Jill. But you can’t hide. Not from me.

The address leads me to a weathered little building that’s more like a hut than a house. I look past the broken wind chimes swaying in the breeze and the faded, colorful stencil around the front door as I pound on it. Hard. I don’t want the person inside thinking they have an option when it comes to answering the door.

As soon as I hear the scrape of the lock, I’m crowding the door. Blocking the resident, I push into the house and lock the door behind me. Staring at the familiar face, I grin as excitement floods my veins. “Did you miss me?”

Chapter Thirty-Six

Jill

I’ve only been home for the night three minutes before there’s a knocking at my front door. My heart races at the aggression behind the pounding, apprehension tensing every muscle in my body. Holding my breath, I can’t help but brace myself before I open the door.

“Medium supreme pizza with breadsticks?” a delivery woman drawls. I confirm, and she offers me the two food boxes before power-walking back to her car.

Forcing a cleansing breath, I close the door and lock is soundly behind me, before heading toward the living room. Huffing out a deep sigh, I walk through the dark house and drop my purse and the food boxes on the coffee table before tossing down my keys. It’s been a long day, I’m tempted to fall onto the couch without bothering to turn on any lights.

Living off of the cash I took from Gage’s safe was easy in the beginning, but it’s proving more and more difficult as time goes on. The digital age isn’t built for anonymous, cash-only transactions. Everything wants you to create an account with a paper trail. Funny how actual paper doesn’t usually leave any trails.

San Fransisco only lasted for a few nights while I got myself completely off the grid, then it was time to find someplace quieter. I got lucky when I found this little two-bedroom house in southern Georgia being rented out by a sweet Southern woman who prefers cash. All I had to do was pay the minimal deposit, and she was happy to let me sublet under her name. She didn’t even notice that I initialed the paperwork instead of writing my full name. If only everything else could be so easily managed.

I spent most of the day trying to set up an internet provider, but I wasn’t able to find one that would let me sign up without creating an online account with my personal information and showing proof of address. Modern times are really making hiding from a psycho ex nearly impossible. I even had to reach out to Lana a few days ago about getting me a fake ID. But if I have to go to the public library every time I want to use the internet, that’s what I’ll fucking do.

“You’re a hard woman to find when you want to be. But not hard enough.” The large shadow looming in the corner steals the breath from my lungs. “I’ll always find you.”

The switch of the lamp floods the room with light, revealing Gage standing in my living room like the shadow of death. The cold shock that freezes every muscle in my body is quickly melted by the hot anger that pours through me like molten lava.

“You clearly have a death wish. Maybe I was being too kind when I let you live. Now I’m going to have to kill you. And I’ll make sure it’s slow and painful to pay you back for what you did to Tommy.”

“Your brother—”

“What about my brother? You needed to track me down to explain in detail how you killed—?”

“Jillybean.”

All words die on my tongue at the familiar voice. My eyes widen, jaw dropping, as I turn to look at the man standing in the doorway.

Is this real?

“Tommy?” The name is barely a whisper. He walks closer, stepping further into the light until I can see him clearly—husky build, dark brown wavy hair, green eyes. “Tommy!”

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