Page 12 of A Monster Is Coming

I stared at her and knew I had to choose my words carefully. “This morning, you accused me of lying, and I didn’t like it. Also, I don’t know exactly what you accused me of. What did I lie about?”

Niamh tilted her head to the side and I watched as she licked her lips. Three women had licked their lips suggestively at me today. Niamh wasn’t one of them. I doubted she even realized what she was doing, and I could tell she was just deep in thought.

“I, uh, I, when you called me pretty … you don’t need to lie to me about stuff like that. I’m going to come and learn to swim, and you don’t need to dress it up, or do any of that. I’m not a child. I know the truth.”

This made me fold my arms across my chest. “You think I was treating you like a child?”

“Yes. You don’t need to call me pretty or pretend or anything like that.”

I smiled. “Okay, so to be clear, you don’t like me saying you’re pretty.”

“I don’t like you telling me lies,” Niamh said.

I took a step toward her, then another. Much to my surprise, Niamh didn’t back down. She stayed perfectly still. I don’t know if that made her smart, or real fucking stupid. Possibly a mixture of both. I was taller than her and Niamh had no choice but to tilt her head back to look at me. From this angle, it felt like she was at my mercy, and in a way, she was. I didn’t know how far I could push it. Should I touch her? Grip the back of her neck? Give her a warning?

Her lips were so close and so tempting, but I didn’t close that distance between us.

“Between us, Niamh, I wasn’t lying. In fact, I think you’re very pretty, and I broke the rules of the gym today in saying so. I’m not supposed to say things like that to clients. But, when I see a beautiful woman, I’m not going to lie to her.” The urge to kiss her was strong, but I had to play this game right.

Diving in with Niamh, she wouldn’t trust it. She was messed up in the head, and I got it. It didn’t take a genius to know who her father was, and to have been in her company for a couple of hours to recognize it. Also, it helped one messed-up head to recognize another.

I’d been forced to watch my brother and sister drown. That was how messed up my father was. He wanted his children to see what happened to weaklings. Only the strong Orlov survived.

I had tried to dive into that pool to save my sister and brother. On each occasion I had been forced to take a swift punishment—a beating. It had been easy to take, especially because I’d been dealing with the grief of watching my siblings die.

My father had been evil.

He didn’t care, and because they had died as weaklings, he wouldn’t even mark their graves with the name Orlov. They had been buried, and a simple cross had been placed to show where they were. No other details. Like strangers.

Stepping back, I moved to the car and opened the passenger door. “Get in,” I said.

“I’m not getting in a car with you. I don’t even know you.”

This made me smile. “Good, but you’re going to get in the car, and I’m taking you home.”

“You don’t know where I live.”

“Actually, I do.”

This made her tense up.

“How?” she asked.

“You filled out all the details at the gym. I got to read your file today, seeing as you’re my first client. I need to start taking on more clients. I saw your address, and it is not hard to remember. It’s late. I’ll take you home.” I didn’t want her walking the streets. She might have been okay to do this before I arrived, but I wouldn’t allow her to do it now.

“You don’t have to do that,” she said.

Stubborn woman.

“You do realize it doesn’t matter where you go, murderers and psychopaths are everywhere.”

“Nothing bad happens in Pickle Quest. Trust me, it’s a nice town.”

It wasn’t going to be nice for long, while Niamh and I stayed here. We were going to bring danger and chaos.

“I can pick your ass up and force your butt in my car if you’d like,” I said.

She folded her arms and I waited, brows raised. If she wanted to test me, then I was more than happy to force her into my car.

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