Page 24 of Killer Kiss

She was right. It was worth at least going and asking.

For the tiniest of seconds, I’d hoped that Fawn’s brother and sister would lead to some sort of breakthrough in finding her. But Fawn had run from them for a reason. Her sister had lied to me from the very first second I’d met her. If Fawn didn’t trust them, neither did I.

Willa took a sip of her coffee and ruffled my hair like I was ten years old. She was the only person in the world who I would let get away with that. I took the card back and shoved it in the pocket of my hoodie. “I’ll give him a call. Thank you. Now go to work. And please don’t tell them it was me who changed this tire.”

Willa pointed up at the bedroom window on the second floor. “Too late for that.”

Behind the glass panes, my brother watched, his dark-haired daughter perched in his arms and waving to her grandmother with a big smile on her rounded face.

Willa waved back, but Luna kept on going, her waves getting more and more insistent.

“She’s waving to you, Uncle Augie.”

I stiffened.

“Wave back, Aug. Smile at her and wave back.”

My heart pounded in my rib cage. It was like I’d forgotten how to lift my damn hand and make the motion. My limbs felt disconnected from my body, but somehow, I managed to force my lips into a smile and waved awkwardly at the little girl.

Her grin widened.

My brother jerked away and disappeared from view, the curtains falling back into place.

That rift between us as deep and strong as ever.

7

OPHELIA

Atext from Riddick hit my phone at eight that night. I rolled my eyes. So much for waiting for me to text him. There was no greeting. No introduction. No explanation as to how he’d gotten my phone number, though I suspected from our earlier conversation that my mother was probably the culprit there. Did I need him to have manners? I supposed not, considering we weren’t friends. But a, “Hey Ophelia. It’s me, your not-so-friendly neighborhood psychopath, Riddick,” might have been nice.

Instead, all I got was a single line of text that demanded I be outside the old, burned-down Providence School for Girls at eight fifteen.

I shook my head, cancelling out of the message and tossing my phone onto the dashboard. Fuck that. The target in that job bag was mine. I didn’t need his help. If he wanted to ride my damn coattails, then he could wait until I was ready.

We weren’t going to find anything out at the old girls’ high school anyway.

Though to be fair, we probably weren’t going to find out anything sitting in the parking lot at Saint View Strip either.

I clenched my fingers around the steering wheel and huffed out an annoyed breath. I’d been sitting here for a good twenty minutes, waiting for any sign of Augie on his way into work. Plenty of other people had shown up—that woman Eve and her boyfriend whose name I couldn’t remember. A leggy redheaded woman who’d stopped to hug the older guy we’d met the other night. He sat at the door now, his eye on me, though he hadn’t made a move from the door he guarded like there was precious cargo on the inside.

I swallowed hard. He’d looked out for those women like they were his daughters, which I was fairly sure they were not. Because wouldn’t that be weird? To have your father working security at a club where you danced around naked? He cared about them, though, that much was obvious.

Must have been nice. My father was a virtual stranger. There but not there. Just a shadow of my mother, a ghost who wandered around, doing her bidding but not really participating in life beyond that.

When a dark-green, falling-to-pieces hunk of shit car rolled into the parking lot, Terry finally moved. He strode across the lot and leaned down, talking to the driver through the open window.

Augie got out a moment later, his head swiveling in my direction.

I gave him a cocky wave.

He clapped Terry on the shoulder, and the man returned to his spot, guarding the entrance.

Augie and I just stared at each other, him leaning on the side of his car, me sitting behind the wheel of mine.

Neither of us budged.

Seconds ticked by, and my leg developed an impatient bounce I couldn’t seem to control. I really hoped it wasn’t jiggling the car.

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