Page 47 of Killer Kiss

But she twisted in the darkness and rubbed at a spot on the back of her hip. “There’s something jutting out of the dresser there. See?”

I couldn’t see very well because we hadn’t turned the lights on, but I reached around her and felt the edge of the dresser where she was indicating.

Sure enough, there was a round lump that came off in my hand when I poked at it.

I flipped on the light and peered down at the little out-of-place object.

“What is it?” Bec asked.

It was another second or two before my brain figured out the answer.

A fucking bug.

And I knew exactly who’d planted it.

14

OPHELIA

The bugs I’d planted around Augie’s house only worked if my end of the receiver was in range. Did I have to sit right outside his house in the dark? No. They worked over longer distances than that. I could have parked a street or two over, but I’d watched him leave the club with some woman. I’d watched her fall all over him on their way to his car, and him take her inside his home.

I wasn’t jealous that he’d actually invited her in while I’d had to pick the lock.

I tried telling myself I was only sitting outside his house, listening to him take this woman to bed because it was my job. If I was going to work out how to keep him alive, I needed to know why he was the target in the first place. Maybe this woman had something to do with it.

Me listening to him kiss her was part of that.

The jealousy that churned in my stomach wasn’t.

The feeling was so weirdly foreign I didn’t even know what to do with it. So I sat there, like a fucking chump, staring at his bedroom window, knowing what he was doing on the other side.

Suddenly the light flickered on, and through the bug I heard the stupid, nasally woman say, “What is it?”

I froze, panic spearing through me at the thought they might have found the bug I’d hidden there. It wasn’t hidden as well as the others had been. I’d been too distracted by Augie to hide it any better. Maybe it would have been smarter to not leave one in his room at all, since I hadn’t had a chance to find the perfect spot for it like I normally would have.

But a deep-rooted part of me had desperately wanted to know what went on inside that bedroom. And it wasn’t just the part of me that had been tasked with ending his life.

It was that very womanly part who had imagined all the things that went on his bed.

“It’s just part of a bottle cap. Sorry, this room is a bit of a mess.” Augie’s voice sounded as neutral as it ever did.

I breathed a sigh of relief when there wasn’t a sudden crackle of static, which would surely have happened if he’d found the bug. If I knew anything about this man, it’s that he’d put his foot down on the tiny electronic device if he’d found it and my headphones would have probably blown out my eardrums with the noise.

But all I heard was Bec’s annoying laugh and the rustle of clothing. “I don’t care, baby. Come here. I got myself all wet for you. I want you to feel it.”

Ugh. Why did she have to talk? If it was just them breathing heavy, I could pretend they were doing sit-ups or something. Even with the light on, from this angle, the only way I could see them was if they went right to the window, so it would have been easy to pretend.

I wondered if he liked being called baby. It didn’t suit him at all.

I rolled the word around silently on my tongue and all I could picture was him scowling at me.

But he must have liked it because he didn’t tell her to stop it. His shadow crossed the window, and the next second his stupid handsome face stared out of it.

Right. At. Me.

Which was my own dumb fault for parking so close to his house.

And yet, when he opened his mouth, I was suddenly sure I didn’t care.

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