Page 80 of Perfect Pursuit

She nodded. “It’s a large firm out of New York City.”

“And you trust them?”

She hesitated before nodding, “Florence does. She has a…family member who works there.”

I pressed a hand to my stomach. “Okay.”

With that assurance I resumed accepting calls from Whiskey. After all, since the incident, I’ve since learned even more about Devil’s Lair. Even though I’ve never had it officially confirmed, Becca’s face lit with amusement when she’d listen in on my calls and I’d ask after if certain callers were in fact celebrities, politicians, or—swoon—a member of a royal family way down in the line for the throne. “And now you know why your NDA is so ironclad,” Becca smirked.

Since that confirmation, I’ve never questioned the identity of my callers. I don’t want to know. In fact, they’ve just become another facet of the disease ripping through my mother’s body.

I twist my face toward Florence and Becca and admit, “I thought it would save her. I thought I was giving her a chance to live.”

Florence smooths her hand over my back before reminding me, “You tried. It’s just that someone else is fighting to end her suffering.”

I fling my arm around to encompass the sins occurring around the call center in Devil’s Lair. “Should I move so I’m not shocked when God sends that lightning bolt?”

Her lips twitch. “I think ‘Oh god’ is heard more in here than in the church on the Seven Virtues campus.”

The three of us toss our heads back and laugh at her blatant blasphemy. For just a moment, I’m thankful I have this group of edgy men and women at my back when my world’s falling apart. Even though they know they’re a means to an end and that I have other plans for my future, I hold them in the highest esteem. I know how ridiculously difficult their job is and how much they care for one another.

When I started working here, the team at Devil’s Lair offered me a glimmer of light at the end of a long, dark tunnel as I stared down the odds of my mother beating her cancer. Now, even as that tiny bit of light is flickering out, they still support me even amid their own personal nightmares.

Because in a town like Seven Virtues, no sin can hide, at least not for very long.

Lifting my headset, I say. “Let me get to work so I can get out of here.”

Florence and Becca step away. Becca warns, “If you need to leave, just let me know. I’ll take your calls, Fallon.”

Warmth surges through me. “Thanks. Hopefully, after I’m done here, I’ll be able to go home for a few hours and crash before I need to head to the hospital.”

Once I walk back to my station, I give myself another moment before I log into my system. Then, I accept my first call. Reading the brief—a couple looking for a third for a virtual polyamorous three-way with a woman—I accept the call with a husky, “Devil’s Lair, this is Filla. Would you like to have some pleasure this evening?”

Soon, I’m guiding the couple on the phone to a happy ending as I talk the woman through what it would feel like if I sucked on her tight nipples and her throbbing clit while her husband thrusts up into her until they both orgasm in my ear.

Once they moan in completion, some twenty-five minutes later, I disconnect the call and check my cell phone. Nothing from the hospital and nothing from Ethan. I mutter, “At least someone had a happy ending.”

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

KENSINGTON, TEXAS

Be still my mourning heart.

DJ Kensington and Amanda Reidel, part of semi-retired Small Town Nights, are officially going to collaborate on an entire album, according to a press release from Wildcard Entertainment.

According to Paula Stone, “The as yet untitled album will drop sometime next year.”

If there’s a tour, I’m not above using some inside connections for tickets.

—StellaNova

I’ve been avoiding Fallon for days, limiting my response in texts to one or two words. Every time I see her beaming face from the photos I took at her graduation on my phone screen, every time a new text pops up, I want to do nothing more than hurl the offending device across the room into the nearest wall, shattering it into a million pieces.

It’s close to how my heart’s felt since I realized she’s working for the cesspool, Devil’s Lair.

My original intent when hunting with Sam and Leanne was to help protect Leanne and her unborn baby. “Sam, there are whispers of Devil’s Lair’s calls leading the child traffickers. I’m hunting back to this phone sex operation.”

“I’m not surprised.”

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