Page 18 of The Masks She Wore

?He pushed my jacket off my shoulder, leaning in.

?He knew who killed her. He knew what happened that night, why was he doing this, why—

?His lips touched the bare skin on my shoulder.

?I inhaled sharply, shoved him away, and slipped out the door in a daze.

?I felt like I couldn’t breathe, like the entire office knew what had just happened and not a single one cared about it. Why would they? I was just a desperate young girl looking for answers. In their mind, I was desperate enough to fuck them, but I wasn’t.

?I swear to God, I wasn’t.

?My phone started ringing as soon as I entered the lobby. I pulled it out, finding Max’s name flashing across my screen, and the anger and resentment grew. I felt like I couldn’t breathe right, like my lungs had shrunk.

?I answered as I shoved out the door. “What do you want, Max?” I snapped, running into a brick wall.

?“Jesus, Rae, is that how you answer your phone?”

?I stumbled back a step, pushing my hair back, my eyes lifting to meet a pair of dark blue eyes. The kind of blue that seemed impossible for anyone to have. The kind of blue people willingly drowned in.

?They hardened as they met mine with an unbreakable stare.

?“Sorry,” I said, my heart skipping a beat in embarrassment. Shit.

?“That’s more like it,” Max replied, proud of himself.

?I laughed in absolute disbelief. “Not you,” I replied. God, his eyes were beautiful. Hard and unflinchingly angry. Challenging. It caused something inside of me, something primal, to beg me to hold his stare, to challenge him.

?His eyes narrowed, his pupils growing, as if he were getting ready to lunge at me.

?My heart skipped a beat as my thighs clenched, excitement sliding down my spine. Fuck.

?“Rae!”

?I shook my head and turned away. “God, what?” I growled, turning away from the man, if only to get some relief from his stare. “What do you want? I’m busy.” They knew something and they were keeping it from me because I wouldn’t fuck the captain? What kind of bullshit was that?

?“Busy at the precinct?”

?I stopped at his words, my shoulders falling as I slowly turned towards the street, the dizziness only growing, causing the world to spin. “How do you know where I am?” I whispered, searching the sidewalk, my heart picking up, a chill running down my spine. But there was nobody around I recognized. No car that seemed familiar, just faceless people. It was the best and worst part about living in the city. You disappeared easily. You blend in. Everyone looked the same and different all at once.

?“Lucky guess,” he answered bitterly.

?The wind blew my hair across my face again and I tucked it behind my ear, my eyes falling. It couldn’t have been just a guess, I hadn’t been here in almost two weeks.

?“You need to stop looking into mom’s death, Rae. You’re beating a dead horse.”

?Oh my God, I couldn’t believe this was happening. “She was your mom too, you should be doing the same thing, Max!”

?“Harassing the police won’t get you any closer to those answers than you are right now. In fact, I’m sure it’ll just piss them off enough to put the case off for good.”

?I shook my head, sliding my hand over my stomach, feeling like I was seconds away from losing my breakfast. “They wouldn’t do that.” Would they? No, it was illegal. If they had a tip, if they got a lead, they had to follow it. It was the law, I was sure of it. But I was also sure I had all the information they had before ten minutes ago.

?I inhaled sharply and looked to my shoulder, my jacket still hanging off of it. I jerked it up to my neck, shuddering. I would notsell myselffor information, I wouldn’t.

?“Go home, Rae. Leave them alone.”

?Click.

?I dropped my hand and rolled my eyes. That’s all he wanted? Was to berate me for going to the police? God, out of all of the people in the world, why didhehave to be related to me?

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