Page 27 of Play With Me

Benjamin is quiet, still staring at me curiously as he jerks his hands around. For a new baby, he seems very alert. The tiny patch of hair near his forehead is a light blond instead of the red we all thought he’d pop out with. It will be interesting to see if it turns out more like Ginny’s as he ages.

I lift my arms to smell his head. That faint, freshly cleaned, powdery, slightly milky scent that most babies seem to have fills my senses—the only acceptable hospital scent, in my opinion.

“Are you smelling my baby?” Jackson asks, hands on his hips as he looks at me oddly.

Ginny laughs, and we share a knowing look. “It must be a female thing,” she says. “Babies smell awesome, Jackson.”

“Whatever you say, Red. I’m not going to sniff our baby.” His attention redirects to me. “How is everything going? Have there been any more letters?”

Shaking my head, I give Benjamin to Ginny as he starts to fuss. “No. No letters, no murders. It’s been one week of tense silence.”

One week where Anders and I have coexisted awkwardly at the shows we’re putting on every other night. There hasn’t been another night where we’ve pretended toperformsince the night he got me off on his fingers a mere hour after what happened in my office between us. Since then, we’ve shared heated glances across the room while he watches forany sign of the killer, and I walk around the shows to make sure things are running smoothly and everyone has what they need.

Something about him awakens a feeling I thought was long gone—a playfulness I don’t have to force. A natural, easy attraction that I haven’t felt toward anyone since Mick and I first met. Along with that, however, comes the need to defend myself at every turn from his judgmental sneers and backhanded comments about my job or my relationships.

I can’t figure him out. And I honestly don’t know that I want to. When this is all over, he’ll return to California, and we’ll never see each other again. But I can’t deny that there are times when I wonder what it would look like if he weren’t the detective hired to protect me and catch the killer. Wonder if anything more could have developed from that fateful night when we first met—where our instant attraction to each other was enough to fall into the arms of a stranger.

“How are things going with the detective?” It sounds like a normal question, but Jackson’s voice has an underlying tone that tells me he’s not asking about how Anders is handling the case.

“Fine,” I answer in a clipped tone. I don’t offer more than that. It’s embarrassing enough as it is. Thankfully, neither Jackson nor Mick have appeared at any of these shows. Only Luca, Martin, andNikolai have had to put up with how Anders and I speak to each other, and then got a front-row seat to me riding his fingers vigorously enough to figure out it was anythingbutfake.

Luca is barely speaking to me, acting like a scorned lover any time he’s in the same room as Anders and me. Martin and Nikolai—to their credit—haven’t treated me any differently, and I appreciate that they seem to be the most professional out of all the people working to catch this guy.

“Lenni said the detective is hot,” Ginny prods with a laugh and a smile.

Jackson’s head whips toward her as he frowns. “I’m sure Tripp will love to hear Lenni is checking out other guys.”

“Oh,relax, Jackson. You and Tripp are ridiculous sometimes, I swear,” I say to him before turning my attention to Ginny and winking. “He is pretty hot.”

“Spare me the details.” He walks toward Ginny’s bed, motioning for her to give him the baby. “Give me back my son.”

She fixes him with a stern look. “Jackson, you better drop those hands and go sit down. Benjamin isn’t done eating, and your grabby ass is starting to get on my nerves. Don’t make me have the nurses ask you to leave for a few hours.”

I try to stifle the laugh that erupts from my throat as Jackson backs off and sits on the couch in the roomas he mumbles, “I liked it better when you were horny all the time and begging to sit on my–”

“And I think that’s my cue to leave,” I interrupt him. “I’m glad everything went smoothly, Ginny. Let me know when you’re back home.”

“We will. Thank you for stopping by. Good luck with everything. Stay safe, okay?” she replies. A stray hair falls out of her messy bun while she stares down at Benjamin, and I look over to see Jackson watching her reverently.

With a smile, I turn to leave. “I will. Good luck in Chicago, Jackson.”

He ignores me. Instead, as I cross the threshold, I hear him tell Ginny, “Sass me all you want while you still can, Red. Once you’re all healed, don’t think I won’t put you over my knee and spank the shit out of you for your mouth.”

I grab the handle and close the door so they can have their privacy as she replies, “Don’t threaten me with a good time,Daddy.”

I’m almost back. Traffic is terrible.

I send a message to Martin and Nikolai in our group chat. Currently, they are waiting at my apartment toescort me to the club. Usually, I’d go by myself, but ever since that man tried to approach us at Désirer, Anders has been adamant about someone being with me at all times. It was a miracle I convinced them to let me go to the hospital, then straight to Decadence on my own. I think the fact I’d be going straight from the car to the building and back again was what sold thesilent assassins, but I wonder if they still trailed me today.

Looking up from my phone, I see that my cab driver has just taken the wrong turn. “It’s one more down,” I tell him with a sigh.You shouldn’t be driving a cab in the city if you don’t know your way around, I internally lament. If I weren’t already running late, I would have just waited for my town car, but somehow, my driver got the times mixed up and was too far away for me to make it in time.

“Sorry, miss. There’s construction on the next road,” the driver responds with a thick, gritty cadence that sounds like he’s been chain-smoking for years.

Frowning, I shake my head. “No, there’s no construction on my road. And now we’re gridlocked in traffic.”

He doesn’t respond, and I sigh again. Out the window I can see we’re nearly in front of an alleyway that connects this road to mine. I don’t have time to wait for us to get around the block. Opening mypurse, I pull out a fifty and hand it to him over his shoulder. “I’ll walk from here. Thanks. Keep the change.”

I get out of the cab and walk swiftly to the alleyway, looking down at my phone as I send another message to the guys.

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