Page 18 of My Silver Fox Savior

He snaps impatiently at the end. I’ve been watching, adrenalin pumping in me, but it has nowhere to go. “Yes, lots.”

“Well, there you go.”

“That doesn’t make what you’re doing right.”

The anger that grips him is terrifying. It moves across his features visibly. It’s like a monster in him is trying to tear its way out. “I’ve been very polite and clear, haven’t I? You’re not confused by what I’m telling you.”

“I understand what you’ve said,” I tell him.

He makes atsknoise. “Don’t get cute with me, darling. I’ve come down herepersonallyas a courtesy. How often do you imagine a man like me handles these matters personally? The fact is, in my world at least, I’m considered something of a humanitarian.”

I instinctively laugh—big mistake. His hand flies to his hip. My laughter dies. I need to be smarter about this. It would be a stupid thing to make him angry.

“What’s funny about that?” he asks.

“Nothing.”

“It’s the truth,” he goes on. “I’ve got friends who would’ve preferred to come down here and do, let’s say, interesting things to you and your mother, but I’m old school. I don’t like to exacerbate things. You know what exacerbate means?”

“To make things worse.”

“You really are a smart cookie, Lily. I’m sure I’m never going to see you again.”

He turns and swaggers away. Only when he’s out of sight does the full effect of what just happened hit me. I fall against the kitchen counter and slide down to the cold floor, my entire body shuddering as I relive the moments he flashed the gun, that monster-like rage on his face.

“Lily,” Mom moans, sitting right on the floor with me and bringing me into her arms. “You poor thing. You brave girl. Who was that?”

“I’m investigating this case at work that involves this bar,” I say. “And he-he-he …”

I can’t even finish the sentence. Tears come instead, choking me and making me feel weak. This isn’t the sort of person I usually am at work. I harden myself, but work stuff has never been this dangerous. It’s never visited me at home before.

“What did he want?” Mom asks, desperate to get through to me any way she can.

“For me to let him lure more kids into his bar. To let him get as many as possible under his spell before …”

“Before what?”

I shake my head. She doesn’t need to know all the evil details. She doesn’t need to visualize all the sickness that will take hold of so many people’s lives if this freak is allowed to continue down his dark path. But realistically, can I keep going after him now?

“I need to call my boss,” I say.

“Let me help,” Mom says, grabbing my arm and helping me to stand.

The tears have dried. My cheeks feel tight from the crying. I grab my cell phone and call Carter Weston. He answers after a few rings, the sounds of a bar in the background. I know it’s where he spends a lot of his time when not working. He’ll even go in the mornings—not to drink, he says—but because he likes the noise of them setting up.“It blocks out the demons …”

“Yeah?” he says.

“Damon O’Connell just visited me.”

“Who?”

I quickly explain about the bar and the whole situation.

Carter sighs heavily. “He’s right. We’ve got twenty other cases that could use your attention.”

“What?”I yell, almost addingthe fuck.“So you think we should just abandon those kids?”

“Kids are being hurt in unimaginable and unspeakable ways all over this city, Lily. What would you have me do? Solve every damn problem? Our job means accepting that we can’t help everyone. The case has gotten dangerous; it’s interfered with your home life. That means we drop it to the bottom of the caseload.”

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