Page 31 of The Grave Robber

Even when I stepped out in a Cruisers T-shirt and jeans, shecontinued to avoid eye contact. Fucking hell, I could be an ass. Unless I wasgreatly mistaken, this woman had been the victim of a malicious criminal for along time. She’d very likely been assaulted at a young age and then stalked foryears, possibly worse. And here I was, walking around half-naked.

I sat again, stretched one leg under the table, and drapedan arm over it. She didn’t flinch or back away. A good sign. Hopefully, Ihadn’t scarred her for life.

“I’m really sorry about that.”

She shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have saidthat. It’s just, I’ve never seen a body like yours in real life. I wasn’t surethey really existed.”

I frowned and surveyed my body parts. Apart from a fewtattoos that were filched from various Asian criminal organizations—and wouldprobably get me killed as a result—the rest of my ink was pretty averageAmerican biker. But if someone grew up very sheltered, my inked-up physiquecould be quite the eye-opener.

“You live in a compound with a thousand people?”

I laughed softly. “No. It just feels like it sometimes. Ilive in a compound with about twenty other people, but it’s not a cult. Iswear.” I was always worried about our image.

She nodded and gestured toward the spread. “Pick yourpoison.”

“You first.”

“Oh, I’m not hungry. You can eat one now and save the othersfor later. You have a fridge.” She pointed to the small apartment fridge besidethe dresser.

Her behavior was beginning to worry me. Did my negligencebother her more than she was letting on? Did I trigger some residual PTSD? Ineeded to figure out a way to make Halle trust me and, so far, my techniquesucked.

She poured a tiny pouch of puppy food onto a napkin, set iton the floor, and put the furball in front of it. The pup dove in like she wasstarving. As if I hadn’t just fed her half of a cheeseburger three hours ago.

“How about Florida?”

“I’m game,” I said after swallowing another sip. “When do weleave?”

A dimple appeared at one corner of her mouth. “I meant forthe puppy.”

“That seems like a long way to send her, but okay. Do youthink she has family there?”

She giggled. “For her name.”

“Ah. You like F-L names, I take it?”

“No more than any other combination. She just seems like anF-L kind of dog.”

“Okay, then.” Hard to argue with that kind of logic.

“You’re not eating,” she said with a frown.

“I’m letting the coffee burn a hole in my stomach first.Food always dampens the hallucinogenic properties of caffeine, and I need allthe hallucinations I can get.”

She forced a fake laugh—tough crowd—and sat across from me.Keeping her gaze downcast, she stuck a nail between her teeth before catchingherself and folding her hands in her lap.

Now was my chance, but how much should I tell her? How muchcouldI tell her? Then I remembered, not a whole damned lot. Again, her phonewas almost surely being monitored. While I didn’t know for certain security guyPaul was involved in any of this, I just couldn’t risk him, or whoeverwasbehind it, overhearing our conversation.

I could ask her to take the day off, ditch our phones, andhead somewhere isolated. She worked for her father, after all. Surely, shecould get away with playing hooky for one day. The trick would be to explainwhy we were ditching our phones and going to an isolated area without tippingoff my number-one suspect, and putting her, or anyone else, in even moredanger.

“Can I ask you something?” she said, dragging me out of mythoughts.

“Okay, but I think it really was to get to the other side.”

“I was wondering, and you can absolutely say no,” she qualified,showing me her palms as proof, “but I was wondering if you would like to havesex with me.”

She could have slapped me with a flyswatter, and I would’vebeen less stunned. I sat there gaping at her like a fool as she chewed on anail.

She dropped her hand and continued. “It’s just…I’ve nevermet anyone like you.” Her gaze traveled the length of my mutilated body. “I’venever seen anyone so beautiful in my life. I didn’t know people like youexisted outside of magazines.”

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