Page 28 of Convict's Game
He let me brood, but when the doors opened for the fifth floor, he walked out with me, and his gaze stuck on a womanapproaching down the corridor, her platinum-blonde hair bouncing.
“Dixie,” he said in a low tone.
She did a double take at him, and her gaze jumped to me. She forced a smile. “Convict, just who I was looking for. Can we talk? In private?”
I shrugged, and she peeked again at Tyler, but then twirled away with a gesture for me to follow. Tyler gave her a long look but returned to the lift, travelling on to wherever he was going.
I trailed Dixie down to the opposite end of the hall to where I slept, following her into a bedroom. Like mine, it was lived-in, with clothes and makeup around. Not a room for use by the cam girls and boys.
I squinted at it. “Dixie, are you sleeping up here, too?”
She shrugged, her wide-necked top sliding over one slender shoulder. The bandage at her throat had been replaced with a smaller one, closer in colour to her skin. She touched the edge of it. “I feel safer here. Don’t like to sleep alone at home.”
I hadn’t purposefully asked around for Dixie’s story, but through conversations in the warehouse, I knew that the Deadwater serial killer had cut her throat and left her for dead. That murderer had been dealt with, in the permanent sense, but the scars left on my friend weren’t just skin-deep.
Folding my arms, I rested against her wall. “What’s the deal with Tyler?”
“There’s no deal. Think he just feels sorry for me, hun. I don’t need that.”
“Or, he likes what he sees,” I decided.
“Maybe once, he did. Not anymore.”
I released a laugh. “Are you kidding? Dixie, you’re hot as fuck.”
She scowled at me.
I held my hands up. “I didn’t mean it in that way. My dick literally only works for one woman, and it ain’t you. I’m just saying that he admires you. I’ve seen it more than once.”
She perked up. “Who’s the mystery woman? Name, bra size, compelling facts. Spill the tea.”
“Her name’s Mila.”
“Cute. Is that short for something?”
I frowned. Was it? Her name had got me nowhere in my search for her. Perhaps that was a clue, but not one I could obsess over this evening.
My phone chimed with an incoming message. Security had a new protocol for the contestants as they arrived for the game. Manny’s team were responsible for the list, but a picture was taken of each then sent to management. Tonight, that was me. I checked the three photos. All men, all expected, the last being Rhys Jacobs. By now, they would’ve been escorted downstairs.
There was only one person I couldn’t vouch for. A woman named E Marchant who Shade had spoken to. I’d check off her picture with him once I got it.
Something was bothering me about Jacobs. Since the interview, it had niggled at my mind though drowned out by my concerns over Mila. It was about his degree of interest in the protection the skeleton crew could offer him. There was no way that would be the primary thought for a guy who’d dreamt of hunting and fucking a woman, but he’d made a point of referencing it. At the time, I’d dismissed it, assuming he’d heard the story Shade told me about the loser who’d turned stalker. But what if I was wrong?
I lifted my gaze to Dixie. “Did you hear about a guy who lost the game and went after one of the women?”
She tilted her head in a thinking pose. “Vaguely? I think it was last year.”
“How well known was it?”
“Outside of the warehouse? I’m not sure. Why?”
I exhaled and tried to dislodge the strange feeling. It was the type of dark gossip that would be shared between men. Some guy brought down by stronger men. I was overthinking.
“Never mind. I need to get ready. Are you done using me as a human shield against Tyler?”
Dixie rolled her eyes then pointed at the bandage on my arm. “That needs changing again.”
A couple of days ago, I’d asked her to change my dressing while I kept my eyes closed. Sweetheart that she was, she’d obliged.
