Page 57 of Blackmail
“A sore subject with us all,” Liam agrees. “Especially taking advantage of a young woman like that. She walloped him good, though. I think I might be a little bit in love.”
Lehman holds up his phone. “Lilliana is ready to speak with us. She’s being admitted to the hospital for observation. We’ve got a guy who can get us access to her room.”
I nod and roll my neck and shoulders, satisfied by a series of cracks and pops. Every muscle in my body is strung tight, but there’s not much to be done about it now. For only a second I let myself think of Simon, and what good medicine his body would be right now.
I point to the man in the chair, who looks at best half-alive. “Let us know if you get anything else. Especially anything about who’s paying him, where he got her name.”
“Will do.”
Liam drags a metal stool over and sits in front of the guy as we leave. Something causes our kidnapper to release a pained moan. I don’t turn to see why. When you hire people, you trust them to handle things.
And we’ve got another witness to talk to, one who will likely be more cooperative.
Chapter
Nineteen
SEBASTIAN
Lilliana is a voluptuous young woman with wispy blond hair, freckles, and a surprisingly bright smile after everything she’s been through. The shiner developing on her face and the cast on her arm do little to diminish her glow.
“Hey, I recognize you guys from our monthly video meetings!” She sits in bed and gives a little finger wave with her good arm as if we’re meeting at a cocktail hour, not in a hospital room.
“Well, I’m sorry we had to meet you this way in person,” Lehman says, holding her hand and bowing over it as if he were pledging fealty to his lady. He’s always been the more charismatic of the two of us.
“Right?” She giggles. “If I’d known someone was going to try and kidnap me, maybe I would’ve tried harder to make it to the last in-person meet and greet.”
Her smile has a brittle edge to it, though, and here’s Lehman blinking at her as if he doesn’t know how to respond. We’re all a little messed up right now.
Lilliana is one of our newest members. She recently moved to Belle Argo, and another of our clients mentioned us to her at a gathering for content creators.
“I have to be honest, I didn’t expect you to be so…”
“Bubbly? I get that a lot. People see me on my videos, and they think I can’t possibly be like this in person, but I am.”
“Someone tried to kidnap you.”
“Oh. Don’t get me wrong, that was scary as shit.” She grabs a cup from the table next to her with her good hand and takes a drink. Then she stops and sniffs the straw. Then shrugs and takes another drink.
“Buuut,” she continues, “I legit kicked their asses. I got the one guy’s gun away from him, for crying out loud. Felt good. People are always underestimating me, you know?”
“You’re a fitness influencer.” Lehman looks stunned. “I’ve seen your videos. I’ve seen you do box jumps and push a sled with seven hundred pounds of weight. You’re stronger than I am.”
It’s dark in the room, but I could swear Lehman’s blushing.
“Aww, you’re the sweetest. Not everyone knows me from social media, though.” She shrugs. “And sometimes, even if they do, they look at me and see a fat girl who smiles too much. Seriously, I get more comments about my teeth than about my weight. People are so weirdly obsessive.”
A nurse bustles in, brushing past us to get to her patient. “Here you go, sweetie. Doc wanted to give you something for the pain.”
“Oh, no, thank you. I’m fine.” Lilliana waves off the cup of pills. “I don’t take stuff like that ever if I can help it. Don’t even drink.”
“You sure, hon?”
“Absolutely. Anti-inflammatories are terrible for your gut bacteria. The harder stuff’s worse. I like to keep a clear head.”
The nurse shakes her head and walks out.
“Looks like you took some good hits,” Lehman puts in. “Impressive. I hope you’ll be on the mend soon.”
