Page 65 of Wicked Duty
Why am I crying? I didn’t do anything wrong here. I’m the victim, yet he’s hassling me? And how did he even get that picture?
Now I’m the one who’s pissed. Despite the way my stomach roils when I face the photo again, I swipe my hand over my eyes and pin him with my harshest, coldest scowl. “Have you been spying on my phone this entire time?”
Chapter 25
Callum
“Is that all you have to say for yourself?” With great effort, I manage to keep my voice cold and even. I know I’m blowing the whole “earn her trust” plan, but right now, I don’t give a damn. This is the final straw.
I was already in a foul mood from witnessing half the city leering at Lucy in her wet, clingy dress, and from not being able to sweep her up and continue where we left off in the car before her competition.
Now I’m nothing short of irate. My growing possessiveness toward this woman confounds me, but I can’t deny the truth. Just like I can’t control the heated words flying off my tongue.
“There are nude pictures of you in circulation, and that’s all you can say? What’s next? You got a sex tape I should know about?”
Lucy’s face is somehow both flushed and sickly pale. Her shiny, red-rimmed eyes flash with fire as she clambers out of bed and crosses the room, glaring daggers. “What do you want me to tell you? I didn’t take that picture!”
She shoves my chest with weak, trembling hands I hardly feel at all.
Her words waver as she continues. “And I didn’t send it to myself or to you, so why don’t you just lay off?”
So because she didn’t push theSendbutton herself, this is all okay? I could barely look at that picture before glancing away, but I guarantee that no other red-blooded man will do the same if the photo pops up all over the internet.
What the hell was she thinking? “Right, right, I’ll just stop doing my job so you can swap nudes with crime lords to your heart’s content. What, did you let him snap a few shots and then change your mind? Is that why he’s blackmailing you?”
“Fuck you!” Lucy’s voice is only a few notches shy of a shriek. “So what if you didn’t know? Some things are private. You of all people should understand that.”
“And you, the girl who was attacked and nearly hauled off from a club a few days ago, should know that your safety comes above your pride.”
“My pride?” She blinks a few times, mouth gaping. “Is that what you think this is about?”
Anger boils in my throat. It’s a struggle to keep my voice level. “All I ask is that you be honest with me so I can do my job. What’s so difficult about that?”
“The way you’re honest with me?” She throws her hands in the air. “Bugging my phone so you can get a copy of all my communications?”
She’s right, but it’s too late to stop the runaway train. “It’s my job to keep you safe.”
“Well, believe it or not, you don’t have to keep reminding me that I’m just a job to you, you overgrown pain in my ass!” She paces toward the window, then back to me. “I’m already well aware that I’m just some mess you have to clean up after.”
She sucker punches me in the gut with that one. Is that really how I’ve been treating her? Is that what she truly thinks?
Regardless, I don’t have time to deal with that.
“All you had to say was, ‘Hey, Callum, I just received a threatening text.’” I shove a hand through my hair. “Why can’t you just work with me here? How do you expect me to do my job if you won’t cooperate?”
She rounds on me. “The same way you do everything else! By barging in unannounced and making me feel like shit.”
Fresh tears streak down her cheeks.
This is all screwed up. I didn’t mean to storm into her room and trigger a crying spell. Again.
Fuck. I’m angrier at myself more than anything else, but that does nothing to help. She’s still in the wrong.
Not only did she put herself at heightened risk by not telling me about the text, but Roguilin or one of his asshole minions—whoever snapped naked photos of Lucy—apparently possesses pictures even racier than this one.
Why am I so surprised? I’ve known all along that she tangled herself up with Roguilin to advance her career. This is just proof I was right about her.
But that realization still hurts like hell.
