Page 39 of Wicked Duty
Shame eats me up, dousing all remaining lust.
I don’t want Lucy Marlow to become another face among those victims.
Lucy’s safety and me surviving this assignment with my sanity intact are my only concerns.
As soon as Lucy retreats to her room, I catch the wolf spider I find in the corner of her shower and hasten over to the balcony to free it. Once the lil guy skitters away, I call Shane Gallagher.
He answers on the fifth ring. “Well?”
I stare out at the city lights. “Calling with a brief update.”
“Save your breath. My nephew already informed me that Roguilin’s men tried to kidnap Lucy.”
Fucking wonderful. News travels fast.
“We apprehended two men at the nightclub.”
“Yes, I know.” A pause. It sounds like he’s blowing on the microphone, which can only mean he’s smoking. “My son’s been questioning them for the better part of an hour.”
The Irish Kings don’t waste any time.
Before I can share more news that Shane already knows, he pins me with the truth. “If that wallet isn’t found, the girl is as good as dead, Callum.”
“I know. I will. I?—”
The call ends. Apparently, Shane Gallagher is done talking.
I blow out a breath and lean against the railing. There’s barely any room to stand out here with all these fucking plants.
What I almost said to Shane was that if Roguilin wanted to off Lucy, she’d be dead already. I’m not enjoying the pressure from the king of the Kings. But even more, it’s itching my brain to no end that I can’t visualize the big picture yet.
My phone shrills thirty seconds later. It’s Darren. He wants me to recap the entire day, start to finish. Painstakingly, I do, trying to leave out the more colorful details, like Lucy decorating the kitchen floor with eggs and boiling water and scratching me like an alley cat, Lucy using me as a sex doll, Lucy arguing with me in the club…
But even without all those damning details, Darren’s first question at the end of my censored retelling is, “Are you sure you can handle this case?”
The phone creaks under my tense palm. “This is nothing more than glorified babysitting of a spoiled girl.”
Several beats of silence tick by. “You’re wrong about her, you know.”
Startled, I blink at my phone. “What?”
“Lucy’s a good girl. She’s not whatever you think she is. You should try to cut her some slack. She’s had a rough year. Some might say a rough life.”
That sounds like an excuse if I’ve ever heard one. “Yeah, well, maybe she should’ve thought of that before getting involved with a man like Viktor Roguilin.”
Something hisses behind me. I freeze before slowly pivoting, already dreading what I’ll find.
Lucy hovers in the doorway.
Her pained expression lingers a moment before hardening into the mask I now recognize as her emotional armor. After hesitating another heartbeat, she spins around and stalks away.
For a split second, something stabs my chest—regret, maybe—but I smother the emotion.
A man like me can’t afford regret.
And that’s exactly what will happen if I get emotionally entangled with a budding star.
Chapter 15
