Page 6 of Vain (The Seven Deadly 1)

“I can’t,” he said.

“Yes, you can, Casey. Do it and I’ll repay you exponentially.”

He groaned but looked at me apologetically. “When you get out, come find me,” he said quietly as the other officer entered the room.

“The rest of the upstairs is secure,” Casey said as if he hadn’t just kissed my face off. “She was the only straggler.”

“Fine,” the older officer said. I thought he was going to leave but instead came through and examined the bathroom around us. “What the hell is this?” he asked Casey.

“What?” Casey asked.

“This,” the older man said, gesturing to the lines of coke.

“Uh, yes, she was attempting a line when I found her,” Casey told his superior.

Fuck.

“I’ll bag this up,” the man said and waved Casey on.

“I’m sorry,” Casey said when we were out of the room. “I had to tell him. He’d have known I was lying.”

“It’s okay, Casey,” I said with saccharine ooze. I kissed his mouth, then bit his lip playfully. “It would have been the best ride of your life,” I whispered. His eyes blew wide.

“Wait, what? We can still see each other,” Casey desperately plied.

“Sure we can,” I lied again.

“I wasn’t going to tell him about the drugs,” he said again, his voice quivering. “I had only planned on getting you on the party. That would have only been a ticket, a misdemeanor.”

“I know, sweets,” I told him, “but you still messed up.”

Casey led me down the winding staircase and I felt as if time was standing still. All my friends, cuffed themselves, looked up at me as I descended over them. I smiled down at them bewitchingly and they almost cowered in my presence. I’d been the one who brought the coke, and my smile let them know that if they brought me down, I wouldn’t be going down with the ship on my own. If they squealed like the pigs they were, I would make their lives miserable. There’s a fine line between friend and foe in my world.

Casey placed me into the back of a squad car when we reached the winding drive and buckled me in.

“Tell me,” I said softly against his ear near my mouth, “what exactly am I being charged with?”

“Sarge will probably get you on drugs, but if it’s your first offense, you should be able to get off lightly.”

“And what if it isn’t?”

“Isn’t what?” he asked, glancing over his shoulder.

“My first offense.”

“Shit. If it’s not, there’s nothing I can do for you.”

“Oh, well, there’s nothing I can do for you then either,” I said coldly, the heat in my seduction blasted cold with a bucket of ice water at the flip of a switch. Casey’s mouth grew wide and he could see that he’d been had. I turned my face away from his, done with my pawn.

Casey got into the front seat and I could see through the rearview that his face was painted red with humiliation and obvious disappointment in himself that he fell for my game. He stuck the key in the ignition and drove me to the station.

I was booked, processed and searched. I scoffed at the women who had to search me before placing me in my cell. Stripping naked for anyone of the female persuasion wasn’t exactly what I’d had planned for the evening. They looked down on me, knowing my charges, like they were somehow better than me.

“My lingerie probably costs more than your entire wardrobe,” I spit out at the short, stocky one who eyed me with disdain.

She could only shake her head at me.

“Well, it’ll go nicely with your new wardrobe addition,” the dark-haired one said, handing me a bright orange jumpsuit.

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