Page 113 of Such a Good Girl

I watched helplessly as he marched her from my office.

ChapterForty-Three

KAYLEE

The temple was dark, with not a soul inside. Joey forced me down the stairs, the end of his gun painfully pressing against my back. We got to the main door, and he stopped outside of it and sneered at me.

“Strip!” he ordered.

“What?”

He handed me a tub of face paint and shouted again. “Take off your fucking clothes now! Put on the paint!”

“I’m not taking off my clothes, Joey. You can shoot me now.”

“Whatever, bitch, I don’t want to see you naked anyway. Put the fucking paint on.”

I wanted to stay alive as long as possible, so I did as he said. I opened the jar and smeared the paint over my face.

“Joey, this is a really bad idea,” I said, when I was done.

“Shut up.”

He pushed me forward down the hallway. Without the light of the usually lit torches on the wall, I could barely see.

“You won’t get away with this. I’m a cop.”

“I just heard you say you quit, you fucking liar.”

“You were listening to us?” I asked, stopping in my tracks and facing him. He pushed me forward again, refusing to look at me.

“Of course, I was. Are you a fucking idiot? I know everything that goes on there. I have the whole place wired.”

“Why?” We entered the main room, the caged bed looming in front of us, dark and uninviting in the empty room. It was so much different with lights, people, and chanting. Now, it was scary and cold. And dead.

“Because I have to. West keeps so much from me. I don’t know why he does that. I only want what’s best for him. He makes me do this shit.” Joey’s voice cracked in the darkness.

“What else does he make you do?” My head spun.

“Fucking all of it! He wants me to do everything, but then pretends he doesn’t. He says he doesn’t want me to get his lunch, but then he gets mad when I don’t. He gives me a list of things to do, then forgets half of it. He doesn’t know what’s good for him. He sabotages himself constantly,and doesn’t even realize it. If he didn’t have me, his career would be ruined.”

“Why?” I had no clue what was going on, but I knew I needed to keep him talking.

“Because all those women would have ruined him. They weren’t good for him. Not like I am. He would never admit it out loud, but he knows I’m what he needs. It all came out one night a year ago, but he doesn’t remember. That’s okay, because I remember.”

“What came out?”

“West’s true feelings for me!” he insisted, tears flowing down his face now. “He was drunk. That’s how I know he really meant it. He hides his feelings when he’s sober. He knows he would never be accepted as a gay man in Hollywood, not with his reputation.”

“You think West is gay?”

“He kissed me! Well, he let me kiss him, rather.”

“You kissed him while he was drunk, and you think that makes him gay?”

I hadn’t even thought for a second that Joey might be the killer, but now? He was frantic and wild, and he’d clearly snapped. The hair stood up on the back of my neck as I realized just how much danger I was in.

And with West handcuffed to his desk upstairs, nobody else even knew I was down here.

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