I purse my lips. “I was misled. Or so you say. Because I can’t help but notice that I’m lying almost naked in a room where you tied me down and beat me.”
“That wasn’t a beating.”
“Yes. It was.”
He cocks his head. “Not by street standards. And not by crue standards.”
“It felt like one to me. I’m still in pain.”
“Yeah, not a good idea to start things with me you can’t finish. You’re lucky a spanking is all you got.”
“Lesson learned. From now on I’ll stay away from you. As soon as I get out of your apartment, that is.”
He smiles. Then he disappears from the doorway, and, crazily enough, that annoys me. Dealing with the unwarranted disappointment of being left alone is confusing. What I need to do is get out of his place as soon as possible. When he’s asleep I could sneak through the apartment foraging for a phone. Or I could write SOS on his giant windows. Surely, someone would notice eventually, right?
“Here,” he says.
I turn my head sharply to find him standing next to the bed with a glass of water and an outstretched hand full of pills.
“What are those?”
“Motrin, Tylenol, Roxies.”
“Roxies? What’s that?”
He removes a couple of pills. “Here. Motrin and Tylenol.”
I huff out a derisive laugh. “What are Roxies? Illegal drugs?”
“Could be prescribed. These weren’t.”
I take the Tylenol from his hand and examine them to be sure they are what he says. Since they’re properly stamped, I pop them in my mouth and chug them down with water.
“Don’t expect me to say thank you.”
“I don’t. I get it. Life turned you into a brat.”
My brows rise. “Trick, I’m not playing here. This isn’t some game.”
“Everything’s a game.”
“And what does it take to win?”
“When we play to the end, we’ll both know.”
I sigh. “I thought you guys were enslaving pre-teen girls. I wouldn’t have agreed to help the FBI otherwise.” That’s not the whole story, but I’ve gotten away with keeping one personal secret from him, and I plan to keep it that way.
“They played you. Doesn’t that piss you off?”
“Yes, actually,” I say honestly.
“Why do you think you fell for it?”
“Because you’re a known criminal and a top man in a known criminal organization. And you have a reputation for liking deviant sex. Which I now know firsthand is true. Why wouldn’t I believe them? They’re the FBI.”
“But why did you agree to help them? Is that what you want to do? Work for the FBI?”
I choke out a laugh. “Of course not. Seriously?” I shake my head emphatically, but I’m nervous. He’s got uncanny insight that I’m not telling him everything.
