“Jack, why don’t you let me go?” she asked. “You can keep my cards and get the money out yourself.”
He looked at her as if she was crazy. “Why, so you can cancel your cards, then go straight to the police and have them come here to arrest me? Do you think I was born yesterday? You’re going nowhere.”
Ray opened her mouth to argue, but she knew it would be pointless, so she closed it again and stayed quiet.
“I’m hungry. Go and make me a sandwich,” Jack ordered. “There’s some salami in the refrigerator.”
Ray did as instructed, hoping Jack might be distracted while she worked so that she could slip out of the back door and make a run for it, but he followed her into the kitchen and propped himself up on a stool at the island. He put the gun down in front of him and watched every move she made.
“Make one for yourself,” he said.
She shook her head. “I’m not hungry.”
He shrugged. “Suit yourself.”
She handed him the sandwich and he ate it at the counter while she stood by and watched him. He picked up the gun then carried the empty plate to the sink and left it there where a few other dirty plates and cups were stacked.
“Come with me,” he said, motioning with the gun for her to walk in front of him.
“Where are we going?”
“To the bedroom.”
Ray’s steps faltered, but Jack was still talking and didn’t notice her hesitation.
“We’re going through Marie’s closet. I want you to show me what is the most expensive stuff that will go for a good price. I got a contact who will take just about any designer shit I give him, but I want to know what everything is worth, so he doesn’t try to stiff me.”
Ray breathed a sigh of relief. For a moment…For a moment she’d beentrulyscared.
“Through there,” he said, nodding to a door on the left.
Ray walked into the bedroom and looked around before crossing the room and entering into a large walk-in closet. They spent the next twenty minutes rifling through Marie’s belongings. Ray was tempted to point out the items that were worth the least amount of money, just to screw with him, but it would have been just her luck for Jack to get his buyer to come around to the house when she was still there and find out that she’d lied to him, so in the end, reluctantly, she told him the truth.
After they were done in the closet, Jack made her go through the woman’s drawers in her bedroom and she’dreallyhated that. Despite Jack forcing her to do as she was told, she felt as if she was one of the bad guys while going through this stranger’s personal belongings. She could only imagine how it would feel if the same thing were to happen to her. She’d feel violated.
“She keeps the really valuable stuff in a fucking safe,” Jack groused. “But I’ve managed to make ten thousand out of her already. She got a shitload of cash when her husband kicked the bucket, but I’m not waiting around forever to get my hands on it. Especially now that you’ve gone and fucked everything up. I would have been onto a nice little earner between the two of you over the duration of a few months, but it’s time to blow this city and start over somewhere new.”
Her hatred of the man in front of her increased when she learned that he was preying on a widow. What in the hell was wrong with him? Ray wasn’t so sheltered and naïve that she didn’t know there were a ton of men like him in the world of course, but being faced with one, and actually having dated him made her feel sick to her stomach.
“That’s it,” she said, after she’d finished looking inside the last drawer.
“Fuck,” Jack groused, looking down at the pile they’d made on the bedroom floor. “There’s hardly anything here. Perhaps I can convince her to stay with her sister until the end of the month so we can get more money out of your bank account.”
The very idea made a sinking feeling settle in the pit of Ray’s stomach. She didn’t want to have to stay with him a moment longer than she absolutely had to. He must have noticed the expression on her face because he waved the gun at her.
“It’s your own fucking fault. If you hadn’t broken things off with me, I wouldn’t have resorted to tactics like these.”
Why, so he could have stolen from her over time while she actually started to develop feelings for the guy? She didn’t think so. She wondered if he would have slipped up eventually and shown her some of the more nauseating aspects of his character. Because if he’d acted the way he was now when she’d first met him, she wouldn’t have agreed to go on even one date with him, let alone a second.
“Why did you end things with me, anyway?” he asked.
Ray’s eyes widened. There was no way she was going to tell him anything about Sloane. It was none of his damn business.
“I just didn’t feel ready for a relationship,” she lied.
“Bullshit,” he spat. “You were more than ready the last time we met. Seem to remember that kiss you gave me getting pretty hot and heavy too. Think you were plenty ready if you know what I’m saying.”
Ray started to panic when he walked toward her. She edged away from him but he just threw his head back and laughed and the sound made her feel cold all over.
“Jack, please. Don’t.”
“Don’t flatter yourself,” he said. “You’re nothing but a job to me. Never were. And my name isn’t fuckingJack.”
She swallowed hard. He was crazy. She had to get out of here. Now. She glanced toward the door, and when he looked that way, too, she raised her knee and made to drive it between his legs. He blocked her with his thigh and snatched up a handful of her hair, then tossed her across the room.
“Oh, no, you don’t, bitch. Seems like you need a lesson in manners.”
That was when he reared back and punched her, and Ray realized she was in deep, deep trouble.
