Page 5 of Protected By Razor

“He’ll figure it out. That’s what he does. That’s his whole thing. He’ll find the guy, he’ll sort it, and you’ll go back to your life.”

“Yeah,” I manage.

“He’s the best person in the world to have in your corner for something like this. You know that, right?”

“I know.”

What I don’t say is that having him in my corner is the exact problem. Having him in my apartment. Having him close enough that I can smell whatever he smells like now — engine oil, leather, whatever men like him smell like — and look at his hands and his mouth and remember that once, when I was sixteen, he looked at me like he wanted to ruin me, and then he never looked at me like that again.

I’ve spent ten years being fine. I’ve spent ten years being good.

Outside, somewhere in the distance, a bike rumbles past. I don’t flinch.

But my whole body listens.

CHAPTER 2

RAZOR

The phone buzzes against the workbench while I’ve got my hands in an engine.

I don’t look at it. I’m elbow-deep in a ‘78 Shovelhead that’s been fighting me for two days, and whoever it is can wait five minutes.

It stops. Starts again.

I wipe my hands on the rag hanging out of my back pocket and pick it up.

Kate.

I stand up straight, because my sister doesn’t ring me at seven in the evening on a Tuesday unless something’s wrong. I swipe to answer.

“Yeah.”

“Hey. You busy?”

“What’s going on?”

“It’s Darcie.”

“Okay…and?” I then set the rag down very slowly on the bench. I don’t react. I don’t do anything. I just listen.

“She’s fine,” Kate says quickly. “She’s here with me. She’s okay. But some shit’s going on and I don’t know what to do about it.”

“Tell me.”

Kate tells me. A dog at the clinic. A man who got cagey when Darcie asked questions about its injuries. A note on Darcie’s car two days later. A car following her home tonight — three turns round the block, a dark blue sedan, lost her somewhere between the clinic and here.

I listen without interrupting. I keep my voice level.

“Who knows?” I ask when she’s done.

“Just me. She hasn’t told her family. She didn’t want to freak them out.”

“Police?”

“She doesn’t think they’ll do anything.”

“She’s right.”