Page 2 of Dirty Reads

I flattened my upper body onto the cold steel table and exhaled slowly. As the last puff of alcohol-laced breath passed my lips, I met his gaze.

His mustache stared back at me.

My mouth curled into a smirk.

“Look, sunshine. We have three-dozen eyewitnesses who saw you two in the club. I know you know what his name is and what he looks like You were with him all night. Tell us what his name is, and I’ll have Joe take you to the bathroom. Then, you can have a cup of coffee and see what you can remember about everything else. How’s that sound?”

I pushed my chair away from the table. “My name’s Jess, not sunshine.”

I crossed my legs, feigning lack of bladder control, and glanced at necktie. He quickly switched the match to the other side of his mouth and tossed his head toward the door. “Follow me.”

“I know what your name is,” mustache said. “I wanted his.”

Providing his name wouldn’t give them with any useful information. Half the city probably shared his first name. I glanced at the round over-sized clock hanging over the doorway.

10:30.

I still had thirty minutes. If I took my time in the bathroom and slowly sipped my coffee when we got back, I might get by with only lying to them for fifteen minutes. I could talk in circles for fifteen minutes.

“His name?” I asked over my shoulder as I followed bad cop toward the door.

“Yeah, I’ll need that before you go.”

I turned around and met his gaze. “Dick.”

Mustache stood and folded his arms in front of his chest. “Excuse me?”

I studied him from head-to-toe. As our eyes locked, the corner of my mouth twisted into a smirk. “Dick.”

His eyes narrowed and his jaw muscles went tense. “What’d you call me?”

“His name,” I said with a shallow grin. “His name was Dick.”

He chuckled, seeming slightly relieved. “Dick, huh? No last name?”

I shook my head.

“Well, when you get back, we’ll need you to tell us what happened.”

I laughed. “I wouldn’t know where to start.”

He licked the edge of his mustache with the tip of his tongue, pulling the end of it into the corner of his mouth. “At the beginning.”

“The beginning?”

He nodded. “Yeah, the beginning. It’s always a good place to start. Might be tough to remember all the details, I’m sure you were scared shitless with all the gunfire and commotion. Go to the bathroom, get your coffee, and we’ll get started when you get back. At the beginning.”

The beginning? When I met Dick?

When I met him I was scared and not quite myself.

This? Tonight?

This is fucking fun.