He’d done such a good job hiding the fact that he’d come here from his wife for so long… but he couldn’t hide it anymore.
I was still staring at the body when the sound of someone clearing their throat forced me to look up.
Renn’s eyes were keen when he stared at me. “You didn’t mean to what?”
To get him killed—to lead Otto back to the room? To think with some fucked-up instincts that I wasn’t even sure were my own, instead of listening to reason when it told me I was leading the man into trouble.
“I didn’t mean to freak out. I…” I swallowed hard. I could tell them the truth. Ishouldtell them the truth. I had an exact description and a name.
So…
Why did my tongue feel like it was glued to the roof of my mouth when I tried to get the words out? Why did it seem completely impossible to betray Otto?
“London, it’s okay.” Til’s voice was soft. “Just tell us who hurt your client.” Nottell us what happened. Nottell us what you did.
Tell them who.
Til wanted me to protect myself, even if he didn’t have any proof that I wasn’t lying.
And apparently there was something I wanted to protect too, because the words came out of my chest before I could stop them, melting away the stiffness binding my tongue on the wings of a lie.
“It happened so fast. I was dancing, and then I heard Mr. Caulson fall. Whoever it was, they told me to shut my eyes and not turn around. I think they went through his pockets… but…” I swallowed hard. I wasn’t a good liar—I’d never been a good liar—but the words were flowing freely from my lips and I hadn’t even taken the time to think of them before I’d started. “I didn’t see his face. He had on a jacket with the hood up and something covering his eyes… I…” I finally turned to look at Renn, fixated on the way he was staring at me like he could see right through me, like he could read the wordsliarandmurdereretched behind my lids as they fell to the ground. “I don’t know who it was. I know Mr. Caulson was married, and he was coming here without telling his wife.”
Oh, shit.
Shit.
It had come out before I thought it through. Saying I didn’t know who had hurt Mr. Caulson was one thing.
Accusing his wife of it because I wanted to protect the man who’d kidnapped me, who’d hurt me, tortured me, put his hands on me without my permission… the man who’d made me cry andlikedit?
Fuck…
That was some sick kind of twisted that I didn’t want to think too hard about.
I bit my lip hard enough that I could taste blood, pulling my robe tighter around me as I did so.
“Are you sure you didn’t see—”
“Look at him,” Til said, his voice a little gruff. “He’s shaken up. He doesn’t have a drop of blood on him. I can pull our security footage to show you he didn’t leave the hall to get to the bathroom to clean up or dispose of any clothes. If you need to question him further, that’s fine… but you could at least let him get dressed before you do.”
Officer Renn drew up short, his eyes flicking from my shivering frame back to Til. The fact that my boss was over six feet tall and imposing wasn’t lost on me, and apparently it wasn’t lost on Renn either. After a second, he nodded. “Of course. We can have one of our officers escort you to a changing room so you can get dressed. Then, if you want to come down to the station to make a formal statement…” Renn paused, adding, “We’ll need your clothes for evidence.”
I didn’t bother glancing down—Otto had been so fucking careful when he’d been in here. I hadn’t seen a drop of blood on my skin… hell, the only thing they might find is traces of precum if they were looking for that… and I worked in a strip club. They could assume all they wanted but…
Otto had been careful.
Maybe because he knew something exactly like this would happen. I was pretty sure he’d done it to protect himself, but there was a small part of me that wondered if he’d done it to protect me.
If I told myself he’d left me here to see if I could get myself out of danger, it made more sense when I nodded and stood up. I could do this to protectmyself,not Otto. “I don’t mind. But I told you everything I know… I didn’t see who it was.”
I sounded more convincing this time. I sounded like I actually believed it… and in a sense, it was true.
I had no idea who Otto really was—I had no idea what he really wanted. First, he said he wanted to kill me, then he snuck into the room every night and held me. He’d threatened me andsaved me… He killed a man and put his hands on me… And now…
Well… now he’d made sure, even when he’d followed me back to this room and killed someone to punish me, that I wasn’t going to be implicated for the crime.
I had no idea who he was… but for the first time since all of this had started, I could admit to myself that Iwantedto.
