Skin and Blond (Blond Noir Mysteries Book 1) Read online

  The worst thing was that it was going to be hell to prove it was rape anyway. I’d already consented to him twice before… well, maybe you could discount the blackout, but that would be tough to prove. Anyway, his high-priced lawyers would drag me through the dirt, and I had a lot of dirt, and…

  Shit, he was going to rape me, and I was probably not even going to bother reporting it.

  Fuck, how did this happen to me? How did I get here? How did I become this person?

  I struggled against him, pushing at his chest. “Get off of me. Stop it. Stop it now. I mean it.” My voice was shrill.

  He pulled up for a minute. “Hey, are you serious?”

  “Hell, yes, I’m fucking serious. What do you think you’re doing, you jackass?”

  He stood up, furrowing his brow. “No. No way. You wanted this. I could tell you were just begging me—”

  “Let me out of this room.” I vaulted off the couch and started for the door.

  He backed against the door, blocking my path. “Wait a second. We still haven’t had a chance to talk.”

  “How many times do I have to tell you that there is nothing to talk about?”

  “I don’t believe you. There is something between us. I never felt a connection like this before.”

  “There’s no connection.” My hands were shaking.

  “There’s a connection, all right.” He stepped forward. “I’m going to show it to you. When we’re close, I know you feel it.” He wrapped his arms around me, his mouth on my mouth.

  I struggled, screaming against his lips.

  The door opened.

  “Colin, what the hell?”

  Colin let go of me and turned. “Dude, some privacy?”

  A guy walked into the room, and I recognized him immediately as Johnny O’Shaunessy. I’d arrested this guy before. Pike and I together, back years ago, when we were still partners.

  “You know who the fuck that is?” Johnny pointed at me.

  “She’s Ivy,” said Colin.

  “She’s a cop.”

  “She’s a private eye,” Colin countered.

  I swallowed hard. Things were bad before, but now they were worse. As a general rule, mobsters weren’t particularly thrilled with the officers who’d arrested them. Johnny didn’t like me, and he probably wanted to hurt me. “It’s true. I’m not a cop anymore.”

  Johnny sneered at me. “Where’s your big, bad partner now?”

  “I work alone,” I said.

  Johnny reached for me.

  Colin stopped him. “What the fuck you think you’re doing?”

  “She’s a fucking cop. You don’t bring a cop in here. You don’t kiss a cop,” said Johnny.

  “I’m telling you. She’s not a cop,” said Colin.

  “Sure as fuck used to be. Which is the same thing in my book.” He reached for me again.

  Colin shoved him. “Leave her alone.”

  Johnny shoved Colin. “Back off, fucker. You don’t even belong back here. You skipped out on the family a long time ago.”

  Colin’s face got red. He balled up a fist and slugged Johnny in the jaw.

  Johnny’s head snapped back, but he recovered quickly and drove a fist into Colin’s stomach.

  Taking advantage of the distraction, I scurried past them into the hallway.

  “Get back here!” yelled Johnny.

  I threw open the first door I came to and flung myself inside.

  It was a storage closet, full of kegs of beer. I found a corner and crouched behind a stack of kegs.

  It was quiet and dark inside here. All I could hear was the sound of my own breath. I endeavored to breathe less loudly, but it was hard. I was still scared.

  For several minutes, there was nothing. I was alone in the darkness, hiding behind the kegs, smelling a musty beer smell, as if the walls and floor were seeped in the stuff.

  Then the door opened.

  I jumped, startled.

  I couldn’t see anything, not in the dark, behind the keg.

  “Hey, you in there, bitch?” came Johnny’s voice.

  “Man, why the fuck you gotta be such a dick?” said Colin. “She’s not hiding in there. She’s probably back at my car, and probably wants to get the hell out of here. Thanks so much for the cockblock.”

  “Yeah, whatever. She wasn’t hot for you, man. If she’s been spending time with you, it’s because she’s trying to take down the family. She’s a cop. She’s the enemy.”

  I held my breath. If they found me back here, either Johnny would hurt me or Colin would “rescue” me. But I wasn’t keen on whatever Colin would do to me once he’d done that.

  “She’s not a cop. I’m telling you. She’s a private investigator,” said Colin.

  Someone switched the light on, and I jumped.

  Shit! Had they seen my movement? I looked to the left side and to the right, trying to make sure that I was completely hidden by the kegs.

  “She’s a cop. Trust me, I know.”

  Oh my God, my leg was sticking out. I needed to move it, to hide it. But what if they noticed the movement? What if that caught their eye and caused them to see me?

  I cringed. What should I do?

  “I’m not standing here and looking through the storage room, okay?” said Colin.

  “We gotta find this bitch. You don’t understand. If she’s here, she’s doing something to try to hurt the family in some way. She’s using you to get close, and now she’ll be in here, spying—”

  “She’s not a fucking cop!” Colin sounded pretty pissed off now.

  “Whatever.” The light snapped off.

  Oh, were they leaving?

  Good. Leave, I willed them.

  “The last time I saw her, she was a fucking cop,” said Johnny, but his voice was getting a little farther away.

  “Well when was that?” Colin’s voice was drifting away too.

  Johnny said something in return, but I couldn’t make it out. They were walking out of my earshot.

  I grinned, letting out a relieved sigh.

  My first inclination was to get out of there right away, but I forced myself not to move.

  I needed to be sure that they were far enough away that they wouldn’t see me leave the room.

  So, I waited.

  The position that I was in wasn’t very comfortable. I was getting a cramp in my calf. I carefully tried to massage it, but it didn’t help very much. I adjusted as carefully and quietly as I could, putting my back against the wall, stretching out my legs a bit.

  But they collided with the kegs.

  Shit.

  I reached forward to steady them.

  That was the last thing I needed. If I knocked over the kegs, then I’d bring everyone running. That would make a lot of noise.

  I should get up now, shouldn’t I? Why was I staying in here? Colin and Johnny were gone, and there wasn’t any reason not to get moving.

  But how long had it really been since they’d walked off? Maybe they were still in the hallway. Maybe I should give it a few minutes, just to be on the safe side. I knew that Johnny had it in for me, and I could still taste Colin’s mouth on mine, a mix of alcohol and breath mints. I didn’t want Colin to touch me, not ever again.

  Oh fuck, when I thought about how close I’d been to getting…

  Shit. I wanted to cry. When it had been happening, I think I’d been too horrified to react emotionally, but now it was all crashing down around me. Colin Pugliano was not a good guy, and he had it bad for me, and I didn’t know how I was going to protect myself.

  I needed a gun.

  I could probably get one, too, if I needed to, even if it wasn’t legal for me to carry it. It would be worth it, because then if Colin tried anything else—

  But no, what was I thinking? If I shot Colin with an illegal gun, I would get in a ridiculous amount of trouble.

  Maybe I wouldn’t have to shoot him, though. Maybe I could just scare him with it.

  Still, I’d always been t
aught that you don’t take out a gun unless you’re prepared to use it.

  I shook myself. Okay, this was silly. Why was I sitting here, thinking about this behind the kegs in the Shamrock’s storage room? Enough time had surely passed by now. I’d just go ahead and get out of here.

  I tried to get to my feet. But when I moved my legs, I realized both of them were asleep.

  Painful pins and needles radiated up to my torso.

  I winced. Crap, that didn’t feel good.

  But the only way I was going to get blood pumping back into my legs was to stand up. Wedging my back against the wall, I began to push myself into a standing position. Each inch higher was agony. God, how had my legs gotten so asleep so fast? Or maybe it was just hurting so bad because I was going so slowly, trying hard not to knock over the kegs.

  The light in the room came back on.

  I froze. Shit.

  “In here,” said a voice.

  Okay, I didn’t think that was either Colin or Johnny. It was someone else.

  “Dude, why are we going into the storage closet?” A different voice.

  My heart thudded. I stayed right where I was, wedged against the wall, half standing, half crouching. I didn’t dare move.

  “Because we got problems, dude,” said the first voice.

  Blood was still flowing back into my asleep legs. It hurt like fuck. I grimaced and didn’t make noise.

  “What kind of problems?”

  “Problems with Cori.”

  Cori? Wait a second. Why does that name sound familiar? I wondered.

  “That little piece of freshman ass you picked up at the college? Why would she be a problem? She can’t be a buck ten soaking wet.”

  “Not everything is about size, Pumbaa.”

  Pumbaa? What was it about gangsters and nicknames from Disney movies, anyway?

  Pumbaa laughed. “Well, what kind of problems she causing?”

  “She’s taking over our territory. I hear stories that she’s swinging X at parties in Keene.”

  “What are you talking about?” said Pumbaa. “That’s your piece of ass, man. Can’t you control her?”

  “Yeah, that’s the thing. We’re not together anymore. It’s a whole big story. I don’t feel like getting into it.”

  “Fair enough. But how’s she getting her supply, if she’s not getting it from us?”

  “I don’t know that either. But she’s got something. Look, I introduced her to half of the people she’s selling to right now. I set her up. I let all the customers know who she was. Now, she sails in there and takes over, and it makes me look bad. If anyone finds out…”

  “What do you want to do about it?” said Pumbaa.

  “We got to figure out some way to stop her.”

  “You mean, you want me to stop her?”

  “I don’t want her hurt. At least, not bad. Just… scare her mostly?”

  “I don’t know, Chase. She’s just a kid. And she’s a girl.”

  “All right, we’ll talk about it more later, but I just wanted to take this chance to explain the situation, okay?”

  A sigh. “You screwed up bad, dude.”

  “Shut up.” The sound of the door opening.

  The light flipped off. “Just saying, you go chasing that young tail, and bad shit happens.”

  They were leaving.

  I strained my ears to listen as their conversation dwindled.

  Cori. Were they talking about Cori Donovan, the girl I’d spoken to in the back of Nick’s? She’d sworn up and down not to be a drug dealer. If it was the same Cori, then it was pretty clear she’d lied to me.

  Man, maybe there was something to the drug thing when it came to Madison. After all, I couldn’t get her boss to talk to me about it, and—

  This was not the time to think about this shit. I was getting out of there, and I wasn’t going to wait around forever this time either.

  I scrambled out from behind the kegs, back into the dark room. The door was open onto the hallway, and a sliver of light shone through.

  I made my way over to the door and eased it open a little bit. I stuck my head out the door and looked up and down the hallway.

  Empty.

  And there was a door at one end. It had an exit sign over it. That door was the way out.

  I surged out of the closet and made a run for it. I wanted out of here as fast as I could.

  I threw myself out the exit door and into the welcoming afternoon air. I didn’t think anything had ever felt quite so good.

  Now, how to get out of here? Shamrock’s was on the complete other side of town than my car, which was still parked at Happy’s.

  Luckily, I still had my phone. I yanked it out of my pocket and dialed the cab company. I told them where I was, and they promised to be there in ten minutes.

  But now I had to hang out near Shamrock’s for ten minutes waiting for the cab. Which I wasn’t exactly excited about. Colin was probably still looking for me, and I didn’t want to see him.

  Should I call the cab company back and tell them to pick me up a block down or something?

  I could, but by now, they’d probably already dispatched a driver to my location, and they might not be able to get in touch with him to tell him to change the pickup. I wasn’t even sure how the cab company dispatched drivers anyway. Did they call people in their cars or send them out from the cab station? Maybe they had walkie-talkies in their cars. But I couldn’t ever remember hearing a cab driver talk on a walkie-talkie. For that matter, I’d never seen one on a cell phone either.

  I should just call. This was the twenty-first century. They’d have some way to get in touch with the driver.

  “Ivy.”

  I whirled.

  Colin was coming around the back of the building.

  Crap.

  I turned back around, nearly tripping over my feet. I teetered, struggling for balance.

  “Ivy, why’d you run from me?”

  I managed to right myself, and I took off, running for the front of the building. It was on the street, and there would be people there. He couldn’t rape me in front of people. Plus, the cab was going to be there. Soon, I hoped.

  “Ivy!” he yelled.

  I ran as fast as I could, emerging on the sidewalk in front of Shamrock’s. There was as sign on the front of the building, an illustrated leprechaun next to the name.

  A few guys were lounging on the steps, smoking cigarettes.

  “Hey there,” said one of them. “Where you going in such a hurry, honey?”

  Generally, anyone who was that familiar with me right off the bat would be a guy that I would steer clear of. But right at this moment, I could use a little machismo, and men like that were always full of themselves.

  I ran over to him, my voice shaking. “He won’t leave me alone.”

  “Who won’t?”

  At that moment, Colin burst around the building.

  The guy who’d spoken to me let out a low laugh. “Colin, are you terrorizing this poor girl?”

  Shit. They knew each other.

  Of course they knew each other. This was Shamrock’s, and it was all one big incestuous clusterfuck.

  Where was the goddamned cab?

  “Come here, honey,” said the guy. “I’ll keep you safe from Colin.” And then he laughed again.

  I swallowed, lurching towards the edge of the sidewalk. I peered down the road, hoping to see the cab driving up.

  “Ivy.” Colin was right next to me.

  Could I see even just a hint of yellow? Somewhere?

  He grabbed my shoulder.

  I shook him off. “Keep your hands to yourself.”

  He took a step back. “What the heck is going on?”

  “What’s going on is that you’re deaf,” I said. “I told you that I don’t want anything to do with you.”

  He gave me a look that was half frustration and half disbelief. “Are you playing with me? Is this some kind of game?”

  “No game, Colin
.”

  “But-but—” He was sputtering.

  “I don’t want to see you ever again,” I said.

  He still couldn’t form words. His face was turning red.

  And then—thank God—the cab pulled up. I ran for it. For good measure, I threw over my shoulder. “And you have a small penis!”

  Which was a lie. His penis was not small, not at all. But I figure that if I embarrassed him in public, he’d be less likely to think that we had a connection or whatever the hell he thought. As I slid into the cab, I could only hope that he’d leave me the hell alone from now on.

  * * *

  “Jesus, Ivy,” said Crane in a quiet voice.

  It was four in the afternoon, and I was in the bar in town, sipping on a Jack and Coke. I’d needed something stronger than a High Life after the day I’d had. I hadn’t expected anyone else to be here in the bar, but Crane was there. We were two of about seven customers, and we were sharing a table in the back.

  “Yeah, it was pretty insane,” I said. “After the cab took me back to my car, I couldn’t handle going back to the office, so I called Brigit and told her to close down everything on her own, and I came straight here.”

  He puffed on his e-cigarette, bathing us in a chocolate-mint scent. “Ivy, you shouldn’t be doing shit like that.”

  “I didn’t,” I protested. “I was taken against my will.”

  “It’s dangerous.”

  “No shit.”

  “Well, I don’t like it. I worry about you. After a story like that, I’m going to worry about you more.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Oh, please, Crane, don’t get like that. You do not own me, and you don’t get to tell me what to do. Just because I slept with a crazy guy—”

  “That’s not what it’s about. It’s about you being safe.”

  “I used to be a police officer. That wasn’t safe.”

  “You could call backup when you were a police officer.” He furrowed his brow. “Who are you supposed to call now, huh?”

  He had a point.

  But I wasn’t going to admit that to him. Besides, there wasn’t anything I could have done about this situation. Well, besides not sleeping with Colin in the first place and not getting blackout drunk the other night at the bar, I supposed. Still, I hadn’t asked to be kidnapped, taken to Shamrock’s, and nearly forced against my will.