East Bound by Nana Malone (best value ebook reader .txt) 📗

East frowned. "Any chance you guys will work it out?"

"I hope so, but it seems unlikely. Although now she's my new boss, so that makes things more awkward.”

He pulled me close. "Just be careful. There are too many players. I don't know what's happening, and it worries me. All I want to do is wrap you in a sheet of bubbles so you won't get hurt."

"What about you? What if you get hurt? You know I'll avenge you, right?"

He chuckled. "You will avenge me?"

"Yeah. I am a great avenger."

"You know, I don't think that's the name of the movie."

I frowned. "Oh, someone's funny. I can be just as fierce as you can."

"Oh, I know." He stared down at his chest. "I have claw marks to prove it."

A flush crept up my neck. "I… Uh, sorry about that. I guess I was a bit of a tigress?"

He laughed heartily and then wrapped an arm around me and pulled me underneath him. "This is me acknowledging your fierceness and ferocity. And also me pulling you in for a kiss."

"I am fierce," I muttered, even as I leaned in for my kiss.

"Can you do me a favor? Just so I sleep a little better at night?"

I nodded. "Yeah, what?"

"If Theroux contacts you again when I'm not on the call, at least tell me first what the hell is going on."

"I can do that."

"Thank you."

"My pleasure."

"Okay. Now, since you're up and I can stop creepily watching you sleep, what's your preference?"

He kissed the crest just below my breast. “Breasts?”

He kissed between the valley of my breasts again, this time tracing his fingers where his mouth had just left. "Fingers?"

His fingers rolled down my body. The juncture between my thighs was already pulsing, thanks to the way that he was kissing me. "Or do you want something stronger?"

I couldn't help the giggle that escaped. "I'll pick something stronger please. Always something stronger."

"I was really hoping you'd say that."

Chapter 18

Nyla

I was in my office when I got the call that we had a walk-in.

I was just finishing up a document when Amelia popped her head in. "You here? We have a walk-in."

"Yeah, I was just headed downstairs. Do you know for what case?"

Amelia shook her head. "No, but she requested the two of us."

I grab my jumper and followed Amelia down the hall and then down the front stairs. When we checked in with security, they pointed us into one of the small conference rooms. There was a woman inside with dark hair and a slight build. She couldn't be more than in her mid-twenties. She looked so young, which made me think twice again about just how young Hazel looked. And what Denning was doing with her. But that was a whole other question for another day.

With a slight knock, I let myself in. "Hello. Are you Chantal?"

She stood and shook both of our hands, and Amelia introduced us both. "Hi."

We took our seats, and then Amelia took over. "Ms. Anderson, thank you for coming today. We were told that you wanted to speak to us, but you wouldn't say what about."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be vague. But I just know that these men are powerful, and I didn't want to say something I shouldn't."

Amelia nodded, opening her notebook and putting her pen to it. "Okay, why don't you tell us what we can help you with."

Chantal's gaze slid toward me, and I gave her a warm smile. Or at least what I hoped was a warm smile and not one that said I didn't get a wink of shut-eye last night because my boyfriend, who I got back together with, wanted to spend all that time making up. Enthusiastically no less.

"I spoke to Britney Jenner a couple of weeks ago. She told me that you were interviewing girls that used to do those parties, you know for the spoiled rich boys at Eton."

I immediately sat forward. "Yes?"

"I, um, I was visiting family. I just got back. I didn't know, or I would have come in here sooner."

Amelia started writing rapidly in her notebook. I just kept eye contact with Chantal. "Chantal, you were at those parties?"

She gave me a nod. "Once. I was fifteen."

My stomach churned. "Jesus Christ. And your mom? She didn't know where you were?"

She shook her head. "My cousin took me to the first one. She'd been invited. She asked if she could bring someone. She didn't want to go by herself."

Amelia and I both nodded as if that seemed perfectly reasonable.

Meanwhile, in my head at least, I was thinking, you have a young impressionable cousin, you don't take her around skeevy old geezers.

"Right. You and your cousin spent a lot of time together?"

"Uh, we did for a bit there. But, you know, after the party I went to, I didn’t do much of anything. So I, um... My parents sent me to stay with another cousin in Australia for a bit. You know, when things weren't seeming to get better here."

In a calm voice, Amelia said, "Okay, why don't you just tell us what happened."

Chantal’s hands shook as she wrapped them around the Styrofoam cup of tea she'd been given. "It was a party. At first, I was excited, you know? It was fancy. They provided dresses that were nicer than anything I'd ever owned."

I nodded.

Amelia was writing furiously.

"It was like a camp, you see. They trained us, told us all kinds of things about the boys that we’d be meeting, what they were like, who they knew. I thought it was a bit odd, but the weekend before the party my cousin just said that they were important people, and we were going to earn a little cash. I thought it was just like a hostess gig."

Her gaze flickered back and forth between me and Amelia. "I swear I didn't know."

I reached out my hand, upturned so that she could see I meant no harm. "No one is