Read Denied for Free Online

line.
    Monster picked up his glass and knocked back the remaining brandy. He needed to keep his emotions at bay. Feeling wouldn’t do either of them any good.
    “What’s that?”
    “She went to the police station and made a report. I’m afraid we haven’t been able to get hold of any files to find out exactly what she said, but I think we can be fairly certain the report would have mentioned you in it.”
    He clenched his fist around the phone, his jaw tightening. “You need to get hold of that file.”
    “We’re working on it. We have some contacts in the LAPD, but obviously it takes time.”
    “I need to know if she’s said anything that might draw the wrong kind of attention to her.”
    “I understand.”
    “So what’s she doing now?”
    “She caught a bus and went back to her apartment.”
    “Okay, well, keep an eye on her. Make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid.”
    “I’ll do my best, sir, though I hope you understand it isn’t always easy to tail someone in a city this busy. Los Angeles is a big place, and you specifically said not to allow her to become suspicious in any way.”
    Monster snapped. “I don’t want to hear fucking excuses. Just do the job I’m paying you for.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    He hung up the phone, his heart beating hard.
    What the hell did she go to the police for? Did she really think he’d send her back to the United States without employing people to keep an eye on her? He’d thought she had more sense than that. He’d hoped she might have lain low and taken some time to herself. With the money he’d sent, she didn’t even need to go in to work if she didn’t want to.
    Still, his heart ached for her.
    Monster wished he’d been able to ask Sean the things he really wanted to know.
    He’d wanted the other man to tell him every little detail about Flower. Had she been crying? How did she look? Was she hurt and did she miss him? He wished he could see her and ask her those questions himself. He wished he could wrap his arms around her, and hold her, and tell her everything was going to be all right.
    Monster pushed away the surge of emotion that rose inside him. He lifted his glass, planning on taking another drink to try to dull the pain, but the glass was empty. With a growl, he tightened his hold, squeezing harder and harder, until finally the glass shattered in his fist. Shards of glass embedded in his flesh, and he let the remaining pieces crash to the floor. Blood ran down his palm and dripped onto the desk, but he didn’t care.
    The sight and the pain slicing through his hand was a welcome distraction from the ache in his heart.

 
     
    Four
     
     
     
     
     
    Lily hammered her fist against the door, hard enough to hurt. The number 20 in a gold embossed figure was attached to the center of the wood, but it lost part of its nail as she banged and slipped so it hung crooked.
    “Hey!” she yelled. “Get out here.”
    Her anger toward her interfering neighbor had built with every step she’d taken toward home. If he hadn’t called the cops ahead of her, they would never have heard the story about her having trouble with a bad boyfriend and would have taken her story more seriously. He should have stayed out of her business instead of sticking his nose in where it wasn’t wanted.
    She didn’t hear anything, so she banged again.
    “Come on, you son of a bitch! Face me!”
    Maybe she was taking her anger out on the wrong man, blaming him for what had happened when he was only a tiny piece of the jigsaw, but right now he was the only one available.
    Footsteps approached from inside and the door swung open. His hair was wet, long and dripping in his face, and a towel was wrapped around his waist. She tried not to notice the defined muscles of his chest and abdomen, or the way a dark line of hair ran from his navel and disappeared beneath the towel.
    His eyes widened in surprise. “Oh, it’s you.”
    No, she would not let herself be distracted by a good body