A Bad Boy is Good to Find - By Jennifer Lewis Page 0,10
had he expected? “I don’t think you’ve looked forward either, have you?”
“What do you mean?” She frowned, weaved and grabbed another Cheeto from the open bag.
“What are you doing with your life?”
“Living it to the fullest!” She hiccupped and sprayed some orange powder at him. “Sorry.” She frowned. “No, actually, I’m not at all sorry. I’d like to dump this whole bag on you and your crisp white shirt, but that would be a waste of the perfect food and it’s not easy to get around here.”
“You can do what you like to me. I don’t mind, I had it coming. But I can’t watch you do this to yourself.”
“No one invited you to watch anything. I don’t know what you’re doing here. You said you needed to come in for one minute, and your minute is up. Get out.” No emotion showed on her flawless face.
She looked at him so coldly that the air squeezed out of his lungs. Oh, Lizzie. What have I done to you?
He’d made mistakes before. He hadn’t been able to save the people he loved, and he lived with that guilt every day. Since then he’d done a lot of things he wasn’t proud of in the name of survival. He couldn’t change the past, but he could take responsibility for hurting Lizzie and try to make things right. “How are you paying for all this? Don’t you owe your brokerage two million dollars?”
“That’s their problem, not mine. I’ve discovered the joy of credit cards.”
“You’re running up credit?”
“I sold some old jewelry too.” She peered down her nose at him. “But don’t get excited, there’s none left now.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Drink, not eat and be merry for tomorrow we may—” Another hiccup made her rock on her heels.
His heart clutched and he grabbed her arm. “Lizzie. Come on, you’re killing yourself. Come with me and we’ll get you sorted out.”
“I said the jewelry’s all gone. There’s nothing in it for you!” She spat the icy words as she wrenched her arm from his grasp.
“I don’t care about your money, but I can’t let you drink like this. You didn’t drink at all until you met me.”
“Had no idea what I was missing!” Her lipsticked mouth twisted into a fake grin. “I have to thank you for showing me the light—which looks especially golden through the bottom of a bottle of champagne. Cheers!” She drained her glass, then slammed it down on the table. “Now get out.”
Time for plan B. Actually it was plan A, since he’d pretty much assumed she wouldn’t go willingly.
“I brought you a present.” He lifted the flower-patterned bag filled with pink tissue paper.
“Oh, how touching. Now take it with you when you piss off.” She picked up the champagne bottle and refilled her glass, spilling some on the table.
“How much have you drunk today?” He didn’t manage to sound casual.
“Don’t worry, dear, it’s my first bottle. Whoops, it seems to be empty. Lucky thing I have a case in the fridge.” Her empty eyes stared at him in mute challenge. Devoid of all the love and laughter he’d once put there.
“Won’t you at least see what I brought you?” He shook the bag and a metallic clank sounded under the rustling tissue paper.
“Gold ingots? Those would come in handy.”
He stepped toward her, crowded her. She didn’t smell like roses anymore. She wore a heavy, harsh scent probably designed in a Paris lab.
“You’ll need both hands to lift it out.” He raised the bag. She looked at him, suspicious but curious, then dipped both hands into the bag. Lifted out a pair of chrome handcuffs.
“What the—?”
He pushed her onto the bed and pinned her with his weight while he grabbed the handcuffs and clamped them on her wrists. She struggled and shrieked but was no match for him.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured as he pulled the wad of cotton primed with knock-out drops out of a Ziploc bag buried in the tissue paper and covered her mouth and nose. She stared at him, plainly terrified, as her body went limp.
“It’s for your own good,” he whispered. She couldn’t hear him, and he hoped no one else had either. Lucky her room was at the end of the hall.
The next part of the plan promised to be tricky. The French doors to the garden were a blessing, but he still had to get her out there and over the low stucco wall that surrounded the property. And he needed to bring