to introduce herself or wait. Deciding to let Rico take the lead, she snapped on her seatbelt and settled in, trying to keep the tingle of uneasiness in her gut from overwhelming her senses. She needed to stay alert and focused.
Rico spent the next few minutes silently weaving up and down streets and alleys. Hannah got the feeling that he’d done this routine many times before. Eventually he pulled into a two-story parking garage behind a strip mall and parked in an isolated spot on the first floor. He turned off the ignition, took off his sunglasses, revealing light, grayish eyes, and turned to Elodie.
“Wand her,” he said to Elodie, who looked to the backseat.
“We’re going to get out of the car for a minute,” she said. “I need to wand you to make sure you’re not wearing a wire or anything.”
Hannah got out without complaint. Elodie ran the wand over her entire body. When she was done, she looked over at Rico, who still looked skeptical.
“Do the top,” he said.
Elodie turned back to her.
“To be extra careful, he wants you to take off your top. You can keep your bra on but I have to check the underwire to see if there’s anything hidden in there.”
Hannah suspected that this exercise was as much about testing her boundaries as it was about checking to see if she was a cop. Despite the fact that she’d never undressed in front of a man before, she forced herself to act as if it was old hat, pulling off her top without hesitation.
Elodie inspected the bra, then gave Rico the thumbs-up. He nodded his approval.
“You can put it back on and get in,” Elodie told her before getting back in the front seat.
As Hannah pulled her top back on, she saw that the other two were whispering intently. She decided that, with their attention off her momentarily, this was her best opportunity. As she slid back into the backseat, she “accidentally” knocked her backpack to the floor. Her stuff spilled out.
Rico looked back at her, irritated.
“Sorry,” she said. “I’m just a little nervous. This’ll only take a second.”
She began shoving items back in the backpack. When Rico faced front again, she quickly opened the phone, hit the record button as she faked a cough, shut off the screen, and tossed it in the pack. She put it beside her on the seat and tried not to look at it while the others continued to whisper. Finally, Rico looked back at her again.
“Are you a cop?” he asked.
“No,” she answered.
“Is your real name Hannah?”
“Uh-huh,” she said.
“Show me your ID.”
She fished it out of her wallet and gave to him. He looked at it briefly, then tossed it back to her.
“You turn eighteen in seven months,” he said. “That doesn’t give you much time.”
“I’m a quick study,” she said, trying to sound confident but not cocky. “If I know what’s expected of me, I can hit the ground running.”
Rico looked at Elodie.
“I told you this one had potential,” she said.
“What kind of experience do you have?” he asked.
“Doing this for money?” Hannah said. “None. But I’ve had more than a few dates with older guys who were generous gift givers if I was liberal with my affection. Is this all that different?”
Rico scrunched up his face as if she was a complicated algebra problem he was trying to solve.
“I’m going to be straight with you, Hannah,” he said. “I don’t like to waste my time. You seem like you can handle yourself but if you’re not down for what I tell you next, this is the time to bail. I drop you off back at the corner, we go our separate ways, and everyone lives their lives. No hard feelings.”
Hannah nodded her understanding. He continued without asking for a reply.
“There’s a lot of money to be made here. But if I lay this out for you and you say you’re cool, and then back out, we will have a problem. The next step involves my boss, who talks to his bosses. They don’t like hiccups. They don’t like troublemakers. If they get upset with me, I get upset with you and that’s no good for anybody. Am I making myself clear?”
“Crystal,” she replied, embracing the shiver of excited trepidation spinning up her spine. It was a rare thing for her—to feel something intensely. She allowed herself to get lost in it for a second, to let the tingling sensation called fear consume her.