“Can you tell me what Tony even wants from my father?”
Shepherd takes a moment to scrutinize me bleeding onto my paper. “Tony’s daughter is missing and your father refuses to open a case on it. Claims she ran away, but we all know he’s refusing because of who her father is.”
“His daughter? I didn’t know he had a daughter.”
“That’s because she kept her mom’s maiden name.”
“What was her name?”
“Rose Clark.”
“Hi, I’m Rose. And you are?”
“Killian. Do you need something?”
It feels like there’s a fucking rock stuck in my throat.
“What do you know?” Shepherd asks.
I catch Shepherd’s cold eyes watching me. “I don’t know anything. I literally just said I didn’t know he had a daughter.”
“You need to work on your lying, kid.”
I sit down beside him, letting him crank my arm up at an odd angle as I think about what he’s just said. What the fuck have I gotten myself into?
Three
I’m standing in what appears to be Shepherd’s room, still attached to Shepherd. Shepherd hasn’t moved in about one full minute, and I’m not sure if he’s broken or hoping that if he ignores me long enough, I’ll disappear.
“I really have to take a piss,” I say.
“I heard the five other times you said it.”
“Yes, and we still haven’t made it to the bathroom yet.”
He sighs as he turns left through an open door before flipping the light on. “Piss away.”
“You’re going to uncuff me first, right? I mean… you have the key or a key, right? Aren’t the keys on some of these things universal?”
“Do you really think I would have remained attached to you all day if I could unlock it? I have no choice but to do as Tony asks.”
“Would it be less awkward if we peed together?” I ask since my arm is now being tugged at an odd angle. Clearly, this is a joke. Equally clearly, Shepherd doesn’t get jokes because he looks me in the eyes as he tries to close the door on my arm.
“Don’t sever my arm!”
While he’s outside the bathroom, I struggle to keep my balance inside it. I feel like I’m being stretched and a few times he even gives me a bit of a yank.
Once all of that is taken care of, I start opening cupboards. I’m browsing through his stuff when he pushes the door open, slamming it into my side.
“Dammit, what the hell?” I cry.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
“Looking for something to stab you with, obviously.”
“I don’t get paid enough for this shit,” he says as he grabs a toothbrush and starts brushing his teeth with enough anger I swear I see the toothbrush bend.
“Can I have a toothbrush?”
He tosses me the toothpaste, so I use my finger to rub some around, which I’m not sure accomplishes a whole lot but makes me feel slightly less disgusting. When we head back into the bedroom, he immediately starts taking his pants off as I awkwardly stand there.
“Are you giving me a strip show?” I ask.
“If that’s what you want to pretend it is, by all means, go ahead. It might be your last show ever, so at least it’s a good one.”
“It’s not that good,” I say, wishing this weren’t a lie. It’s good enough that even after all I’ve been through, my body tries to point out there’s a sexy man undressing in front of me.
He tosses his pants and then promptly pushes his boxer briefs down.
I can’t even say that I try extremely well to not let my eyes drop. And really, it’s not my fault. If anyone just drops their pants I have to look. I mean, one doesn’t drop their pants in front of you if they don’t want you to look. He then stares at his shirt which he clearly can’t take off with the handcuffs.
“Looks like I finally got you to shut up,” he says as he crawls into bed and turns off the light.
I awkwardly stand there, not really sure of a comeback to that. “Creepy old men flashing me their balls seems to do that to me.”
He just snorts as I stand there, arm awkwardly aimed toward his half-naked body.
“Can you scoot over so we could both share your huge bed?”
“Oh. Sorry,” he says as he turns the light on, then reaches over and picks up a hoodie before tossing it on the floor. “That should do.”
“Ah, yes. Thank you so much for your generosity,” I say as I stare down at the floor.