view that.”
“So I should just distribute it online?”
I tap the table and try to think it through. I do love a puzzle, and she’s on the right track, at least, no longer sitting around in an empty house, waiting for something to happen.
Kayla dips her straw up and down in her glass and watches me. “Well, you haven’t said anything about how wrong it is yet.”
“Wrong?”
“Yeah. You know . . .”
“Using your body? Making the tape? Putting it out there?”
“All of it.”
I laugh. “Yeah, I’m not real great at figuring out right and wrong. I’m more interested in what works and what doesn’t. Or what I can get away with and what I can’t. What it comes down to is he can’t get away with this, and that’s his problem.”
She smiles in answer.
“As for whether you were wrong . . . Hell, I’m a sociopath, and I can tell what’s most wrong was him paying a child so he could rape her. I mean . . . Jesus. If you think about it, your filming it was really just self-defense, wasn’t it?”
Her smile thins into a sneaky little grin. “You sure could say that.”
“If we can keep your identity and face out of this, then maybe it’s usable collateral. But I’m not getting within ten feet of any device with that video on it. I can’t see or know. But if I were giving you advice . . .”
“Yeah?”
“This is just hypothetical.”
“Okay.”
I bob my chin in her direction. “Put your phone on the table and turn it off.”
“Why?” she asks with so much wide-eyed innocence that I know she knows exactly why. But she takes out her phone and powers it down, so I proceed.
I cross my arms on the table and lower my voice. “You know it’s illegal to blackmail people, right? What you’ve been doing is a crime.”
“Yes, I know that,” she says.
“Okay. But there is nuance here and you can work with that. If you were, for example, to send a file to the lieutenant governor’s office, a file that has been edited carefully to keep your face out of it, that could be used as leverage. Not to blackmail or extort, but as a guarantee of your safety. You could include a sad explanation that the poor girl in the video shouldn’t be victimized again by having the unedited tape go public. Make clear that no one wants that and the victim should be protected. His people will understand that it’s a threat without you having to make a threat or ask for money.”
“So I send it to his office anonymously to let them know they need to back off.”
“Yes. But . . .” I hesitate for a moment, considering what I’m about to say. Inserting myself into this could put me in danger, but I want to see this man. To look him in the face and let him know that I’ve beat him at his game. Not the little pervert Roy Morris, but his powerful brother. The muscle and money. The rush of it flows into my blood.
I smile. “I could follow up with a visit to the good lieutenant governor to explain that you’re an underprivileged little girl who lives in a trailer with her grandparents, and if any tape goes public, you would be revictimized and many criminal charges would be filed. It would be less a threat and more a courtesy to him, really.”
“Hm. I won’t get any money, though.”
“No. But you won’t get dead either. We have to go back to that county to start the court process moving. He could stop it if he wanted to, or he could hire someone to shoot you dead on the highway out of town.”
“True.” She’s quiet as I accept the check from our server, but then she nods. “I’ll think about it.”
“Thanks for taking it under consideration,” I say dryly as I open the bill portfolio.
When I get out my credit card, I notice her gaze slide to the receipt total to take it in. She wants to know exactly what kind of lifestyle she’s buying for herself with this little deal between us. More signs of intelligence.
“Do you really know how to cover your tracks online?” I ask.
She nods. “It’s no problem.”
“All right, then.” I snap the portfolio closed and slide it to the edge of the table. “We might have ourselves a plan.”
CHAPTER 20
Kayla is settled on the pullout couch in the living room of the suite with blankets and