Page 38 of Healing Conviction
“Shanna, please, just a few more questions. You could help women in the same position. Do you know what happened to Calianne and Jasmine? Maybe someone named H. Smith? Other women have gotten hurt after going to that party—”
“Nah, I don’t know nothin’ about that.” She lifted up the beige hotel phone from the nightstand. “Listen, you seemed nice enough at first but I never should’a let you in in the first place. Y’all need to git or I’mma call the cops.”
“Bullshit. That phone cord is cut and there’s meth on your nightstand,” Drake countered, speaking for the first—and at the worst—time.
“I have scarier people to call than the cops. When I find my fuckin’ phone, it’s on. I’ve got people I need off my tail and onto someone else’s. So get. The fuck.Outof my home.”
In the next instant, Drake snatched Nora to the side as Shanna bolted in her direction. The livid woman bypassed them both, slamming the door open hard enough to send the doorknob through the hole already in the wall.
“Getout!”
“I hear you.” Nora held her hands out to the side as she tried to get past Drake to stand in between them. She opened her mouth to tell him to move, but the subtle shake of his head told her it wasn’t going to happen. Settling for talking around his arm like she had back at the P&P, Nora let her desperation tinge her plea. “Shanna, I’m sorry. I came in with an agenda, but we really need your help.”
Shanna’s narrowed eyes followed Nora’s hand as she slowly reached into her back pocket.
“What’re you doin’—”
“It’s just my card. I’m leaving it here on this table behind me.” She tugged one of her blank cards that only had her untraceable work cell number out of her back pocket and blindly left it on the table behind her. “It has my number on it. That’s it.”
“I ain’t callin’ y’all.”
“I know. And that’s fine. But, if you do remember something you’d like to share. Or ifyouever need help.Wecan help, alright? I work for people that can help. But right now, we’re leaving like you want.”
“I already dealt with people like you who wannahelp. Never again.” Shanna jutted her chin toward the open door. “Now git.”
Nora nodded and patted Drake’s back. “We’re as good as gone. You’ll never see us again unless you want to.”
Drake guided Nora out the door with one hand resting on his gun holster at his back. Shanna watched them, her lips in a thin, angry line as she took in every movement. Nora only stopped meeting her eyes when Drake herded her past the doorframe with him. As soon as the humidity blasted Nora’s cheeks, she turned back to face Shanna.
“Please, call me if you need—”
Drake snatched her back to his chest just before the faded-blue door slammed in her face.
She sighed and sagged in Drake’s hold, taking comfort in his steady grip even as he spoke her fear out loud.
“I don’t think she’s gonna be calling you, Pix.”
CHAPTERFOURTEEN
“You’re doing it wrong,” Nora pointed out, making Draco roll his eyes before looking back down at her. “Come on, I know you’re tired, but you’ve got it in you.”
They’d been winding down after the disaster of an interview and walking on the soft sand for his stability therapy when they’d stumbled upon the closet-sized hole in the rock jetty. From the waterline on the wooden pillars of the pier, the space looked like it was underwater during high tide. It’d obviously been carved out to remove the column he was now using the stump of as leverage for his exercise. With how secluded they were, it felt like they were the only two people in the world.
“I’m trying to do it faster,” he attempted to explain, but whatever he’d said sparked her mischievous grin.
“We don’t always care about faster, handsome. We want a consistent rhythm for as long as you can go.” She winked, and he barked out a laugh, despite the fact that every flirtatious word kept jolting his dick to life.
He exhaled harshly to get his semi to calm down so he could focus on stepping onto the short pillar stump and back down again in a modified lateral step-up. If they were going to do this recon right, he couldn’t let himself skip out on certain exercises just because his body was naturally getting more work in other areas.
But, fuck, if she kept talking like that, his dick would get more exercise than anything else.
“You make doing these exercises a lot harder, you know that, right?”
“Good.” She winked again. “I like it when it gets harder for you.”
The windy, humid air swirled away his laughing groan down the nearly empty beach. Dusk was rolling in, and beachgoers were heading in for dinner, leaving him and Nora in peace.
“Why do you only ever say these things to me when I’m tired as shit? You afraid I’ll call your bluff?”