Page 105 of Shallow

Apparently, Taryn falls somewhere near the middle because within twenty-five minutes there’s a knock on the front door. I nod to Frankie and wait for the show tobegin.

Her own words from yesterday come back to me, and I clap Frankie on his shoulder as he walks past me. “Showtime.”

A few moments later, she steps through the doorway to my office, dressed in a long, flowy white dress like she’s about to attend some damn awards show. I shake my head at her choice of colors. Maybe she thinks if she wears a symbol of purity, it’ll rub off on her. I suppose if you tell yourself something long enough, eventually you start to believeit.

“God, this place smells like an infected ballsack.”

Then again, Satan was once an angeltoo.

Once her eyes land on Frankie, she gathers her dress in her hand and heads straight for him. “I drove as fast as I could. Where ishe…”

“Right here.” I push off the desk and force a smile when all I want to do is spit in herface.

She looks me up and down, dropping the concerned act. “You don’t seem very off the rails to me. In fact, you look rather calm for a man who’s sticking his dick in a doublefelon.”

“Thanks,” I say, widening my smile. “And might I say, you look remarkably sane for a woman who’s batshitcrazy.”

Taryn clucks her tongue. “That’s one of the reasons I always liked you, Cary—your gentlemanly way of speaking to alady.”

“When I see a lady, I’ll be sure to be agentleman.”

“Okay, drop the bullshit. What is this?” she demands, shifting her focus back to Frankie. “He’s got you lying for him nowtoo?”

Frankie clenches his fists, and I know he’s either fighting to not deck her. Making a quick decision to deviate from the original plan, I step between them and crowd intoher.

“Leave him out of this. You want to drop the bullshit, fine. Let’s drop it. I’ve already told you, this is between you and me.” As I talk, she just stares. I know I’m losing the upper hand, so I shift gears. “Why did you set Shilohup?”

She crushes her dress in her hands hard enough to rip it. “I have no idea what you’re talkingabout.”

“Oh, come on, Taryn. Drop the bullshit, remember? Those were your words. It’s bad enough you locked her in a closet knowing she was trapped in a burning car, but you went and hit a whole new level of psycho by planting drugs on her. I gotta admit, that takes one big set of ladyballs.”

Her face pales for a moment, but she quickly recovers, laughing as she smooths out her dress. “Maybe you’re the one doing drugs, Cary. You’re hallucinating things that didn’thappen.”

“So you’re saying you didn’t drive to Shiloh and Frankie’s rehab meeting two nightsago?”

“Are you deaf?” she yells, her temper flaring. “Of coursenot.”

“You’resure?”

“What the hell is wrong with you, Cary?” Her hand shakes as she flips her brown hair over her shoulder. “Did fucking her make you stupid? No, I didn’t. The sad truth is your whore is acriminal.”

I rub my chin and purposely draw this out, because, hell, it’s almost better than sex. “Hmmm, I’m a little confused, then.” I glance over my shoulder. “Frankie, are youconfused?”

“Yeah,” he agrees. “I’mconfused.”

And with a straight face too. Goodboy.

“Interesting. Why are you confused,Frankie?”

“Because when we called up my buddy, Paulie, he remembered going out for a smoke in the middle of the meeting that night and seeing a white BMW sitting in the parkinglot.”

Taryn’s brown eyes glaze over as they dart back and forth between Frankie and me. “That means nothing. Lots of people drive whiteBMWs.”

“True,” I agree, circling around her like a lion just waiting to devour his prey. She follows my movements until I step in behind her and press my lips against her ear. “But not everyone who drives a white BMW has a license plate that says TARYNMCD. I’ve always wondered why they called them vanity plates. Now I getit.”

I’m so close I can feel her body stiffen. Part of me wants to get closer just to relish in the moment, but the other part is revolted just to breathe her sameair.

“This proves nothing,” she hisses, jerking away from me. “No one saw me inside that room. You’ve gotnothing.”