Page 13 of Tell Me Your Desires

Chapter Eight

“Where the fuck is she?!”

Jaime blew out an exasperated breath, relaxing back into her seat.

For three nights, she’d sat here. For three nights, she’d watched every last fucker who had entered and left the club.

But at no point had she come across Lady A.

Considering this was her place of…work, Jaime had to question why she didn’t appear to be doing her job lately.

Was it because she had something to hide?

Had Lady A moved on, choosing to prey elsewhere?

Or was she taking personal time from the club, given what had happened with Maisie?

Jaime didn’t know any answers to the questions swimming around in her head, but she wasn’t moving from this spot.

The parking lot. If she had to sit here every damn night for the foreseeable future, then that’s what she would do.

“Why are you doing this?”

Jaime rested her head back, cracking the window ever so slightly. She knew why she was doing this. She wanted to see Lady A again. She wanted to delve a little deeper into the mind of the woman who had unexpectedly appeared in her life. Her dreams, too. Fuck!

The parking lot was quiet and unassuming for a place that seemed so busy inside.

Sure, Jaime had watched multiple people entering the club, but at first glance, someone from the outside would be none the wiser as to what had happened here just a few nights ago.

That only left Jaime shuddering. Had Maisie known her killer?

Had she spoken with them, felt safe with them, or had it been a random attack from behind…

meaning she had no idea what was about to happen?

Part of Jaime hoped the latter was true, but the other part of her wished Maisie had never been out here alone.

Yes, it seemed peaceful, but the darkness and the silence didn’t always mean safety.

Jaime’s phone flashed on the passenger seat. She lifted it and cleared her throat. “Baros.”

“You at home?”

She winced, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I, uh…no. I’m out walking.”

“Walking?” Max asked, and then he laughed. “Why the fuck are you out walking?”

“Because I wanted to? Because I didn’t feel like sitting in that fucking apartment all night.”

“Why don’t you walk towards the bar on the way home, and I’ll buy you a drink. You’ve been in your own head a lot since the latest victim.”

Jaime appreciated Max’s concern, but she was just fine. “I’m good. But thanks.”

“Come on, Baros.”

“I’ll see what time I’m back at my apartment. But don’t wait around for me.” Jaime ended the call, throwing her phone onto the passenger seat again.

For the first time in her career, Jaime had lied to her partner about her whereabouts.

She wasn’t prepared to tell Max where she was.

Why? Because she didn’t want him to know she was waiting for a glimpse of Lady A.

That’s all she needed…a glimpse. Just a flash of an image. Something to take the edge off.

This needs to stop, Baros!

Jaime shouldn’t be here unless it was on official business.

She shouldn’t be sitting in a darkened corner of a parking lot waiting to see a woman who had potentially murdered her assistant.

Jaime shouldn’t be thinking about Lady A in any other capacity.

She was a suspect, whether Max was under the impression she was unlikely to be the killer or not.

But then that dream flashed in her mind, her skin prickling with goosebumps.

Lady A—or whatever the fuck her name was—had stirred something inside Jaime.

Something that should never have been disturbed.

Something Jaime wasn’t sure she could face.

The mere thought of being into another woman weighed heavily.

But Jaime would get this out of her system no sooner than it had arrived.

Lady A was not the type of woman she wanted to get tangled up with.

She was a detective, for fuck sake! She should know better.

A car pulled up in one of the reserved spots close to the entrance.

Jaime’s heart thundered at the thought of that red hair, those delicious eyes, that…

body. Whoa, no! Stop! She held her breath when the door opened, and then disappointment settled in when a guy in a suit climbed from the vehicle. It wasn’t her.

For the third day in a row, Jaime made herself comfortable, accepting that this would be another long night.

Anya barely stopped herself from throwing her phone across the room.

If Frank called her one more time, begging her to come to work, she really would become a murderer.

The greedy pervert was so worried about money that his compassion seemed to suffer.

If he’d ever had any to begin with. All he cared about was that his “best money maker” wasn’t showing up to do her job.

If Anya was being honest with herself, Maisie’s murder had scared the shit out of her.

She already hated the night. Now she couldn’t even go outside to her backyard oasis once the sun started to set.

And that was a significant contributor to why she was now on her third night off despite multiple calls from Frank and desperate emails from regular clients.

“I’ll try tomorrow,” Anya said to Derek, who was currently making biscuits on the bed beside her. He stopped for a second to glance at Anya. “Don’t give me that look. I am not becoming a hermit. I can leave the house any time I want.”

“Meow.”

“Yes, I can. Just because I haven’t doesn’t prove anything. I haven’t needed to.” Derek curled into a ball close to Anya’s side. She stroked him gently and could feel him purring against her. “How many clients would I lose if they knew how scared I was to walk out of my house right now?”

When she was Lady A, those fears seemed to evaporate in the steamy world inside her chambers at the brothel.

Lady A had strength and confidence. She wasn’t afraid of what hid in the shadows because those shadows were her sanctuary.

They allowed Lady A to assess her sub for the night, to morph into the Domme they desired, and give them an experience they wouldn’t soon forget.

But Anya… the only real friendship she had was with a cat.

There had been no relationship to speak of in years.

And while Anya had confidence in herself, the outside world agitated her.

Anya was afraid of the shadows out there.

Anya had spent many years in her past life learning exactly what lurked in those shadows.

“Turn it off, Anya. This is who you are now. Focus on that. Tomorrow you will return to the club and let Lady A recharge you. Perhaps it’ll even help you get your mind off Detective Jaime Baros.”

“Meow.”

“What? I like the name Jaime.”

“Meow. Mew.”

“Please. I don’t like her. She accused me of murder.

Now, stop being ridiculous and go to sleep.

” Anya could swear she heard Derek sigh dramatically.

She rolled over and stared up at the ceiling.

“I don’t like her,” she whispered. Having these thoughts about a woman she had just met was ludicrous.

Having them for someone who thought Anya was the type that could brutally murder someone was insane.

Anya drifted off to sleep, willing herself not to dream of that silky, black hair and those dark, piercing eyes.

Jaime stifled another yawn, her eyes watering as she focused on the glass board in front of her.

She stared at the victim’s picture, and then her eyes drifted to the paper with Lady A written in large letters.

They really should know more details than they did about her.

It didn’t matter what Jaime felt or what Max didn’t feel…

she was a suspect, and the least they deserved was a genuine name.

Fucking Lady A. Who does she think she is?

“You’re early,” Max said as he handed Jaime a coffee. “Everything okay?”

“Sure. Great.” She took the coffee, bypassing the opportunity to look her partner in the eye. Max would know she hadn’t slept. When Jaime had looked in the mirror thirty minutes ago, it was pretty obvious. “I think we need to take another run at this Lady A.”

“Okay. Because?” Max rested against his desk, his eyes scanning the board. “Have you found something?”

“No. Fuck all. But she needs to be treated the way we would treat anyone else, Max. I mean, I know she was upset about Maisie, but come on. You and I both know she could be responsible for this.” Jaime hated the thought of that, mainly because it meant she was losing her own mind for even thinking about this woman, but she had to keep her detective head in all of this.

There was no other choice. “I’m not saying she is responsible, but we need to speak to her again. ”

“Okay.”

“We don’t even know her real name. Why didn’t we get that information?”

Max sipped his coffee, ruminating on that for a moment. “Because we hadn’t gone there to interrogate her.”

“So?”

Max sighed. “So, I was hoping she might be a little more helpful if we didn’t push her. You saw her, Baros. That woman ain’t stupid.”

“No. Far from it, I’d imagine.” Jaime snorted, turning back to the board. “We need to go back there and find out more from her.”

“You think she knows more than she’s saying?”

A name, for fuck’s sake. Jaime wanted a name. So… she could do a little digging of her own. Digging that wasn’t related to this case. “I want to know who she is, Max. None of this Lady A bullshit. I want a name, an address, a fucking last will and testament if she has one.”

“This has really got to you, hasn’t it?”

“Dead women? Of course it has!” Jaime knew she was close to stepping over the line again with her attitude, but this was ridiculous.

Maisie had been found outside Lady A’s place of work.

She was Lady A’s assistant. Lady A had left her a message apologizing.

Surely Max found all of that suspicious?

And then there was the fact that she hadn’t given them anything relating to herself.

No name, nothing. Jaime couldn’t help but feel this woman was hiding something. “So? When do you want to do this?”

“The club isn’t open during the day, is it?”

Jaime shook her head slowly. “No. It doesn’t open until eight. Have Jackson find out what he can on Frank. I want a contact number. He’ll know where to find her. I’m not waiting until tonight.”

Max held up his hand. “Okay. Relax. Christ, drink your coffee, Baros.”

Jaime took a step towards Max, standing toe-to-toe with him.

“I like you a lot. You’re like family, but telling me to relax when we have dead women out there isn’t helping.

Lady A, at the moment, is potentially our prime suspect, and you’re standing around here drinking your coffee like we don’t have shit to do! ”

“And I like you most of the time, Baros. But implying that I’m just dicking around is out of line.

I get you want a suspect; we all do. But we have to be smart about this.

Right now, only one of our victims is connected to Lady A.

Both Jackson and I have been going over the evidence from the other four victims again, just in case.

I can’t see that woman being a serial killer despite what her…

chambers look like. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t checking every possibility. ”

“Yeah, okay.” Fuck. Had she been too harsh with Max?

There were times when Jaime took their friendship for granted here at work.

He was her superior, but the way she had just spoken to him, he was well within his rights to discipline her.

But the pressure was on the entire force to find this piece of shit terrorizing the city.

Combined with her personal shit, that stress was bound to boil over every once in a while. Jaime just hoped Max understood that.

Max scoffed and turned away. He was halfway across the bullpen when he suddenly turned back. “Hey, Baros? You need to get some sleep.” He tossed his half-full coffee cup in the trash and walked out.

Jaime clenched her jaw, choosing to ignore Max’s observation. He was right, and she knew it, but sleep had eluded her lately. Partly because she wanted to see Lady A at the club, but mostly because she couldn’t handle the guilt of seeing her in her dreams.