her eyes with a tissue Victoria handed her and started to laugh some more. “I get blackmailed. I still say no, so he posts the video on some porn site.” She laughed even harder. “And I’m accused of tampering with narcotics, and I’m getting fired, anyway.” The laughing was so loud people up and down the hallway outside had to be wondering what was going on.
“Wait a minute,” Fig said, remembering Roxie’s phone conversation from earlier that morning. I told you no. My answer won’t change. Fine. Do what you have to do. “Someone’s blackmailing you?”
“Not anymore.” The thought seemed to sober her. She inhaled deeply then exhaled as if trying to blow out any lingering giggles. “And it’s all your fault.” She gave him the stink eye.
What? “My fault?”
“If you’d have taken me out on Friday night like you were supposed to, I wouldn’t have gone home with Johnny-the-jerk, who, come to find out, had his bedroom outfitted with cameras so he could videotape our little interlude.”
“Who is Johnny-the-jerk?” Victoria asked.
“I’m guessing he’s somehow involved with the hospital’s drug tampering problem because after the deed was done—” she looked at Fig and emphasized “—twice, he used his tape to try to coerce me into substituting his bootlegged pills for real narcotics. He said the packaging was almost identical and no one would know. I told him I would know and I wouldn’t do it.”
“You mean you can identify him?” Victoria asked.
“I’m guessing you can, too, if you check out our video.”
Victoria recoiled.
At least Fig could help with that. Computers were his thing. Audio. Video. Programing. Networking. Hacking. You name it. If there’s a way to track this guy, to catch him and make him pay, Fig could do it. “Do you have the link?” he asked Roxie.
“On my cell phone, wherever that is.”
Fig reached into his pocket and handed it to her. She pressed a few buttons and held up the screen to him. “May I use your computer?” he asked Victoria.
“To go to a pornography website?” She paled. “Use my laptop.” She took it out of her briefcase, placed it on her desk and booted it up. Then she stood so Fig could take her chair.
He typed in the link. A few seconds later Roxie’s voice called out through the speakers. “Harder,” she demanded. Fig fumbled to find the volume. “Yeah, baby. That’s how I like it.”
Just as he’d thought, Roxie was as take-charge in the bedroom as she appeared to be in every other aspect of her life. It’d take a strong man to stay in control. Anticipation of the challenge excited him.
Until the slam of Victoria’s office door reminded him where he was.
“Do you have to be so loud?” Victoria chastised Roxie.
Fig didn’t mind loud as long as the volume was attached to moans and screams of delight.
“Did you honestly think I’d be quiet in the bedroom?” she asked with a hint of a playful smile.
Fig muted the computer. “Twenty-seven minutes,” he commented about the length of the video, giving a nod of approval.
“Not my best night,” Roxie joked.
Fig relaxed a bit.
“Almost eighty thousand views in the six hours your video’s been up on this site.”
“Delinquents, all of them,” Roxie said, standing up and walking over to stand beside him. “What are all those people doing home during the day? Shouldn’t they be working?”
“Degenerates is more like it,” Victoria said, looking uncomfortable. “Can you make out the man’s face?” she asked Fig.
“Five stars,” he noted instead, impressed.
“I bet you’re regretting standing me up on Friday night.” Roxie nudged his shoulder with her hip.
More than he regretted just about anything else.
“Standing her up? You didn’t tell her what happened?” Victoria asked.
“No.” And Victoria had better not say anything, either.
“Tell me what?” Roxie asked.
The last thing he wanted her thinking was he was some sort of pansy mama’s boy, running home every time she called. “Nothing,” Fig said and flashed Victoria a “keep quiet” look.
“But …”
“Woo wee,” Roxie cut Victoria off. She leaned in close to the laptop. “I look good on screen.”
Yes, she did. And since she didn’t seem at all upset about the video, Fig commented, too. “You have an amazing ass.”
Victoria sucked in an affronted breath.
“It’s one of my best features,” Roxie replied proudly. She had quite a few other mighty-fine features. Fig tilted his head to get a better look at one, watched her lift her long, smooth leg. No way. She couldn’t possibly … She did.
“You liking what you see?” Roxie’s voice turned sexy. Alluring.
Heck yeah! But Fig thought it best not to mention how much.
As if Roxie knew, she bent close to his ear and whispered, “Then I suggest you download my video so you can watch it over and over. Because that’s as close as you’ll ever get to sampling my goodies, you creep.”
Shut. Down.
“For heaven’s sake, Roxie,” Victoria said. “A man taped you having sex and loaded it onto the internet. Without your consent. And you’re standing there, watching yourself as if you’re okay with it. You should be outraged. Shut it off, Fig.”
“And what good would my outrage do?” Roxie asked. “The video is out there. And from the number of messages I’ve received today, people around town have seen it. There’s nothing I can do. Heck, if I can’t get another nursing job, maybe I’ll use it as an audition tape.” She turned to Fig. “Can you make me a copy?”
“You can’t be serious,” Victoria said.
“I’m totally serious,” Roxie said, turning somber. “You may think you know me but all you know is the part of me I allow you to see. So let me share this. At the age of fourteen I gave my virginity to the owner of the superette down the street from our home to pay off our account when my mother had no money. That may have been the first time I used my body to barter, but it certainly wasn’t the last. I’m a survivor. I do what I have to do.”
Based on Victoria’s look of complete and utter shock, she’d had no idea. Just how close were they? Roxie’s defiant stance made Fig wonder if she shared her deepest, darkest secrets with anyone.
He couldn’t stand the thought of lecherous
