considering tapering off my financial support. Clearly, it isn’t helping you to get on your feet.”
His chest tightened. This wasn’t going the way he’d planned.
“Please, I promise I’ll find something. And I’ll keep it this time.”
“You said that last time. And the time before that.”
His hands fisted, but he forced his fingers to loosen and flattened his palms on the desk. He couldn’t afford to lose his cool. Not now. This was too important.
“If you could support me for once.”
“I’ve supported you, all right, in more ways—”
“Or believe me,” he interrupted.
At that, she stopped. But his pulse pounded as it always did when he even thought of the forbidden topic.
For a long time, a dropped-call kind of silence filled the line. He might have gone too far in dredging up the past, but she’d pushed him, too. It was her fault.
“You know I believe you.”
He didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. They both knew she hadn’t always believed him. When it counted.
“One month.”
“What?” He at least had to sound like he didn’t understand what she was saying, though optimism broke through the shroud draping his thoughts. He’d won for now. But at what cost? The darkness was peeking out again. He would have to bury it before it consumed him.
“You have thirty days to get a job you plan to keep and begin taking over some of your bills.”
“Sounds okay, I guess.”
“That’s my last offer.”
His mother, who’d spent the morning trying to get in touch with him, seemed anxious to get off the phone. He was in a hurry himself. Before, he hadn’t taken his search seriously. Now he had a deadline.
One month to plan, to woo her, to win her hand. It was terrifying yet exhilarating. The timing wasn’t optimal, he decided, as he chose from among his favorite chat rooms. He would have to search more diligently just when he needed to keep a low profile because of the incident. But he would be careful. So careful.
He would find her, too. She would be perfect. And young. And his. Then he and his princess could disappear together forever.
Kelly’s eyes burned and her head throbbed from the hours she’d spent staring at the screen, but it couldn’t be helped. She’d needed space from Tony after their conversation that morning. Though he’d never told her what he had against her, it wouldn’t matter once they found a way to put it behind them.
If only she could get past her odd reactions to him, as well. How was she supposed to keep her edge as a fellow law enforcement officer when she could only think about his long lashes and the way his biceps strained against the sleeves of his dress shirt? He might have been older than she was, but he probably could have taken on most of the guys she’d met. And maybe he could take her on in a much more satisfying way.
“Hey, are you available?”
Kelly startled, a humiliating squeak escaping from her throat before she turned back to find Tony standing at the doorway of her cubicle. Why did he always have to show up when she was having off-limits thoughts? Also available? Was he a mind reader?
“The conversations get intense, don’t they?”
She didn’t bother looking at the screen for anything new on the feed.
“I wouldn’t know. The chat rooms you gave me have been dead. I even wrote a few notes to draw out lurkers, but nada. Just a lame hello from somebody called STARGAZER. He said, ‘Greetings,’ and then nothing else. I half-expected him to follow it up with ‘Greetings, Earth people.’”
“I told you those boards would be easy. We haven’t seen much action on them lately. But things are starting to heat up on a few other chats, so I wanted you to take a look.”
She pointed to her laptop screen with its slow-rolling posts. “Are you sure I shouldn’t stick with these? You never know. Something might come up. About a spaceship maybe.”
He shook his head. “This one’s hot,so I could use your help. I might need a voice for this one.”
He stared at the floor when he said it. How he’d managed to not to choke on those words, she couldn’t imagine. He was trying.
“Since you put it that way.”
She exited the chat room, grabbed her notebook and pen and followed him to his desk.
“You’re sure I’m ready for this?” She could have kicked herself the moment those words were out of her mouth. How was she supposed to convince him that she belonged there when even she was questioning?
“Only one way to find out.”
He’d already arranged a chair next to his, so she sat, and he handed her a headset. He pointed to a printout on the corner of the desk closest to her.
“The conversation so far.”
At first it seemed so strange reading the private chat between INVISIBLE ME and some guy with the unfortunate name BIG DADDY. She had to remind herself that the screen name wasn’t her. She was only lending her voice to an online persona, one of a few identities the task force was using. She tried not to be shocked when the conversation quickly turned sexual, just as Tony had predicted.
Hold up. I gotta pee.
Kelly couldn’t help but smile as she read the last line. “You make a great teenage girl. That last line is golden.”
“You never saw his answer, did you?”
“It wasn’t on the printout.”
He pointed to the final line from the private chat on his laptop screen.
Don’t make me wait too long. Never do that.
The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, but she somehow managed to sit still. Memories of those bicycles, two little girls and spilled blue slushes pushed forward in her mind, but she ruthlessly shoved them back. She couldn’t go there. Besides, she wanted to ask Tony how he could keep returning to these same lewd conversations when the number of creeps online remained static. Now wasn’t the time to think about either of those things.
“It looks like he left the chat room.”
Tony nodded at the screen as he closed the chat screen. Soon he had navigated back to one of the larger threads.
“But if I’m right about him, he’ll find her again.”
Kelly appreciated
