Darker Shades of Elise novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Wired

Friday came and went, and I paid Rafe nothing.

He sent one text on Sunday.

"Thursday, 2 p.m. Green dress."

On Thursday at noon, Maribeth taped a recorder to my ribs in the cooler at the back of her flower shop.

"Hold still," she said. "If you flinch, I'll tape your skin."

"It's cold in here."

"It's a flower cooler, Fliss."

"It's supposed to be cold."

She smoothed the tape flat with her thumbs and stepped back.

The recorder was the size of a lighter, and it sat just under my left breast.

"Get him to say it," she said.

"Say what?"

"Anything."

"That he filmed you, that he'll send it, that he's done it to the others."

"A judge doesn't care about a pretty speech."

"A judge cares about a man's own mouth."

"And if he finds it?"

"Then you hit him with a bucket of lilies."

I laughed, and then I hugged her too hard.

She hugged me back and said into my hair, "Come out of there alive, you idiot."

The loft smelled of coffee and cigarette smoke.

Rafe stood by the windows in a black turtleneck, looking at the street, and he didn't turn around when I came in.

"You're early," he said.

"I wanted to see if you'd be here."

"Where else would I be?"

He turned then and took me in from my hair to my shoes.

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