Page 8 of Nightcrawler

“Finger you?” she shrieked. “Finger you? I’m not the one doing the fingering! Isn’t that justrich, James!” She whirled on us, pointing an accusing finger at him. “He’s the one with all the goddamned fingers in places and if you don’t believe me, just smell them!”

“Maybe they don’t like fish!” James shot back.

Oh no, he didn’t.

I exchanged a look with Mathis whose wide-eyed look made me burst out laughing before I could stop it. His entire face broke out in an enormous grin as he began laughing right along with me.

“What’s so funny!” Gemma screamed, stomping her foot. “What’s so fucking funny!” She stormed around the side of the bed and came charging at us both, massive rack jutting out a good eight inches from the rest of her body. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the tits, even as I backed up so they wouldn’t come anywhere near me. It was bad enough that they looked real, but this close, I could see where the adhesive or whatever fastened them to her chest was beginning to come away on both sides. The closer she got; the harder Mathis and I laughed.

“What’s so goddamned funny!” She stood right in front of us, righteous in her outrage, eyes blazing with hatred, words leaving her mouth with a spray of spittle, screaming at the top of her lungs.

“Gemma…Gemma! Calm down!” Passantino was shouting. “Calm the fuck down, woman!” Unfortunately, instead of diffusing the situation, the volume of his voice only served to make her angrier.

“Shut up, James!” She stomped her foot again as she whirled on him. “They’re laughing!”

I watched in horror as the prosthetic adhesive came away a little more. “Ma’am—” I began when she spun back to me and screamed.

“Shut the fuck up!” she yelled, jumping up and down and waving her arms at Mathis and me as she stomped even closer. The heavy silicone prosthetic swung back and forth.

“Ma’am—” Mathis said, waving at her chest, probably seeing her come undone like I was. In her outrage and fury, she wouldn’t let either of us speak. “Your…your—”

“I said shut up! You’re going to jail!” She stomped her foot again. “Do you know that?” She was shrieking by now.

“Gemma, you really should know—” I could see them giving way…I knew what was going to happen, but she wouldn’t let me talk and cut me off again.

“Shut! Up!” She stomped her foot once more…

…and her tits fell off.

Chapter Four

RAVEN

I couldn’t believe it when Gemma Monroe’s giant silicone boob prosthetic fell off her chest and bounced on the hardwood floors at her feet between the former porn star and the two of us. When I looked over at Trigg, his mouth was hanging open and his brown eyes were as wide as saucers. Up this close, I noticed his long, curling, black lashes made his eyes look bigger than any man’s should. The lines at the corners of his eyes crinkled but he didn’t crack a smile even though I knew he wanted to.

“Ahh!”Gemma let out a bloodcurdling scream and scooped up the prosthetic to run from the room, slamming the door to Passantino’s bathroom a split second later.

“Gemma! Gemma!” Passantino said, turning and running after her, giving us both a view of a butt which looked quite a bit more toned than I would have expected on a sixty-three-year-old man. Obviously, the weight room was working for him. He tried the knob and finding it locked, pounded on the bathroom door as he kept calling her name. Beside me, Trigg pulled his phone from his pocket and walked over to the empty box before taking a picture of it as well as several snaps of the room and the bed which had been thoroughly mussed up. I walked over and tapped him on the shoulder, and he turned to look at me.

“What?” he asked, frowning as he continued taking pictures, including ones of the double doors to the bedroom.

I followed him out into the hallway, watching him take several more pictures of the outside of the doors, the hallway, and the landing to the stairs. “What are you doing?” I asked, totally perplexed.

He shot me a glance and it was—as expected with this man—less than friendly. “I’m collecting evidence to present to GMS Insurance when I have my boss demand we be paid in full for this stupid, fucking bounty. Clearly, these two were in on the fraud together.”

“What?” I asked, frowning at him.

“Don’t tell me that never occurred to you,” he said, thinning his lips. “Hell, maybe you knew all about it. You work for them.” He started heading for the stairs and I followed, feeling my blood boiling.

“How dare you say that?” I shouted. I almost had to jog to keep up with him as he began running downstairs, taking the treads two at a time. “I want you to know I put myself at considerable risk following you in here. Passantino was right about breaking in, not to mention opening his safe. We’re technically burglars.” By the time we hit the landing between the first and second floor, I was getting up a real head of steam. Just because this bounty hunter missed out on yet another bounty, didn’t mean I was involved. “I lost the recovery fee too, you know.”

Huerta stopped halfway down the final set of stairs and spun to face me. The thunderous expression on his face could have stopped a train. He was in a rage and I couldn’t understand what the big, fucking deal was. Bounty hunters and recovery agents like me lost out on bounty all the time. What was the problem here?

He lifted a hand and pointed to my face. “What would you know about losing out on a recovery fee? You sure as hell don’t need it, Mathis. Not with that brand-new monster truck you drive. When have you ever had to worry about whether your rent gets paid or whether you’ll come home and find an eviction notice stapled to your front door for nonpayment of rent?” he roared. Without waiting for me to answer him one way or another, he turned and ran the last few steps, hitting the marble floor of the foyer and turning toward the dining room.

I swallowed, feeling a mixture of hurt…stung by Trigg Huerta’s words. Above all, I felt anger welling up from inside me. “Hey! Stop and talk to me, Huerta,” I shouted after him, hot on his heels, and getting more agitated with every step. “Hey, you! Don’t presume to know me or my life! You have no idea who I am or what I’ve had to do to get where I am!”

He stopped in his tracks so fast; I nearly ran into him. The expression of hatred on his face was the last thing I expected. He crossed his arms over his chest as he faced me, challenging me right there, halfway between the foyer and dining room. “Oh, yeah! Why don’t you tell me your sad and sorry story, Mathis.” He looked me up and down before pointing at my shoes. “How much did those cost you?Huh, rich boy? A few hundred bucks? How much was the truck? Forty? Fifty grand?”