Page 51 of Total Exposure

“I don’t think so,” I say back to the empty room. “I think… I think I’m gonna walk out of here today and go home. Because I’m pretty sure my doctor never authorized this sick game you’re playing.”

“How sure are you?”

“One hundred percent,” I say.

She didn’t, right? I ask myself. Lucinda didn’t set me up with this… this fucking psychopath. Did she?

“You can call her and find out,” he offers.

“I broke my phone. As you well know because I asked you to get me another one.”

“There’s shops a few blocks down. Go out and get one yourself.” The crackle in the speaker makes his words skip. So what I hear is, “Go… and… yourself.”

But I get his meaning. His threat. Because that’s what that was. “Maybe I will. Maybe I’ll just walk out, get a phone, and never bother her or you again?”

“Maybe you’ll die alone.”

“Fuck you,” I say. “You don’t even know me.”

“Not yet.”

“Not ever. I don’t know who this Jordan guy is, but I do know neither of you are getting anything from me other than the peephole you’re being paid to look through.”

He grunts a laugh. Which is very clear. And I have to admit—reluctantly—that I like his laugh.

“That peek doesn’t include talking,” I add. “You’re not supposed to talk to me. Not supposed to contact me in any way. You’re supposed to shut up and watch. So why don’t you go back to doing that and let me worry about my future.”

“You talked first, Evangeline.”

A shiver runs up my spine when he says my name. Even if it is missing the first syllable because of the intercom.

“You wanted to play earlier. When you were naked in the room. You did that for me and only me. To give me pleasure. Were you masturbating? Or just pretending?”

My face flushes hot with embarrassment. But I rally. “What do you think?”

“Coward,” he sneers. “I think you’re afraid of everything. I think—”

“Well, I think you’re an asshole.”

“So leave.”

“No.”

“Then do what you’re told.”

“I’ll do what I want.”

“Why are you here?”

“That’s the question you want answered so badly, is it? Why am I here? Because I’m tired, that’s why.”

“Of what?”

“Waiting.”

He pauses for a second, thinking that through, then says, “Was it worth it?”

“Was what worth it?”