Shame on Me

“Don’t be too sad. We can celebrate by getting our hair highlighted next week. I got us a new stylist.”


Kennedy scowls at me and I can’t help but laugh. Laughing feels better than curling up in the fetal position in the corner, rocking back and forth in fear. It’s not like I haven’t been trained for this. Kennedy made Lorelei and me take a private investigator course online so we could get our PI license. But studying and taking tests online is a little easier than walking into a situation I might not be prepared for. I’m pretty sure the course never covered the topic of “Taking Down a Crime Ring without Dying.” If all else fails, though, at least Kennedy made sure these last few months that my self-defense skills are top-notch.

“Paige, can you say a few things so I can test the sound level of your mic?” Ted asks as he walks over to Kennedy’s desk and types a few things into the laptop he placed there earlier.

“I can take down a crime ring without dying.”

Matt’s shoulders slump and he hangs his head. “This really isn’t making me feel better right now.”

I give him a sympathetic smile and I’m overcome with the urge to tell him I love him. I don’t know where that thought comes from, but it’s right there, front and center and on the tip of my tongue. It’s crazy, though. I mean, I just met him. Do I really love him, or am I just scared to death that I’m not going to come out of this alive?

While Kennedy, Ted, and Dallas are busy fiddling with the sound levels with the microphone app on the computer, I take the time to stare at Matt’s profile. He really looks nervous and scared. Nervous and scared for me. He keeps running his hand through his hair and sighing. Even though we haven’t known each other that long, I know it’s a sign that he’s trying to keep it together.

Matt turns his head and catches me looking at him. He comes over to me and pulls me up against him. I breathe in his fresh, clean scent and let the warmth of his body calm me.

“Promise me that you’ll be careful. I need you to come back to me, Paige,” he whispers in my ear.

Shame on me for thinking it was crazy to be already in love with this man.





CHAPTER 20




It’s okay, Giovanni, you can let her in.”

The goon by the front door of an abandoned church steps aside when he receives his orders from across the room. He doesn’t put his gun away as I walk through the doors.

The church looks like it hasn’t been closed for very long; I can still smell incense from Sunday morning church services. It must have soaked into the walls. There are pews scattered throughout the huge, vaulted-ceilinged room, but some have been ripped up from the floorboards and moved around so there’s more of a wide-open space. There’s a large statue of the Virgin Mary staring down at me right next to the door. Even though my mother is the religious one in the family, I still say a quick prayer to her that I make it out of this alive. Hopefully she’s forgiving of the fact that I am not a regular churchgoer. Or a virgin.

I swallow nervously when I see Vinnie DeMarco lounging in a pew across the room, his big, beefy arms resting on the back. I only got a quick glimpse of him the night Matt and I saw him with Melanie at Blake’s Seafood Restaurant, but I’ve seen plenty of pictures. He reminds me of Tony Soprano: receding hairline and a belly that sticks out of his three-piece suit, proving that he has a weakness for pasta and a dislike of anything involving exercise. The butterflies in my stomach calm down when I think about all of the episodes when Tony doted on his kids and kindly gave money to the hookers he screwed. But then I start thinking about the hookers he killed and the butterflies are back in full force, trying to claw their way out of my stomach.

“Come closer. I won’t bite,” Vinnie tells me with a smirk.

Taking a deep breath, I make my way to him, my heels clicking on the hardwood floor, the sound echoing around the room. When I get right up in front of Vinnie, he removes his arms from the back of the pew and folds them in his lap.

“I must say, you are more stunning in person than you are in magazines, Paige McCarty.”

The sound of my name on his lips gives me chills. He practically purrs and it makes me want to vomit.

“Take off your shirt.”

His sudden command catches me off guard and my eyes go wide. “Excuse me?”

Vinnie gets up from the pew; his large body makes the wood creak loudly.

“Forgive me if that seemed a little forward. Sometimes I forget my manners. Would you please remove your shirt?”

I’ve quickly gone from nervous and scared to pissed off. Who the hell does he think he is?

“I’m not having sex with you.”