“Lilith, what is it?”
Breathing raggedly, Lilith handed Elena the scrap — the torn half of a glossy photograph of Lilith taken at the club. Lilith’s image was split from her forehead to her navel. And on the other side, the message
“So he knows we’re related,” Lilith murmured. She hadn’t been sure that she’d gotten the point across.
Elena’s features reflected her own horror. “My God! What are you going to do?”
“Dance? I may not have a choice, if I want to keep Hannah alive..”
The killer really was playing with her, undoubtedly to whet his own appetite. He’d had more than one opportunity to take her, Lilith thought. To add her to his collection. He could have gotten to her last night. She looked at the ripped photo with the demand that she dance for him. No time frame.
If she couldn’t make herself do it, how long would Hannah be safe?
“I think we should celebrate this weekend.”
Lilith realized Carmen was there, already dressed, and looking at her expectantly. “What?”
“Tomorrow is Saturday. We should do something special.”
Shaken, Lilith knew she couldn’t do anything with Carmen until the killer was caught. Spending time with the girl could put her in jeopardy.
“I-I’m sorry. I can’t make it tomorrow.”
Carmen’s smile withered. “No.”
“I’m not sure when I can.” The words tumbled from Lilith quick and harsh sounding to her own ears. “Work. It’s an unusual situation.” She had to stay away from the girl for her safety.
“Are you quitting me?”
“No, of course not!” Of course a kid like Carmen would think that. “It just means I can’t see you for a while.”
“How long is a while?”
Running out of gas, Lilith said, “I-I’m not sure.”
“Yeah, right.” Her expression stricken, Carmen stormed out of the locker room.
“Carmen, please wait.”
The girl hesitated and looked back at her.
There was no helping it — she had to tell Carmen the truth. “I’m in a situation that could put you in danger. I want you to be safe.”
“What kind of situation?”
Lilith shook her head. She couldn’t tell Carmen the details, not about what she was doing to try to save her sister. “This is temporary; I promise.”
Without another word, Carmen simply left the locker room.
“Poor kid,” Elena said. “She doesn’t understand.”
“And I can’t tell her everything. She’s too much like me.”
Elena nodded. “She’d want to protect you.”
“That’s all I would need, to put her in danger, too. Let’s get out of here.”
Lilith finished getting dressed, all the while worrying that Carmen felt betrayed even as Hannah had.
FEARING PUCINSKI would do something to stop her from carrying through with her plan, Lilith didn’t call him about the message on the back of the photograph.
Was that from the killer?
Or from Gabe?
Having time to think about it after calming down, she’d realized it could have been a sick joke. Had Gabe decided to get back at her for winning their match by scaring her? It was possible, she told herself, unsure as to whether that would make her feel better or not.
Needing to know for certain, she went directly to the club, but it wasn’t officially open yet, and Gabe wasn’t there. No Michael, either. She wandered over to the bar where Joe was setting up for the night.
“Hey, Joe, have you seen Gabe around?”
“Not yet. He’ll probably be in later.”
“You wouldn’t know where he lives.”
“In the neighborhood. I remember him saying he bought a foreclosure on the other side of the expressway a couple months ago.”
“Do you have an address?”
“Sorry. I know it’s on the first block, right off of the main drag, because he was complaining about all the noise — construction and expressway.”
“Thanks. I guess I’ll see him when I see him.”
But she really couldn’t wait to settle this. She had to know if the killer had really sent her the demand to dance or — hope against hope — if Gabe was just messing with her. Getting up on that stage would take a kind of courage she didn’t possess. Courage she would have to find if it meant saving her sister.
Since she didn’t have to report to work for another half hour, more than enough time to check out Gabe’s street, she went looking for him. She was on his block in less than five minutes. No housing on the east side, just a huge overgrown lot with chain link, construction machinery and the bones of what would probably be another condo like the ones lining the west side of the street. Only two single family houses on the block, separated by an empty lot.
One of them had to be Gabe’s.
She parked and slid out of the car to check out the first house. The name on the door was Welby. The other house must be the one.
As she approached it, she heard loud voices — a couple having an argument. The man was definitely Gabe. Lilith stopped.
What to do?
The front door exploded open and a woman who looked like the one in the family photo Gabe had showed her tore down the steps to the sidewalk.
“This isn’t over!” Gabe yelled at her.
“Oh, yes, it is. Don’t even think about it, Gabe, or you’ll be sorry.”
The woman sped to a car in the opposite direction, but instinct made Lilith back off anyway. She wasn’t about to confront an angry cop about a photo and a warning he might have left her as a sick joke. To her relief, Gabe never looked her way, simply stared after his ex-wife before going back inside and slamming the door behind him.
Lilith couldn’t get into the Jaguar and out of the neighborhood fast enough.
Chapter 15
THE CLUB WAS JUST opening when Lilith raced through it and into the crowded dressing room filled with female chatter and smoke. Some of the dancers were passing around a joint.
“This always makes the men look better to me,” a dancer named Kat said. “It gives me courage to bare it all in a room filled with strange men.”
She would certainly need a dose of that if she really was forced to dance to save Hannah, Lilith thought, wondering how else to get some other than through drugs.
Melinda laughed. “And it gives me the guts to rub it in Paulie’s face.”
“He’d like you to rub your whatever in his face,” a little redhead called Rusty said with a laugh.
“He can’t do it, though.” Admiring herself in the mirror, Melinda adjusted her top so more cleavage showed. “Can’t keep that wankie of his up long enough.”
Irene choked on her hit. “You tried having sex with your own brother?”
“The disgusting rodent has tried having sex with me for years. I know he looks like a little pissant, but he’s
