Page 76 of The Attercop

The person slid off the table, then pulled Declan’s hood just high enough to expose his mouth, and kissed him. Declan felt stubble. He heard the person shifting things around. There wasthe sound of a paper bag being opened and something being unwrapped. “Open wide.”

Declan kept his lips tightly clamped.

“Oh, don’t be so paranoid. It’s just a sandwich. I’m not going to kill you…yet. And it only seems fair to give you a little nourishment before then.”

Declan felt bread touch the edge of his lips. He was hungry. He consumed the sandwich bite by bite as it was fed to him by his captor. A straw was inserted into his mouth. Declan sucked and a cool liquid flowed down his throat. It was cold coffee. The caffeine gave him strength and his brain fog cleared slightly. He decided it might be wiser to play nice.

“Thank you. I needed that,” Declan said.

“You’re welcome.”

The person pulled the hood back down over Declan’s face. There was the sound of a chair being dragged toward him.

Declan needed to get this person talking. Maybe he could reason out exactly who it was, although at this moment, he wasn’t sure what he could do with that information.

“You said you’re not going to kill meyet,” Declan said. “Why not get it over with?”

“Because that’s not part of the plan,” his captor explained. They sounded irritated.

“So, what is your plan?”

“You’ll find out soon enough, but maybe that’s not the question you should be asking.”

“Okay,” Declan replied. “How about this? Who are you?”

“You’re the detective. Detect!”

“I’ll need some clues,” Declan said.

“Ooo, you want to play games, do you? Okay…you’ve met me before…more than once.”

“Where?”

“At the bathhouse, for starters,” his captor said.

Declan’s mind raced. How many men had he encountered at The Greek over the years? He tried to remember any that might bear a grudge. “If you want me to guess who you are, you’re going to have to be more specific than that.”

“Too many men to narrow it down? Oh, you were a slut, weren’t you? All right, I hit on you more than a few times, but maybe I wasn’t your type. You never showed any interest. But the worst part was that each time I approached you, you looked at me like you’d never seen me before.”

Declan squeezed his eyes tight, trying to force a memory to the surface. “I was usually drunk when I was there, so my memories are a bit hazy. And as for being my type, I have very particular tastes.”

“Oh, you mean like your little friend Charlie? Well, I’m certainly not like him. Not that…squeaky clean and boyish. It’s funny, at the baths you always seemed to go for the rougher types.”

“Maybe if you describe yourself, I’ll remember you,” Declan said.

“I’m blond, tall and muscled, but not bulky like you. Of course, you haven’t always encountered me that way.”

“That could be a lot of guys I’ve met.”

“We’ve also met a few times at Bar-None, but you rejected every pass I made. And, just like at The Greek, you never seemed to remember me. I can understand why. The last time we bumped into each other, I wasn’t looking my best.” The guy chuckled.

Declan searched his memory. “Still nothing.”

“I did see you once outside your office. It was a cold winter night. Charlie was there.”

When the hell was that?Something in the back of Declan’s mind rang a bell, but the thought slipped away.

“You know all of this that’s been happening…it’s really your fault,” his captor said. “If you’d only shown some interest in me, things might have been different. And now that Charlie’s in the picture, well…”