Page 112 of Sucker For You

“Right.” She tasted blood.

Copper, salt,fury.

BioPulse Pharmaceuticals, which made Ceretobicin and her own life bearable, wasn’t just immoral. It was evil.

What did that make her: its beneficiary?

She chewed on her tongue while Monterey’s agricultural fields and windy dunes slid past, while Wes braked outside the bungalow, while she shucked off her boots next to his duffel at the door and went to the reef tank. She tossed her phone onto the credenza beside their heart-eyed caricature and sank a hand into the water. Anger or tears itched under her eyelids.

I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.

The octopus floated near the aquarium’s sand-and-gravel bottom. Her dominant eye was foggy, her dexterous arms unresponsive to Isabel and Wes’s coaxing. No movement, no texture, no color. Her mantle was pale as pearl and lumpish, like old cottage cheese. No more conscious than a jellyfish, she simply drifted.

“She’s. . .” Lines bracketed Wes’s mouth. Not from laughter. No jokes.

“I know.”

His thumb brushed hers through the halimeda. Their fingers threaded together again. Isabel held tight against the pain and the rage, anchoring herself to him, with him.

Don’t scream.

Don’t cry.

Just breathe. . . breathe—

Until a sudden glow of digital illumination brightened near the tank; on her discarded screen, a muted call was ringing:

Incoming Call:Dr. Chase Meyer Jr.

“Fuck him,” Wes grated out.

She agreed. But she reached for her phone.

“For her,” she told Wes. For the sake of the precious, sentient creature under her protection, she’d answer this call. She’d speak to this man again, when all she wanted was his silence in her life. She’d do it because of his possible influence with BioPulse Pharmaceuticals. Isabel stroked a final finger over the octopus to steel herself. She unlocked her screen.

“Chase.”

“Bella? Babe!”

“I’m here, yes.”

Then:silence.

Maybe he was waiting for more. Maybe he was waiting for her to exert herself to please him, to smile across the distance, to make herself into something pretty and agreeable. For his pleasure, or his use. Instead, she let the quiet settle. If he’d wanted her smiles before, he’d also liked her quiet, hadn’t he? She’d never challenged him or distracted others from him.Now, though? Let him wait.Let him fight against her silence for his smooth words and gleaming grin.

She made him fighther.

“I. . . That—that’s great.” He rebounded quickly, of course. She wished he’d floundered longer. He laughed. She could almost see the flash of his teeth. “Now guess whereIam.”

“Where are you?”

“Monterey. I’m driving into the city.” In the background of his audio, a horn honked. Traffic or the ocean wind rumbled. A turn signal clicked. “I skipped out on my last couple days with the R&D group and left Vegas early this afternoon. Thought I’d surprise you for dinner. I made a reservation at Atlas”—a glitzy seafood restaurant—“for seven o’clock. We’ve got things to talk about, right? And. . . I missed you, babe.”

Had he?No.

But, “Yes, we do have things to discuss.”

“Where can I pick you up?”