Page 72 of Ballistic

Streaks of pain skated down my back. Nicoleta tucked her head into my neck, her limbs tightening around me, and I could feel her body trembling.

“Hey, what’s going on? Nic?” Slammed with remorse, I hung the sprayer back up and tipped my head to try to see her face. What I could see of her had taken on an ashy pallor, as though she’d begun to go into shock. “Talk to me, baby. What’s wrong?”

She shook her head, still tucked against me, and I flipped off the water. With her small naked body clinging to mine, I exited the shower and nabbed a towel from the rack over the sink, wrapping it around her.

Shit, I had no idea a little water in her face could trigger a reaction like that.

Strange, since Nicoleta had seemed okay showering up until that point.

I carried her across the room to the bed, where I set her down, and within seconds, the color returned to her skin. Dragging the sheet over her body, I knelt down beside her and brushed the hair from her face. “Hey, you wanna tell me what that was all about?”

Smile flat and unconvincing, she shook her head. “I’m okay. Really.”

“That didn’t look okay. Looked like I hit a trigger, or something.”

“You did.” She rolled her eyes and shook her head again. “It’s stupid.”

“Try me.”

“We had a … neighbor when I was younger, who liked to chase me with the hose and spray me in the face. Guess some things just stick with you.”

No. She seemed too at ease with that story. I’d been around enough girls with triggers to know it took more prodding than that. And most times, they couldn’t even pinpoint what had caused the trigger. Usually something they couldn’t remember.

I wasn’t buying it, but I wasn’t pushing it, either. The girl had walls thicker than steel and higher than any I’d scaled before. An impenetrable fortress that’d probably kept most men from conquering whatever she hid on the other side of it. Unfortunately for her, I wasn’t most men, and I happened to have a criminal history of breaking into places I wasn’t supposed to be. Would only be a matter of time before more things would come to light about her captivity. I had no doubt about that.

“I’m just going to close my eyes for a bit, if that’s okay?”

Stroking her hair back one more time, I planted a kiss to her forehead. “Whatever you need, baby.”

Only took about twenty minutes for her to crash, and as soon as she was out, I threw some pants on and snuck out onto the balcony. I lit up a smoke, tugged my cell from my back pocket, and sent a quick text to China:

ME: Thanks for the records. Can I ask one more favor?

The dots on the screen told me she’d begun writing back already.

CHINA: You don’t have to ask. I’m here to track down whatever you need.

I’d wondered if China had been through some shit herself. Why else would a chick go to so much trouble for nothing?

ME: I need to track down a video. Was uploaded to a site in the badlands.

CHINA: Gonna need more info than that.

ME: Snuff. Guys wearing pig masks. Girl drowned in the video. Afraid that’s all I have.

CHINA: I’ll look around. Might have to get a friend’s help on this one. Sit tight.

ME: It’s supposed to be bad. Just thought I’d warn you.

CHINA: Aren’t they all? Talk soon.

ME: Thanks

I took a long drag and blew the smoke upward, watching it dissolve into the night. Made me think how easily girls in the dark web disappeared. Faded into stories mothers told their daughters to keep them from doing stupid shit.

Never heard from again.

Maybe it’d only been coincidence that Nicoleta had reacted that way to the water. Could’ve had more to do with the act itself than the water, I reminded myself. Like an aversion to surprises, or heat on her face. I’d once dated a girl who flipped out over the scent of Murphy Oil because it reminded her of the times her old man made her scrub the church pews when she was bad.