Free Killing Time: The Bonus Collection by Elle Chardou Page A

really couldn’t imagine living anywhere else there so I just left and came to New York.”
    “Why don’t you have an accent?”
    “I was reared bilingual. I spoke as much French as I did English. My sister and I would often speak in Franglais to annoy people or so people wouldn’t know what we were talking about. It didn’t take much to get a job a CNW and I worked my way from the bottom up by working smarter than any of my colleagues around me. I may be one of the youngest investigative reporters on television at the age of thirty-two but believe me when I say it is well-deserved.”
    Rory was silent for a long time before he grabbed the bottle of Cristal and began to leave the kitchen. “Come along. I want to show you something.”
    Our friendly banter had ended just like that and all the sudden, the same old fear returned to my frightened body. I knew he wasn’t capable of hurting me like his brother who would have rather enjoyed it so why was I still so nervous around him?
    I grabbed my empty champagne flute and followed him albeit reluctantly. We walked together down a long hallway and he turned on a light before he opened a doorway. It led down and I realized with dread it was another basement. It must have been some kind of requirement when he was shopping for various residences around the world.
    “What the hell? Does every one of the residences you own have a bondage basement?” I inquired off-handedly.
    “Most do but not all. My Lake Las Vegas home has a room similar to this but it is on the third floor where I can assure what ever guest I have and myself privacy. Basements are extremely rare in Southern Nevada for instance—”
    “I think that has something to do with all the nuclear testing they did just fifty miles north of the city. They probably aren’t sure how far into the ground it affected so it isn’t something you see out there,” I explained as I looked around in a curious state of anxiety.
    “How do you know so much about Nevada?”
    I turned suddenly and realized he was standing right behind me. “I lived there for a while in Las Vegas when I first moved back here to the States.”
    Rory held up my hand with the champagne flute and refilled me. I smiled in reply and took a slight step back.
    “That isn’t what you said upstairs.”
    I sipped from my Cristal champagne. “I didn’t realize I was supposed to tell you everywhere I have lived here in the States.”
    “What did you do in Las Vegas?”
    “I worked Public Relations Department at Vogue Hotel, Spa and Casino.”
    “You are fucking with me, aren’t you?”
    I glared at him. “No, I’m not. I was in their PR Department. Then the recession hit and I was laid off. It was an unneeded position at the time or at least that is what I was told by the manager in Human Resources. I had made good money and I didn’t have any ties as I only rented and I hadn’t bought any property so I purchased a one-way ticket to New York.”
    “The person in HR, do you remember her name?”
    “Yeah, her name was Astrid Schmidt.”
    “Don’t you think that’s odd? She laid you off all those years ago and now she’s buying my apartment in New York. Yet…you acted as if you had never heard of her before when she was mentioned last night. Why?”
    I laughed out loud. “You should have been a cop if you weren’t so filthy rich. I honestly didn’t put two and two together at the time. I’d just found out my sister was dead, remember? I wasn’t exactly thinking like a reporter last night and if truth be told, I’m not thinking much like one now either. It is considered extremely bad taste to go home with someone you are potentially investigating. You lose credibility big time especially if and when it comes out. It colors the investigation and makes it seem like your story is more a witch hunt than a search for the truth.”
    “Then what are you doing here?”
    I swallowed the rest of my champagne for liquid courage. “To be honest, I