Free Payback by Francine Pascal Page A

spoke. It was Charlie who finally processed what she'd said. Mary was surprised that he was the one with half a brain.
    "Who the hell are you?" he asked, sounding like a B-movie cliché.
    "Who cares who she is?" the note keeper said, standing up and squaring his shoulders, all menacing-like. "What matters is how much she heard."
    Mary rolled her eyes. "About what?" she scoffed, tossing back her hair. "Your pathetic little sex ring? I heard enough to tell all your conquests about it."
    The guys exchanged looks, clearly trying to figure out what to do about her and her threat. Mary's heart suddenly started to pound out of sync with its normal rate. There actually were a lot of big necks, large hands, and teeny-tiny intellects in the room. Plus they were a bunch of sex fiends. Not exactly an ideal place for an attractive girl like herself to be making challenges.
    Charlie finally emerged from the group and started in her direction. Mary fought the urge to back up and raised her chin. She couldn't remember the last guy who had intimidated her. Or at least the last guy who had gotten any indication that he'd intimidated her.
    Of course this was one damn big guy backed up by about fifteen others.
    "I'm giving you five seconds to get out of here," Charlie said when he was close enough for her to smell the Tic Tac-tinted beer stench on his breath.
    Like that was supposed to scare her.
    "And you won't be telling anyone anything," he added. "We're not afraid to hurt girls." He actually smiled as he said this, causing sweat to pop out in the center of Mary's palms with a maddening itch. "Got it?" he asked with a very serious edge in his voice.
    "I got it," Mary said, surprised at the strength in her voice as she looked into a pair of very disturbed eyes. She glanced around the room, making sure to look at every single face so they would know that she wasn't, in fact, squirming.
    The final look of disgust was saved for Charlie. She managed to hold it for a couple of seconds even though he was still glaring at her, and then she turned and went back the way she came, whacking open the door with a flourish.
    It wasn't until the elevator doors had slid shut behind her that she let herself realize her knees were shaking.

ROMEO
I have my weaknesses. Things that make me lose my focus. Things that make me impossibly angry. Things that make me see red.
    I only had the one tonight. Only the brunette. The blond slipped through my fingers. I don't know how, but she did.
    That s one of the things that brings the fury, the not knowing. Being unable to pinpoint where I went wrong. What she saw or didn't see. Whether I said too much, too little, exactly what she didn't want to hear.
    It s the not knowing that kills.
    But I will have her. I will figure her out. None of them are that complex.
    Not a one.

INDISPENSABLE
It wouldn't be Ella's fault if Sam, say, stepped in front of a speeding cab, would it? Or a subway train.

THE WORD
    ELLA STARED OUT THE PLATE GLASS window of the loft in Hell's Kitchen, watching steam billow out of a manhole in the middle of the street. The image left her feeling cold. Cold and angry. Ella hated the winter. Had ever since she was a girl. There was something suffocating about it. The thick clothes. The tight spaces. The holiday crowds.
    It made her feel small.
    "You know, I've had people shot for not listening to me."
    Ella snapped to attention at the sound of the word
shot
. He would do it. She knew that. She wasn't as indispensable as some.
    She turned from the window and faced Loki. His eyes, as always, were unmasked. Sinister. But there was laughter in them. He didn't really intend to kill her. At least not today.
    "I'm sorry," Ella said, running the tip of her finger along the edge of the galvanized metal counter next to her. The one that held the plans. "I was distracted. It won't happen again."
    Loki's mouth twisted into a smirk. "Daydreaming about the holidays, are we?" he asked. "Or are you just thinking about