Free Book Club Bloodshed by Brianna Bates Page A

being let go, that Tyler had caught the killer, because as selfish as it sounded she really did not want to set foot inside WiredFit. She might have lost fifteen pounds over the last two months, but she had a long way to go and the hardcore exercisers weren’t usually the most sympathetic when it came to being overweight.
    Lee said, “Missy, I wanted to give you a status update.”
    “Are they letting her go?”
    “No.” Lee’s voice was hesitant for a change. “Actually, they’re bringing formal charges tomorrow, which means they’ll schedule the trial.”
    Trial ? This couldn’t be happening. How could Tyler be so obtuse? She wondered what had happened between them, maybe they had burned each other and the past was now bleeding into the present.
    “What do we do?”
    “Not to worry, Miss. This won’t go to trial if I have anything to say about it. I’m going to keep working my angle. Have you connected with Paul Gold yet?”
    “Actually, Lee, I wanted to talk to you about him…I don’t know if you’ve worked with him before, but he—”
    “He’s the best, Miss. Paul really is gold, ha ha.”
    Missy couldn’t let this go. It was too important. “Uh, I’m not sure how to say this but—”
    “Miss, he works well because nobody sees him coming.”
    Actually, Missy thought everybody would see him coming because he unfortunately looked like a pedophile in his overcoat. How Lee expected him to be able to tail the cops without being noticed was beyond her.
    “I don’t know, Lee.”
    “I do.” In the background, she heard him opening a door. “Now I gotta run, Miss. I have to prepare for the indictment, it’s going to take a very compelling motion.”
    “Lee, just one more thing—”
    “Gotta run. Talk to you tomorrow, Miss. And stay safe.”
    He hung up.
    Missy dropped the phone in her lap and leaned her head back against the seat cushion. Taking a deep breath, she told herself she shouldn’t be worried about what others would think of her inside WiredFit. Her body was her body. It might have contained her but it didn’t reflect some deep character flaw. She was just overweight. That was all. All her life she had struggled to keep the pounds off. Most of the people at WiredFit had never faced what she had. Sure, anybody put on weight if they weren’t careful or as the years rolled by, but she was on the—
    Thud, thud, thud.
    “Hey, Missy!”
    Missy nearly hit her head on the roof of the car when she jumped. Paul Is Gold’s face was practically smooshed up against her window as he waved excitedly at her.
    When her pulse got back down to just under a million beats per second, she grabbed her keys, phone, and exercise bag and got out of the car.
    “Whoa,” Paul said, eyeing her up and down.
    Missy decided to ignore it. “Maybe next time, could you not bang on my window like that if you can tell I don’t see you coming?”
    Paul held out a palm. “Sorry, I was just excited to see you. Even more so now.”
    “Paul, I appreciate the compliments, but can we focus on business here?”
    “I can focus on both.” With the southward drift of his eyes, she couldn’t tell if he meant her breasts when he said both . “Are you ready?”
    “As ready as I’ll ever be.” She still had no plan, other than to go to the class, hope she struck up a conversation with one or more of the guys, and then…who knew. “I am not looking forw—what is that?”
    Paul was holding up an expensive looking camera that was strapped around his neck. The lens was aimed at her, and he adjusted the focus manually.
    “Camera.”
    She covered herself like she was naked. “No pictures of me.”
    “You look great!”
    “What do you need the camera for?”
    “Missy, I am a private investigator. I take pictures. I need to get all of these guys on film.”
    That might have been true, but she suspected he had other motives in mind too. No doubt she and the other women training inside WiredFit would miraculously appear in