Free Infamous by Nicole Camden

own was a target no matter what she looked like, but when a young girl looked like Lille. . . .
    â€œSo why tell me now?” Mary asked. “What’s happened?”
    Lille sighed. “I’ve been contacted by someone who claims to represent my father. I don’t really know what he wants.”
    Mary was silent for a moment, the news sinking in slowly. “So, if you went to the police . . . ”
    â€œI’d have to tell them the whole story, including my real name. But it isn’t my name anymore. Even then, there’s no proof that he intends me harm or anything.” Lille waved a frustrated hand in the air.
    â€œDo you think he means you harm?” Mary asked carefully, getting up and moving to stand next to Lille.
    Lille looked out the window at the palms and birds of paradise blooming in the small landscaped nook around her window. It’s so beautiful here , she thought idly.
    She gave Mary a sideways glance. “It seems stupid to take the chance, doesn’t it?”
    Mary nodded.
    Lille took a deep breath. “So what would you do? Leave? Run away? Change your name again?”
    Mary seemed to think about it, but then she put her arm around Lille’s shoulder. “Maybe I would have before I came here. This place has changed me. Having someone I care about has changed me. If I were in your place, I would fight to keep it.”
    Lille nodded. “If I had someone who loves me the way John loves you, I’d probably stay and fight as well, but I don’t.”
    â€œMax—”
    Lille held up a hand to stop her. “Max doesn’t love me. Don’t pretend that he does.”
    Mary stopped, mostly because she sensed that Lille didn’t want to hear what Mary had to say about Max.
    â€œAll right. No pretending. But you had big plans for him this evening. It seems a shame to waste them now.”
    Lille looked highly amused, but she nodded. “I suppose it would be.”
    â€œYou ready?”
    Lille took her friend’s arm, allowing Mary to escort her from the room. “Always.”

CHAPTER Seventeen

    Lille felt as if electricity was running over the surface of her skin as she drove her convertible over to the pub almost two hours later. Aside from a hint of dusky red on the horizon, darkness had fallen, and a breeze whipped the palm trees planted in the median strip. Carl sat next to her, while Kim and Jordan sat in the back. Kim was recording, always recording, though there wasn’t much to record on the short drive to the pub.
    Lille grinned for no reason, feeling the way she had the first time she’d tried Ecstasy back in San Francisco. Whipping someone was surprisingly exhilarating—she couldn’t wait to try it on Max.
    She wasn’t actually sure why this evening’s attempt to make an instructional video had turned her on. The exercise had been more hilarious than anything, between Bambi’s escapades and the ridiculous moans and comments that Jordan had made. But the thought of Max beneath her, at her mercy, had kept Lille at least partly in the game. Nobody else had seemed to bother.
    â€œStop, I can’t stop laughing,” Jordan had gasped when Lille’d trailed the handle of a whip up the crack in his ass after the dog incident.
    â€œOkay, that’s enough.” Carl was still snickering. “We’re supposed to be professionals.”
    â€œThat was funny,” Kim conceded. “It’s better.”
    â€œIt wasn’t supposed to be funny,” Lille argued, but her lips twitched as well.
    Kim shrugged. “Funny will get attention faster than serious.”
    Carl had agreed. “She’s right. If you can make people laugh, you have their attention.”
    Lille didn’t doubt it, but she also didn’t think Max would be laughing tonight. The crop was in her bag, along with the mask and a couple of feathers.
    Anticipation was riding her,