Shot Girl Read Online Free

wanted to take off these shoes in the worst way, but I didn’t want to put my feet on this floor that had God knew what on it.
    "Looked like you were still pretty friendly with him."
    I leaned over to adjust one of the shoe’s straps. "What do you mean?"
    "I saw you talking to him over by the door, just before he went outside. I saw him kiss you."

Chapter 3
    Okay, so I may have forgotten to mention that little detail to Tom. But I was trying to forget it myself. Ralph had caught me off guard. What he was doing barely registered until I felt his tongue probing my lips, because it happened so fast.
    "Did you also see me knee him in the balls?" I asked, trying to keep my voice low but unable to keep the anger out.
    Renee chuckled. "No. But that would’ve been funny."
    I tried to remember why I’d agreed to attend this little party. It wasn’t like Renee and I were great friends or anything. She was ten years younger than me, had come to the paper two years ago from graduate school, following her boyfriend-now-fiancé to New Haven, where he was learning how to be a doctor at Yale. She was the cheerleader, the sorority sister I never wanted to be. I had to admit that she could write, and since her desk was next to mine, we’d managed to have a sort of work relationship that her sisters must have felt was more than it was, because they invited me to this shindig. I had not been invited to the wedding.
    I should’ve questioned that earlier. Why invite someone to the bachelorette party if she’s not invited to the wedding?
    I didn’t have to come tonight. Priscilla had talked me into it.
    Priscilla Quinn was my best friend from college and was now at the Daily News in New York. She was much more hip than I was, and she convinced me that going to see a male strip show would be a hoot. She was sorry she couldn’t come with me—she’d had other plans—but she’d come out the weekend before and brought some clothes with her, knowing I didn’t have anything to wear to something like this.
    She had no idea she was dressing me for a murder.
    Renee held a small bag not unlike mine, and I wondered if she had a cell phone in it. Before I could ask, however, her eyes drifted past me, distracted.
    "Hey, there’s that guy," Renee said, indicating Jack Hammer, who was coming toward us.
    Not again.
    Renee did one of those hair-toss things, flipping back her highlighted brown locks and fiddling with her blouse. What was wrong with her? She was getting married, for Chrissakes, and here she was, coming on to Mr. Sleazy.
    Jack Hammer wasn’t paying attention to her. He scooched down on the floor next to me, leaning in so close I caught a faint whiff of vanilla and maybe cinnamon. Weird.
    "Need to talk to you," he said.
    I looked at Renee, who looked surprised. Not in a good way. Okay, second strike against me. First I’m married before she is, and now Jack Hammer wants a moment of my time. Alone. Lucky me. I shrugged as she pushed her chair away and marched back over to her sisters, shaking her head as they all looked over their shoulders at me like I’d just agreed to fuck Jack Hammer on the floor in front of everyone. Not that they hadn’t wanted to do that just an hour ago themselves.
    I liked it better when I thought all Chippendales were chairs.
    I turned to Jack Hammer. "What do you want?"
    He put a finger to my lips, and I jerked my head back reflexively. Who the hell knew where those fingers had been? "I got it for you," he whispered, slipping something into my hand.
    I looked at the business card. My business card. "What about it?" I asked.
    "I got it from Ralphie. Just before he went outside. I know you told the cop that you didn’t really talk to him, so I figured maybe you had a reason to keep this quiet."
    I turned the card over in my hand.
    On the back was my phone number. My home phone number. And my cell number. In my handwriting.
    "You got this from Ralph?" I asked.
    "He told me to put it in the office, in his