Chapter 25 Scary Monster
Scary Monster
TERRANCE
At first, I wondered if Carlos had completely lost his shit, taking such a risk. Then he handed Lothair a laptop, and the light bulb above my head lit up.
“I admit I made a mistake,” he said, trying too hard to sound nonchalant. “I shouldn’t have gone after Paris. He’s not as dumb as you are.”
Lothair didn’t react to the cheap taunt. He lifted the computer. “What do you want me to do with this?”
“Open it. I’ll dictate the password. Then log in to your bank account.”
Since Carlos hadn’t succeeded in acquiring the contracts and Paris was still after him, he wanted money. Lothair glanced at me. He saw where this was going just as clearly as me.
I gave him a tiny nod then focused on the road. We needed to cooperate—for now. I hadn’t been armed at the event, and my taser was in the glove compartment right in front of Lothair, useless.
Lothair gritted his teeth and logged into his bank.
I couldn’t see how much he transferred to the account Carlos had specified, but it must have been a lot, judging by Carlos’s smug face in the mirror.
Lothair confirmed the transactions via his phone and handed the laptop back. It didn’t even take three minutes.
“Open the window, and throw your phone out,” Carlos said.
“Do you really think you’ll get away with this?”
Don’t provoke him, Lothair.
“Harbinger, roll down the passenger window. That’s enough. Throw it out, Lothair. Now.”
Carlos’s arm moved, and he must have pressed the gun to Lothair’s neck harder.
Lothair slid his phone through the gap.
“Now Harbinger’s. It’s by the console. C’mon.”
He threw my phone out as well, and I closed the window with the button.
“That’s better. Now, I only need a ride. Don’t mess with me, and you’ll walk away from this unscathed. More or less.”
The tension in Lothair’s body told me just how much he ached to rip Carlos’s head off, but it would have to wait.
Carlos instructed me to take a small country road out of the suburbs. A tall fence with rusty signs saying Private Property at regular intervals ran along the right side of the road. On the left, the desert spread out.
“Take the first gate to the right. Stop by the booth, roll down the window, and keep your mouth shut.”
Carlos lowered the gun, but in my peripheral vision, I could see Lothair grimace as the barrel must have poked his ribs. Fuming on the inside, I did as I was told. Carlos would be lucky if he survived the night.
A lone guard exited the dilapidated booth.
“Good evening, George,” Carlos called cheerfully. “My friends are just giving me a ride.”
“Ah. Hello, Mr. Sorensen. Your plane’s ready.”
A private runway. Fuck.
The guard went to open the old gate.
“Close the window and drive,” Carlos hissed from behind me. “To the right.”
The small plane waited at the end of the runway—one of the single-pilot models with a range of over a thousand miles. There wasn’t anybody around, but I could see lights in the control tower about half a mile away.
I stopped the car at Carlos’s instruction, facing the aircraft.
“Bend over and put your arms behind your back.”
One-handedly, he tightened a couple of heavy-duty zip ties around my wrists. Then he did the same to Lothair and took the car keys.
“Bye, and thanks for the tip,” he said.
Then he closed the door and jogged to the plane.
I felt my lips stretch into a smile. This would be way too easy. Lothair’s zip ties made a snapping noise as soon as Carlos turned his back to the car.
“You could have waited until he got inside,” I muttered quietly.
“No, I couldn’t.” He grinned at me, his eyes glowing. “Can I smash the plane into the ground after he takes off? Nobody will ever find out how it happened.”
I sighed. “Do you really want to kill a man?”
Lothair scoffed. “Carlos? Yes.”
“Be serious.”
He groaned. “I hate being serious.”
I peeked out through the driver’s window at the small control tower in the distance and the lit-up runway. The plane started, motors roaring. Unless Carlos wanted unnecessary attention or even company from the authorities, he had to wait for the control tower to give him the green light.
“Okay,” Lothair relented. “We won’t kill him. But he’s not going anywhere.”
“Of course not.”
I tore my own zip ties and rolled my shoulders.
Lothair all but vibrated in his seat. “C’mon. It’s dark. We can shift right away. They won’t be able to see us from the tower.”
“At least wait for the plane to start moving. Remember Carlos still has a gun. And whatever happens, it has to be explainable to the police!”
“I know.” The whiny tone in his voice made me chuckle.
We shrugged off our jackets, and Lothair took off his shoes and pants, but we stayed in the car until the Cessna began rolling.
Then I gave Lothair a nod, and we exited together.
With the same excited grin he wore during his stunts, Lothair took off running toward the accelerating plane.
He leaped and shifted mid-jump. That trick would never get old.
I waited in human form, watching the show. He didn’t need my help.
He grabbed the small aircraft by the fin, making the wheels screech on the runway.
Spreading his wings, he gained momentum and moved the entire plane by its tail to the right, sending it into the field.
The Cessna bobbed over the rocky desert until it came to a halt, dust rising around it.
Lothair reached for the right wheel and mangled it in his hand.
Then he tore the door open and roared before shoving his clawed hand into the cockpit.
“Explainable!” I called.
He roared again in response, and I shook my head.
I could only imagine what was going on in Carlos’s mind as a giant, blurry monster broke into his aircraft.
I got momentarily worried about the gun, but Carlos needed both hands to start the plane and couldn’t possibly have gotten control of the weapon during the scuffle.
True enough, the next moment, I saw something small fly through the air and land in the desert.
Lothair must have found it in the cockpit.
Next, he pulled Carlos out by his neck and dropped him onto the ground like a sack of potatoes.
“Are you wondering if I feast on human flesh?” he asked in his rumbling dragon voice and opened his toothy muzzle over Carlos’s face.
Moaning pathetically, Carlos curled into a fetal position and covered his head. Lothair the dragon looked at me with a wide grin. He poked at Carlos with his claw, making the man squeak.
“Which limb would he miss the least?” he asked.
“That’s enough.”
“But why? We haven’t even started.”
“I won’t enjoy visiting you in jail.”
“Oh well. I bet he’d taste like shit anyway.”
Carlos didn’t look up, quietly sobbing into his arms. Lothair shifted back and walked toward me, wearing his smug smirk and nothing else.
“That was fun. We should do this every Halloween.”
I sighed at his theatrics. “Put some clothes on. There’s a car coming here from the control tower.”
Carlos shook like a leaf, still crying inconsolably, as I swiftly tightened his jacket around his arms. I needed to call Devon, and a few others, but my phone was somewhere on the roadside.
By the time the personnel from the tower arrived, Lothair was dressed and presentable. Since Carlos kept mumbling about claws and monsters, the worried-looking guy called an ambulance as well as the police.
“He must be in shock from the accident,” I suggested.
“Did you see what happened?” the guy asked, eyeing the plane.
“No. He tied our hands behind our backs in the car. We were busy trying to free each other when the plane started. By the time we managed to get out of the car, the plane was in the field in a cloud of dust. Carlos stumbled out waving his gun around, but Lothair tackled him and threw it away.”
Lothair nodded, his face blank. When the authorities arrived, we would have to tell the same story.
“Yeah, fucker zip-tied our wrists,” he said. “I cut Terry’s with a key, then he tore up mine.”
An hour later, the private runway was swarming with police cars. That night, we repeated our version of events fifteen more times. When we made it home, it was seven in the morning.
Lothair called the bank but couldn’t cancel the money transfer.
He’d have to go there in person, lawyered up and probably with a statement from the police or even a court order.
He had brief conversations with his finance guy and his law firm.
It was annoying, but his people assured him it would get sorted.
“Carlos won’t manage to hide the money before you can get it back,” I told him.
Leaning back in his chair, Lothair looked at the ceiling of his office. “Six hundred thousand. Bastard.”
“He acted like he was having a psychotic episode during the arrest. His perception of reality will never be the same. I think you’ve punished him enough.”
Unrepentant, my mate chuckled. “I got him good, didn’t I? You should have seen his face.”
“I can imagine. But now, sleep, Lothair. We need sleep.”
I grabbed his forearm and tugged, pulling him out of his chair. He followed obediently, holding my hand all the way to the upstairs bedroom.
“Are we going to fuck?” he asked.
I pulled his pants down and shoved him onto the bed in his underwear and with his shirt unbuttoned. I didn’t have the energy to look for pajamas. “You’re out of your mind. We’ve been awake for twenty-six hours.”
He rolled onto his side and rubbed his face against the pillow. “It would take me a while, but I could get off,” he mumbled, his eyes already closing.
“Just sleep.”
I undressed down to my boxers and spooned Lothair on the bed. Pressing my lips to his nape, I murmured, “Good night.” He didn’t reply. He’d fallen asleep instantly.
I was warm, but my dick was the warmest. It tingled from inside a slick heat, something soft stroking the underside.
“Mm-hmm.”
I peered into the sunlight then blinked. I lay sprawled on my back like a starfish, and Lothair hummed with his mouth around my morning wood. He sucked hard then let go with a pop.
“Time to wake up. It’s after lunch.”
Growling sleepily, I grabbed his hair and pushed his face back down.
“Shut up and suck.”
Chuckling, he mouthed my dick again. I closed my eyes. The suction was powerful, with a little swirl of tongue on the upstroke. I groaned in protest when he let go again and cool air hit my wet cock.
“Hey!”
But Lothair was already straddling my hips and guiding my cock into his hole.
“Shh. I got you,” he said.
He rocked slowly back and forth, stroking himself above my stomach.
I caressed his thighs and watched his sinuous movements as he rode me.
When I could feel him getting close, I bucked up, and he threw his head back, exposing his throat.
His warm cum splattered my chest, and I scooped it up with my fingers, licking it off.
The taste tipped me over. I held Lothair’s hips and fucked my cum up into him, knocking out little yelps from him.
He slumped on top of me, my dick popping out in the process.
“That’s better.” He kissed my left pec and stroked my side.
“Much better,” I agreed.
“Terry.”
“Hmm?”
“I know I said I’d propose properly. I’ve been thinking about it for weeks now, trying to come up with something. Stunts, romantic getaways, even flash mobs.”
“Oh, please, no flash mobs.”
“That’s the thing. Nothing’s…good enough.”
I hugged his shoulders and kissed the top of his head. “You are.”
“Huh?”
“You are good enough for me, baby.”
He inhaled, his back rising under my arms. “So, when I ask you, you’ll say yes, won’t you?” His voice got quiet, almost fearful. How could he still doubt my commitment?
“I’ve almost lost you twice now.”
“I’m fine.”
I shook my head. He wasn’t getting it.
“Sit up.” I pushed on his shoulder as I spoke, and he scrambled up. I rose as well, so we sat face-to-face, and I caressed his jaw.
“Terry, I…”
I put a finger on his lips.
“Just listen. You’re not a compromise, not a burden, and I’ll never regret being tied to you. You make me laugh one minute and burn with passion the next. You make me feel alive. I love you, Lothair, and I know I’ll never want anyone else the way I want you. Will you be my husband?”
His smile lit up the entire room. Hell, it set my entire world alight. Eyes crinkling at the corners, Lothair nodded.
“Yeah,” he breathed.
Then he was on me, kissing me wildly until we rolled off the bed and fell to the floor in a tangle of sheets and laughter.