Chapter 35 #2
I can almost hear Haily fuming. Esau nods though.
“Set up a party at the Laramies’ for Friday night.
You can talk him into helping you. Be ready to discuss payment with him.
You’re a nice girl. He’ll like you. If you really want to see what happened to your dad, use that pretty body of yours, because whatever it is you want done, Dawid can do it.
Free advice. And if you want to see if the institute has appropriated corpses, don’t look for imports.
Get in that building.” He raises his hand. “Let them out, Oscar, please.”
Though irritating as fuck, this man has a grudge against the institute too. Does everyone?
“What?” Hailey sounds ready to explode. He ignores her. I flick him a hard, immolating stare. He ignores me too.
The man behind me shifts. “Yes, sir.”
“Looking forward to seeing you, Friday,” Zedder adds in the most suggestive tone. This man is a blatant predator.
She sniffs then takes my hand in a grip that suggests she’d love to knife Zedder. I tend to agree. Use that pretty body? Fuck.
“Let’s go.” She tugs my hand.
How many people do I have to kill in this town?
And yet.
Thoughts swirl in, suggestively.
That table with the anchor points was at the house. We could have a lot of fun.
I move my hand to cover hers, then weave my fingers between hers, trapping them. Why not? As we retrace our route through the warehouse, with Oscar once again leading us, I think it over some more then offer my conclusions.
“He’s right. How many bodies could the institute ship in without being caught?
Very few. It can’t be a simple process. Refrigerated storage, documents if they come from overseas.
Secret redistribution of parts that no one will miss, because…
they have no close family? If this hacker is good, we could get in there, get pictures, get out, send them to every news outlet.
That’s how you expose what the institute is doing.
You want to get past their security, we need to be at this party.
” Hailey shoots me a dirty look. “It should be fun. I’ll keep you safe. You know this.”
Esau is silent. Perhaps he’s still remembering that Niamh. What was she to him? A lover? A fiancée?
“Esau? Was Zedder involved in Niamh’s disappearance?”
He stops. “No.”
Oscar is a few steps ahead and waits for us, somewhat impatiently.
“Do you trust him?”
He glances at Oscar. “I do. Enough to believe this other hacker is better than Rasmus. Zedder brings in goods”—he makes air quotes—“not corpses.”
Meaning cars and other stolen stuff.
The door to the outside bangs open, to reveal the dimly lit figure of a man standing, legs apart, arms by his side.
He’s dramatically posed like a gunslinger extracted from an old Western.
Though his sheriff’s uniform is modern, a gun is holstered at his hip.
He strides in, alone, but with another officer visible though the opening.
His sandy-brown hair is impeccably trimmed, crew-cut short, and neat.
He’s middle-aged but muscled, and a grin slices across his mouth.
“Oscar, I’ve come to see your boss,” he drawls, gaze crawling over us, from Hailey to Esau to me. “But look who I found as well.”
“Sheriff Baxter, Zedder is in the office.” Oscar points the way and doesn’t seem alarmed, or keen to escort the sheriff. So, this is routine.
“Indeed, indeed. I’m more interested in this trio. Good to see you again, Miss Hailey. Esau Wrath, you’re keeping fine company. But this fellow, here. Your name, sir? For the record. I like to know who visits my town.” He hooks one thumb in his belt.
“Kail Stone, sir.” I doubt he can look me up on any cop database. If he finds me, I will be, apparently, quite dead.
“Got it. I’ll put that in the report.” He gives me mock salute, touching his forehead, then moves on into the warehouse.
“Stone?” There’s a surprised look on Hailey’s face; her eyes are wide.
This is when I realize that name will be known to her, and that I have never shared my surname with her, until now. Fuck.
Why did I say that? My brain is truly sucking. My late realization ties in with another conclusion that hits like a brick in the face.
Why did I believe it wise to give the handler’s phone to Rasmus?
He might find proof I am someone presumed dead, or from another timeline.
I have no idea what is in there, and how many days has it taken me to decide this?
From now on, I need to assume I’m not as clever as I want to be.
But it’s possibly too late to get myself out of this—whatever it is I’ve gotten myself into.
No one else seems shocked by my surname, so my family might not have lived here for a while, if only Hailey remembers my full name. To her that is the name of her dead friend.
Esau stares at us both then walks out. Maybe he hopes to figure out what’s bugging us outside, where Zedder’s man cannot hear what is said.
Hailey is still staring, has sucked in her bottom lip, and has established a mighty frown.
“I…” I raise my hand as if to add some explanation, but she backs away then goes out the door before it swings shut. I shrug at Oscar. The man looks completely uncaring and simply points at the door.
“Fuck. Again,” I mutter as I head for the door. I pull it open, praying Armageddon is not out there.
Grow some balls. Or sew another pair on?
Esau is studying the second cop and the police car parked at the head of the alley, but Hailey is waiting for me, arms folded.
I close in until we can talk without being too obvious. “Are you angry?” I leave out the details, hoping it’s not what I think it is, yet knowing it is that.
“I’m confused.” She shakes her head. “Why did you use Stone? How did you even know his— Forget that. I guess you read it somewhere in the house, Or did I say it?” She frowns at me.
“It bothers me. Angry? I don’t know. Maybe for a minute, but I guess I can’t expect you to get all the social faux pas.
Like, stealing a dead boy’s name is not normal. ”
“Uh-huh.” It’s not quite what I thought it was. This is good. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think.”
“Maybe you don’t remember your real surname? We should brainstorm one. Smith?” Now she smiles. “Agent K. Smith.”
“Ha. Smith? Was that a joke?” I take her hand and kiss the back, happy to play along. “Thank you for being kind.” She doesn’t think that Kail Stone is really me. Hasn’t wondered if I might be him, but then who would? No one normal would. In some ways, that’s sad, or insulting, maybe.
“Me? I’m kind?”
“You are. I try to be. On the other hand…if we go to a party, an X-rated sex party, I promise not to be kind.”
“A what? No. No. I wasn’t going to go. Cozy up to this guy who’s probably a sleazy creep? Really? There must be another way to get in there.”
“If you truly want to find out what is happening at the institute? Yes, I do. You won’t have to touch him. We can make him happy without that.”
“Happy? Meaning?”
“Meaning I fuck you, tie you up, while he watches.”
“Kail!”
I lower my voice another notch. “Are you going to deny you’re not already fantasizing about being watched while I have you bound and subject to my whims? The things I could do to you…”
“You.” She taps my chest. “Are a bad—”
I pick her up and kiss her, holding her high.
I back her into the wall and keep kissing her while I keep my hand in a vee at her neck, my thumb digging into her muscles.
She groans hotly into my mouth and wraps her legs around my waist. I swear I can feel the heat of her pussy through my jeans when I push my hard length into her.
If the cop is bothered, who cares. His boss is inside getting a bribe.
I wait until she’s grinding herself on me and grabbing at my shoulders like she wants to rip off my shirt, making those gorgeous, muffled noises she does when she’s horny. I raise my head and allow her to suck in a few breaths.
She sneaks her tongue across her open mouth. I press my forehead to hers to ask quietly, “Coming to the party? Say yes. You know I’ll keep you safe.”
“Fuuuck. Kail, you are a bad, bad man.”
I kiss her lightly but keep my hand at her neck. “Say yes.”
Her forehead wrinkles. She studies me, looking for god knows what. “Yes?”
“The right answer.”
I let her down and take her hand then turn and walk to Esau. He’s politely looking the other way, though the cop has moved back to the middle of the alley entrance, beneath a light. Judging by his smile and thumbs up, he was highly entertained.
“You okay there, Esau?” I have questions, though I’m not sure I should ask them, considering my recent mess-ups.
“I’m good.” He swings to look at us. “You mean Niamh? Or your little tête-à-tête?”
Our what? Hailey snorts.
“Niamh, yes. I meant her.” I make a leap of faith, knowing I may get shot down. “Is she why you hate Clay Skinner?”
He flinches then eyes the ground before he answers.
“Yes. Someone I know said they think she was in a car they saw speeding away, with Clay in the back with her. She was celebrating with some girlfriends, they all got drunk, and they let her walk home alone.” His mouth twitches.
“I should have been there to help her. Fuck, though, the world sucks.” His glare is intense.
“I think they were right about him being there, even if the law doesn’t seem inclined to agree. ”
I nod. “Okay. Good reasons for hating.”
The cop has stayed back near his car and cannot be hearing this quiet conversation.
“Sure is. I’ll see you at that party, I guess.” Then he sucks in a breath and seems to lose his anger. “I’ll do anything.”
“Esau,” Hailey asks, “How much do you trust Zedder?”
“Enough.”
I have to say this, though I glance at the law officer before I do. “Even though he is paying off the cops?”
“Like I said, enough. I wouldn’t trust him with my new Porsche, and maybe not with my daughter, if I had one. Make that, definitely not.”
He smiles then walks away, looking lonely but formidable, hands in his pockets. He nods at the cop as he passes him then continues right, down the street.
“Not a man I’d want to cross. I like Esau,” Hailey says.
“Yeah, me too.”
“Kail, what if Ron and Molly hear what this party is about? They’ve been left in charge of the house.”
“The day I stole my hoodie from the house, I found some old photos in the attic, tucked away with the clothes. It was from a party like Zedder wants, and they were there, in leather gear.”
“Are you fucking with me?”
“Cross my heart and hope to die. I think Ron and Molly will be okay with it.”
Not that I’m sure I can still die… There’s a question for another day.
Can I die?
We’re a few yards from where we stashed the Jeep down a dark side-street when Hailey swings around to look at me and stops dead. “If Sheriff Baxter reports he saw us to Clay Skinner, he’s going to know where we’ve been.”
“And might be able to figure out where we are going.”
“Yes. Like this party. We need to move fast. I wonder if we can get the party moved up to tomorrow night?”
“Good idea. We can text Esau and ask him to ask Zedder.”
“Sure. And Kail.” She pokes my chest with her forefinger. “Don’t get too many cray-cray notions about what you can do at the party. We’ll be busy figuring out food and drinks and—”
I remove her finger from my chest and put it in my mouth, suck it in to the last knuckle, then I bite down. Her gasp zings to my cock.
“Ow!” She tugs.
I pull out her finger and cup my hand over her mouth. “Shhh. I will make sure someone else is in charge of catering.” Like Ron and Molly. I can ask them? They seem neck deep in everything in Revenant, like sneaky alligators in a swamp.
I’m being paranoid, which might be my damaged brain acting up.
It’s distracting, but not as distracting as Hailey dragging my hand off her face and her warm tongue licking across my palm as she does so. The wicked gleam in her eyes says it all.
“Someone is asking for it.” I pick her up by the waist and carry her to the Jeep.
I hold her there, turned so she’s butt outward, with the side of her head pressed to the rear window.
Her collar tag clatters on the metal, and she protests quietly.
The minx knows where I’m going with this.
I lean into her and brush her ear with my mouth, tonguing her lightly, pushing her hair away and biting her nape above the heavy silver chain. I will never get enough of her taste.
“Bad girl.”
She fucking whimpers. That sound is like catnip to me, a chili-dipped aphrodisiac.
“Very bad girl.” I grab one side of her ass and squeeze it hard.
I’m tempted to throw her in the back and fuck her sprawled across the seat, but why not here? Apart from a few people crossing at the T junction far behind us, we’re alone.
“You’re going to take my cock and not O, unless you want me to spank you, naked, in the middle of the street.”
Her reply is a barely audible mumbled, but she only squirms as I bend her over the hood, pull down her panties and leggings—god, I love leggings—and insert myself into her in one thrust, deep as I can go.
Her gasp and shudder, her pussy clenching in on me, and that she spreads her legs wider and arches her butt… “Next time, I strip you in the street and fuck you there.” I grind into her, feeling her walls clasp the length of my cock before I start to fuck her mercilessly.
The slap of our bodies meeting, her moans as I wreck her pussy, it’s a perfect ending to an imperfect night.