Sixteen
“Is this okay?”
Why is that even a question?
My eyelids were clenched shut, face screwed up, goddamn toes curled – okay, maybe that was why she’d asked. But, yes, it was okay. It was so, so, so much more than okay. She had me in her mouth, slurping and sucking and gagging, and I could not be any fucking better.
To answer her question though, I grunted a fuck yes that made her stop running her tongue around the head, teasing me, just long enough to grin before she swallowed me again.
She’d caught me coming out of the shower and insisted on this. Insisted that her “confusion” was being rapidly replaced with “clarity”, and I didn’t catch any emotional undercurrents that made me argue with that. If she was down, then so was I, hell yes.
But then… she’d apologized before she started.
“I haven’t done this in a pretty long time,” she warned, right before she had me moaning, groaning, ready and willing to scream like a little bitch, because her mouth felt just that damn good. And if her personality, intellect, business acumen, humor, beauty, body, and the glory of her pussy hadn’t been enough to persuade me that Kellen was King Dumb-ass for letting her go…
This had me far – far – past convinced.
I wasn’t trying to choke her, but shit… I lost the battle to not bury my hands in her hair, keeping her in place as I drove up into her mouth, into her throat. And she… goddamn… she took it in stride, moaning and swallowing me deeper and just… continuing to be perfect.
It was just about time to warn her of an impending eruption when she pulled completely away, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand before her eyes landed on me in a sexy, mischievous grin. She held her audience – me – completely captive as she slinked across the bed, climbing over me, straddling me, then holding my dick exactly where she wanted it before she sank down.
Heaven.
That was what this had to be, having Monica on top of me, hips moving in slow circles that didn’t skip a beat as she raised her hands to remove the band from the ponytail I’d ruined. Her golden-streaked hair fell around her shoulders like a mane, making her look even wilder, even sexier than she already did.
I hadn’t even known that shit was possible.
I remembered, some time ago, having to coax her into showing me her body. Not because she didn’t want to, or didn’t like it, but because she was afraid I wouldn’t like it – a lie from the pits of hell, based on bullshit put in her head by her husband.
And now here she was, completely nude, the room completely lit, grinding on top of me like she was having the time of her life.
I really, really hoped she was, because that would make two of us. If that first night had been good enough to have me ready to sniff behind her like a greedy puppy, then this – feeling her, again, with nothing between us – I… might be in trouble. I tried to keep telling myself that it was just sex – damn good sex, at that – because she hadn’t given me any indication that it was more than that.
The problem was, I’d had good sex – damn good sex, at that – with my fair share of other women over my forty-something years, and I couldn’t say that it had ever been like this. Hell, even when Kay’s mother, Lisa, had my young ass sprung, I couldn’t ever remember thinking long-term. Like… long, long term.
But with Monica, I’d found myself, more than once, wondering exactly what I needed to do in order to not mess this up, how to make sure she remained in my life, in this capacity, and more, for a long ass time.
The shit felt so right that it had to be wrong… right?
I blinked away those pesky thoughts, shifting my focus back to the present – Monica had reached behind her, between my legs, cupping and massaging my balls, which didn’t give me much choice.
“Trying to kill me,” I muttered, making her laugh – a sound that hit me right in the chest before I turned it into a moan with my hand between her legs, teasing her clit. She whimpered, rhythm broken as I pressed harder with my thumb, then moved to pinch her swollen, sensitive bud between my thumb and forefinger.
“Ahhh,” she moaned, as I moved my fingers back and forth, using her distracted state to sit up.
With one hand still between her legs, I fisted the other in her hair again, pulling her lips to mine. I wasted no time dipping my tongue into the sweetness of her mouth, savoring her as she started moving again. I left her clit to give my attention to her soft, full breasts, filling both hands, to cup and squeeze before I brought my fingers to her hardened nipples.
I pulled back, just enough to cover her lips, chin, neck, and collarbone with soft kisses as I made my way down to her breasts. Her breath started coming in soft gasps and whimpers as I nipped along the outline of her light brown areolas, following each nibble with a soothing lap from my tongue. Her knees clenched against me, fingers went to my shoulders, digging in for leverage as she kept riding me, struggling not to get overwhelmed with pleasure.
A flash of annoyance washed over me as my doorbell rang, and Monica’s hips stopped moving.
“Mnn-Mnn,” I grunted, around a mouthful of her nipple. “Don’t stop.”
Whoever it was, they could wait. I didn’t do drop-in guests, and I damn sure hadn’t invited anyone to come over. After the way our trip to the gym had ended earlier, I’d hoped that once we made it back to the house, my night would go exactly like this. I had no plans of letting someone interrupt it.
I sucked her nipple, hard, and Monica’s head fell back as she moaned. The other nipple, I pinched, and she moaned even louder. From there, I fell into a rhythm, spurred on by my name starting to spill from her lips. A second doorbell ring went unanswered, and I honestly didn’t give a single fuck.
We were having a moment.
I felt the tension building in her body, especially once I returned my free hand between her legs, destroying any semblance of control she had over her movements. The ringing doorbell changed to a pounding knock, and I still didn’t care, because Monica was getting loud, and her thighs were shaking, and she was just dripping wet, and those three things were infinitely more important than whoever was at the door.
A familiar tingle started in my groin as Monica gave up on moving up and down, opting instead to sink as far down as she could, and keeping me there as she ground in blissful, torturous circles, and I matched those circles with my thumb on her clit. Suddenly, she went rigid, and her body constricted around me, milking me until the eruption she’d started with her mouth finally came.
After that, we both collapsed, and then laughed at the insistent, alternating ring of the doorbell and knocking at the door.
“Goddamn, I can’t afterglow in peace?” I asked out loud.
Monica laughed as she pulled herself up. “I’m going to get in the shower while you handle that,” she said. “And then… can we talk about dinner? Between the sparring and the sex, I’ve worked up an appetite.”
“My dinner is already here,” I told her, reaching to grab her as she stood, holding her long enough to bite her on the ass cheek before she wiggled away, squealing.
“Get the door,” she said, her tone firm but her eyes sparkling with happiness as she gestured toward the front of the house. Without saying anything aloud, I mentally filed the way she looked right now – completely content and well fucked – into my favorite things.
I was about to have a bad ass attitude with whoever was at the door for making me have to look away.
I didn’t even bother trying to suppress my annoyance as I threw on a tee shirt and sweats, and I took my damn time getting to the door. I was already there by the time I thought about the camera feed connected to my phone – I could’ve just glanced at it to see who my insistent uninvited visitor was, but, again… I was there now.
The lights around the front door were connected to a motion detector, so I could clearly see Harrison and Savannah, my neighbors, on my front porch. My eyes narrowed.
What the hell do they want?
A little concerned now – not about them doing anything. I knew Savannah from my CIA days, knew she was solid – about what would bring them to my door so late, I went ahead and pulled it open, and was met immediately by Harrison’s scowl.
“It’s about goddamn time. You know how long we’ve been waiting out here?”
“You know what you almost interrupted?” I shot right back – a response that he immediately caught on to, and his expression changed from annoyance to understanding. “What is so important?” I asked, and Harrison’s scowl came back as he bent to snatch a wriggling, human-sized bundle I hadn’t noticed from the ground beside him.
“Found this motherfucker creeping around the woods behind the houses. He set off our motion alarms, but he says he’s looking for your special guest.”
My eyes narrowed as Savi reached up, pulling off the hood they’d put on the intruder’s head.
Asher.
His eyes went wide at the – admittedly – sadistic smile that spread across my face. “Well. I can’t say I’m surprised to see you at all. Bring him in,” I told Harrison, stepping back to let them through. Savi followed shortly behind, and I closed and locked the door as they took them into the kitchen, forcing his bound form into a chair. As I watched, they made quick work of switching his bindings so that he was immobile, trussed to the legs and back of the chair.
Without removing the gag they’d secured around his mouth, I bent to look him directly in the eyes. “Mr. Ross. Where have you been, bruh?” I asked, then pulled a chair in front of him to sit down. “You’ve been a hard man to find, which is interesting to me. You see… I think you’re a fucking creep, at best. Murderer at worst. But I’m a fair man. I don’t have anything that’s not circumstantial, so I’m going to give you an opportunity to explain yourself. We’re going to take your gag off, and me and you are going to have a conversation. Okay?”
There was already a nasty purple bruise spreading around his eye – courtesy of Savi, more than likely – making him look completely pitiful as he nodded. I motioned for her to remove the restraint from his mouth, and as soon as it was gone, he started flexing his lips and jaw, undoubtedly trying to restore feeling to both.
“Let’s get started. Where is Amanda Gordon?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s a lie. Don’t fucking lie,” I warned, getting right in his face and grabbing the back of his head. “Do. Not. Fucking. Lie. Okay?”
“I’m not lying!”
I narrowed my eyes. “Okay. I see you want to play games.” I got up from my chair, going to the knife block on the counter to grab the kitchen shears from the middle. I held them up in his face. “Every lie is gonna cost you a finger, and motherfucker, I don’t bluff.” I went around behind him, opening the shears and pulling one of his pinkies between them. “Okay… let’s try again, from a different direction. What the fuck are you doing here? How did you find this house?”
“Blake Hollis,” he answered immediately, visibly shaking now that I’d introduced the possibility of real, lasting bodily harm. “I… she had lunch today, with Monica. I’ve been… taking turns following her friends. I knew one of them would see her eventually. And then I followed the two of you to the gym, and then back to this neighborhood. I couldn’t get in though. Didn’t know which house.”
I let go of my grip on his fingers and straightened my stance, staring down at him. “Okay. Keep that up, with all the detail. Why are you trying to get to Monica?”
“Because I care about her! I just wanted to make sure she was okay. That she was safe. I heard about what happened to her assistant, and wanted to know if she was being taken care of.”
I frowned. “She’s being taken care of just fine.”
Asher looked up, and something in his expression changed. I watched the facial tics spread, from fearful anxiety to rage. “You… you smell like her. Why do you smell like her?!” he screamed at me, fighting against his bindings. “Did you touch her?! You touched her didn’t you?! I’ll kill you if you touched her!”
I stepped back, exchanging looks between Savi and Harrison, who smirked at right around the same time I did. “Untie this motherfucker,” I said. “I want to see him back this shit up.”
“Chad… come on,” Savi said, pushing out a heavy sigh. “You know he doesn’t know what he’s getting into.”
I shook my head. “Nah, he came sneaking around here “looking for Monica”, let’s see what he planned to do. He wants to be bold, let his ass be bold.”
“So you did touch her?” Asher asked, obviously stuck on that, and sounding damn near on the verge of tears.
Savi glared at me, communicating the obvious that maybe ol’ boy was unstable, but that didn’t keep me from wanting to kick his ass.
“Not your business,” I growled at him, moving to stand in front again. “You said you “heard” what happened to Monica’s assistant. Are you claiming you weren’t behind that shit? Cause I find it mighty coincidental that her boyfriend, who we can’t seem to find, has your middle name, and your same initials.”
“I don’t know her,” he claimed. “Don’t know what you’re talking about. Where is Monica?!”
“You think I’m bluffing,” I said, grabbing the scissors again, and rounding the back of his chair to snatch his finger. “Not gonna warn you again – why did you beat Kim up?”
“I didn’t!”
I closed the shears, and Asher screamed so loud that he almost drowned out the sound of a new voice in the kitchen.
“What the hell is going on?!”
Luckily for Asher, I’d lost some of the ruthlessness from my days in the CIA – instead of snapping the shears closed, which could’ve taken his finger off at the bone, he had a fairly superficial cut. Nothing to be crying about like a fucking wimp, but here we were.
“Asher?!” Monica cried, when no one said anything. “What are you doing here? Why is he tied up?” she asked, directing that question at me. “Did you cut him?!”
I frowned. “I mean… a little. Not that bad. He’ll need like ten stitches tops. Maybe twelve.”
“A little?!” she scowled at me, then turned her attention to Asher. “Are you okay?”
He pulled away when she tried to touch him. “You screwed this motherfucker, didn’t you? We just buried my best friend, and you’re already screwing someone else?”
Monica took a step back, turning her scornful look onto him. “I fail to see how that has anything to do with you, Ash. Especially when you tried to kiss me!”
Wait a fucking minute!
“I apologized! And I told myself I would give you time to grieve, only to find out that you’re already—”
“You can stop right there, because you don’t know anything about what I’m already doing,” Monica snapped, and then looked to me for confirmation. I shook my head, acknowledging that I hadn’t even been the one to bring up that line of conversation. “How about you tell me what you’re doing here!”
“I’m bleeding,” he whined, and me, Harrison and Savi all rolled our eyes.
“I’ve had worse paper cuts,” Savi muttered. “You’re getting soft, Wick. Fifteen years ago, he’d be down to one finger by now.”
“Fatherhood. Got a heart now, I can’t help it,” I complained, which only made Monica scowl at me harder.
“We’ll get bandages for you,” she told Asher, being nicer than he deserved, when all I was thinking about was making him clean up his own damned blood from my travertine floor. “And untie you. Why is he tied up, and being tortured?!”
“If I was going to torture him, for real, we’d be in the basement, where it’s soundproof. This is… this is just a little interrogation.”
She propped her hands on her hips, looking mad as hell and sexy as hell, even in yoga pants and the BSU hoodie she must’ve thrown on after her shower. “What gives you the right to hold and interrogate someone?!”
“The fact that he was sneaking around on our private property, trespassing, just adding to the list of reasons I don’t trust this creepy motherfucker,” I answered. I knew I hadn’t just been imaging things after lunch – I knew something felt off, like we were being watched, but I hadn’t seen anything that confirmed my suspicion. Now I knew – this motherfucker had been lurking around. “And I’m not untying him until we get some damn answers.”
“I don’t know anything about what you’re talking about,” Ash whimpered, sounding faint, like he was about to die of that little wound that was already starting to clot.
His speaking up made Monica turn her attention back to him. “But you do know something, Ash. I feel like you know more than you’re telling about Amanda, and I’ve been trying to get in contact with you about it. You haven’t been responding to my texts or calls. Why?”
“Just busy, I swear. I swear, Monica.”
“Too busy to return a text or call, but you can find time to stalk me to find out where I am?! That doesn’t make sense, Asher! Nor does it make sense that you never mentioned you and Amanda wanting to move here. And why the hell are you still paying her phone bill? To throw me off? To make me think she’s still alive?!”
“To hear her voice!” Asher blubbered, breaking down into tears. “She left the phone, when she left. I’d always paid the bill for her, since college. Even though we broke up. I… I call to hear her voicemail message sometimes.”
Creepy motherfucker.
“Where is she, Ash?” Monica said, her tone much softer than before, letting me know she was actually falling for this bullshit. “Is Amanda alive?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know,” he insisted, and Monica lifted her eyes to mine.
“What about Kim?” I asked him, still holding those shears, and ready to finish the job with his pinky. “How are you involved with her?”
“I’m not, I swear.” He shook his head. “I don’t know her.”
Immediately, Monica raised her hands, motioning for me not to touch him. “Asher, you know that’s a lie. You met her when you toured the company before I was even in the building I’m in now. And over the years, you’ve seen her, talked to her, at least a half-dozen times. Please… don’t lie to me.”
“Okay, we’ve met, but I don’t… I don’t know her like that. I haven’t seen her, I swear. Please, I need to go to a hospital.”
“I don’t believe a word out of this motherfucker’s mouth,” I said, grabbing his hand and positioning my scissors again, ready to finish the job. “He’s going to tell us what he knows, one way or another.”
“I don’t know anything! I don’t know anything!” Asher started screaming, fighting against his restraints so hard that the chair bucked, at the same time that Monica came at me, trying to get me to stop, and next thing I knew… homeboy’s pinky finger was on the floor.
“Hey… this shit isn’t my fault,” I said, as the whole room went silent – Monica and Asher in shock, Harrison and Savannah in thinly veiled amusement, turning away, trying not laugh.
“What the fuck?!” Monica screamed at me, at the same time Asher started yelling his head off again.
“It was an accident! I was just trying to scare him, but you tried to grab me, and his dumb ass moved the chair, and… snip snip. My bad!”
“Your bad?!” Asher and Monica asked, in unison, just before Asher’s head tipped to the side, passed out from either fear, pain, or blood loss.
Always cool under pressure, Savannah shook her as she stepped past me, going for the fully stocked first aid kit she knew I kept under the kitchen sink. “I got it. Somebody pick his finger up, and put it on ice. Harrison, go next door and get my bag. You cut through the joint, right? Not the bone?” she asked, and I shook my head.
“Not the bone, I would’ve had to snap.”
She nodded. “Good. Get your lady out of here and talk to her before she passes out too.”
Knowing Savannah was right, I turned around to do just that after dropping the shears down on the counter, but Monica immediately shied away, staring in disgust at my hands.
They were covered in blood.
I turned to the sink to wash them, but when I looked back, Monica was gone, and there was only Asher left in the kitchen, with Savi bent behind him, carefully cleaning his wound. I didn’t have the medical training that she did, so I left her to it to figure out where Monica had gone.
“What the fuck was that?!” her voice sounded, as soon as I turned into the foyer, where she was walking back and forth. “Tell me what is going on!”
I grabbed her by the shoulders to stop her pacing, turning her to face me. “I know that probably looked like a really bad—”
“Probably?! Probably?! You just cut his finger off! With fucking… kitchen shears, like you were deboning a chicken! Oh my God!”
“It’s really not that big of—”
“Oh don’t you dare!” she hissed. “Not a big deal?!” She shook her head, then took a deep breath in what seemed like an attempt to calm her nerves. “I… so… you weren’t exaggerating, about what you did for the CIA… were you?”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Monica… even if I’d cut his finger off on purpose – which I didn’t – it would honestly be pretty low-level, on the list of things I’ve done.”
She swallowed hard. “Right. I guess the CIA doesn’t exactly hand out hangnails.”
“No. They don’t. So… what… you’re scared of me now or something?”
Her eyes came up to mine, and I gave her the respect of not shifting my gaze, even though the way she was staring had me uncomfortable as hell until she finally answered. “No. I’m not. But… you have to understand if I don’t really feel like I can trust my gut right now. I never thought Asher was capable of being involved in this, and yet… here we are.”
“So you do think he was involved now?”
She shrugged. “I think it’s fishy that he’s been out of touch since I left the hospital, and then pops up here. And I think he’s lying.”
“About Amanda?”
“About Kim,” she said, wrapping her arms around herself like she was cold, as Harrison came back through with Savannah’s medical bag. “He’s talked to Kim. Flirted with her. I tried to set them up on a date, but the timing didn’t work out, and then it would’ve been long distance too.”
“Like a long-distance boyfriend?” I asked, and Monica immediately picked up on my allusion to Asher being Kim’s mystery boyfriend.
She shook her head. “Honestly? I don’t know anymore. Not at this point. I wanted to think that one of them would have told me there was something going on, but he and Amanda were keeping secrets too.”
“Asher is the common denominator. Who knows what he was telling Kim? He could be the reason she turned on you. Hell, who knows what lies he was feeding Amanda? Maybe she is alive, and is just avoiding you because of something he said?”
Something flashed across Monica’s face, but she cleared her expression so fast I got the impression she didn’t intend to tell me. But at this point, it was time out for secrets.
“Monica, come on,” I urged. “You know something, don’t you? Tell me.”
She huffed. “It’s not… It’s not like that, it’s just… when I talked to Amanda’s aunt, I got the impression that Amanda thought there might be something going on between me and Asher. But I have no idea why she would think that.”
“Because you have no idea what he was really telling her.”
“You’re right,” Monica said, looking defeated. “And Amanda was always sort of troubled… her aunt was the only real family she had, so she really clung to me, and to Asher. She hasn’t talked to me, hasn’t talked to her aunt, so that leaves Asher. And… I feel like he has to know more than he’s saying.”
“Okay then so let’s make his ass say it.” I motioned for her to follow me back to the kitchen, where we found Savannah wearing some type of magnifying glasses while she reattached Asher’s pinky finger on a makeshift surgical table, while he was still bound. “He awake?” I asked, and Harrison was the one to answer, as Savi kept working.
“Yeah, but loopy. She gave him a sedative, and a local anesthetic.
I nodded. “Cool. That means he can still answer questions. Monica… come on.”
Her eyes went wide at my mention of her. “Me? I don’t—”
“He’s most likely to respond to you, and I think you know the right questions to ask. You know details, history, that I don’t. I know this is something you can do.”
She didn’t appear to be thrilled about it, but she stepped forward anyway, taking the hand I offered to lead her into a chair in front of Asher. As soon as she was seated, he opened his eyes, blinking until he focused on her.
“Monica…” he groaned, and she cringed a little before she responded.
“I’m here, Asher. But I… I have some questions, okay? You have to answer them before these people will be willing to let you go. Okay? Ash… I need you to tell me what was going on with you and Amanda, before she left? I’m not blaming you, okay? I just want to know what happened to my friend.”
He let out what sounded like a cough, but quickly devolved into a weak laugh. “She… she wasn’t your friend,” he said, his words slurring as a result of the sedative. “She h-hated you. Thought you were everything wrong with her life. No-not… not your friend.”
“Hated me?” Monica asked, incredulous. “Ash, that’s absurd. What would you think that?”
“You were—… weren’t supposed to be there. Be here. She hated you because she hated you. Why don’t you unna-un-understand?”
“Because you’re not making sense!” Monica snapped, clearly getting annoyed. “First Sheila, and now you. Stop talking in riddles!”
Asher’s head rolled back. “You talked to Sh… Sheila? She knows. She knows everything. Everything. She kept Amanda.”
“This is…” Monica sighed. “This is ridiculous. Can you… could you give him something to make him more lucid?” she asked Savannah, you shook her head, not taking her eyes off her work.
“No. I need him to be still.”
Frustrated, Monica looked at me, shaking her head. “This is useless.”
“Ask him about Kim.”
“But he’s—”
“Just ask.”
She scoffed, but turned back to Asher, looking him in the face. “Tell me about Kim. How are you involved with her? Are the two of you dating.”
Asher’s eyes closed, and it seemed like pulling them open again was a struggle. “No…. No. It was her fault that…. Her fault they hurt you.”
“Her fault that who hurt me?”
“The…. The break-in. She betrayed you. I…. I never would’ve done that. But you… and her… and her…. You’re all the same. Ungrateful… bitch,” he spat, with more energy and vigor than any other words he’d said, and the only thing that kept me from lunging at him was the hand that Monica held up, wordlessly urging me to chill.
“Ungrateful bitch,” she repeated. “Me? You’re talking about me, Ash?”
His face crumpled, but no tears came this time. “I loved you… you don’t understand. I was…. Always the one keeping you safe… taking care of you. I exposed Kellen and you… didn’t even care. You stayed, but it was never supposed to be him.”
“Explain, Ash. You say I don’t understand, so explain.”
“It was never supposed to be him. Never. From the start. He wasn’t even supposed to be at work that day. Should’ve been me.”
Monica frowned. “Wait… wasn’t supposed to be at work… Asher, are you talking about the day Kellen and I met? You’re the one whose shift he took over?”
“He… just wanted to fuck you. That was it. And you let him.”
“Kellen and I were dating for nearly a year before I had sex with him. I was a virgin, you creepy bastard,” Monica hissed, which only made Asher laugh.
“He wasn’t. No. He wasn’t. He was screwing half the campus behind your back. And… screwing Amanda.”
“What?” Monica’s eyes went wide. “What? What the fuck did you just say?!” she asked, snatching him by the collar when he didn’t respond, and wouldn’t open his eyes.
“Hey!” Savannah shouted. “This is delicate work, I can’t have you snatching him around!”
“He needs to answer me! Wake up!” Monica screamed, right in his face, just before she smacked him with so much force that it sent his head lolling uselessly on his neck.
“He can’t wake up if you knock him out,” I told her, grabbing her around the waist to pull her away, only to have her employ – well, attempt at least – one of the defenses I’d taught her, to get out of this very situation. Luckily for me – and probably Asher – I was quick enough to readjust, which only made her angrier.
But I couldn’t let her at him.
Enough had happened already that would be hard as hell to explain, but at least Harrison, Savi and I had the connections to possibly explain it away. Monica didn’t have those kinds of resources, and I wasn’t about to allow her to be further implicated, even if I empathized with her pain.
I didn’t let her go until we were back upstairs, and I was between her and the door. As soon as she was loose, she went right back to pacing like she had in the hall.
“Tell me I didn’t hear that right,” she said, in a desperate tone that made my chest hurt. “Tell me that he didn’t say that Kellen was… no. There’s no fucking way. They didn’t even live here!”
“Maybe he meant before… like back when you guys were in school, or lived closer?” I supplied, about two seconds before it occurred to me that it wasn’t helpful. But Monica had already deflated, hanging her head as she scrubbed her hands over her face.
“Yeah,” she nodded. “You’re probably right. Hell, maybe that’s why she hated me? Maybe she wanted Kellen all along. And Asher wanted me. So… those two were just a match made in hell from the start. I feel… so fucking stupid right now.”
“It’s not your fau—”
“How can it not be?!” she asked, before I could even finish. “I have been surrounded by snakes, for damn near eighteen years! And it just… it doesn’t make sense.”
“Monica… liars are very good at what they do – especially when it comes to someone like you, who… just wants to see the best in people she cares about. It’s not your fault that they chose to take advantage of you.”
She shook her head. “You keep trying to make that point, but what it all boils down to is me being stupid. That’s it. Bottom line. I devoted so much time and energy into dreaming up and building my company that I didn’t even see the shit developing right underneath my nose. And it turns out, with all the attention I was giving it, it wasn’t enough for me to see that my right hand was sabotaging me. So… please stop saying this isn’t my fault. Because this time… that doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. I know you’re just trying to make me feel better, but… please.”
“Fine. I’ll stop saying that, and instead I’ll just ask… what will make this better? Tell me how to fix, and I will.”
“I just want to know why this is happening to me. What did I do, and who did I do it to, that my karma for it is this kind of pain.”
I gave her a single nod. “Understood.”
She stared at me for a moment, and I wondered if she was thinking the same thing as me – that solving this shit had been the goal from the beginning, and nothing seemed to bring us any closer. It was easy for me to pledge and promise answers, but actually getting those answers was proving to be problematic beyond belief. But… somebody knew something they weren’t telling. I had to believe it would come out eventually, and bring us to where we needed to be.
“I think I’m going to take a bath,” she said, and I nodded again.
“You can use mine, if you’d like. It’s bigger. Got all the cool jets and stuff.”
That almost brought a smile to her face, and she stepped in, closing the distance between us. When she anchored herself with her hands on my biceps, pushing up on her toes, I met her halfway for a soft, lingering kiss.
“I would like that,” she told me. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
After that, I left her to it, going back downstairs to find Savi cleaning the kitchen up. Asher and Harrison were gone.
“You got him finished up?” I asked her, and she nodded as she looked up from the pile of bloody paper towels on the floor.
“Yep,” she told me through her surgical mask. “And gave him a little something that will make the details of tonight pretty fuzzy, if he decides to go to the police. I know you probably wanted to question him more, but we both know…”
I nodded. “Yeah. He’s told us all he will without more… extreme measures. And I wasn’t kidding about not having the stomach for it now.”
“I know,” Savi said, and I didn’t have to see her mouth to know she was smiling. “That’s why Harrison and I stayed to help.”
I sucked my teeth. “Come on, don’t play me like that. You’re a mother now!”
“Who held my bloody, messy babies right after birth, and dealt with literal shit of all colors and textures, and more kinds of vomit than you want to hear about. I’m not squeamish. You didn’t get Kay until she was older.”
“I… you raise a fair point, Sav.”
“Oh, I know. Harrison is taking tonight’s guest back to his car, and wiping everything down. We already cloned the cell phone we found on him. I’ll get you those files.”
“Thank you, Savi.”
“Mmhmm. Just know you owe me one. You’re lucky my babies are with their grandparents right now, but as soon as they get back, my husband and I are doing date night. Guess who’s babysitting?”
I cringed – Savannah’s kids were adorable little energetic bundles of terror. “Uncle Chad from next door?”
“Damn right. How is Monica?”
“Eh… as you’d expect.”
Savi nodded. “Right. Do you need help? Between Inez and I…”
“Not yet,” I answered quickly, shaking my head. Between her and Inez, heads might roll, and I wasn’t ready for that yet. “I have a few avenues that I hadn’t taken before… things I was hesitant to do, but now… might be time to go blackhat, and get this figured out.”
“Just don’t get caught.”
I plucked a surgical mask from Savi’s open bag, then joined her on the floor to get Asher’s blood out of my tile.
“I never do.”