by L. D. Davis
“Thank you,” I said after a moment of shocked silence. “Does this mean we can be friends now?”
“Hell no. Get out of my office. Some of us do real work around here.” She pointed to the door with her pencil and waved me out.
I left Mayson’s office armed with new knowledge that was either going to benefit me or throw everything to shit.
***
“What do you mean he’s ‘just gone’?” I almost shouted.
“I mean he’s gone,” Corsey said, throwing his hands up in defeat. “Either he has found a way to avoid us or he has left the area. I can’t find any trace of him anywhere.”
“You lost him?”
“Yeah, I guess we did,” Corsey admitted. “He hasn’t been to his house in days and he quit his job. His credit card and banking activity has ceased, too.”
“Is he dead somewhere?”
Corsey looked doubtful. “I don’t think so, Kyle. I don’t think so.”
I rubbed my forehead as I tried not to tear his head off. Corsey and a few of his guys had been keeping track of Vic and keeping him away from Lily. After the night I made him pay for what he did to her, he had stopped calling her and seemed to stop following her. By all appearances, he seemed to have given up on her, but I didn’t really trust that he was completely finished with Lily just because I kicked his ass. In his apartment, we found hundreds of pictures of her. In some instances he had cut her face out of pictures and glued it to pictures of women in BDSM positions, tied, gagged, and helpless. He had everything he could need to take her without her consent and hold her for a long period of time. He had handcuffs, rope, chains, gags, blindfolds, and the scariest things we found were chloroform and the date rape drug Rohypnol.
One of my go-to guys is a detective in the city. Vic would have done very little jail time for what he did to Lily’s leg. She could get a restraining order, but we all knew a piece of paper would not stop him from contacting her or hurting her again. The bottom line was that unless he seriously hurt her, there wasn’t going to be much to do to stop him. Even all of the kidnapping paraphernalia in his home wasn’t enough. The restraining instruments could reflect a lifestyle he was free to have, and the drug charges wouldn’t have been enough to keep him locked up long enough to matter, especially if Vic had a good lawyer, which he did. It is why the three sexual assault charges that were brought against him over the past three years were dismissed.
I didn’t tell Lily everything I knew. I didn’t want her to live her life in fear, looking over her shoulder. She still didn’t consider Vic to be that dangerous, more of a nuisance than anything. After several arguments, I started letting her go out on her own without me or Corsey, but I always had my eye on her though she didn’t know it. I couldn’t keep her locked up like a prisoner and I couldn’t keep assigning her a bodyguard every time she wanted to go to the grocery store or visit a friend. She wouldn’t have been happy. The most important thing after Lily’s safety was her happiness.
“Keep an eye out for him,” I said to Corsey. “There’s not much else you can do. I suppose he’s smarter than he looks.”
“I suppose so,” Corsey said.
“Did you find Larkin?” I asked.
“Yes. He’s moved into a house out in the sticks in Jersey. He’s been working out of there.” He handed me a file full of information on the roving doctor.
“Thank you,” I said absently as I flipped through the file.
“If there isn’t anything else, I’m going to take off. I haven’t spent much time with the wife and baby.”
“Oh. Right. I forgot you’re someone’s father now,” I shook his hand. “I’ll see you next week.”
Corsey nodded and walked out of my home office.
"Hi, Corsey," I heard Lily say to him in the hallway.
"Hey, there, Rocky," Corsey said with genuine adoration. He had given her the nickname one day after he insisted she couldn't knock him on his ass. I know for a fact that he allowed her to do it. Corsey was a beast of a fighter.
"Aww. Corse, are you still mad about that?"
"I'm not mad. You punch like a girl."
I heard the sound of my little bully's fist hitting Corsey's chest and the subsequent "Oooff!" I shook my head, trying not to smile. She really had to stop beating people up.
"This isn't even fair. I have to stand here and take it," Corsey whined.
"You can hit me. I can take it." I knew from her tone that she was probably bouncing on her toes, excited to fight.
"No, thank you. Your boyfriend—my boss—will kill me."
"It's okay. I can take him," she said confidently.
"But I won't. Listen, enjoy your trip. Stay safe."
"You, too, big guy. Send me pictures of the baby."
They bid their goodbyes. I could tell by her squeals that he had lifted her off of the floor in a bear hug. If I didn't know Corsey was madly in love with his wife, I would have been unhappy about his arms wrapped around her.
"Hey, there, my sexy boyfriend," Lily grinned as she came into the office moments later.
"You're in a really good mood," I said.
"You're about to whisk me away from the ugly city to blue seas, white sands, and hunky cabana boys serving me drinks with umbrellas in them. Of course I'm in a good mood!"
She rounded the desk, sat her hot ass in my lap, and wrapped her arms around my neck.
"Hunky cabana boys, huh?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at her.
"Like you won't be checking out all of the beautiful women on the beach," she said, rolling her eyes.
"You're the only beautiful woman I care about," I said, slowly caressing her leg.
She leaned in and gave me a slow, passionate kiss that had me growing hard.
"I really appreciate this trip," she said softly.
I laced my fingers in her hair. "You deserve it. You worked your ass off in the office and you were working hard before that."
She kissed me again, but I took control of it and kissed her hard, holding her head in place as I ravished her mouth. I couldn’t get enough her—everything about her—her mouth, her body, her smart ass remarks, and her love. Every time I kissed her, held her hand, made love to her, or just sat and had a normal conversation with her, I never knew if it was going to be the last. Lily meant everything to me, but I wasn’t sure if I could give her everything that she needed. One of the biggest reasons I was sweeping her away to Bora Bora was so that I could suck in as much time with her as I could before everything came crashing down.
“Why don’t you go finish packing,” I suggested after I had made her lips swollen with my mouth. “I have to go check out a piece of property in Jersey.”
“I can go with you,” she said, frowning.
“No, it’s okay. It will be boring for you. I’ll go while you wrap things up here. By the time I get back it will be time to leave for our flight.”
“Okay,” she sighed and got to her feet. “See you in a little bit,” she said as she walked towards the door.
I got up and adjusted my erection, which Lily looked at with a cocked eyebrow. Ignoring her so that I didn’t take her right there on the floor, I said, “I’ll be back soon.”
She gave me a sexy smile and disappeared down the hall. I shut my laptop down, grabbed the Larkin folder and left the office. Lily was already upstairs, blasting some hard rock band from her stereo. I hurried out to go take care of business.
***
The house sat back off of the road, partially hidden by clusters of trees. It looked like any other farmhouse in Vineland, but I knew what was behind the walls of this house.
I got out of my car, walked up the front stairs onto the porch, and hit the button for the doorbell. I heard it echo throughout the house, but after a half a minute of waiting, no one came. I hit it twice again, refusing to be sent away by silence, and waited in the cool May morning air. A moment later I heard footsteps hurrying from the back of the house. The door opened and Ben Larkin stared at me from
the other side.
“You must be really desperate for something if you’ve come out of your way looking for me,” he said as a greeting. He stood back and waved me inside.
I stepped inside and took in the space around me. The place was well furnished, but the furniture was cheap—at least by Larkin’s standards—easily replaced pieces. When you practice medicine below the radar of the law, you can’t worry about leaving behind items that have an emotional connection. He probably took on the furniture of the last owner or got almost all of it, including phony family photos, from yard sales and thrift shops. Ben Larkin didn’t work for nothing, though. He had properties in Mexico, Costa Rica, France, and other countries where he would go for rest and relaxation—or retreat if the government was on his ass.
“You have something I need,” I said, finally looking at him.
His dark hair was sprinkled with gray hairs and he had a few fine lines around his brown eyes, but he was otherwise still youthful in appearance. He was twenty-five years older than me, but he could have passed as my older brother.
“Don’t tell me this is about money,” he said with a humorless laugh.
“I will never have any use for any of your money,” I scowled.
“Well, don’t leave me in suspense,” he said sarcastically. “I have a client waiting downstairs.”
“They can wait a while longer,” I said. “Three years ago Walter sent a woman to you.”
He nodded as if he understood what I was talking about. “Yeah, I saw you that day, too. You were fucked out of your mind.”
My brow lowered in confusion. “I don’t remember that.”
“No, I just said you were fucked out of your mind,” he said, shaking his head.
“What…what was the treatment?”
“You were at the estate,” he said as he walked towards the kitchen. He gestured for me to follow. He immediately found a bottle of bourbon and poured a glass. He wordlessly offered me one, but I declined with a shake of my head.
“Go on with your story,” I commanded.
“You were at the estate, like I said,” he said unaffected by my demeanor. “You were out of your mind—yelling and speaking incoherently. Walter wanted you sedated for the ride to rehab. I also took care of some minor injuries you had on your hands.”
“You drugged me?” I asked in astonishment as I looked at my knuckles. I remembered the broken skin and bruises clearly.
“It was for your own good, but before you I saw the woman.”
I looked up at him. “How bad was she?” I asked, just above a whisper.
He looked at me with questioning eyes, tilted his head. “Did you do that to her?”
“How bad was it?” I repeated through clenched teeth.
He looked at me as if he was thinking about whether or not he should tell me. He swallowed his bourbon and poured another glass.
“She was bruised, head to toe. She had glass in her hair—lodged in her scalp. Her face was terribly bruised, looked like someone had kicked her right in her cheek,” he touched his own cheek. “Her back was bruised pretty damn bad. I’m guessing she curled into a ball to block your blows from hitting the baby.”
“I didn’t say it was me,” I said, shamefully hearing my voice crack as I spoke.
“You didn’t have to. You wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t you. Did I give you what you needed?”
I swallowed hard. I felt as if all of the wind had been knocked out of me and I knew that I had not really experienced the worst of it. It took every bit of strength I had not to let my legs give out under me.
“What about her…her belly?” I asked.
Ben poured bourbon into a second glass and again offered it to me.
“Take it,” he commanded when I again declined.
I took the glass and swallowed the amber liquid, feeling the burn all the way into my gut.
“What about her belly?” I asked again after the drink.
He sighed before answering. “She was bruised all over, Kyle, but when I did an ultra sound the baby was fine.”
Imagining Emmy in a ball trying to protect her baby from me made me feel like I didn’t deserve to live and I didn’t deserve the woman waiting for me at home.
“I need to see the pictures and video,” I managed to say without falling apart.
“What makes you think I have any of that?” he asked with narrowed eyes.
“A man in your position has to protect yourself. You get a lot of big name people under your care. If you get thrown under a bus, you’re not going alone.”
His mouth formed a fine line as he walked over to a door in the hall between the living room and kitchen. He opened the door, looked down, and listened carefully for a few seconds before quietly closing it again. When he spoke again, it was just above a whisper.
“Why should I do this for you?”
“Because I’ve never asked you for a damn thing my entire life,” I snapped. “Because you used to pat my head after fixing my mother from whatever suicide attempt she chose, but you never stepped in where it counted—for me.”
I got in his face and grabbed onto the collar of his shirt.
“And because I know enough about you to bring you down wherever you go. There will never be a hiding place for you if you screw me over, Ben.”
I released him. He seemed unfazed by what just happened, but I knew I had him. He knew I had him, too.
“I don’t keep that kind of information with me. I need a week or so to get it, copy it and get it to you.”
“I’m going to send a couple of my friends to help you and to make sure you don’t take off before you give me what I need,” I said, glaring at him. “You have one week to get this done.”
I pulled a business card out of my wallet with my cell phone number written on the back. “Call me when it’s ready.”
I turned away from him and walked back through the living room to the front door.
“I don’t think this is going to be good for you,” Larkin said from the porch as I walked to my car.
“You’re not an authority on what’s good for me. Our common DNA means nothing.”
I got into my car and left my biological father standing on his porch.
Lily
Kyle came back from New Jersey a different person. He smiled at me, he kissed me, and he talked as if everything was normal, but it wasn’t. There was great sadness behind the smiles, in the kiss, and pulling on the edges of our conversations. I knew something was wrong, but because I didn’t even know where to begin and he was trying so hard to keep things level, I didn’t mention it.
On the flight to L.A., I popped in headphones, opened my book, and left Kyle to his thoughts. Every now and then he would touch me, stroke my cheek, squeeze my hand, caress my thigh, but even those actions seemed…sad.
In L.A. we ate a leisurely late lunch and entertained each other with trivia from a book I picked up in a bookstore. Kyle laughed. Kyle teased me. Kyle turned me on. But Kyle wasn’t Kyle, and I couldn’t figure out why.
Almost a whole damn day later we finally reached our bungalow over the water in Bora Bora. It was near dark, but I was able to see how beautiful it was. Exhausted, we showered together and fell into our bed that had a clear view of the sparkling sea.
“Thank you for bringing me here,” I murmured into his neck as he held me close.
“Like I said before, you deserve it,” he said, caressing my arm. He meant what he said, I know, but…he meant it too much.
I maneuvered my body onto his and kissed him. It was a good kiss, but it wasn’t my Kyle.
I reached under his shirt as I kissed him, feeling his rippled abdomen and smoothed my hands over his muscular chest. I pulled my lips away from his and nipped at his chest before forcing him to pull his shirt off. Repeatedly, I sunk my teeth into his chest and abs and made him hiss slightly with each nibble. When I reached his pelvic bone, I ran my tongue along that V shaped part of his body that seemed to be pointing to heaven
under his boxers. My fingers hooked in his boxer briefs and pulled until his erection sprung free.
Unable to wait until I got his briefs off all the way, I took the large bulbous tip of his cock into my mouth and groaned when I tasted the pre-cum there. Kyle groaned and gently raised his hips to press more of his cock into my mouth. I granted his wish and met his gentle thrust.
“Ahh,” he breathed as his cock moved past my tonsils and down my throat. “Lily…” he groaned my name after I pulled back and then took him all the way again.
The only way I could think to bring him back to me was to bring him to the brink of losing his sanity while he was inside of me. I held him deep in my throat and sucked as hard as I could, and used all of the muscles in my mouth and throat.
“Baby, stop or I’m going to come,” he groaned as he tried to pull out of my mouth. “Lily! No!”
He grabbed the hair at the back of my head and violently pulled me away from his cock.
“What the hell?” he panted, staring down at me.
Ignoring him, I forced him to release my hair when I got on my knees to pull off my shirt. I climbed on top of him and kissed him again, lacing my fingers behind his head to deepen the kiss and hold him where I wanted him. I kissed him with a ferociousness I’ve never exhibited with him before—biting, sucking, licking, and more biting until—
Kyle pushed me away and said my name with such shock, it was almost funny. Almost, but not really. I had bitten him. Hard. On the tongue. I drew blood.
“What the hell is going on with you?” he asked before hanging off the side of the bed to spit red onto the floor.
“What the hell is going on with you?” I asked.
He sat up and looked at me. “What are you talking about?”
He wasn’t going to concede that the problem wasn’t me biting him, but it was his behavior that sparked the biting. It was our first night in paradise and it was already ruined. Between Kyle not being Kyle and my cannibalism, the whole damn week was well on its way to being ruined.