Dangerous Liaisons

by C. D. Samuda

  “Yes, sir.” I saluted, warranting him clipping me in the chin playfully.

  “Now, let’s eat. I’m starving.”

  Rayne and Kitara were coming back down the stairs and my heart did a somersault seeing Kitara’s face more relaxed. Rayne was looking better too and that lifted some of the burden I was feeling. Once they joined us in the living room, we all went to dine together. The dinner table seemed empty without Gage, but we all tried to make the most of it.

  13 – Braun

  Stuck without answers as to where Leroy had gone or where Jack had taken Gage… or if he was even still alive, I spent the next week or so on the phone with my friends from school. They had completed their finals and was ready to help me in any way they could. As promised, Kitara retrieved her belongings from Zoe’s apartment, citing that she needed to take care of her father’s estate… which was not a complete lie.

  Since the murder of her father and brother, things had remained at a standstill for her. There was no closure to their case, no clue whatsoever that would ease her grief. Their house was as it had been since that night, with their bloodstains still on the hallway floor.

  After some coercion, she agreed to visit the house, to confront her ghosts. Ronald accompanied us as backup or rather, he wanted to play detective. I swear that Ron thought he was Sherlock Holmes or something, insisting that the cops could have missed something that he could find. However, I knew he was only looking out for the bother of us. This was the conversation we ha as soon as we pulled to in front of Kitara’s home.

  “Hey you two, be careful in there. I’ll stay out here for a while to give you time to do deal with this. I’ll come inside only after you say it’s okay.”

  “Thank you,” Kitara replied.

  I took her hand, which she tried to pull away, while we stepped up to the front door. A tremor passed through her free hand as she tried to put the key into the lock. I had to complete the process and push the door open. I allowed her to step inside the living room, attempting to let go of her hand in order to give her space. But he gripped me tightly and pulled me along with her.

  “I can’t do this,” she breathed, coming up short inside the living room. “Let’s go from here.”

  “Okay, we’ll come back tomorrow.”

  “No.”

  “The following day?” I urged. “Next week? Will you feel better next month?”

  “No.”

  “Okay, so we’ll do this when you get over this and….”

  “Let’s do it.”

  Going up the stairs was perhaps the most difficult thing she’d had to do. I didn’t know much about this girl. Hell, we just met a week ago. But, what I knew that she was tough and she would get through this. I was also happy that I could be there with her. In fact, I was ecstatic that she wanted me there with her. Since taking her home, we hadn’t shared any intimate moments like I’d wanted. But what I wanted more was for her to heal as I could sense her pain whenever the talked about her ordeal.

  I didn’t want Kitara thinking that all that was on my mind was having sex with her… even though I couldn’t get her out of my mind. I wanted her to want me and I was willing to wait for that. Not that I wouldn’t make sure to show her just how much she affected me, that was a given. I wanted to give her time to get used to the idea as well as time to deal with her grief.

  Kitara

  I felt like I couldn’t breathe. When Braun let go of my hand, my heart stopped and I felt frozen in place. Having him beside me made me feel secure. But as I entered our Jackson suburban home, I was gripped with a sense of dread. I hadn’t returned to the house since Zoe came to fetch me. The police didn’t even know that I was inside the house that night because I told them that I arrived home and found them dead.

  That was alive, but if I had told the police I witnessed their deaths, I’d be dead as well, I know that. As far as Jack was concerned, I’d been away at school and came home to the horror after the fact and it would remain that way. There were many times, I wanted to tell the police what I saw, but I could not trust that they would protect me. There were so many witnesses being murdered even those under police protection that I was scared to become a victim.

  I knew I was perhaps being stupid and maybe in over my head when it came to searching for Jack, but not until I found him that I would alert the authorities. I appreciated that Braun wasn’t judging me and insisting on me telling the authorities what I knew. I was grateful that he didn’t think I was insane for what I was doing. Who in their right minds went after a killer alone? Wait… one was standing next to me.

  This was what the trust of the police department came to… or the lack of trust thereof, that people were solving their own issues and bringing about their own form of justice. My feet were heavy as we ascended the stairs, while my heart pounded hard against my chest. My head felt as though it would burst open now as a headache was coming on. I gripped Braun’s hand tightly, savoring the security it offered.

  “It’s okay,” he whispered to me. “I’m not leaving you alone.”

  Those words meant more to me than I cared to admit. In the past year I’d been alone with my demons. No one had come close to helping me deal with this. Zoe was a friend, but she didn’t know all the details as I didn’t trust her completely to tell them to her. I wasn’t sure what was it about this brute called Braun why I was compelled to spill my deepest emotions.

  Whether it was fate or not that send him almost crashing into my motorcycle was yet to be seen. What I was certain of was that in the past week, he’d been more a friend to me than anyone I’d ever met. There were times I forgot about my pain when we talked. He could be funny, kind and considerate when he was plotting his brother Leroy’s demise.

  In those times when he talked about the trouble Leroy caused the family, I saw the dark Braun, someone who would not hesitate to pull the trigger. Yet, that did not scare me. In order to take down men like Jack and Leroy, one had to be fierce and I came to understand why Braun was so arrogant. It was confidence. Something one needed in order to survive these situations. Having him beside me felt right.

  I squeezed his hand and looked into his eyes, trying to convey my gratitude, but the words still spilled from my lips. “Thank you for being here.”

  “No need to thank me.”

  I sighed as we stood in the hallway where my brother and father met their deaths. The sounds of my brother and father’s voice as they pleaded with the men, echoed in my mind. Jack’s voice rushed back to me, that deep course tone that one got from smoking was so distinct that it appeared as though he was right there.

  “I didn’t come to rob you,” he said. “I came to kill you. That’s my job.”

  Closing my eyes, I inhaled a shuddering breath and tried to block out the visions that were assailing me. Jack’s voice, his demeanor, the way he walked, that scar on his right cheek just under his eye and the ink that peeped out from beneath his jacket. Even his dark tan was prominent in my mind now.

  It appeared that details from that night were rushing back to me as I now saw the faces of the two other men. A gasp escaped my lips as these details rushed back to me.

  “Are you okay,” Braun’s reassuring voice asked.

  “There’s a scar under his right eye on his cheek and tats on his neck and the back of his hand. He wore a ring on the right hand. The two other men were African American and white.”

  “You just remembered?”

  I nodded. “It just rushed back to me. His voice was gritty – kinda course, like a smoker with a grater in his throat.”

  “Is there anything you need to take with you?” He asked. “Maybe we should take a break for today and come back another time. I promise it will be less painful.”

  “I need to clean the place.”

  “Don’t worry about that. I have called a cleaning company. They are on standby whenever you give the nod.”

  I slipped my arms around his waist and hugged him. “You think of everything don’t
you?”

  “I’ve had to do a lot of that while Gage was in jail. I’ve had practice,” he laughed lightly.

  “Thank you,” I whispered. “I don’t know what I would have done without you here.”

  “You’d have done fine, Kitara. But you don’t have to be alone again, I promise.”

  “But we just met. How can you promise that?”

  “I told you, we belong together.”

  I stepped out of his arms, my heart racing a little too much. “Not that again.”

  “You were the one who brought it up. I can’t lie.”

  “You’re just too much Braun,” I groaned, grabbing his arm and prodding him towards the stairs. “I’ll come back after the pace is cleaned.”

  But even as I resisted Braun, I knew he was only trying to distract my thoughts of the killers. When we returned to the living room Ron was waiting for us. I had forgotten that he was there. He asked for a few minutes to run upstairs to examine the place while Braun and I went outside. Ron returned in a few minutes and we set off on our way back to Wilder Oaks.

  “Found anything detective?” Braun asked.

  “I need some time alone to examine the place. I want to return by myself with Kitara’s permission.”

  “Sure,” she agreed. “Arrange it with Braun. He’s having the place cleaned up.”

  “Tell him what you remember,” Braun prodded.

  I told Rom what I remembered of that night. He said that always happens whenever a victim visits the scene of the crime. He also said that perpetrators always return to their crime scene as well, at least to see what’s happening to keep tabs on their case. He told me that it was good that I wasn’t there when the killer returned.

  “We’ll find him. But we need to have the authorities on our side.” Ron said.

  “Give us some time,” Braun requested. “Gage’s life in is danger and I don’t want to trigger that man if he’s waiting in Leroy to finish the job.”

  “But we have no idea where Leroy disappeared to.”

  “I’m hoping it’s another hideout and that he’s in too much pain to do anything.”

  14 – Leroy

  “Dammit!”

  I tossed the cellphone unto the wicker table in front of me. How the hell didn’t I remember there was no cell service on this godforsaken farm? What was I thinking when I bought it off that poor farmer and his wife? At the time, I needed somewhere out of Michigan, where I could spend some time away from the war zone.

  King Rabbit was after me for messing up one of our arms deals and the feds were on his trail. He wanted me dead and I needed a place where he would never think to look for me. I also didn’t want to take my shit home to Wilder Oaks.

  Gloria placed a hand on my arm. “Calm down Lee. The doctor said you should watch your blood pressure.”

  We were sitting on the wicker sofa in the main house on the farm, a nice little cottage with a swing on the porch and everything. It had rained earlier that morning and now the sun was peeping through the gray clouds. The chill of the atmosphere made my joints hurt and my head was pounding like crazy. To make matters worse, Tundra’s injured wrist was infected since he didn’t have the common sense to get it treated.

  Oh. I’d said no doctor. But he could have gone to the pharmacy when I sent him to get a new cell phone a week ago. With Jonny-M dead and Tundra injured, only Nickoy had any use to me. I brought my attention back to Gloria and what she was saying.

  “Is that why you’ve been feeding me bland food. Am I some invalid you need to coddle?”

  “Just shut the hell up and calm yourself. I’m not coddling you. I’m getting you well because I want my man back.” She leaned close to my face. “Listen up, when you are better, you will divorce Rayne and stick with me. I ain’t nursing you back to health so you can pine over her.”

  “Who the hell do you think you are?”

  “You got my father killed, remember? You owe me. One snap of my fingers and you’re dead meat.”

  “You wouldn’t do that to me.”

  “Not if you don’t cross me. You know I have loved you since I was seventeen, you stole my innocence and then set King Rabbit on my father.”

  I had no idea what she was talking about. King Rabbit was the biggest arms dealer in Detroit and the man investigating him was Gloria’s father. I was not responsible for what happened to her federal agent father. She was the one who lied to me about her age and basically seduced me. Her father came after me when he found out what happened and he just happened to connect me to King Rabbit and that arms deal.

  “Look, Gloria, for the umpteenth time. King Rabbit killed your father, not me.”

  “I know he did. But you set a trap for the feds knowing that King Rabbit would shoot to kill.”

  I shook my head. Where was this girl getting her information? “What are you talking about?”

  “When your father was killed, you know where I was?” I asked. “I was right here at this farm hiding from King Rabbit because he was after me. Had I wanted your father dead, it wouldn’t have taken three years to do it.”

  I was tired. Tired of these kinds of conversations with Gloria. It’s been nearly ten years since her father’s death. I was also unusually weary in my bone as though something was wrong. I was sweating, although I could feel the cold seep into the room. Gloria was looking at me strangely as she lifted a hand and placed on my forehead.

  “Dang it,” she mumbled. “You have a fever. The medications are almost over. Nickoy needs to go into town to refill the prescription.”

  “Send him, what are you waiting for?”

  “Come lie down while I try to get the fever down.”

  She helped me to the single bedroom on the main cottage. There were two other buildings out back. A barn and small house which used to be for hired hands, which the farmer turned into a tool shed. That was where Tundra and Nickoy stayed.

  As I settled into bed I gripped Gloria’s hand. “Make sure he picks up something for Tundra as well, I don’t want him dying on me too.”

  “Sure. I’ll be back in a minute.”

  By the way I was feeling, I was sure I’d be dead when she returned. Then I could haunt Gage and Braun. Because no matter what, I’d return to Michigan to finish what I started.

  15 – Braun

  I was growing increasingly impatient with no knowing where Gage was. The good news was that Stephen sent me a photo of a veteran who was given early retirement from the military because he suffered from a severe case of PSTD. After the war in Afghanistan, James Jackson was one of three hundred soldiers who were sent to undergo extensive therapy due to stress. Based on the description Kitara had given, there was no doubt in my mind we’d found Jack. Only trouble was, we didn’t really find her per say.

  James Johnson moved around quite a bit since he went on the fed’s radar. They believe he became a mercenary, believing that his targets were a danger to the United State Government and that his clients were his superiors, issuing orders to eliminate the enemy. The man was suffering from a mental disorder that made him believe that he was on a mission.

  I had just gotten out of the shower when the message came through. My door was half opened and my towel precariously hanging from my waist. As usual, my cock was primed and ready for action, especially since I knew Kitara was just doors away from me. I could not help it that my body responded to the very thought of being in the same building with her.

  I read the message and set the phone down on the bed when my door opened wide and she was standing there, her eyes even wider than the gaping door.

  “I’m sorry,” she apologized. “I came to borrow your phone charger. I seem to have lost mine. I’ll come back when you’re decent.”

  “Get used to it Kitara,” I said, walking to the nightstand and picking up the charger. I brought it back to her. “The sooner you get used to seeing me half naked, it will be easier to see me fully naked.”

  The surprised look on her face was replaced by anger. “
I have seen you naked, remember, and you don’t impress me.”

  In the two weeks since coming back to Wilder Oaks, it seems that either Kitara didn’t know me well, or she loved challenging me. Either way, I wasn't one to let such remarks slide. Pulling her inside the room, I kicked the door shut and pushed her up against the doorframe. I then proceeded to drop the towel. I could hear her sharp intake of breath as I closed the space and shoved my groin into her pelvis.

  “Not impressed, huh? Tell me, Kitara. What impresses you?”

  Dipping my head, I bit the soft pad of her shoulder, stuck my tongue out and licked her neck. She pushed against me, but I wasn’t done. My hand came up between us to cup a high firm breast, giving it a gentle squeeze. I licked the corner of her mouth before sucking on her bottom lip. She sighed, her lips parting slightly offering me more.

  “I know you’ve never been fucked, so what the fuck do you have to compare me with?”

  She murmured under her breath as I closed the gap between our lips and devoured her mouth in a crushing kiss. Fire erupted in my groin as our tongue mated. I was jealous that she allowed me to kiss her like that when I knew she wasn’t ready for anything else. That’s when I knew she was teasing me… taunting me, priming me for the moment when she would take from me what I offered her. She knew she was mine. She was only messing with my head.

  We broke apart, to catch our breaths, our foreheads meeting. Her arms slipped around me, holding me close. I was on the verge of erupting and I didn’t know how long I could hold back. Sit, I’d have to masturbate now that I was all riled up. Slowly, detangle her arms and gave her a chaste kiss before stepping away.

  “Is that the way you will be from now on?” She asked, as I walked to the closet.