Challenge accepted.
Chapter Five
Sorting the key from the many others on the ring, Marik unlocked the door and stepped into the immaculate foyer of his brother’s penthouse apartment located in downtown New Haven, Connecticut. The décor was steel gray, white and black leather as he walked into the living room. A large flat screen plasma floated against the opposing wall of the couch. The carpet looked brand new, but Marik knew better. Gaerik was neat as a pin always had been ever since they were boys. Turning a lamp, on even the bulb seemed to cast a bluish tone over the room that accentuated the muted color scheme. Walking into the bedroom the bed was made, sheets looking crisp as if the maid had just put fresh ones on the mattress, no shoes or socks littered the floor as Marik went to the closet. Every shirt was perfectly aligned an inch apart from the next, the jacket that matched was paired beside it, slacks on the second rack and shoes below them. If he hadn’t known better, far better, Marik would have said that his brother would have made a fantastic homosexual, but he knew he was just a neat freak to the core. All his clothes were still here so he knew that his brother would be back. Perhaps he was spending a night of passion with one of his enumerable female companions, but he would be back, and when he was, Marik would be here waiting for him.
Going through the contents of the nightstand, there were two smut novels. Both written by the same author. Marik gave them a curious glance. He never thought of his brother as the type of man who jerked off to anything but a skin magazine. Taking the books from the bed, he dropped them back inside the drawer, noticing something sticking out of one. Picking it up, he shook it out quickly as a glossy photograph fell out onto the floor. Holding it between his fingers, Marik looked over the blonde in the picture. There was no name on the back, but it looked like it had been taken from far off. The woman in the picture was sitting in a café. He recognized the place. G’s on Orange Street. The girl looked like she knew how to enjoy food, but other than that Marik didn’t recognize her as a pack member, or as any of the girls that his brother usually brought around. His almost gray steely gaze smoldered as he thought of her. She was his ex-secretary, JoAnn. Marik had liked her. She was a quiet, polite woman with a small son named Eric. There were rules, and when Gaerik reported her to human resources, there was nothing he could do to keep her with the company. Of course, that didn’t stop Marik from helping her get another job and paying her bills until she did, but he still felt the heat rise from the bowels of his stomach as he thought of how utterly irresponsible his brother was and could be.
This woman obviously meant something to Gaerik if he was keeping a picture of her in his bedside table, considering the thought he decided to keep the picture. Tucking it into the side pocket of his jacket he closed the drawer and stood up straight moving back into the living room where he sat down on the ultra-modern leather sofa and turned the television on. There was another one of those books sitting on the end table beside the lamp he noticed, again by the same author. Picking it up, he flipped to the back of the paperback novel reading the about the author section. The name of the author made him snort in his throat as he turned the book over looking at the cover. A busty brunette stood seductively in a black corset and silk stockings that road up her thighs. A gun holster strapped to each leg. Mistress Delilah: Werewolf Huntress. Marik almost gave himself a tumor trying not to roll his eyes at the title as well as the garish black werewolf that was in mid-leap behind the woman’s shoulder.
Shaking his head, he tossed the book onto the opposite side of the couch as he looked at his brother’s briefcase, sitting open on the glass top of the coffee table in front of him seeing a manila envelope tucked inside.
Sitting up on the edge of the couch he opened the briefcase all the way and took the envelope from inside, emptying its contents into his hand. There was another photo only this time a different one, but it was the same woman. Blonde hair, blue eyes, a curving figure hidden beneath a loose black sleeved sweater. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail. He’d seen women he dated effect that look, the one that said, ‘Oh, I just threw myself together and ran out the door.’ When they had spent hours in front of the mirror plucking and grooming themselves. It made a slight smile tug at his lips, a four-day growth of beard depressing into the deep Tom Selleck dimples of his cheeks
Going through the rest of the papers inside the envelope, his thick dark brows began to twitch as all the pieces of the puzzle began to put themselves together in front of him. His brother was stalking this woman, hell he had everything on her except for her bra and panty size! Was she in danger, was Gaerik really that stupid to go after this woman? His eyes scanned over the pages again before his head snapped to the book lying beside him, his hand pawing it up and flipping to the back of the book, reading the about the author section again. It all matched up. LRR Hood was Elle Marshall.
“Son of a bitch!”
~
Within an hour, Elle had gone through every number sequence that she could think of before her head was pounding with a fresh migraine. Limping into the bathroom, she got three Advil’s as she made her way back to the couch, listening to the storm outside as it began to kick up. The wind howling so loudly if she hadn’t known she was in Connecticut, she would have sworn it was a Tornado siren going off. Tree branches scraped against the side of the house as she settled into the couch again and took the medicine and leaned back.
Sighing gently maybe her investigation skills could use some work if she couldn’t crack a simple password on a cell phone. God, she was bored. There was nothing on TV to keep her entertained, and apparently, she wasn’t going to get lucky with the cell phone. If it were warmer, she would have gone out to a bar, but with her ankle pounding, she didn’t think she would be dancing anytime soon.
Picking up the remote, she scrolled through the channels on the TV again hoping maybe something might catch her eye the third go around before the sound of branches scraping the house seemed a lot closer. It was at the door now, and that wasn’t the wind howling; it was whining. Getting up she went to the door, flipping the porch light on quickly before she cracked the door open peaking outside. Gasping slowly as she looked down, she was met by a black face with black button eyes that she knew very well. Gregory. An aged Border Collie mutt.
A year and a half ago when she’d moved from Arkansas to Connecticut for new experiences to add to her writing. She had to find homes for all the dogs that her grandma seemed to collect. They were all strays, but since she was little, there were always a lot of dogs in the house. Some stayed, some were gone as soon as they had some food on their belly and a little rest from the road, but Gregory was always one of the dogs that stayed. She’d left him with their neighbor a mile or so down the road, how had he gotten all the way up here in Connecticut in the middle of a blizzard? Taking a second glance around the porch, she looked back down at the dog at her feet, whining again to be let inside.
“Poor baby, get in here.”
The dog quickly limped inside, seeing the red paw prints in the snow he must have walked until his pads were bleeding. Her grandmother was always so good with animals, if one came to their house sick, she took care of them, if they were hungry, she fed them. In a way, Elle always thought her grandmother understood dogs better than she did people. The bloody paw prints followed Gregory as he climbed up onto the couch shivering from the cold. Elle wasn’t worried about the blood stains. She knew more about getting blood stains out of beige carpeting than anyone who’d never committed a crime had a right to. Moving as quickly as she could, she wrapped him up in a blanket before going into the kitchen and grabbing a plastic Tupperware bowl and filled it with warm water. Returning a few minutes later she had a rag in her hands along with the bowl of water as she sat down on the couch, gently rubbing Gregory’s head before he laid his muzzle down on her thigh.
“How in the world did you get all the way up here buddy?” She asked him as she wetted the rag beginning to wipe the dog’s feet clean of blood.
>
Pressing her lips to his head, she thought to herself that he would need a bath tomorrow. Just as soon as he felt well enough to get around, but for tonight, she would have to live with his stinky dog smell, but in a way, she was happier to see him than she would have ever imagined.
“I guess you missed me, huh?”
Laughing she scratched behind the old dog’s ears softly before making sure the blanket was tucked around his body as she got up and turned the heat up on her way to the kitchen looking for something that the dog could eat. In her grandma’s house, there was no such thing as dog food. If there was a dog in the house, it ate exactly what they ate, and since she hadn’t cooked dinner yet, it looked like Gregory arrived just in time.
Elle didn’t always do the kind of cooking that her grandmother did, she had two deep freezers that she would use to pre-cook meals and freeze them all. Of course, they went through them long before they ever reached an expiration date which was probably why now as an adult Elle had such a hard time keeping her weight down. Within minutes of putting a steak in the skillet; she heard the blanket fall to the floor, then the click of paws coming into the kitchen. Being led by his nose, Gregory came in, wagging his tail.
“That reminds me.”
The Prichette’s number hadn’t changed since she was ten so she had a fairly good idea that she would find them.
“Hi, is this Molly?” Elle asked politely.
The woman on the other end responding with her name before Elle could even utter another word. Of course, she remembered her, odd that she knew it was her even before she’d said her name but she smiled gently as she held the phone between her head and shoulder as she dropped a pat of butter into the skillet to help flavor the meat.
“Yes, ma’am. That’s actually why I am calling…Gregory is here.” She laughed still looking at the dog rather miraculously as he seemed to be limping less now that he’d had a little rest and he was beginning to warm up. As she flipped the steak over in the skillet Gregory disappeared into the bedroom, then she heard him trotting into the bathroom. He was checking everything out while Elle got the whole story about how after she left Gregory would lay on the porch for hours just waiting for her car to drive up and then just a week ago, Wednesday they had come home from church, and the dog was missing.
“I guess he found his way home.” Elle laughed again, still somewhat confused how a dog could sniff her out thousands of miles away and just show up on her doorstep.
The sound of Molly Prichett’s voice took her back to her childhood, the accent, the sweet, simple home-spun way of talking. It all felt so much easier. It wasn’t until she spoke to her that she realized how much she really did miss home. Elle had been keeping herself so busy since she moved halfway across the country that she’d completely blocked out the sensation of being homesick. Most of all she missed her grandmother.
Swallowing back tears a strange noise came from the living room, a tune playing before she knew exactly what it was. It was the foreign phone, and it was ringing.
“Molly I hate to cut this short honey, but I gotta go.”
She hung up quickly and turned the burner off on the stove as she practically ran into the living room praying she would catch the caller before the phone stopped ringing.
“Hello!?”
Chapter Six
“Put that fuck of a brother on the phone.”
Marik paced the living room. He couldn’t wait for Gaerik to decide when to come home. He had to talk to him now.
“Excuse me?” Elle stammered faintly as she pulled the phone away from her ear to look at the caller ID. The name said Marik, what kind of a name was Marik? She was more than a little shocked by the reception she was getting but maybe this was exactly what she had been asking for by picking up a stranger’s phone and taking it home with her.
“Listen, flavor of the month, put my fucking brother on the phone.”
His eyes rolled up to the ceiling as Gaerik’s answering service filled in for him because he was too much of a pussy to get on the phone with him.
Jumping softly there was a deep rumbling from behind her as she turned and looked into the doorway of the kitchen. Gregory had come back into the kitchen and lay down beside the island while she was on the phone cooking, but now the collie was standing on all fours, his bristles standing up in a thick line all the way down his back. His lips pulled back from his teeth, the deep vibrations rolling from his chest were like nothing she’d ever heard from him before, his eyes glaring at the phone in her hand. Gregory was normally such a teddy bear. Obviously, his sense of hearing hadn’t quite gone in his old age yet.
“I’m sorry, but when you can speak to me in a more civil tone, you can call back.” Elle’s nose stuck up in the air as she removed the phone from her ear and clicked the lock screen button. “Shit!” Her eyes staring wildly at the black screen. “Crap I didn’t mean to lock it again.”
“Fuck!” Marik fumed as the line suddenly went dead when she hung up on him.
She was so keyed up when she disconnected that she completely forgot she didn’t want to lock the phone again. Groaning gently her eyes lifted to the ceiling before shaking her head. “Well… that was smooth.” Turning to look at the dog before limping to him and gently laying her hand against the top of his head, rubbing it until the hackles on his back began to relax and go back down again. “It’s ok. That was just a pissy guy looking for his brother. If that’s how he speaks to his brother, I wouldn’t want to talk to him either.” Setting the phone down on the kitchen counter she turned the flame back on under the skillet, testing the texture of the steak with a fork for a moment before the phone began to chime again. Little fairy bell tinkles.
Softly Elle’s brows rose as she looked at Gregory, a mischievous little smile curling at the corners of her lips. “Should I?”
“Hello-oo.” She said in sing-song while leaning her palm against the island counter top, thinking to herself. Man, I really am bored.
Marik was seeing red as he re-dialed his brother’s number and hoping that this time Gaerik picked up, having let his whore have her fun.
“Bitch did you just hang up on me?!”
“I don’t know. Did it sound like this?”
Elle hung up again, only this time remembering not to hit the lock button. Smiling, she was so pleased with herself before catching a glimpse of Gregory’s head slightly tilted as he looked up at her. She wasn’t sure if he thought that she was crazy or if he was just hungry. Maybe that look was a combination of both. One told her that she was playing with fire and the other begging for her to finish cooking that steak.
“I know, I stole a line from that comedian, but it fit the situation,” Elle explained as she grabbed a plate and tossed the still slightly raw but piping hot steak onto it, letting it cool as she got out a bowl. Slicing the meat into slender strips, she blew on it gently to help cool it down before setting it onto the floor, giving Gregory the bigger portion of the steak while she took the smaller portion.
“I wonder if he will call back this time?” She asked with a small laugh as she went through the phone settings, disabling the password protection so that she couldn’t be locked out of it. Despite the interesting back and forth banter, she was having with this Marik person she still really wanted to snoop around in this phone. Perhaps she should give it up the next time the guy called back if he called back that is. He seemed pretty steamed up, it wasn’t the first time she’d been called a bitch, but in her opinion take the time to get to know a girl first before you go rushing to that conclusion.
Turning, she dug around inside the crisper for the pre-packaged lettuce she’d bought deciding if she wanted to keep her strength up for more friendly chit chat she was going to need more fuel than a steak. Filling the empty side of her plate with lettuce, shredded cheese, and olives, she poured herself a glass of wine before she took her plate into the living room and sat it down. Elle had no plans of moving around anymore than she had to tonight, at least no
t until the soreness left her ankle.
Of course, she knew that it was stupid and rather immature, but this was the most fun she’d had in a while. Patting the couch softly she held her plate out of the way as Gregory came back into the living room, licking his chops and probably looking for more as he jumped up onto the couch, turned around and laid down next to her, placing his head into her lap.
“Such a good boy.” Elle smiled at Gregory loving on him for a minute as she put the phone at her side and leaned back in her seat beginning her meal with the salad portion first and of course giving Gregory half of her meager portion of steak. Humming with satisfaction at the taste she felt herself beginning to relax. Elle never thought of herself as being lonely before now, but she knew it to be true as she gave the last bite of steak to the animal nuzzling her side.
‘Great, a comedian.’ Growling deep and low Marik looked around the room for something to throw that was expensive and very possibly antique, but there was nothing that Gaerik owned that was old expensive yes, but not something that was one of a kind. Exchanging a deep breath, he released the anger building as he paced the room, scrubbing his hands through the coarse dark hair that left his head looking like a lion’s mane.
Running his tongue over his lips, he dialed the number once more. The sound of the ring vibrated off the small hairs within his ear.
Positively giggling like a school girl, she sat her plate down on the coffee table and looked at the caller ID. Taking the phone in hand, she slid the answer key along the length of the touch screen and placed the phone to her ear.
“Hello.” Elle greeted awaiting his next string of curse words.
“I’m sorry. Please do not hang up on me again. I need to speak to Gaerik. Now, will you please put my brother on the phone, ma’am.”
It wasn’t exactly a request but rather a politely spoken demand. Even Elle could hear the thinly veiled anger that was lingering just beneath the surface of his dominant voice. As she ran her tongue over her teeth, collecting food from the tiny cracks between the pearls Gregory sat up, summoning a strong, deep bark right into the phone as well as her ear making her flinch somewhat. Elle couldn’t remember ever hearing that dog bark before.
LRR Hood Page 3