Kiss Kiss Bang (Iron-Clad Security)

by Sidney Halston

  PRESENT

  “I was arrested together with ten other people. Everyone else ran.”

  “Was Connor arrested too?” Joey asked.

  “Yeah, except that I was the one holding the bag of meth in my hand. He was charged with disorderly conduct and underage drinking. Diego, Colin, and Helm were charged with everything from possession and selling to corruption of minors.”

  “Damn,” Joey said, listening intently. “But I checked your records. You don’t have anything. Not even a juvenile record.”

  “You are one scary guy, Josef Clad,” she said, shaking her head. “They charged me with possession too, but Connor confessed it was him and I got a slap on the wrist for being drunk.”

  “Glad to hear he wasn’t a complete douchebag.”

  “We had a complicated relationship, Joey. I won’t say it wasn’t fucked up. Toxic even. But I loved him, and in his weird fucked up way, he loved me too. We were all we had. He wouldn’t hurt me. I know it’s not him. His brother, Colin . . . he would sell out his mother for a hit of drugs. But not Connor. It was supposed to be me and him against the world.”

  “If he loved you, he wouldn’t have done any of that shit to you. And it’s been eighteen years, a lot has changed. He’s not the same person you once knew.”

  “You don’t understand. You had a good life, a mother, sister, brothers who loved you. I didn’t have any of that. I had forgotten birthdays and Christmases where Connor saved for a week to get me a stupid headband when we were ten and that was the only thing I got that year.”

  Joey didn’t seem to care—or if he did, he didn’t agree—so she continued. “Anyway, he did a month in juvie and that was basically the beginning of the end. When he got out, I thought he’d see the error of his ways. See what kind of life he was headed for. But it did the opposite. He started using more and more. He’d stop speaking to me when I’d question him. And every time he had a moment of sobriety he’d come to me and tell me, “You and me against the world, Liv girl.” And then I’d feel hopeful for a while again. One evening, while I was in bed studying, I heard the sound of sirens and when I looked out the window there were four police cars pulling him out of his house in handcuffs. Before ducking into the car, he looked at my window. It was the night of his eighteenth birthday. We always spent our birthdays together, and I had been so worried because I hadn’t seen him for the last week.”

  Joey turned on his phone and swiped something, then turned his screen around. Apparently Jax had done a search on Connor, and Joey had his priors on his phone. “That was what? Eighteen years ago?” Joey said, mostly to himself. “Grand theft auto.”

  “Yep. He was supposed to serve seven months. I tried to visit him but he was so strung out. Didn’t give a shit about me or himself. Told me to leave him alone, said he didn’t want to see me again.”

  “Is that why you left New York?”

  “Yep. I was so heartbroken. I went home to no one. The only person I cared about didn’t want me around. I was in no position to help him, so I packed my things, bought a bus ticket, and came to Miami. I had every intention of sending him money or going back to help him, but when I looked him up, he’d been moved to another prison for another crime and that was how it went for years. So I moved on. Neil made me move on. He told me to stop following that ghost and he was right. I couldn’t let that drag me down, so I stopped checking in on him and I just . . . moved on. Last I heard he was serving thirty years for aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer.”

  “But instead he’s out of prison and living in Ocala,” Joey said matter-of-factly.

  “Yeah, but it’s been eighteen years. What the hell would he want with me?”

  “This is the first time in eighteen years he’s really been free. He was in and out of jail. And now you’re all over the news and you have money. You were the only good clean thing in his life.”

  “It can’t be . . . it’s just . . . it’s been so long. I’m not in his life. It can’t be about me. It just . . . it makes no sense.”

  “For him, an angry caged man, having his first taste of freedom, eighteen years means nothing.”

  “Oh, God. If this all comes out, I’ll lose the election.”

  “It was a long time ago, Olivia. And you didn’t do anything wrong. You were a kid who got out of a bad situation.”

  “I’m the good girl. The one who supports every bill dealing with drug enforcement. I can’t suddenly be the white trash chick from the projects whose best friend was in prison. Plus, how crazy can he possibly be? I mean, a million dollars? How many drugs does he need? That’s a crazy amount of money that Colin wanted.”

  “I don’t know, but I need your permission to talk to Annie and the detective about this. It’ll help their investigations and the questioning. You’re right, that is a lot of money. There has to be more. I’m at least happy he’s checking in with his parole officer.”

  She exhaled. “Yes. Okay. Please, keep it discreet. I don’t want it out there. I don’t want Sophie to ever know about this side of me.”

  He pulled her in and held her tightly, kissing the top of her head. “What side, darlin’? The strong smart side that got out of a bad situation?”

  “I wasn’t that smart, Joey.”

  “You were just a kid. You got smart quick. Things could’ve been worse.” He pulled back and kissed her. “A lot worse, and you know that.”

  She did know that. Instead of running for political office she could have been shooting up somewhere or in prison like everyone else from her past.

  “So even with Colin in jail this doesn’t end?”

  “Unfortunately, no, babe. It doesn’t.”

  She didn’t think so either. There was something that just wasn’t adding up. “You have to protect Sophie, Joey. No matter what, she’s the most important thing.”

  He kissed her lips before grabbing his keys. “You’re both my most important things.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  As the toxic green algae makes its way south, Floridians are urged not to go to the beach. More than one hundred reports of severe asthma attacks as well as minor allergy exacerbation have been reported in the last three days as the smell from the algae intensifies due to the heavy winds. If you suffer from allergies, the CDC is urging you to stay indoors or to use antihistamine and keep your inhaler close by.

  Olivia had set up the spare room for Joey. She wasn’t really sure how to deal with a man sleeping in her house and what impression that would leave on Sophie. Joey had been on the phone with ICS for the last hour dealing with something going on with another job. Between all the chaos, she still had a job to do, which meant sneaking in Skype meetings, answering emails, working on budgets, and fielding calls. And Sophie hadn’t been feeling very well due to her allergies acting up. So she tucked her in, and to her surprise she’d fallen right asleep. Now Olivia was laying on her bed, restless. She wanted Joey in here with her.

  “You didn’t expect me to really sleep in that other room, did you?” he said, locking the door behind him.

  “Definitely not.”

  She reached for the lamp next to the bed, clicked it on, and sat up. “Hi.”

  “Hi,” he said, stripping naked as he went to get in bed with her.

  “Wait. No. Stop.”

  “What?” He looked around, confused.

  “I want to see you naked and then I want to kiss you . . . everywhere.” She crawled to the foot of the bed and ran her palms up and down his pecs. He only had one tattoo and it was small, right by his heart. It said in simple script, like if it was typed by an old time typewriter, “Semper Fidelis.”

  She kissed the tattoo. “You never talk about your time overseas.”

  “It’s not the conversation I want to have before you suck my cock.”

  She smiled as she kissed down the scattered trail of blond hair on his chest. “Who said anything about sucking?”

  He grabbed himself firmly and stroked it up and down. “I did.” He
guided himself into her mouth as she got comfortable on the bed. “And if you’re a good girl and make me come, I’ll lick your pussy before I fuck you.”

  She looked up and pulled back. “You’ll lick me. Even if I’m terrible at this, you’re going to lick me.”

  He laughed. “You’re right. I love the way you taste.”

  She grabbed him and began to stroke the way she’d seen him do it. Long and slow movements but with a firm grip. He groaned, but for the most part kept quiet as she licked the head of his dick over and over again. Tasting him. Savoring him. Making him absolutely crazy. Just like he’d done to her every time he kissed her. She cupped his balls and then took him in as deep as she could. He grabbed her hair. “Stop. Fuck. Stop.” But she didn’t. She kept at it until she felt him swell further in her mouth.

  He pulled out and reached for a condom he had magically left by the night table. Once it was on, he flipped her onto her stomach. “Plan B. I’ll eat you later. I have to fuck you now.”

  And he did.

  He fucked her from behind, over and over until he came hard, then he pulled out and made her come with his tongue and fingers, with her ass in the air.

  She’d never—ever—had such wild, uninhibited sex.

  And now that she’d had it, she didn’t know if she could ever stop.

  * * *

  Olivia stretched her arms and yawned. When was the last time she’d woken up feeling rested? Turning her head to the clock, her smile faltered and she jumped out of the bed when she saw it was almost noon.

  Shit shit shit.

  Stumbling out of the room, she ran straight in to find Sophie who’d never, not once in five years, slept past nine o’clock. And she’d been feeling ill when she’d gone to bed. Damn. What kind of mother had crazy monkey sex and then slept until midday without checking up on her sick child?

  She opened the door to her daughter’s room. But the room was empty.

  “We’re here, mum!” Sophie yelled from the kitchen.

  Hustling to the kitchen she saw her daughter with two uneven pig tails, two large bows—one of Moana and one of Trolls—and a big chocolate mustache on her face.

  “Joey made me choowate milk and pancakes and cereal for lunch.”

  “I see that.” She smiled and turned to Joey. “I’ll thank you for that later when she’s jumping up and down from the sugar high, by the way.”

  He chuckled.

  “I drewssed all by myself.”

  “I did the pigtails,” Joey said proudly.

  “Why didn’t you wake me? My alarm didn’t go off.”

  “I heard you get up at least six times the last few nights and the night before you were awake all night. I thought I’d let you sleep in a little. And I made sure she took the Benadryl and stayed inside.”

  She didn’t even think about it. It was the nicest thing anyone had done for her in such a long time. As a single mother, sleeping in was a luxury she never ever got to have. It scared the hell out of her how much the gesture affected her. She got on her tip toes and kissed him.

  “Ewww . . .” Sophie said from the kitchen table. “Only mums and daddy pigs can kiss on the lips.”

  Olivia took a step away but Joey reached out and pulled her to his side by the waist. “Freckles, I’m going to tell you something you might not know. Sometimes friends can become girlfriends and boyfriends.”

  She looked up and her face broke into a smile. “Like Minnie and Mickey Mouse? They’re girlfriend and boyfriend.”

  “Exactly,” Olivia said, with a small laugh.

  “And sometimes boyfriends and girlfriends kiss on the mouth.” Joey added.

  Sophie looked up as if in deep contemplation. “Like Anna and Kristoff?”

  Joey’s eyebrows furrowed and she elbowed him playfully in the side. “Frozen.”

  “Yeah, sweets. Like Anna and Kristoff.”

  “Like Belle and the Beast.”

  “Right,” Olivia said.

  Then she took a big spoonful of cereal. “Oh! Like Cinderella and the Prince!” Cereal fell all down her chin.

  This was going to go on and on and on . . .

  “So, yeah. You got it, sweets. All those.” Then she stepped away from Joey and took a napkin and wiped Olivia’s chin. “How do you feel about that, Soph? You okay about it?”

  She shrugged. “Can we catch lizards all the time, Joey?”

  “Sure,” Joey said.

  “Then . . . yay!” She hopped off the chair and ran and hugged both Olivia and Joey. And that was that. Sophie was on board and apparently Olivia was now Joey’s girlfriend.

  And oddly enough, it wasn’t scary. Instead, it was wonderful.

  Her daughter grabbed his hand. “Yeah, Mommy, we got dis!”

  * * *

  A week went by and nothing had progressed. Colin had confessed to attacking Olivia and had said he wanted a million dollars because he knew she had it. Simple as that. But Joey wasn’t buying it. It was too big of an amount. When asked about Connor he denied knowing anything about the whereabouts of his brother.

  Since things had calmed down a little, and Olivia was busy working from home with Mark via Skype, Joey decided to go into the office for a little bit. He had to catch up on a bunch of work. And he wanted to do some more digging into Colin and Connor behind the safety of his impenetrable firewall in ICS.

  Sophie wasn’t feeling well again. She’d gone outside that morning and had come back in wheezing. Ben was going to be around doing rounds of the neighborhood, and her alarm was state of the art.

  “I’ll be back in a few hours,” Joey said. “You sure you’re okay? You want me to have Annie stay with you?”

  “I’m fine. Go.”

  He bent down and kissed Sophie’s forehead. “I hope you can fix the algae thing if you win,” he said to Olivia, frustrated. “I hate to see her sick.”

  “Oh, I will. I’ll at least try harder than McGregor has. If I have to fight the sugar industry my entire term, I will.”

  “Good girl,” he smiled. “I miss fishing.”

  “I didn’t know you fished.”

  “Lots of things to still learn about each other.”

  “I look forward to it, Joey.”

  “Me too, babe.” And he did. He wanted to know all about her. Then he thought . . .”You think Sophie would like to go fishing?”

  “She’d love it. She’d ask you a million questions. Get super excited, but she won’t touch the bait or the fish.”

  He chuckled. “Sounds like something I should plan.”

  “So, the plan is: capture the bad guys who are messing with me, win the election, and fix the Florida waterways so we can go fishing. Easy enough. I’ll get right on it.”

  He chuckled. It was nice to hear her a little less on edge. It reminded him of how she’d been on their date to the go-cart place. “I gotta run, darlin’. Arm the alarm behind me.”

  “Bye, Joey.”

  “Later, Livie.”

  * * *

  Apparently breaking into the federal prison database wasn’t hard. Joey spent the next three hours running queries on last known addresses, phone logs, anything, that involved the Mather brothers, but there wasn’t anything unusual. Well, nothing more unusual than what a scumbag lowlife would do. Some of the searches were going to take all night, so he decided to call it a night and come back early the next day.

  But before he did that he decided to fuck with McGregor one last time. Sophie being sick because of a neglectful act from the governor was an act of aggression, one which McGregor would not get away with. It took him less than twenty minutes to do what he wanted to do, and once he’d finished he felt pretty happy with himself.

  He locked up his office and said goodbye to his employees as he walked out.

  As soon as he got into his car his phone rang and the caller ID said Chief Martinez.

  “Hello.”

  “Clad, it’s Martinez. We got a problem.”

  “What?”

  “Th
e parole officer from Ocala. The one assigned to Connor Mathers? He just called. Connor’s been missing for the last forty-eight hours. A BOLO has been put out.”

  Fuck!

  * * *

  Olivia was stirring the vat of sauce when she heard shuffling behind her and turned around. There were days she wanted to pull out her hair and stuff her ears with cotton balls, but there were moments, like this one, where she took a mental picture of her daughter and wished time would stand still. Her daughter had an old blanket in one hand, her hair was a mess, and she was rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Normally she didn’t allow her daughter to take naps this late in the afternoon, but the poor girl hadn’t been feeling well, and Olivia had let her sleep—knowing that she’d regret it later when she couldn’t get her to bed. Her allergies were acting up and it was, no doubt, from the horrible stench coming from the water nearby and that damn toxic algae.

  Her daughter, sleep still in her eyes, walked into the kitchen and headed, full impact, to her mother and wrapped her sleepy body around her leg.

  Olivia turned the stove down and lowered herself to Sophie’s eye level. “You have a good nap, sweets?”

  “I don’t wike elevators.”

  “It wasn’t too bad. That doesn’t happen often.” What else could she say? Olivia had never liked elevators either. She lifted her daughter and tucked her on her hip. It had been almost two weeks and she still brought it up every few days. “I made your favorite. Spaghetti with sauce.”

  “Where’s Joey?”

  Her daughter liked Joey. That much was obvious. He’d been gone for the last few hours, but he’d texted at least half a dozen times asking about Sophie. Every time he asked, the emotions she felt for him bubbled up to the surface. She didn’t want to think about him and how perfectly he fit into their lives. None of these things she wanted to think about, but all of them were constantly running through her mind.

  Telling him her secrets had felt oddly refreshing, as if unloading all that onto someone else took the big burden off her shoulders.

  Connor.

  She couldn’t stop thinking about him since his name had come up during the lineup at the police station.