The Devil's Masquerade: The Poison

by Jennifer Loren

  I look over Eddie’s shoulder to view the documents he has pulled up and stare at the words “private physician.” “She only sees one patient? That can be right. She has a permanent office for one patient?”

  “Does Nick pay for that?” Exie asks.

  “I don’t think they would offer anything like that, even if Nick required it. Nick would surely say something to me about that. I think I need to talk to him about this?” I say, not considering why I would ask such a question.

  “He is not going to like how you got this information, or that you are having Franky followed,” Exie says to me.

  “Well, I don’t have to tell him everything. Just that I was worried about his Mother?” Exie shakes her head. “Okay, I will confess that I wanted to know more about Franky, and I didn’t want him to know that I am … intimidated by her?”

  “You’re intimidated by her?” Exie doubles over in laughter. “Okay, good luck with that. I have to get back to the club and close up.” Exie waves goodbye while I try to figure out how to talk to Nick about this.

  No matter what I come up with, I can’t imagine it is going to help me avoid an argument. Nick, I was worried about your mother and … no that’s not ever going to work. Damn it Nick, I have a right to know everything about her! Oh no I am in real trouble. It would be best to just say it and reflect the issues back on Franky before he has a chance to get angry with me. Although, it can’t hurt to tell him in his favorite lingerie. The moment Nick walks in, he looks me over with suspicion. Damn the underwear was too much.

  “What did you do?” he sighs, expecting trouble already. He knows me too well.

  “What? Why are you immediately assuming I did something wrong?” I ask him with attitude, but when he cocks his head and huffs, I know I am not going to convince him of anything other than the trouble I have caused. “Fine, I dug up some information on Franky. Do you know there is no record of her anywhere at that hospital and that the only patient that even has her listed as their doctor is your mother? Why is that, Nick? How can she get away that? She is stalking your mother to get to you.” I hold out documents to him that I had printed and look up at him with innocent smiling eyes.

  He looks down at my hand, but the moment his eyes start to swirl, I know I am in trouble. “Kayla, what the fuck did you do? Did you break into the hospital and steal her information? What is wrong with you lately? Do you not trust me? I have never in my life known you to be jealous or insecure around anyone. Why are you worried all of a sudden?”

  “I’m not. I just don’t trust her! There is something about her that isn’t right, Nick.”

  “There is nothing about her, except that she cares for my mother and I used to fuck her! And you hate that I ever had feelings for anyone other than you. Yes, I cared for her deeply, I still care for her, our relationship meant something to me … at the time. Fuck Kayla, that was a long time ago, and those feelings are not even close to the same feelings I have for you.”

  “I know that. This has nothing to do with jealousy or insecurity. I don’t trust her. And I can’t believe that you do?”

  “Don’t do that. Don’t pretend this is about me. This all about you.”

  I push my folder into his chest and look up at him with pleading eyes, only he rolls his and tenses his jaw. “Just look them over, and you will see what I am talking about. She was dead Nick, and suddenly she is alive? Why now?” I can tell by the way he is standing in front of me and the expression on his face that he has stopped listening to me. He is so angry with me that he won’t even look at me.

  “Are you done?” Nick asks, looking away from me. “Can I go now?”

  “No, I want you to listen to me!”

  “I love you Kayla, but right now, I don’t want to even look at you.” Nick turns away from me and walks out the door. He has been angry with me before, but he has never been so angry that he had to leave.

  Chapter 9

  Nick

  I had to leave before I said something to her that I would regret. The last thing I need to deal with, is this! Does she not understand I have enough going on? I am trying to keep my family alive, keep my friends from being tortured, and she is worried about some ex-girlfriend of mine. Is she fucking kidding me? I am fucking electrocuting myself for her! I am not doing it for Franky!

  I drive for hours before I somehow end up at my mother’s hospital. The long drive gave me plenty of time to calm down and just enough time to begin to question Kayla’s findings myself. Stepping towards Franky’s office, I reach for the doorknob before shaking my head and pulling back. This is stupid. Who cares why or where she has been? I walk away but turn around again, walk right into her office, and stare right into her eyes. Her feet are up on her desk, and she is touching up her makeup in a compact that she quickly shoves back in her bag.

  “Nick! Oh this is a surprise.” She jumps up and runs to me with open arms. “You look so good and smell even better. Oh, if you weren’t married the things I would do to you would be against the law.” I look down at her awkwardly. “Ummm, I mean … I am just kidding. I had some allergy medicine at lunch. I think it has made me a little loopy.”

  “How come you only see my mother and no other patients here?”

  “What? How could you possibly know that?” she asks, taking a step back from me.

  “What happened to my mother’s previous doctor? I never thought to ask where he went. He had been here for some time but was far from retirement age. If he did decide to leave or even retire, why didn’t I get a letter telling me that? I should have been told who my mother’s doctor is don’t you think? At the very least, I should have been informed that her physician had changed? Why wasn’t I ever told?”

  She shakes her head, seeming to search for the right words to say to me. “Nick I’m sorry you were not told about her previous doctor. Believe it or not, I actually heard about his accident through a mutual friend, and I already knew that he was your mother’s doctor. I was worried who might be taking over her care so that’s when I decided to step in and help.”

  “When? When did you decide to step in?”

  She steps back, huffing at me, “What is this about? Why are you interrogating me? Have I done something wrong to you or to your mother? As far as I know, she is not complaining about me at all, but insisting I stay.”

  “Kayla went through the hospital files and found no record of you, except, as my mother’s physician. That doesn’t make any sense, Franky.”

  “She did what?” I can’t believe her! She is something else, Nick. How you can be with someone of such a low caliber, I will never understand. She is absolutely the most …”

  “Answer me Franky!” I yell at her.

  “I told you Nick. When I found out your mother was here, I wanted to look after her for you. I wanted to do whatever I could for you. The hospital had already hired a replacement physician, but they agreed to let me come in and see the one patient until they needed more help. I am taking a mediocre salary, but it is worth it to help you and your mother. I have become so close to her. I feel like she is my mother. I couldn’t possibly allow anyone else to take care of her now.” She begins to cry as she turns away from me. “You loved me once Nick, and I wanted so bad to feel that, to be close to you somehow. Not because I wanted you back but simply because that part of my life, my time with you, was some of the best memories I have. All I have are those wonderful memories. My father is gone Nick. I have no one left but you.”

  “Your father died?’ I ask, and she nods with tears in her eyes. I open up my arms, and she immediately dives into them. She begins telling me all about how her father died and left her alone and unsure what to do with her life until one day she found an old picture of us together, a picture that she has hidden in her wallet. I smile as I take the picture from her hand. The day I talked her into skipping school and spending the day with me. The only way she would was if I promised to take her to the zoo. I threw her over my shoulder and acted like I was dragging
her there, just in case someone found the picture they could blame me for her skipping school. I have to admit, that was a great day.

  “You remember, don’t you?” She asks smiling as I do. “That was a wonderful day. I still can’t believe you talked me into going to a stinky zoo, but you do have an incredible way of getting me to do whatever you want.” She approaches me, caressing my face, and looking into my eyes. I look at her awkwardly, but before I can challenge her memory, she stands up on her toes and steadies herself to kiss me. I quickly turn my head before she reach my lips. She stands back in shock and then smacks me hard across the face. “Fuck you! You said I meant something, but I was nothing to you!”

  “I didn’t come here to rekindle our old relationship. That relationship is over. I’m in love with Kayla now, truly in love with her. We can be friends, but we can never be anything more.” I give her a sideways glare as I rub my stinging face. “I came here to get answers and nothing more. Now tell me, Franky, why are you really here and why is there no record of you anywhere? I just had a friend of mine search through DMV records, real estate sales, car deeds, but there is nothing. There is nothing about you anywhere, not even at the college you say you graduated from,” I say, pointing to the framed degree on the wall.

  “I can’t believe you don’t trust me, Nick.”

  “Answer me then.”

  “Of course there is no record. Everything is still under the name the FBI gave me.”

  “Which is?”

  “I can’t tell you that, not until I have clearance from the FBI. But since you seem so insistent on knowing, I guess I will ask them if it is okay to share that information with you. Until then, I can’t give you much more than my word that I am only here for your mother right now. I will admit, I came searching for you, but once I found out you were married, I backed off and found comfort supporting your mother. You do not know how hard that was for me. You don’t know how many times I have dreamed about being with you again. I have learned a lot since we were together last. It would be nice to prove to you that I can fuck better than you have ever had,” she says, shocking me. “But for now, I have to go. My boyfriend is picking me up, and I am going to spend tonight fucking him.”

  “You want to fuck me, but you have a boyfriend? What is with you? You are not at all like I remember. You’re more like that girl I told you not to be. Remember that wannabe girl, the one that you pretended to be that night at the party when I had to rescue from that goon who was all over you? The night you thought it better to wear high heels and a short skirt with lots of makeup and overdone hair,” I say pointing out all the things she is wearing now that match that night exactly. “This is not you. I don’t know who this girl is, but it isn’t anyone I want to associate with.”

  “I am not a girl anymore Nick. If you would wake up for a second, you might realize that. As far as my relationship, he and I have a special open relationship, which works much better than any marriage I have seen. You should try it. When you get tired of being married to a dominating, paranoid, lunatic let me know. Now, if you don’t mind, please leave now so I can lock up.”

  She pushes me out the door with a forceful shove, but I don’t go far. I stand outside, waiting until she walks out to meet the car that pulls up. “Franky. Franky. Franky!” I yell over and over until she finally turns. It is like she doesn’t even know her own name. Maybe she doesn’t. Maybe the life change has taken away every part of the Franky I knew, including her name. Franky shoves her chin in the air at me and gets in the car, despite my attempt to get her to come to me. Before she can shut the car door, I take a second to look in at the man in the driver’s seat as he admires himself in his rearview mirror. I step towards them. “I want to talk to you!” I say to the man, racing towards them. He looks at me and laughs. “Don’t be scared asshole. I won’t hurt you. I just want to talk.” He stares directly into my eyes, and I feel my body tighten and my veins begin to heat up as my eyes begin to swirl with control. “Get out of the car,” I say, forcefully. His eyes turn black as coal with bright anger shining from the center. The man boldly denies my request, and I step back with a better understanding of Franky’s odd behavior. She must be under another demon’s dark spell. I need to free her somehow. But I don’t get a chance to say or do anything before the man turns away and Franky slams the door shut. They speed off, and I can clearly see the plate on the back, the same one I saw before. I assume she met this guy wherever she was hiding out at, but why are they both here, now? No man follows a woman that he is in an open relationship with unless he wants something, and seeing now that he is no ordinary man, he obviously wants something. I hate to admit it, but I think Kayla is right.

  Returning home, I ignore Kayla while I look in on the boys and figure out what to say to her. I can’t seem to come up with anything by the time I walk into our bedroom, but surprisingly, she rushes to me and wraps her arms around me. Not a typical response from my stubborn wife, but it makes it much easier for me to tell her she is right.

  “Nick, I am so sorry. I should have trusted you and left it alone. It doesn’t matter who she is or what she is doing, all that matters …”

  I stop her, holding her out in front of me. “You were right, Kayla.” She is shocked at first, but it doesn’t take long before her cocky smile forms. “Before you glow with pride, it was still wrong what you did. You should have talked to me about it first. That said, I asked Franky, and she doesn’t seem to have any answers for me, not yet anyway. On top of that, that boyfriend of hers is similar to me, and I don’t mean related. He has a power similar to mine, but he doesn’t seem to be nearly as powerful, thankfully. We shouldn’t have to worry about him at least.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Because the coward ran away when I told him to face me. Clearly, if he had an ego, if he thought he could hurt me, he would have stayed and challenged me.”

  “You challenged someone without knowing who they are? Are you crazy?” She yells at me.

  “Calm down. I only wanted to find out who he was, but now, I know that Franky is under this guy’s spell. She was easily susceptible to mine, so it would make sense that she would fall for another and explains why she is acting so odd.” Kayla rolls her eyes. “What now?”

  “I don’t think she is under any spell, and besides, spell or no spell, it doesn’t explain why she is here.”

  “No, but I will find out soon. I promise.” Kayla paces away from me, and I can already see the wheels spinning in her head. “Kayla, stop. Don’t you dare do anything else. You let me handle Franky.” She is resistant; I can tell by the way she avoids looking at me. “Kayla.”

  “Nick, you have so many things to worry about. Why don’t you let me handle … her?”

  “Her name is Franky, and she was an important part of my life. You don’t know her. She was very shy and naive. I was her first everything, Kayla. She was very sweet and innocent.”

  “Well she isn’t anymore,” Kayla says with an exasperated huff.

  I begin to think about that. She really isn’t the same person I used to know. “I don’t know why she is acting this way. I don’t know if it is because of that guy she is seeing or if it is something else entirely. Maybe she is trying to be what she thinks I want or what he wants, she has been known to do that before. “Right now, Franky is the least of our problems. In fact, it is probably best we keep her as far away from us as possible. I don’t want my mother involved in this mess anyway. Although, I don’t trust that asshole, I do trust Franky with my mother. She has done everything she can to help her.” Kayla removes her clothes and climbs into bed, and that damn dog jumps right in with her. “Where the hell did he come from?” Kayla shrugs as she cuddles with him and allows him to curl up right next to her. “Oh no. You get out!” I grab him by his dog collar and pull him off the bed. “Now go back to your bed.” I point the way, and the damn dog huffs at me. “Watch it, dog. I can make you sleep outside in a dog house rather than in a nice warm bed ind
oors,” I say, closing the door in his face.

  “You are so mean to that dog, sometimes. Why don’t you like him?” Kayla asks with her arms folded.

  “Because he gets more attention from you than I do.” I smile before leaning towards her, waiting for a kiss which she promptly gives me, along with some help removing my clothes.

  “Come to bed Nick, and I will give you all the attention you want,” she hums, kissing down my chest and finding my erection that is already protruding between us. “Let me show you how sorry I am for being so very naughty today. Let me earn your forgiveness, Nick.”

  I shouldn’t forgive her easily, so I try to hold my tongue while she kisses my inner thigh, but then, she moves toward my dick, and I take hold of the back of her head and watch as my cock gets warmed by her beautiful mouth. I growl my forgiveness to her, only I want more. I want more from her and her body. I move her from my dick and twist her around, taking a bite of her ass before positioning her perfectly in front of me. “Do you really want me to forgive you, Princess?” I whisper against the nape of her neck. “Then let me feel you come on me.” I penetrate deep inside her, and then again, harder and harder while rubbing her ass and feeling her become wetter with each stroke. I feel down between her legs and finger the wetness against me until she reaches back and grabs my thigh, screaming out in pleasure. She is exhausted and ready to pass out, but I am not done yet.

  “Oh Nick!” she screams while I get mine. I feel my cock as it becomes wrapped in the heated indulgence that begs me to come inside her.