He didn’t even bother asking if she was involved with someone. He’d make the declaration that she was “his”, but people will say anything during an orgasm. Victoria was so deep in her thoughts that she didn’t even notice that the boat was moving. They were drifting in the direction of the beautiful Chicago skyline and the sun setting behind it was breathtaking.
Victoria noticed that they weren’t moving anymore. She heard a camera shutter click, so she turned towards the sound.
Jack was smiling and holding a camera. “You look beautiful in front of that view with the wind blowing through your hair.”
As he raised the camera to his eye, Victoria placed her hand on her hip and smiled brightly. She posed for a few more pictures before Jack decided that it was time for them to eat. He set up a table on the deck, and Victoria was happy to eat outside. She wanted to enjoy the view. Jack sat two plates of what looked like gourmet food on the table. Victoria was expecting something more like sandwiches.
“Wow,” she whispered. “Where did this food come from?”
He smiled and told her. “The restaurant on the dock. The chef prepares and packages different entrees for me so I just have to warm them.”
He sat opposite her and reached across the small table, placing her hand in his. Victoria felt instant electricity pass between them and, judging by the smile on his face, Jack felt it too.
“When will I see you again? Are you free for lunch tomorrow?”
Victoria shook her head. She had to work, and she wouldn’t want to explain why she was dressed like a prostitute. “I can’t do lunch tomorrow.”
He didn’t look pleased. This was a man that was accustomed to getting what he wanted.
“How about dinner? Do you cook?”
She chuckled and asked, “You want me to cook for you? At my place?”
He nodded assuringly.
“Yes, I cook,” she confirmed. “I’m free for dinner tomorrow.”
“So we’ll have dinner tomorrow, at your place.”
As they began to eat, Victoria looked up at Jack. “Since you’ve just invited yourself into my home, I think that we should discuss some things.”
He leaned back in his chair, clearly interested in what she wanted to talk about. Victoria didn’t know why she was so nervous.
They were two consenting adults who needed to make responsible choices so she asked him, “Jack, well the thing is, we’ve had a lot of sex in the very short time that we’ve known each other and we haven’t been using protection. That’s not something that I do. I’m usually more responsible. We’ve never discussed our... Well, I guess we should…” She lost her words nervously. She was shocked how she was mumbling over her words like a teenager. “Are you currently in a relationship or sleeping with someone?” Victoria took a deep breath and laughed out loud at herself, causing Jack to smile.
He leaned forward, and his smiled disappeared. His expression turned serious, and he began to speak. “Victoria, I don’t share and I expect you not to share. I won’t be having sex with any other women. The last woman that I had sex with was Caroline. It happened twice, and the last time was a month ago. With others in the past, I’ve always worn protection. I don’t know how you and I landed on this road, but I’m not upset about it. I can show you my medical records, and we can arrange birth control. I said ‘mine’ and I meant it. As long as we are seeing each other, I expect to be the only man touching you. Are you going to be able to handle that, Victoria?”
Victoria was stunned by Jack’s blunt response, and she was at a complete loss of words. She stared at him in silence, until she realized that he was actually waiting for an answer. “Yes,” was all she could come up with.
Victoria had no problem with monogamy. After all, she hadn’t had sex in over a year and she really didn’t want to think of Jack with another woman. She couldn’t imagine him doing to another woman the things that he did to her.
Jack reached over the table and pulled Victoria from her seat. He led her around the table and onto his lap. For the rest of the evening they made out like teenagers, enjoying the purple and orange streaks on the horizon until the sun finally set.
It was getting late and Victoria had to go to work in the morning, so they headed back to the dock. Victoria had to talk him into driving her home. Jack wanted her to spend the night with him and allow him to drive her to work, but she really needed to be home to prepare for the next day. When they pulled up in front of her building, Victoria didn’t even try to hide her disappointment. She turned to Jack and poked out her bottom lip. He turned off the car, hopped out, and jogged around to open Victoria’s door. They walked hand-in-hand to the door and shared a passion-filled goodnight kiss.
Jack grabbed Victoria’s hand and placed it against his hardness, whispering, “See what you’re leaving me with?”
“Thanks for a great weekend, Jack,” she mumbled into his mouth as they continued to kiss. “I had a wonderful time.”
Victoria pulled away and Jack moaned his protest. “See you soon,” he uttered as he headed back to his car.
She watched his backside for a few extra seconds before entering the building. Victoria damn near skipped up the stairs whistling like Cinderella.
“Damn, the man gives good weekend,” Victoria said to herself while wearing a girlish grin.
When she reached the top of the stairs, Victoria’s fairytale inspired mood ran smack into Mrs. O’Malley’s frowning face. Victoria walked over to her apartment and decided not to let the mean old lady spoil her good mood.
“I hope you secured the entry door when you came in,” Victoria heard from behind her back.
She responded, “Yes, ma’am,” as she entered her apartment.
Before she could get the door closed, she heard the old lady comment, “We don’t need any more of your friends in this building,”
Victoria turned to look at her. Hatred for Victoria was dripping from the old woman’s face. She decided against cursing the old lady out, so she turned back into her apartment and slammed her door.
“That old bitch needs a Jack Storm to clean out her old pipes,” Victoria said as she laughed and locked the deadbolt.
She headed down the hall to her bedroom. As she dropped her purse on the bed, the beep from her phone indicated that she had a text message. Looking at the screen, she saw a message from Jack.
The text read: “I miss you already.”
Victoria quickly responded: “Miss you too. See you soon. Muahhhh!”
She tossed the phone back on her bed and got her clothes ready for work the next day. After a hot shower, Victoria returned calls and text messages. She had four missed calls from Tracy, so she decided to call and tell her all about her very hot weekend. Upon calling her friend, she learned that Tracy and Steve were still hot and heavy. They made a dinner date for Tuesday and said goodnight. Victoria was exhausted, so she set her alarm and went to bed.
The blare of the alarm snatched Victoria from a deep sleep. She had to keep it on her dresser across the room instead of the nightstand next to her bed; otherwise she would keep hitting the snooze button.
“Ugh,” she grunted as she peeled the sheet and comforter from her body. She padded her way over to the alarm clock to shut it off and headed to the bathroom. Forty-five minutes later, she was taking her last sip of coffee and heading out the door. She slung her bag over her shoulder and secured the lock on her apartment door. With no sign of Mrs. O’Malley, Victoria ran down the stairs and out the door. She walked over to her car and was stopped in her tracks by the sight of bold red writing on her windshield. The word “MINE!” flashed back at her, striking fear in her.
Victoria slowly approached her car and swiped at the writing. It wasn’t paint because it easily wiped off.
“What in the fuck?!”
She tried to figure out who was toying with her. Dante had left several voice messages saying that he wanted to talk, but writing on her car wasn’t like Dante. The furthest he’d gone was
leaving cards and roses on her windshield or notes under her door. Maybe he was tired of being ignored. Jack had also said the word “mine” to Victoria, but she’d just agreed to be his, so he had no need to reiterate it.
Victoria was going to be late, so she hopped in her car and activated the windshield wipers. The windshield was smeared in red, so she pushed the button to release the washer fluid. The wipers cleared enough of the windshield to get her to a carwash. Victoria left the carwash pissed that someone had messed with her car. She decided that she would ask the building manager for a peek at the security tapes. She had no intention of becoming the victim of a stalker.
When she got to the station, she stopped by Deon on the way to the locker room.
“We got a new girl,” he said with a smile that was way too big.
Considering Deon’s smile, Victoria assumed that the new girl was pretty. She gave Deon a knowing smile and asked, “Who is she?”
“She is fine as hell,” Deon practically sang as he walked Victoria to the locker room. He gave her a brief rundown on the new girl. She learned that her name was Natasha and she was from the Narcotics Division. He said that she was pushed out because she filed a sexual harassment complaint against a drunken commander after he grabbed her breast at a Christmas party. Victoria thought the woman was brave because she had been harassed sexually by bosses since the day she started on the police department and, after seeing what happened to other women that complained, she chose to develop a thick skin and ignore it. It just wasn’t worth the hassle. After all, it’s not like they were going to actually punish the powerful men. They’d have some scared to death sergeant from Internal Affairs investigate the complaint. Did the department really believe that a sergeant would enforce a punishment on someone that outranked them? Hell no! They’d just say it didn’t happen and shit on the woman that complained for the rest of her career.
Victoria thought that this Natasha woman was brave indeed. She liked her already. Victoria told Deon that she’d see him in roll call and entered the locker room to change. As she dressed, she thought back to the writing on her car. If it wasn’t paint, what was it? It looked like blood. She dismissed that thought and slipped into her shoes. Victoria knew she should’ve called a unit to do a report but she would’ve been late for work. She walked over to the mirror and inspected her outfit. She wore a hot pink one-shouldered spandex dress that barely covered her ass. It molded to her body and her nipples protruded rudely through the thin material. On her feet were six-inch gladiator stilettos. She knew she was dressed the part because she felt dirty. She applied dark eyeliner, glossed her lips, and inspected herself in the mirror one last time.
Victoria chuckled and said out loud, “Hell, I’d stop for me.”
She walked out of the locker room and headed to roll call. Victoria walked into the roll call room to the normal “oohs” and “ahhs” and took a seat next to the new girl.
“Hi, I’m Vic,” she whispered.
Natasha blinked at Victoria’s semi-nakedness and responded shyly, “I’m Natasha. It’s nice to meet you.”
“You too,” Victoria said turning to watch the sergeant stumble to the front of the room.
She couldn’t believe that this bastard was drunk already. She turned to Deon with her eyebrows knitted together. He shrugged his shoulders and laughed. Sargent Banner introduced Natasha to the team as if he was less than happy that she was there. Then he managed to slur the need to catch the killer that had apparently struck again over the weekend. Only the victimology was different this time. Sargent Banner passed out folders filled with photographs and detailed reports. The previous victims had been street prostitutes as opposed to the latest victim who was an internet call girl. Although the killer was branching out, his method of death remained the same. He would carve the word “whore” across the victim’s breasts, apparently while she was still alive, and then he would rape her repeatedly before strangling her to death. This murder appeared more brutal to Victoria. The victim was strangled and, according to the coroner’s report, she was stabbed repeatedly after she died. The killer was escalating. Obviously, he had become angry, and Victoria wondered why.
“Price, before you hit the streets today, you’ll create an internet profile,” the sergeant said snapping her from her thoughts.
Victoria could feel all eyes on her. She turned and smiled at a horrified Natasha. She looked back at her other teammates who began to voice their protests.
Victoria turned to her partner to see him shaking his head.
“You’re not doing that,” Steve said in a very calm voice.
Sargent Banner shouted over the protests. “It’s her job!”
Victoria noticed that the weasel made sure not to direct his comments to Steve. Her gigantic partner didn’t respond well to being yelled at.
“This came from way above me! We don’t have time to train this new girl, and we’re running out of time! Officer Price knew what she was signing up for when she came to vice!”
The drunk asshole continued to talk about Victoria like she wasn’t in the room, and she’d had enough.
She held her hand up to shut him up and said, “Yes, I knew what I signed up for when I came to vice, and I accept the fact that I have a dangerous job. What I didn’t sign up for was to die stupidly. I am an undercover officer. You and the so called ‘powers that be’ have put me in a uniform and shoved me in front of damn near the entire city of Chicago. Now I’m bait for a fucking killer?!”
Sargent Banner gathered his things and walked out the room mumbling over his shoulder, “You’ll do your job.”
Victoria stood and walked out of the noisy room. She walked over to her desk and sat at the computer. She looked up to see Deon, Steve, and Miguel approaching her desk.
Deon looked at Victoria like she’d grown a second head and asked, “What the hell are you doing?”
“My job,” she answered as she returned her attention to the computer.
She heard Steve say, “Vic, this ain’t a good idea.”
Without looking up, Victoria asked, “What am I supposed to do? Say no and lose my spot in vice?” She looked up at a worried Steve and continued, “I’ve worked too hard to get here. Don’t worry so much. What are the odds that this guy actually saw me at the Taste or could even recognize me if he saw me again?”
After logging onto the call girl website, she uploaded a picture and completed her profile. After ten minutes of listening to her teammate’s protests, she looked up and saw Natasha leaning against a file cabinet looking lost and out of place. Sargent Banner had walked out of the room without giving her any instructions. Victoria stood and walked over to her.
“Hey, Natasha. You should ride with me and my partner so that you can learn the ropes.” Victoria suggested.
Natasha looked grateful as she nodded in response. Victoria looked over at Steve and said, “Come on, big man. Let’s go hit the street.”
Four hours later and halfway into her shift, Victoria was strutting up and down Madison
Avenue with Steve and Natasha eyeballing her from a hidden location when a white pick-up truck pulled to the curb. The driver honked the horn, and Victoria walked over to the truck’s passenger side window. The window lowered, and the smell of alcohol smacked Victoria in the face. Inside the truck was a small man with dark hair and eyes.
She rested her elbows on the window seal and smiled. “Hey, baby. You looking to party with me?”
He wrinkled his forehead and Victoria realized that he didn’t speak English, so she changed direction. “Hola papi. Quieres ir de fiesta conmigo?”
The man seemed clearly relieved, but Victoria knew that it wouldn’t have mattered if she was fluent in Spanish or not. He would have just used hand gestures instead.
He responded. “Hola sexy. Cuantro para cojerte toda la noche?”
The man’s breath was searing Victoria’s nostrils, so she decided to make the deal because she couldn’t hold her breath any longer. “Cuantr
o crees que vale una buena chocha?”
The little man thought about it for a few seconds and said, “te doy cien dólares.”
This cheap motherfucker wanted to fuck her all night for a hundred dollars.
She agreed to his offer of a hundred dollars and secretly signaled for Steve to send in the take down units. Once the man was in the back of a squad car, Victoria returned to her corner.
Ten Johns and a whole lot of paperwork later, Victoria was sitting in the parking lot of her apartment building trying to gather the strength to get out of her car. Negotiating with men over the going rate for sex had exhausted her. Since she’d worked so late, she had to cancel her plans to cook dinner for Jack. She looked at her apartment building and thought of how much she wished that she was at Jack’s penthouse being pleasured in his bed. She couldn’t believe how much she missed him. They’d been texting back and forth all day, but it wasn’t enough. Victoria wanted to be under him. She mustered the strength to get out of her car and she walked toward her building.
Just then, she could have sworn that she heard something behind her. Victoria slowed her steps and looked around. She couldn’t help the feeling that she was being watched. She’d had that feeling all day but she shrugged it off because, of course, she was being watched. It was Steve’s job to watch her. Now she was in the parking lot of her apartment building and her police instincts were telling her to watch her back. She reached into her purse and retrieved her weapon. She walked towards her building with her nine millimeter plastered to her side. She unlocked the entry door and headed up the stairs to find Mrs. O’Malley. When Victoria reached the top of the stairs, Mrs. O’Malley was standing in her doorway wearing her signature scowl. She studied Victoria for a few seconds and walked into her apartment and slammed the door. Victoria was grateful to be home. She was too tired to care about the mean old lady, so she walked into her apartment. She dropped her bag by the door and headed to her bedroom to get ready for bed.
Beautiful Prey: The Storm Series Page 8