Kiss Her Goodbye: Thriller/Romance with a shocking twist

by Kirsten Mitchell

  “You’re my therapist.”

  “Well, not technically,” he said. “You never agreed to my services. In fact, you’ve refused. And you’re not paying me. So really we’re together on this hike as friends.”

  In a weird way, the words stung her. He had told Barter before the trip that he was Mia’s therapist and had promised to take good care of her on this trip. Now she felt abandoned by his denial. She bit her lip to fight the sting of disappointment and looked away from him. Her eyes lost their fight to stay dry, but it was dim enough in the tent for her to hide that truth from him.

  “You look completely lost in thought,” Leo said.

  She turned her face back to him and wordlessly pushed her mouth on his.

  Leo flinched as though surprised by her gesture, and then relaxed and pushed open her lips with his own. His mouth hungry for hers.

  She couldn’t resist anymore. It was ridiculous to even try. She thumbed the waist of his flannel pajamas downward, exposing the carved lines of his abs that glinted in the dim amber light. Her hand followed the luscious trail of hair that cut from his belly button down to the hard warmth that grew inside his underwear.

  “Woah, easy there,” Leo said. “Nate might be returning any minute now.”

  “I don’t care,” she said. The terror of receiving the note and being trapped out here in the woods with no resources and nobody to protect her rendered her helpless and unabashed. She didn’t care about anything anymore. “Just take me.”

  She wanted to escape and forget it all. And being with Leo was the only way she knew how.

  *******

  Nate hovered outside the tent, listening to the sounds of movement coming from within. He was not a sexually experienced man, but he was pretty sure it was the sounds of a man and a woman about to have sex. From what he had observed and studied in pornographic films, at least. Although Mia and Leo’s noises didn’t seem to be quite as dramatic as the sounds that pornography actors emitted, he was still quite certain it was what they were doing. It wasn’t long before bubbles of gassy nausea crept up Nate’s throat.

  He didn’t have the courage to peel back the tent door and peek inside. Although it disgusted him to hear these sounds, a part of him very much wanted to see it. A part of him he wished didn’t exist to hear the noises.

  No, he scolded himself. Sex is private, you must not invade.

  He circled the tent like a predator spiraling its prey. Swells of uncomfortable tension bloomed in him now and he didn’t like it. He needed to get away from this.

  Nate turned and walked away from the camp. He ran to the lake, where Barter had been swimming earlier. Why did she not come back to camp? He felt like he already knew. Visions pulsed through his mind and he snapped them away just as quickly.

  When he looked down at the dark water, he was certain he spotted something. But he was not entirely sure. He scrambled down the sides of the cliff to take a closer look. With horror, he realized it was a woman floating face down in the water.

  Penelope Barter.

  Vague tingles bloomed in him, making him feel uncertain if he was responsible for putting her there. He believed he did this. But the memory was too blurred.

  Her clothes floated in the water around her like brightly colored kites streaming lazily through a black sky. The moon and stars dotted the kites’ paths with a million white rippling dots on the water’s surface. The last time he’d seen such beauty was the summer parade when he was eleven. He had begged his mother to go to that parade, and she had sincerely wanted to take him, but his stepfather chimed in and refused, claiming that parades and kites were for sissies. You don’t want to grow up to be a sissy like your father, now do you, Nate? he’d asked while picking corn out of his teeth. You want to grow up to be a strong, proud man with dignity.

  Nate looked down at Penelope. Expecting her to move at any point. Hoping and dreading at the same time that she did not.

  “Are you okay?” he whispered down to her.

  No response.

  He wondered about the last moments of Penelope’s life. Did she scream? Did she feel any fear at all? Or had she felt overly confident, as always, that she could handle a drop from a thirty-foot cliff, although the laws of physics were firmly against her? He couldn’t remember any of it.

  Unwanted pity rolled through him like a bowling ball on fire. Clearly, she did not deserve this fate. What kind of monster would do this to someone? His body shook with regret. She was merely a human being, albeit an obnoxiously bossy one. Probably there were people out there who loved her and would suffer in her absence. Maybe people who loved her called her Penny, not Barter. He felt sad mostly for those people.

  He took the path closer to the lake, deciding he would rescue her. He would pull her long, heavy body from the cold water and march back to camp a hero. Maybe this was his only chance at redemption. Maybe if he could not stop himself from killing people, at least he could save them after he attacked them, once he started thinking straight again.

  But after winding through the thick trees, when he arrived on the shore of the lake, Penelope’s body disappeared into an explosion of sparkles. The black water where she had been was now empty. It rippled harder now as if someone had just swooped in in those tiny moments he had blinked his eyes and had swept her out, leaving galloping waves behind. The moonlight reflected against the empty water in shattered slivers of white gold.

  Goodness jellybeans.

  In one revolting moment, he realized she had never been there. It had just been his imagination. He hated when he started imaging things like this. Because seeing bodies that disappeared into sparkles only meant one thing.

  Something terrifically bad was going to happen.

  *******

  Leo stared at her. This was not what he expected. But being the hot-blooded man he was, it was not like he could resist a beautiful woman, especially one he cared so much about. He obliged and kissed back. Gripping his hands under her thighs, he pulled her around him and swept her down beside him. Her legs wound and locked around his waist. He pulsed and hardened against her. It was as though the years between them disappeared and they were teenagers again.

  “Don’t be tender with me,” she said.

  “I want you to know, Mia”—he touched her face tenderly—“if you’re not writing those notes and someone else is writing them to hurt you”—he kept her eyes locked on his with a fierceness that he felt in his gut—“I will find them and I will destroy them. I promise you that.”

  She bit her lip. “Are you just saying that to get laid right now?

  “If you have to ask that question, Mia, then you don’t know the kind of man I am,” he said.

  “Then make love to me and show me who you are,” she said.

  “I fully intend to.” He clasped her mouth with his, his tongue stroking hers.

  He savored her. Letting himself fall helplessly drunk to her feminine taste. She trembled at the touch of his hands tracing her collarbone, gliding like warm oil down her arms. His fingers found hers and entwined in between them. Every movement between them was graceful, strong, like a carefully orchestrated dance whose ending was clear, but still a breathless surprise each step of the way. He pulled her to him with one hand; the other hand deftly found her panties and began removing them.

  “Nate will return any moment,” she murmured.

  “I know.”

  “We should hurry,” she whispered. Pleaded.

  A snapping noise outside the tent startled them. Mia clutched at Leo. “What was that?”

  “Probably just the wind,” he whispered as he kissed her neck.

  But he knew it wasn’t the wind and didn’t want to say that to her and ruin this moment.

  He was sure it was probably nothing. Maybe a curious raccoon or a small tree falling over. If the noise got any worse, he would stop and investigate. But for now, he was going to enjoy this moment he’d waited way too many years for.

  *******

  Sund
ay, September 17: 3:02 a.m.

  This is just crazy, Auxiliary Allan Michaels thought as he stood outside the brown brick police station, now lit up by street lamps in the murky dusk. Just ridiculous paranoid craziness.

  He pushed through the glass doors and strode inside. Bright florescent light blinded him. His eyes were used to the darkness outside. He wasn’t in uniform, still dressed in plainclothes attire of his gaming tee-shirt and mustard stained jeans.

  Martha, the receptionist, shoved what looked like the remains of a raspberry pastry in her mouth and said to him with a full mouth, “It’s your night off, Michaels. What are you doing here?” Powered sugar puffed in clouds from her lips. She clamped a hand, embarrassed, in front of her mouth.

  “I was hoping I could talk with the Chief real quick.” Michaels placed his sweaty palms on her counter and flashed her what he hoped looked like a confident grin. He never could quite pull off the confidence factor that other cops seemed to have so effortlessly going for them.

  She mumbled behind her hand, “You know he doesn’t have time to talk to Auxiliaries. Talk to your training partner, Constable Barter, about whatever is concerning you.”

  “That’s the thing.” Michaels looked past her and saw a group of cops making their way loudly from the investigation room. “She’s kind of, like…” He leaned close to her so only she could hear. “I think she’s kind of gone… missing.”

  “What’s that you say, Michaels?” One of the cops heard him. Constable Preston. He strutted over with Styrofoam coffee cup in hand like a belligerent rooster and reached out with his free hand to tousle Michael’s hair, as he always did. Allan ducked away from him, but this time not quickly enough. Preston managed to get it a few tousles and grinned at his own victory. “You lost your training partner, after just a few weeks on the job?”

  “I didn’t lose her. She’s on a hiking trip and I haven’t heard from her in a while—”

  “Hey, did you hear that, guys?” Preston yelled back to the group of cops huddled around the coffee maker. “Michaels here, says he lost his mommy. Barter. Says he’s gone days without her changing his diaper and it’s making him feel real sad.”

  “Wah, wah…” One of them chortled back. “Who’s titty he gonna suck on now?”

  Michaels felt his face burn. He knew it would be a mistake to come down to the station like this. God, what kind of rookie does a stupid thing like that?

  “Here’s what I suggest.” Preston turned his chuckling attention back on Michaels, his beer belly shaking with joy. “I say you get back home and catch up on your video games before your momma comes back wandering in from the woods and finds you here trying to do business without her.” He reached out for one more tousle.

  Michaels shook his head at Preston as he waddled off to the coffee maker. “Did you get a load of that one?” he asked the group who had already lost interesting and were guffawing at their next subject of ridicule.

  Martha shrugged at him before popping in another pastry. This time, she was less apologetic about it.

  Allan wordlessly waved at her and made his way back to his car, his cheeks still stinging right down to the bone. He slid into the driver seat and glared at the building. As obnoxious as he was, Preston was probably right. He should probably just forget about it. He twisted the ignition on. The engine battered and resisted until it finally chugged into action. He backed responsibly slowly out of his parking spot and looked up at his rearview mirror.

  And that was when he saw what would change everything.

  The fluffy dice dangling from his rearview mirror that his friend, Brad, had given him.

  *******

  Mia had a hard time relaxing after hearing weird noises outside the tent. The sounds eventually faded off into the distance and she fluttered her eyes closed, sinking into the familiar comforting feeling of being held in Leo’s arms. Anxiety rippled away from her with each and every one of his kisses.

  He cupped her breast in one hand, his fingers clenching and releasing until her nipple hardened to his touch. She gasped as warm electric tingles bloomed inside her nerve endings and then wiggled through her in delicious waves. She rolled her head back and groaned deeply. Viscerally.

  He grinned at her response and dotted hot kisses along her neck while sweeping up her shirt up and over her head. His hands swept down to her pajama pants, pulling them down in one swift movement. Her hands reached for his pants and she clambered to free him from them.

  He clasped one of her wrists and pushed it to the pillow beside her head. An odd glare played in his eyes and gripped hers. He leaned in and trickled hot kisses across her shoulder, while his hands floated down her back and found her bra clasp. Her fingertips expertly unwound the garment and freed her from its constraints. He skimmed the front of the bra, between the cups, plucked it from her goose-bumped skin, and then let it drop to a lump of neglected fabric beside her. He brushed it away with his fingertips, leaving nothing between them.

  She was starving for him. Her nerves coiled so tightly, she worried if he simply breathed on any tender part of her body, she might collapse into thunderous spasms.

  “Mmm…” His eyes gleamed like a cheeky wolf’s as he glided his fingers down to her panties, piercing aching, itching tingles through her. She shuddered. With one swoop, he removed his hands from her panties and dove an arm under her legs and the other across her back. In an instant, she was cradled in his arms. She felt her bottom kiss against the coldness of the glossy fabric, and he pushed her knees apart with his palms. Opening herself like a blooming flower to him. With a tender hand, he pushed her tummy and eased her to lie down her on her back.

  His lips nibbled at the insides of her thighs, tasting everything. He inched closer to her mound, where he tenderly took one lip into his mouth and sucked it, slightly too hard, sending tingles of pain and pleasure ripping through her. She groaned and her legs relaxed open even wider for him. His lips closed over her, baiting her with his warm tongue. Her body tensed and released, tensed and released, clawing closer and closer to the edge of explosion.

  He slid two fingers into her and curled them toward him, dragging a guttural moan from her. He lowered the flat of his hot tongue on her, pushing and suckling, without any restraint. He drove his fingers deeper inside her, down to his knuckles. He pushed and pulled against the struggling spasm of her muscles, muscles that desperately clamped in their attempt to resist against the explosion marching straight for them. Right at the edge, he cruelly paused his fingers and tongue, keeping her hovering. Writhing.

  “Oh God, what are you doing to me?” Her voice dripped with agony. “Don’t stop, Leo. Please.”

  He let go of her on the edge of release to grab a condom and roll it on.

  She squirmed at the sight of his generously muscled physique, wide, strong chiseled chest. Her eyes dropped from top to bottom to each delicious sight. His face, chest, abs, and then…She felt herself squirm in anticipation.

  “Hurry up,” she moaned.

  It was wrong, what they were doing, and at that moment she totally didn’t care.

  He came to her, condom fully in place, and sunk himself down onto her. His thick, hot, muscled arms encompassing her and rounding like a protective shell to her vulnerable softness. The strength of his embrace pulled her breasts against his hard, smooth chest. Her legs widened and lifted up around his waist, to drag him closer. Her body tingling with each of his unintentional touches. If he pressed even slightly harder, her body threatened to surrender to a landslide of euphoric spasms.

  His mouth found hers again. Drinking her. Devouring her. He moved to her collar and dotted to her shoulder, where he bit ever so lightly, but with enough teeth to take her breath away. He swept his mouth away from her shoulder and down across her breast and down her tummy, and then back up again. He played with her, let her worry about whether or not he would put her out of her misery.

  She writhed helplessly beneath him, internally begging him to just quit with this everl
asting foreplay and take her already. The aching, itching desire inside of her now bloomed into vicious agony. Besides, Nate had to be returning at any moment.

  Time was running out.

  Leo found his way back up to her breasts, where he sucked and nibbled with a roughness that smarted enough to drench her into pangs of sweet throbbing.

  “Leo,” she pleaded. Not wanting to sound pathetic. But she could no longer help herself.

  “Oh?” the word slithered from him like luscious red silk. “Do you want me?”

  How could she even answer that question? If he didn’t take her right now she was going to lose her mind. If he did, she was also going to lose her mind. If this was a choose-your-own-adventure, either choice would send her to the depths of insanity.

  “Please,” she sighed. “Don’t make me beg.”

  “Mmm…” he smiled lazily. He rolled onto his elbows on either side of her, and pushed her legs apart. She gasped and her eyes widened, unable to believe it. Was he finally going to end her squirming misery?

  He didn’t waste any more time teasing her.

  She gasped. The first clang of pain gripped her as she received his girth. Then the pain surrendered and rolled into waves of pleasing tingles. He slid back, and then thrust once more, this time deeper.

  The coil of tension that her muscles had wound finally released to shuddering explosion. Her body erupted into a euphoric rolling of sick pleasure that pulsed like violent fire through her. He held deep inside her while animal moans ground deep in her throat. Her knees quaked around his waist as she writhed into the delicious spasms.

  When they finished, Mia turned her head and caught a glimpse of the handwritten note someone she had shown Leo. It lay crumpled, now tucked in Leo’s shoe, like a papery time bomb silently ticking at her. She could feel it in her bones. Any minute now something bad was going to happen and everything would fall apart and shatter into hell.