“Satisfaction comes in many forms. Maybe I can help you find what you’re missing in life.” Mandy was nearly as tall as Luke. She lifted her hand and moved her fingers to the side of his neck, gently pulling his face toward her parted lips.
Mandy’s lips were as soft as marshmallows and more delicious. Luke’s heart raced as euphoria tingled down his spine. This moment was a dream come true, and one he wanted to hold onto forever. She pressed her body against his. Something in her musk stirred his cock to life. Luke embraced her tightly letting her know he was just as much of a man as any of the others. This was the woman he loved. This was the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. There would be nothing that could ever come between them. He would give her whatever her heart desired and would die if it meant to protect one hair on her head from being harmed.
“We can be soul mates,” she whispered in his ear.
“I’d like that.”
Mandy stepped back with her arms to the side and grabbed a hand of his in each of hers. “I’ve waited a long time to open up and tell my story to someone I can trust.”
“We’re together now. You can tell me anything. We’ve got all the time in the world.”
She sighed and briefly looked toward the water before turning her attention back to Luke. “It will be hard to put everything into words—especially my feelings.” Mandy’s expression went blank. “I spent most of my youth in a walking coma. From the time my mom married Charles Rivers to when they both died I only had one true friend.”
“A friend? Who?”
“I’m getting a little ahead of myself. I’ll get back to that. I try not to think too much about my past. I remember being happy before they got married, though. I remember my mom taking me to McDonald’s on my third birthday. I slid down the Hamburglar slide, rode the Mayor McCheese merry-go-round, and climbed up this Big Mac house and waved down at her through the bars. My favorite was to hide in the ball pit and jump out and surprise her. I had chicken nuggets and cupcakes she bought from a bakery afterward. We lived in a small apartment and didn’t have much, but we were happy. Things changed when she started dating Charles.” She chuckled. “Maybe dating isn’t the right word.”
“What do you mean?”
“My mother was a stripper. Of course, I had no idea back then. She must have been good, too. Charles was loaded, and she managed to get her hooks deep enough into him that he married her. Things got worse from there. Charles was very abusive to both me and my mother. He never seemed happy with anything we did. Well, there was one thing—the only thing he married my mother for, I think. He was some kind of sex freak. I’d hear them every morning before he went to work and every night when they went to bed. He’d even come home for lunch sometimes and she’d blow him while he ate.”
“You saw this? That’s sick.”
“I’d just walk in on them sometimes. I know he wanted me to see it. Mom would protest, but by that time she had already started taking pills to sleep and pills to help her wake up. The vodka bottle was always next to the tomato juice at breakfast.”
“Did you ever try and talk to her about it?”
“A few times. She said she loved him, and that he was a great provider. She said she wanted me to have everything money could buy. Bullshit. She did it for herself. She must have had five hundred pairs of shoes in her closet and a gemstone ring for every day of the year. She loved being rich.”
“Having money is a wonderful thing.”
“Having money nearly made me kill myself. I started running away at ten. They sent me to a few different shrinks but didn’t start drugging me until I cut my wrist.” Mandy pulled her bracelet aside and held her arm up for Luke to see the scar. “Charles didn’t start coming into my bedroom at night until I was fifteen.”
Luke reeled in horror. “Oh, my God! No!”
Mandy’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, yes. He took advantage of me. He wanted a younger version of my mother. Life was a living hell, and my friend showed me how I needed to live my life to find happiness. I was scared at first, but he was right. Life is just one grand fucking adventure now.” The fire returned to her eyes.
“There you go with this friend again. Are you going to tell me about him now?” Luke’s emotions had taken a rollercoaster ride over the past several minutes. He had been so focused, and life’s path—so clear, before they kissed. Now, Mandy’s life story had unfolded in a way he’d never imagined. He prepared himself for anything. Nothing would get in the way. Nothing.
“Take a walk with me to the end of the pier. There’s something I want to show you.” Mandy took Luke’s hand and led the way.
*
Luke stood at the end of the pier and stared out over the vastness of the Gulf of Mexico. He squinted his eyes as the hot sun burned his retinas. Mandy’s hand was cool to the touch, and he made sure to hold on to it tightly. His eyes widened as the large fin cut the water and circled around the pier.
A shark!
He had never seen one so close before, and this one was big. “Mandy, look! That thing is huge.” Luke stared like a mesmerized kid on Christmas morning.
“That’s who I wanted to introduce you to.” She reached down toward the water.
“Mandy, what are you doing!” He grabbed an arm to pull her away, but she shrugged him off.
The shark made a line for the pier, and its massive head rose out the water. Luke gasped, expecting the jagged teeth to take off Mandy’s hand, but instead the shark allowed itself to be stroked as it passed.
“What the fuck?”
“This is Grey. He’s my friend. My only real friend. Besides you, now.”
“Mandy…I…I don’t know what to think right now.” He felt nauseous at the sight of the large bull shark swimming around so calm and carefree.
“There’s nothing to think about. Grey saved me. He gave me a purpose in life. He showed me a way.” A sick grin crossed her face. “He killed my parents.”
“I thought they died in a boating accident?”
“They did, sort of. It was the night I finally had enough of Charles raping me, and I ran away, got into one of our boats. I didn’t really have a plan, but they came after me, and Grey was waiting for them. It was beautiful what he did. He took away all my pain that night.”
“Why didn’t you tell anyone what happened?”
“Tell them what? That a bull shark killed my parents? They’d have sent people out to hunt him down. He isn’t evil. They were. They deserved to die, not him. I hope we can keep this secret between us, Luke.”
“Yeah, you can trust me. This is all just a bit much for me to take in.”
“It’s okay. We’re together now. Just you and me, looking out for one another. We need to be able to trust one another with secrets.”
“How about you tell us your biggest secret, murderer?” Glenn said.
The world came to a screeching halt as Luke saw his friend step out onto the pier. At that moment, he knew things were never going to be the same again.
*
“What did you just call me?” Mandy asked. Her voice was cool and dry. Luke’s head was spinning.
“Glenn, what’s going on, man?” Luke suspiciously eyed his friend, unsure if he’d heard correctly.
“Luke, get away from her. She’s dangerous.” Glenn choked on the words. His face was a deep shade of crimson, and his hands fidgeted with the straps of the backpack. “I know all about you, Mandy. What you are. What you’ve done.”
“And what’s that?” Mandy asked followed by a cocky grin.
“You kill people.”
Luke let out a laugh. “Okay, Glenn, this is kind of funny, and I’m not sure what you two are doing, but that’s ridiculous. Right, Mandy?”
Mandy said nothing. A lone tear rolled down her cheek, and her focus never left Glenn. The shark swam closer to the pier. Luke felt it shake when the large fish’s body rubbed against the pilings. It was like being in a classic Western standoff and both gunmen were ready for the oth
er to draw their weapon.
“Mandy, he’s just playing around, right?”
“Luke, of course he’s not serious. I think he’s drunk…or high. Glenn, did you find my stepdad’s stash?”
“No, Mandy, I found something much better. Your wigs, your weapons, and about a dozen wallets and IDs, all belonging to the people you’ve killed. What are they? Trophies for you to remember the good times? I’ve got the evidence in my backpack. And the more I think about it, I’m not so sure our friends didn’t suffer a similar fate.”
Mandy laughed. “I didn’t get a chance to add their stuff to the pile.”
“You fucking monster!” Glenn ran forward and tackled Mandy.
Both bodies hit the pier hard. Mandy used his momentum to straddle him. She dug in deep with her nails, tearing pieces of flesh from his cheek, and trying to gouge out his eyes. Glenn screamed and raised his hands to protect himself. A thunderous right cross hit Mandy underneath the jaw as she rolled off and Glenn maneuvered on top. He pummeled her again and again, each punch finding its mark. Luke was so stunned he couldn’t move.
“Luke, help me!” Mandy wailed.
Luke broke the invisible chains and sprang forward. He’d only meant to pull Glenn off and separate the two, but tripped over a loose board on the pier. His shoulder crashed into Glenn’s right side as Glenn raised his fist to hit Mandy again.
The shock knocked Glenn off, and he rolled once before falling into the water with a splash.
Luke dropped to Mandy’s side and carefully brushed her hair out of her face. Blood ran from her nose and chin. A patch of hair was slick from an open wound.
“Get him, Grey!”
Luke had forgotten about the shark. He reached over the side and offered his hand for rescue.
The boy choked and sputtered as he frantically reached for Luke’s hand. The backpack filled with water, and Glenn’s wet jeans and water-logged boots held him down. He made an attempt at Luke’s hand but missed. Glenn’s eyes pleaded with his best friend to save him.
The attack came suddenly, and Luke saw the shark’s massive head appear from behind. Rows of teeth emerged from the green water and sank down on Glenn’s back. Glenn screamed and grabbed Luke’s hand. It was too late. Luke felt a tug far stronger than he could ever hope to overcome and was nearly pulled off the pier. Glenn’s hand slipped from his grasp. Luke watched in horror as his friend disappeared beneath the water. Large bubbles broke on the surface, and then went still.
“No…no!” Hot tears ran down his face. He felt he might vomit. He’d just watched his friend killed before him, and he was the one responsible.
“We don’t need anyone, baby. You got me.”
Mandy’s soft lips kissed his cheek, and her full breast pushed against the back of his head as she embraced him. He allowed himself to be swallowed up by her and felt like a different type of predatory animal had just descended upon him.
Chapter 16
Luke couldn’t believe his eyes. Glenn’s arms flailed in the air as he pleaded for help. The shark, torpedoing down the coast and heading around the bend, would soon be out of sight. Glenn would be nothing more than a snack for the monstrous aquatic beast.
“Glenn? Glenn?” he heard himself repeat his friends name. He didn’t know how many times he had said it, mesmerized at the horrific event. The shouts faded, replaced by waves gently splashing on the pier. The sun beat from above, but a bead of cold sweat trickled down his cheek.
“It’s for the best.” Mandy hugged Luke’s chest and kissed the back of his neck.
“I…I killed him.”
“No, you didn’t. You were protecting me. Grey, too. He protects me from those who would hurt me. Glenn got what he deserved. That’s how fate works, you know? Karma or destiny or any other name you want to use. It’s a way the universe has a way of getting even.” She squeezed him tighter.
“But he’s dead. Just like that. Snatched away, and I couldn’t save him. I didn’t mean for him to die. I just wanted to get him off you.” Luke turned around and took a half-step back when he saw Mandy’s face. “My God, Mandy. You’re hurt!”
Gray-black circles surrounded her eyes and blood smeared her cheek where she had wiped it from her nose. Half the upper lip on the right side of her mouth was swollen three times its size. “I’ll be okay.”
“No, you look bad. We have to get you to the doctor, right now.”
“Really, Luke, calm down. I’ll heal. It doesn’t hurt like you think. I have a high tolerance for pain. I like it.”
“What?”
“You have so much to learn about me. Think for a minute. What if things in normal life didn’t bring you pleasure? Video games, movies, rollercoaster rides—wouldn’t you get bored? Wouldn’t you search for new ways to keep life worth living?”
“Sure. I guess.”
“I have a hard time feeling things—emotionally and physically. Pain is something that bridges the two. Pain is warm and exciting.” She poked at her swollen lip. “See, this feels amazing.” Mandy grabbed the back of Luke’s head and covered his mouth with hers. She pushed her tongue in deep and pressed her groin into his. Three short whimpers later she pulled away and exhaled in orgasm. Mandy leaned over slightly and caught her breath. “That…that was great.”
Luke looked at Mandy and saw a hungry lioness instead of what he’d believed was a sweet kitten. The carefree high school coed wasn’t as simple minded as she pretended. Mandy was a complex array of dark lusts leading into a deep labyrinth of mystery.
Mandy lifted her head and smiled. “That was so good. You and I are going to have so much fun being together. I can’t wait for you to move in. I’ve been planning a lot of trips—some even out of the country. We are going to fuck on the Eiffel Tower and in front of the Sphinx in Egypt.”
“But, I’m supposed to go to college. I’ve been accepted, and I have an apartment waiting for me and everything.”
“College? What for? I can give you everything you need, everything you want. Cars, motorcycles, dinners at the finest restaurants, and any other toys that grown men like.” The evil grin returned. “Plus, you get to have all of me, whenever you want.”
“My parents? What will I tell them? I’ll lose my scholarship. What about my future? What if we break up?”
“Stop worrying. I’ve waited too long to have my dreams spoiled. I can put a million dollars into a bank account that will be all yours. That way if anything comes between us, you’ll be able to go wherever you want. And your parents? Hell, I’ll give them a million, too.”
“I don’t know.” Luke gazed at the pier and shook his head. “Stop worrying. I’ve got it all figured out.”
“I’m sorry, Mandy. This is so quick. I have so many questions. There’s so much I don’t know about you, about that shark. What about our friends? Are they dead like Glenn said?” Did Grey get them? How are we going to explain that?”
“Well, we are going to have to clean up some before we call the police. We’ll make up some story how they took a midnight walk down the beach and never came back.”
“But they’ll hold us both for questioning. What will I say?”
“Easy. If you don’t know anything you can’t say anything. The story is, I broke up with Chet to be with you. Chet got upset and said he was going to take a walk. Sarah chased after him, and so did Desmond. Serena followed, and Glenn didn’t want to be the odd man out and left, too. You and I went to bed, and we didn’t find them missing until the next day.”
“I don’t know.”
“Luke, they can’t pin anything at all on us. They have to have a body. I assure you.” A smile widened across her swollen lips. “Grey leaves no evidence behind.”
“What will the police think?”
“A big wave caught them up and pulled them to sea. Pirates picked them up and sold them into slave labor. UFOs took them to another planet. I don’t know, and I don’t care. We have a simple story, and we stick to it. We don’t know what happened, and we aren�
��t even going to offer any suggestions.”
Luke was at a crossroad. Either path would change his life forever. He could go to the police and tell them everything he knew, even the fight he had with Glenn that sent him into the water. His death was an accident. But what if they didn’t believe him? What if they held him in jail as a suspect? His parents would be financially devastated trying to save him, and he was sure to lose his scholarship. Mandy would definitely go to jail. But what if she told them that he had been an accomplice? The truth wouldn’t matter then.
The other road had him gallivanting over the world with a beautiful, but unstable, hot young woman, burning life’s candle at both ends. How bad could that be?
Pleading ignorance did sound like his best chance in escaping the legal tsunami of five missing teens from a beach house. If the police found enough evidence to convict Mandy there was no way they wouldn’t find a way to make some charges stick on him.
“It might work.” Luke’s mind reeled with crime stories he had watched on TV and tried to remember where criminals made mistakes. “They’ll put us in separate rooms. Ask us questions and try to trick us into changing our story. They might even lie and say things like I told them you did it, just so you’ll break. Or, they might even tell me you said that I did it. We’re going to have to be real careful or we’ll get caught.”
“If they start asking questions, we’ll just ask for a lawyer and go from there. It will make them suspicious, but in the long run they won’t have a leg to stand on. We’ll get off without a strike on our record.”
“We corroborate our own stories. Make it as simple as possible. And we need to get rid of any incriminating evidence. You said we had some cleaning to do?”
“Yeah. I need to clean some blood off a knife, and I should go over the fish cleaning station to make sure there’s no blood there. You probably should go by the pier at the public beach and buy some fish from the fisherman. We’ll clean them and smear the guts around to contaminate any evidence I might have missed.”
Slipway Grey: A Deep Sea Thriller Page 9