by Jessie Cooke
Noah went to reach for the gun and Brian did too. Noah kicked it and then used his free hand to take Brian down to the floor. He dropped his own gun in the process but at least had the advantage still, since Brian was bleeding from a gaping wound in his shoulder. Nonetheless, he was freakishly strong and doing his best to get out from underneath. Noah got in a few good blows to Brian’s head, but he didn’t seem all that fazed by them. He was lifting his legs like a wrestler and trying to twist Noah off. Noah drew his fist back and landed a heavy punch right over the wound on his shoulder.
Brian had only whimpered when Noah shot him, but the squeeze caused him to cry out like a wounded animal. Noah grabbed that arm and twisted it up. Brian was using his other one to pummel Noah, but the PI could tell he was getting tired and between that, the blood loss, and the pain from Noah’s wrenching his arm around, he finally went slack. Noah could feel Brian’s chest rising and falling, so he was still alive…but he was out cold. Noah dropped his arm and as he started to push himself up off of him, he could hear the sirens in the background.
When Noah’s eyes fell on Ava, she was sitting up. Her poor face was bloody and swollen and it made Noah want to turn back around and put a bullet in Brian’s head. He was starting over to her when he felt Brian grab his legs. Noah went down hard, hitting the floor with a thump, and felt Brian pulling him back towards him. Then in a surreal turn of events, a gunshot exploded from behind him and Noah felt the spray of blood…and maybe brain matter…soak into the back of his shirt. Brian’s hold on him went slack and Ava’s big eyes were wide, and staring up at the doorway. Noah rolled over and was face to face with Collin, still holding the smoking gun in his hand. Standing behind him were Jace and Finn. Noah didn’t have time for any questions. He reached out and Collin laid the gun in his hand.
“Go,” was all Noah said. With one last look at his sister, Collin let the big hand Jace had on his back guide him out of the room. By the time the cops arrived there was no trace of Collin’s fingerprints on the gun…Noah only hoped that if it was an illegal one, there was no trace of that either.
15
“He’s gay?”
“I’m afraid so,” Noah told Kyla as she looked over the photos he had taken of her husband Ethan that week. He was sneaking out a few nights a week…but he wasn’t killing anyone, he was going to a gay strip club downtown. He left a few times from the clubs with different men, and Noah had intimate photos…unfortunately…of him in a car, in an alley, and in a motel, having some wild and kinky sex. After convincing a few men to talk to him…with a lot of cash and several refusals to trade favors…Noah found out that the day he lost Ethan, he had been on his way to a Friday afternoon swimsuit competition. He must have been in a hurry that day, because he was one of the contestants. He won…like Noah said before, there was just no accounting for taste. It did, however prove a theory that Ava and Noah both had about him from a few of his photos. Noah felt bad for Kyla, though; she was taking it hard.
“Gay? Look at me? I can turn gay men straight and straight women lesbian! Gay?” Noah knew it was all rhetorical, so he let her rant. She smoked too, several cigarettes. He was going to have to air the place out before Ava came back to work or he was going to be in big trouble. When Kyla finished her rant and then the subsequent meltdown, she paid him his fees and took the photos with her. Noah was happy about that; he needed the money. After she left, he sat looking at the phone. He was dying to call Ava, just to hear her voice.
It had been almost two weeks since he’d found her. Little Aiden had made it to the gas station at the corner and they had called 911. The police came and got a preliminary on what happened and then had them all taken to the emergency room by ambulance. After the hospital finished with them they were whisked down to police headquarters to give their full statements and then Ava’s family took her home. Noah had to go through the usual interviews and interrogations before the D.A. finally declared Brian’s death self-defense. They did question him about the gun, which Noah told them was his “backup” piece. He thought if someone had to do some time over it, he’d rather it was him than Collin.
It took them a week to close the case without filing charges. Apparently, the gun was clean. S.F.P.D. was able to close their double homicide too, based on a gun and some bloody clothing that was found during a search of Brian’s storage shed, and Aiden was no longer missing. That day before the ambulance took Noah away he had to witness Ava’s agony as Aiden was taken from her arms again. Social services in San Francisco followed him to the children’s hospital to have him checked out…and then would be in charge of finding a new home for him.
Noah had done his best, but he hadn’t been able to reach Ava at all since then. Her phone stayed off and when he called the brothers, they hung up on him. He’d been out to the clubhouse twice, but Collin hadn’t been there either time. Apparently, according to Jace, Collin had been there when Noah reached out for help that day. Finn had given him the gun, and Collin hadn’t hesitated to use it to save Noah’s life. Jace was impressed. Noah was grateful, but worried about how taking a life might affect Ava’s brother…his friend. But like the rest of the family, Collin wouldn’t talk to him.
Noah had no idea why he was still the bad guy, but maybe Collin was right and he just didn’t know a lot about being a brother. He was lucky enough once when he called the house phone to get a hold of Ava’s mother. She politely told Noah Ava was healing and doing well, and was dealing with social services with regards to Aiden, and that she would tell Ava that he called. After that brief update, they all simply ignored his calls, and if he blocked his number and got through, they simply hung up as soon as he spoke.
Hayden told Noah that the girl with the red hair in the alley had definitely already been dead before her throat was slit and the syringe put in her arm. Someone was trying to make it look like she was the Valentine Killer’s victim…Brian maybe? They might never know.
The Valentine Killer did leave one of his originals just a few days before this. The girl was tall and thin with dark hair and hazel eyes. Hayden called Noah and after he went out and looked at the body and told him it wasn’t Ciara, he spent the rest of the night with his head in the toilet wondering how long it would be before it was. His little sister was out there somewhere, lost right in the middle of the Valentine Killer’s hunting grounds…and she was just his type. If the heroin didn’t get her, it was probably only a matter of time before the killer did.
Noah heard the chime of the front door and reluctantly got up and went to see who was there. He wasn’t in the mood for a client. He stepped out of his office and was treated to a beautiful sight.
“Hey, boss, playing solitaire again?” The bruises on her beautiful face were faded to a soft yellow that still made him want to kill Brian all over again, but the smile looked genuine and her eyes looked clear and happy.
“Candy Crush,” he said. They stood there looking at each other for several seconds before he finally opened his arms. She didn’t move for another few seconds and his heart skipped a few beats before she folded herself into them. Noah couldn’t remember anything ever feeling as good as she did in his arms. He held her just like that for a long time and when she finally pulled back she had tears in her eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m just so sorry. I should have told someone from the beginning about Brian and then all of this would have never happened.”
“None of this was your fault, Ava. Every one of us has things in our past that we hope never get out. There was no way you could have anticipated just how insane that man was…so stop beating yourself up. You’ve already been through too much.” She smiled, but it was obvious that she didn’t agree with him. Noah knew her well; she would carry guilt around with her for a long time over all of it…that was just how she was. It was part of her charm, he thought, actually.
“Aiden called me last night,” she said, taking a seat. Noah sat down next to her and said:
“How is he?”
“He says he’s doing well. He asked me if he could come and live with me now.” Noah couldn’t tell by the look on her face how she felt about that, so he just waited. “I already looked into it. Even though he’s mine biologically, I’d have to adopt him since rights were terminated so long ago.”
“So…you’re thinking about it?”
She nodded. “Am I crazy? I mean, what do I know about taking care of a kid?”
“You take care of me; it can’t be much harder than that.”
She laughed, “Nothing is harder than that. If I hadn’t been there that day, you would have never gotten a hold of that gun. You were getting your ass whooped. Who taught you how to fight anyway, my Aunt Martha?”
“I’m a lover, not a fighter,” Noah told her with a grin. She smiled and then took him by surprise by standing up out of her chair and dropping down onto his lap. She put her arms around his neck and kissed him softly on the lips.
“Thank you so much,” she said. Noah kissed her back, just softly too, but he wanted so much more.
“You’re welcome.”
“I missed you,” she said with another kiss.
“I missed you like you would not believe.” This time he kissed her harder and she let her lips part. He tasted her slowly with his tongue. God, she was sweet.
“I’m not sure we should keep doing this…we’ll have to talk about it…but maybe just for today…” She was kissing him as she was talking. The vibrations of her mouth against his were so sexy.
“Okay…we could do…one day at a time…for now….”
“In your office?”
“I’ll lock up and be right there.”
Noah turned the closed sign and the lock on the door and when he got back to the office she was waiting for him in nothing but a lacy black bra and a tiny little strip of black lace for underwear. His mouth went completely dry and he was lightheaded from the loss of blood from his brain.
“Have you ever had sex in this office with anyone else?”
“No.”
“Good,” she said with a grin. “Have you ever had that fantasy where you sweep everything off the top of the desk in one grand motion and then throw the girl up there?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Was I the girl?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“You want to live out your fantasy?”
“Absolutely,” he said. Noah walked over to the desk and she said:
“Oh, wait!” She moved the office phone/intercom onto the floor under the desk. Then she took his laptop and put it on top of the filing cabinet. Noah was enjoying the hell out of watching her move around the room in her sexy underwear. “I just bought you this,” she said of the blotter as she moved that too. “I don’t want these to break.” She moved the in-and-out boxes and the pencil cups. There were a few pieces of paper and a pen on the desk when she finished. “Okay, go ahead,” she said. Noah had to bite his bottom lip to keep from laughing as he swept his arm across it and knocked the few paltry items to the floor. Then he turned around and took her by the waist and pulled her into him. He brushed a strand of sexy hair off her face and kissed her. This time it was a slow, passionate kiss. When he broke it he picked her up and sat her on the desk.
Noah was standing between her legs and she kicked them out, wrapped them around him, and pulled him into her with her leg muscles. He reached around and unhooked her bra. He had to catch his breath as her gorgeous breasts fell out, even though he’d seen them just a couple of weeks ago…it felt like the first time all over again. He put his mouth down on one and gently sucked on it. She moaned and put one of her hands against the bulge in his pants. She rubbed it while he sucked on her sweet nipples. God, she felt so good. Noah could actually feel the heat of her hand through his jeans and was so hard for her that he was afraid if she didn’t stop he would cum in his pants.
He reached between her legs, still with a delicious nipple in his mouth, and moved the little strip of lace to the side. She was so wet, and his fingers found their way to her clit and began to stroke it as he played with her nipples. She squirmed against his hand and moaned. The little noises she made drove him crazy. His cock was on fire, pushing against his jeans, dying to get out. He took his mouth from her nipple and his fingers from her clit and slipped off her tiny panties. He dropped to his knees and grabbed hold of her hips, pulling her to the edge of the desk. With one long, slow stroke he licked her sweet, wet pussy. He heard her suck in a big breath and hold it as he began to stroke up and down with his tongue, stopping every so often to suck her clit in between his lips and run his tongue across it. She tasted so sweet and he was so into it that he didn’t realize she was ready to cum until he felt the hot rush of it against his tongue. He kept the pressure of his tongue against her clit until she’d ridden through the last wave.
“Oh my God, Noah! Oh, baby, that’s so good.”
Noah moved back up to her lips and kissed her again, deep and hard, letting her taste herself on him, and then picked her up again and turned her around. He unhooked his jeans and pushed them down with his boxers as quickly as he could. Then he pressed on the small of her back gently with one hand and she arched it. Noah took his aching cock in his hand and rubbed it up and down between her legs. She groaned and pushed back against him. He lined up and let himself slide into her. She fitted like a glove and Noah would swear to God’s face that he’d never felt anything as good as her.
He stroked in and out, slowly at first, and they both just enjoyed being joined together again…at last. When she started moving a little faster and pushing back a little harder, Noah put a hand around in front and found her clit again with his fingers. She moved her hips in and out as his fingers rubbed and pinched and pulled. She was moaning and so was he, and when she came again she let out a long, deep moan that came from somewhere deep in her throat. That was all he could take. He grabbed her by the hips with both hands and as she braced herself on the side of the desk, he drove his cock into her over and over, pounding hard so the sound of flesh slapping against flesh was almost deafening in the room. It wasn’t long before he felt himself go rigid and the agony and ecstasy of his release began to build from deep in his core. She was bucking wildly against him as he came and a sound came out of his throat that he didn’t even recognize as himself…or as human.
He wrapped his arms around her and collapsed down against her smooth back. This was what heaven felt like. Noah was sure of it.
16
The Valentine Killer
The killer read the article three times. There was nothing in it about the note. He’d left another note for the “hero” PI. And if he had to read one more article about how the man had saved that assistant of his and some kid…he thought he might puke. “Catch me if you can,” you arrogant prick. The police and the newspapers were withholding things so that when and if they ever got a suspect into the interrogation room, they could trip them up. Or, when the crackpots called in and confessed, they couldn’t get all of their information from the morning paper.
He took another sip of his coffee and read it again. As he read how his last beauty was found, splayed out across the dumpster, for the fourth time, he felt himself getting aroused. He looked across at his wife. She’d had the skin on her face stretched taut so many times that the skin on her neck was beginning to look thin. He wondered what it would feel like to drag his knife across it and watch her bleed. He bet just pressing the blade into that thin skin would slice it wide open and he smiled at the thought.
“What are you smiling at?” she asked. The killer hadn’t realized she’d looked up from her part of the paper.
“You,” he said.
She smiled at him. He could only tell because her lips were parted. Her face was so tight that it didn’t move enough to show emotion anymore. He wondered when he killed her if the silicone would ooze out…or maybe the Botox would drip slowly down her chest….
He was getting antsy again. He’d have to go out and start looking again soon…
maybe tonight. He thought back to the waitress that blond man had killed that night. He had watched as he snapped her neck. He’d made it look so easy that the killer was intrigued and he had since been practicing with his mannequins in the basement. Now he was itching to try it on a live one. He looked across at his wife again and thought… “I’ll bet that skinny neck would snap like a twig…”
17
A jolt of pain that shot from Ciara’s shoulder all the way down to her elbow woke her up and she pulled her head upright. That was a mistake, as the pain just shot back up and lodged itself into the center of her skull. For probably the millionth time she yanked against the ropes. It was a useless waste of energy, but she had no idea how long she’d been there now and she kept hoping something had changed. Not today. The rope was still wrapped around her stomach and her wrists were bound against it. From there it made a loop and went down and wrapped around both of her ankles. The bastard was so smug that he hadn’t even tied it to anything other than her naked body. It was like a pulley system, though; if she pulled too hard on either of them it would almost bend her in half and the pain in her spine would become unlike anything she had ever even imagined. It was funny, she thought, in a way. Ciara Campbell had wanted to die for most of her adult life. She had tried to take her own life a few times, but like everything else, she had screwed it up. Now that she was on the verge of dying, she had suddenly found a new will to go on. Ciara figured that it was a shining example of how fucked up her head was. She thought she should be praying for death by then, yet the reason she wasn’t was that the one person she had resigned herself to never see again was the only reason that she wasn’t begging the sadistic son of a bitch holding her to cut her throat right then.
Ciara let her head relax back and realized, almost as soon as she did, that it was also a mistake. The fucking light he kept on 24/7 was so bright and her eyes were so heavy that they instantly closed again. She knew that she was sleeping too much. She was afraid that she was going to close her eyes one of these times and never open them again. She pictured the sadistic bastard’s creepy smile and knew that she didn’t want to do anything to make him happy…most especially die.