Steal Me (Longshadows Book 1)

by Natalia Banks

  For a few minutes anyway.

  After work, Carter cut through Central Park on his way to the subway station. He kept flashing back on Kathleen Le Fleur, wondering whether or not he should just contact her directly. It was strictly against company policy; Tia McBride had made that crystal clear. But Tia McBride, impressive as she was, didn’t control Carter Fields’ destiny anymore than anybody else did. Only one man decided what Carter Fields did.

  Carter Fields.

  But Ms. McBride did have a point, and there were ethical considerations.

  She could have a boyfriend she’s happily returned to, Carter considered, perhaps even a husband…or a wife. I have no right to prowl around in her life, not in any way. She wanted only what she got, and she got precisely what she wanted. She paid for security; she deserves to be left alone. Anything else is wrong in every way.

  But I know she wants me; I can feel it; I can sense it!

  Chapter 14

  Carter

  Carter walked up out of the subway station toward his brownstone, just a few blocks down West 48th St. But there was a tension in the air—a certain spark he couldn’t quite identify but also could not ignore. Around him, all was quiet, peaceful in that suburban part of Manhattan, where trees were green and traffic minimal, where he could live like a human being even in that den of animals and demons.

  But as he approached the stoop of his building, a familiar figure stepped out from behind the stoop—the downward staircase into the basement apartment. He was well-dressed as always, an expensive Armani blazer over his incredible frame. Carter stopped, knowing that face as well as he knew his own. He slowed to a stop, only a few yards away from that knowing grin, those winking blue eyes.

  “Houston,” Carter said, feet stopping in their tracks.

  “Carter.”

  Carter turned, but he already knew what, or who, he’d find there. “AJ.”

  “Carter,” AJ said, the perfect image of his twin brother. Carter could only stand as the matching marauders closed in on him from either side.

  Carter calmly asked, “How can I help you two?”

  “We’re here to help you, Carter. It’s time…it’s time to settle up.”

  Carter smiled, the twins leaving a few feet of space between them and the man they believed to be their captive. But Carter had other ideas. “I owe you nothing.”

  “You owe us your life,” AJ said from behind Carter, taking one step closer. “It’s time to make good on that debt, Carter.”

  “Don’t be so sour about it,” Houston said with a charming smile. “It won’t be as bad as you think. Just sort of…let go, y’know, leave it all behind. It’ll feel like…like falling asleep in a nice, warm bath.”

  Carter shook his head, glancing from one twin to another, hands flexing open and closed, readying for action. He strained his head to the left, a series of cracks rising up from his spine. Another turn of the head and shoulders released another cluster of clicks and pops.

  “I prefer showers,” Carter said assuredly.

  “Carter, Carter, Carter…” Her voice came at him from the side as Meadow Fields strode across the street, casual, knowing, long legs in an easy stride. “Why won’t you just come to your senses?”

  “Meadow,” Carter said with a subtle shake of his head. “I knew you’d turn up. Wherever the Tweedles are, so goes Alice, straight through the Looking Glass.”

  She snickered, pretty and pleasant and venomous. “Sweet burn, Carter. Don’t you see you’re wasting your life on this…torrid nonsense? That Tia McBride is nothing more than a high-class pimp—”

  “And that makes you nothing but a high-class whore,” AJ said to Carter.

  “Dad’s sick about it,” Houston said. “You’re driving him to an early grave.”

  Carter said, “It’s his life, it’s his death. I don’t approve of either one and you all know it. He’s dug his own grave, same way we all do.”

  “He wants to see you.”

  “He already knows me,” Carter said. “What’s to see, and why? Just tell him I haven’t changed and leave it at that!”

  Meadow approached Carter with a gentle smile. “Is that true? Haven’t you changed? I can see it in you, Carter. Something in you, it’s…dissatisfied with all this, tired of your childish rebellion. This isn’t a serious life, and it’s beneath a man of our capability—a mind of your depth and breadth.”

  Carter huffed up a bemused chuckle. “What makes you think you know anything about what I want?”

  Meadow put her hand on his arm and gave him a gentle squeeze. “Because you’re my brother, Carter. Because I love you, and because I want to take care of you.”

  “Help me be all that I can be?”

  Meadow smiled, shaking her head. “That is what we want, yes. Dad especially. You know you were always his favorite, Carter. Why go on breaking his heart?”

  “If he had one I might give it some thought.” Carter sneered at Meadow, then at his brothers, the twins. “Because what he’s doing is wrong, and because you’re all just as culpable as he is for playing along.”

  “Carter, meds are just expensive—that’s life; it’s not our fault.”

  “But it is, Meadow, it is precisely that—his fault, your fault and everyone who builds mansions on the bodies of the poor and the unfortunate. This man you love so much, the man who shelters you, the man you’d think I’d allow to shelter me?” Carter gave that some thought, but there was no surprise to the revelation. “What a good man, courageous and forthright, decent and true. So he sent his goons to come pick me up.”

  “We’re your siblings,” Meadow said. “We love you. We want you to come home.”

  Carter stood among them, feeling as cold and alone as he had at any time in his life. Even among his closest relatives, the people who, genetically and culturally and practically speaking, were as close to him if not closer than anybody else on Earth.

  AJ Fields was the only exception.

  Yet Carter stood there as if surrounded by strangers, by predators, the last man standing. There was no explaining himself to those three, or the man they represented. He’d tried and failed too many times to recall or recount. This wasn’t the time or the place for explanations. For Carter, this wasn’t the time or place for anything.

  So he walked up the steps to his building’s front door, and turned. “I’m already home,” was all he had to say.

  George and Shirley chirped loudly in their cage to see him, and Carter was happy to open the cage door. The parakeets jumped onto his hand, eager to cuddle their little faces against his relatively tremendous cheeks and chin as if he’d given birth to them himself. His big fingers were delicate and loving as they lightly scratched the backs of their heads, George’s yellow and green, Shirley’s blue and white. They looked up at him with their little black eyes, tiny beaks yellow and tucked into their necks. He gently stroked their backs and their wings as they fluttered in place, little clicks and chirps decrying their joy. They jumped onto his shoulders, just enough power in their clipped wings to do so, one on each side, nuzzling the backs of his ears.

  Carter tried to get his mind off his siblings and their unwelcome appearance. They should know better, he told himself. Why won’t they just leave me alone? They hate me, and so does the old man. What’s the point of coming at me time and again? I’m not of their tribe. I never was and I never will be. I’m not a liar. I may be something of a performer; I may hide behind a persona, a facade, but I am what I am and I do what I want. I make people happy, I help them get through their lives, and that’s everything the Fields family stands against on every front.

  Carter sat down and picked up a copy of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. Longtime one of his favorite stories by his single favorite author, he felt a kinship with Swift and his perspective. Like Carter, Swift took on other names, other personae. And Swift was a rebel, like Carter, gleefully flinging satires like A Modest Proposal in the faces of those pompous, corrupt, soulless autho
rities like his siblings and his father. A Modest Proposal had suggested eating poor children as a remedy for both overpopulation and widespread famine and a drain on public services. As far as he could see, his own family were ready to eat their young, and they were just the audience, and subject, for such a satire.

  But on that day it was Gulliver, the man who became a giant in a world of little people—a story which spoke to Carter on so many levels. He felt alone in the world, misunderstood, different from the population around him.

  Only Kathleen Le Fleur seemed to want to know more.

  No, Carter told himself, feed the birds and read your damned book!

  The pages had that familiar smell and feel, rough edges and ink that would smear with a hard push. And in those pages Carter saw himself, his own perspective, his past and his present, his life, and perhaps his death.

  I enjoyed perfect health of body, and tranquillity of mind; I did not feel the treachery or inconstancy of a friend, nor the injuries of a secret or open enemy. I had no occasion of bribing, flattering, or pimping, to procure the favour of any great man, or of his minion; I wanted no fence against fraud or oppression: here was neither physician to destroy my body, nor lawyer to ruin my fortune; no informer to watch my words and actions, or forge accusations against me for hire: here were no gibers, censurers, backbiters, pickpockets, highwaymen, housebreakers, attorneys, bawds, buffoons, gamesters, politicians, wits, splenetics, tedious talkers, controvertists, ravishers, murderers, robbers, virtuosos; no leaders, or followers, of party and faction; no encouragers to vice, by seducement or examples; no dungeon, axes, gibbets, whipping-posts, or pillories; no cheating shopkeepers or mechanics; no pride, vanity, or affectation; no fops, bullies, drunkards, strolling whores, or poxes; no ranting, lewd, expensive wives; no stupid, proud pedants; no importunate, overbearing, quarrelsome, noisy, roaring, empty, conceited, swearing companions; no scoundrels raised from the dust upon the merit of their vices, or nobility thrown into it on account of their virtues; no lords, fiddlers, judges, or dancing-masters.

  Chapter 15

  Kat

  Shin Lu sat behind her desk in the Longshadows waiting room, her eyes combing Kat up and down, something that also happened last time she was in those offices.

  Tia McBride escorted Kat into the office and took a seat behind her big, glass desk. “Miss Flowers, how nice to see you again.”

  “Thank you for seeing me,” she said politely, almost sheepishly.

  Tia held her hands out as if showcasing the plush office around her. “It’s what I do. I trust you enjoyed our experience?”

  “Oh my God, I—” Kat stopped herself three words too late. “I found it to be…interesting,” she said instead in a more measured tone. “Let’s say it piqued my interest.”

  Tia smiled. “I’m very glad to hear it. Well, thank you for coming all this way just to express your…your interest.”

  “Well actually, I was…interested in thinking about maybe…having another experience.”

  “Is that so?” Tia looked her up and down with that cocky, knowing half-smile tucked into her creamy, pale cheek. “Miss Flowers, as I recall your previous experience was discounted because your friend is, well, she’s in the business. And she did pay for it. Do you know how much one of these experiences costs?” This had been something Kat didn’t give any consideration to, so all she could really do was shake her head. Tia said flatly, “Five thousand dollars.”

  “Five—?” My God, Jackie must have blown every cent she had on that! What a friend. But that was neither the time nor the place to reflect on Jackie’s loyalty.

  Tia said, “It’s a luxury experience, darling. We generally cater to very rich clientele.”

  “I guess I thought as much,” came dribbling out of Kat’s mouth. “What if we struck a deal?” Tia sat there in a cool, professional silence, letting Kat make her offer. “You said you needed a female service operator. Maybe I could, um, volunteer for one session, in return for a session of my own.”

  Tia considered it, tilting her head. She’d looked her over before, but this was the one that counted. “I’m sorry, hon, but you’re just not the type.” Reading Kat’s disappointment, Tia explained, “You’re too cute, honey; you’re much more a sub than a dom.”

  “Well, that’s a little rude.”

  Tia couldn’t help but smile. “No offense, honey. Now your friend, she’s got a lot of dom energy in her; I can sense it. I’ll bet she does that all the time on the phone.” Kat couldn’t disagree, but there wasn’t much else she could do either, until Tia said, “I’ll tell you what. She gives me one night of service—we’ll call it an audition for her regular employment with me, and I’ll divert that payment to cover your next experience. How does that sound?”

  Kat’s imagination scrambled, but some things were instantly clear. “Even if I can get her to do it once, I can’t guarantee she’ll have sex with anybody.”

  “No, of course not.”

  “And I can’t promise she’ll work for you after that either—just the one time.”

  “I wouldn’t expect anything else. Lena, I’m in the business of putting people together. I don’t buy or sell or trade them.”

  That was good to hear, so Kat didn’t mention any of the obvious contradictions in the statement. She was too close to getting what she’d come for. So she said only, “I’ll do what I can.”

  “Excellent. When your roommate comes down and we can make the proper arrangement, you’ll get a call about when to be ready.” Kat was already excited, her blood seeming to rush in her veins. Tia said, “Let’s talk about the details. In your apartment again?”

  “Um, no, this time I think maybe a hotel room.”

  “It’s extra.”

  “I’ll cover it. Just have Carter grab me off the street or something, and—”

  “Carter?”

  Uh-oh. Shit.

  “Yeah?”

  Tia’s face grimaced and she shook her head with a deep sigh. “He shouldn’t have told you his name, I’ll have to talk with him about that.”

  “No no, don’t,” Kat said. “I don’t wanna get him in trouble.”

  “Rules are rules, Lena.”

  “But I don’t want that to spoil my experience.”

  Tia sat there, her green eyes going cold, all expression melting away from her pretty face. “Lena, might I suggest a different service provider? After all, you’ve already had one type of experience. And look what it’s done for you. Maybe now you should try a whole new experience, further broaden your horizons.”

  But Kat didn’t have to give that any thought at all. “No, it has to be Carter. Carter or it’s no deal.”

  Tia stood up and walked slowly around the side of the desk. “Lena, I know what you’re thinking, and feeling, I really do. This man, he’s impressive, believe me, I know. I handpick all my S.P.s. But it’s the experience you fell in love with, not the man.”

  “Fell in love? Who said that? I just…I like him; he’s earned my trust. That means something to me.”

  “And not trusting him at first meant something too, didn’t it? He was unfamiliar, strange, and startling, a bit scary maybe. But that’s what you really wanted: something alien and troubling, jostling. Having a familiar S.P. really defeats that purpose.”

  But she only shrugged one shoulder, not to be dissuaded. “I guess we’re all a little different.”

  Kat and Tia stared each other down, a mutual, silent refusal hovering between them. Tia broke the silence with, “Lena, I can’t recommend that you allow yourself to get attached to this man. It’s not going to work out the way you think.”

  Kat wanted to snap, but held back and politely said, “Honestly, I don’t think you know what I’m thinking at all.”

  But Tia just stood there, looking down at her in a moment of private uncertainty that Kat could clearly read. “Send your friend down here,” Tia said, “I’ll see what I can do.”

  But she was stronger than she’d been before
meeting Carter, stronger than the last time she’d met with Tia. Kat stood up and said, “You know my terms,” before walking out of the office, enjoying the little glare she’d earned from Tia on the way out.

  Kat walked down Fifth Avenue, preferring not to rush back into the subway. The sun was getting steadily hotter in that bright slit between the tops of the skyscrapers. Pedestrians shuffled in each direction in front of the glitzy shops, dresses and fur coats and bejeweled eggs in the windows.

  She had a strange feeling—a nervous creep up her spine. She stopped and turned, but there wasn’t anybody or anything that seemed out of place. Just my imagination, she told herself—ridiculous. I’ve got stalkers on the brain.

  Moving on, she had other things to think about to distract her from her kinky daydreams. Will Jackie be upset with me? Will she even do it? How different is it from the phone thing she does? I’ve done both, and I know how different they are, but that’s me. Jackie is a whole other girl. She’s a dom; I’m a sub. She’ll know what that means, and hopefully what difference it makes.

  Kat walked farther down the crowded avenue, but she still couldn’t shake that feeling. A black car was cruising the avenue just a few feet behind her, never falling back too far or pulling ahead.

  It’s just going with the slow flow of the traffic, she reassured herself. Don’t be silly!

  But her imagination couldn’t resist reviewing the list of people who could actually have a reason to be angry with her, and that list had grown quickly. There’s Mitchell, who knows what he’s capable of? And what about that burly guy at the Matthews party? He had a lingering kind of attention—that guy talking him down behind the tree. Who knows what’s been going through his mind all this time? And Ben, he’s super-pissed. All those years lusting after me, then I go and sleep with some stranger and tell him about it? Stupid! I almost wouldn’t blame him. Still, he doesn’t drive a car, though I guess he could have rented one.