"Screw that Kaley," Kami yelled. "That bitch wasn't intimate with Brother. She abused him. She molested him. She raped him!"
Kevin tried to talk but couldn't. He felt his hands shaking and that shaking spread to the rest of his body.
Kaley hugged him first, but Kami hugged him harder.
His sisters held him through the tears that flowed and shook his body harder.
Once the crying stopped and the shaking subsided, he looked down at the floor. "Can you help me fix it?"
"No, honey," Kaley said.
"But, we know someone who can." Kami stood up, pulled out her phone, and texted.
Kaley stood up and turned to face the door.
Zoey walked in.
Kevin truly felt something. He knew he felt two things. Intense humiliation along with intense relief. Both feelings came and co-existed. Both from her being there.
"We'll be back in two hours, unless you text us if you need more time," Kaley said.
"And we'll get the food we lied and said Zoey was getting, Kevin," Kami said as she followed Kaley to the door.
"Wait!" Kevin felt the eyes of all three young women on him. "Can you guys cook my comfort meal?"
Kami grinned as she explained to Zoey, "Mac & cheese from a box—"
"Hot dogs cooked in barbecued beans," Kaley added.
"And double chocolate brownies, from a mix," Kami finished.
Zoey giggled at that.
"That meal's a win-win, Zoey." Kevin fought back the fear that was replacing the two emotions that had co-existed. "It's a victory dinner if I'm victorious in what I think is about to happen." He looked at her and wasn't dissuaded from that expectation by her loving look. "Or, it's a comfort meal to comfort a disaster."
"Have fun," Kami said and closed the door behind her and her sister.
Zoey took his hand to pull him. "Let's go to your room."
****
Kevin tried to keep from shaking as Zoey helped him get undressed down to his boxer shorts. He got on the bed when she prompted him.
She let him watch her undress slowly. She got in the bed next to him. She turned on her side to face him. "I won't say anything Kevin, because I'm afraid I'll say something that you heard before." She made it clearer to him. "When you were young."
He nodded that he understood. "Thank you for that."
She gently pushed him flat on his back.
She used her fingers and gently closed his eyes.
He pulled in a breath and jerked when she touched it. It felt cold and strange for a second. Then it felt good.
He couldn't shut his super-sonic brain off if he wanted to. All he could hope for was the best. Or, at least thoughts that weren't too strange. He felt a grin coming on because he was thinking of his deceased father as she masturbated him. It was alright. It tied-in to what she was doing to him. It was a masturbation memory.
One day about five years ago, his Dad walked in on him masturbating in the bathroom. It was so humiliating. About as humiliating as his girlfriend having to have his sisters talk to him about his lack of sexuality.
She moaned from the slight moan he let out, but she kept the task at hand going smoothly and a little more quickly and roughly.
He thought back to that memory of his father's humiliating discovery. His sweet Dad explained how masturbation was natural. Something all men did. A rite of passage into manhood. His Dad made it sound like the most honorable thing a man could do. There was more though, he remembered how his funny father summed it up in a funny way. He remembered the words and the voice as if it was being said to him right then and there, 'Kev, a man has the house to himself, he gets the lotion, the tissues, the montage of women in his mind, short, tall, big, little, pretty or plain, and he goes to town as long as he can, until the women get back from town' and that made it harder to keep from laughing while she pleasured him.
"What's funny, Kevin?" Zoey asked.
"Nothing, Zoey ... It feels good ... So good." He relaxed and enjoyed what was going on.
Before long he was gripping her shoulder with one hand and her leg with the other before he felt his back arching and felt an intensity coming on he never felt before. "Oh, God."
She had soft tissue there to catch it.
He sat up and pulled her into a long kiss. After the kiss he pulled back and looked into her eyes. "What can I do for you?"
She smiled as she rested her back on the bed alongside him.
He felt her guiding his hand. He felt what it felt like down there. He felt her moving his hand in a circular motion.
She moaned out a long melodic moan.
He was amazed at what was happening to him down there. Usually, after he did the job on himself, things went back to normal down there pretty fast. That wasn't happening. He thought of those commercials that warned you to call a doctor if you had an erection that persisted. He hoped that didn't have to happen.
She was writhing and moaning more.
He changed hands, so his left hand was keeping the motion going that was keeping her going. He hesitated before he slowly inserted a finger.
"Oh, Kevin—"
That not only made his persisting erection harder, it let him know he wasn't hurting her.
He got into a rhythm with both hands.
She gripped him so hard it hurt as her body shook and she let out a long moan.
He felt her pulling him on top of her.
They did nothing but hold each other.
"Thank you, Zoey."
"My pleasure." She giggled. "It really is my pleasure."
He laughed at that and moved to get into a more comfortable position. "I love you."
"I love you too, Kevin."
He wasn't expecting it to happen. He didn't think she made it happen. It just happened. He was inside her.
She moaned as he was inside her. She pulled him deeper and deeper inside. "Oh, God that feels—"
He thought she said it better than he could. He didn't even think he could form words in that moment that was all feeling and making him feel more than he ever felt before.
"Oh, God!" Zoey used her hands and all her strength to get him up and off.
Kevin sat with a hurt and confused look. "Did I do something wrong? Did I hurt you?"
"No—" She shook her head vigorously. "I went off the pill because we weren't—" She pulled in a breath and blew it out. "It's my fault. I only meant for us to do ... You know ... Each other ... Not do each other that way. All the way." She calmed herself down most of the way quickly. "Yet!"
He patted her to calm her down the rest of the way. "It wasn't even a half a minute." He looked down and was surprised he was still erect. "And I probably wasn't reloaded."
She laughed at that and pulled him into a hug sitting up.
He hugged back and thought of how thankful he was to have a girlfriend who was that patient and understanding. He pondered if that was because he met his soulmate. He pondered if it was something more logical than the idea there was one and only one person in the world for you if you were lucky enough to beat those insurmountable odds and find that one person. He finally came to the thought that he had a better partner because of the other intimate thing they did together. Killing. He left it at that because that made perfect sense to him.
"Honey, you look like you saw a ghost," she said with alarm in her voice and on her face.
A clear memory of the woman from his past came out of nowhere and hit him hard. He couldn't shake that image of her that was making his body shake worse than before. He saw her exactly as she was a decade ago. Not the way she looked before she died in the trailer. He saw the bed she lured him into. He heard her voice telling him what to do. He saw the look and heard the tone when she told him what would happen to his family if he told on her. It was the sound of the bed shaking from his body shaking that finally brought him back to the present.
"Oh, Kevin," Zoey said through a barely restrained sob.
He held her hands and looked into h
er eyes. "What we want to do. What we will do. I know I can do now, but—" That was as far as he could get it.
"There's no rush Kevin. I'm not going anywhere."
"But, we are going. Just stay with me when the going gets rough. Please." He held her that time like he was holding on for dear life. He felt like he was.
"I will."
The two words she said were the only words he wanted to hear.
****
Less than an hour later Kevin hopped out of the McConnell SUV before Zoey had a chance to park it by the entrance to a dark alley in a bad part of town. He noticed right away how his sisters were dressed. They wore baggy jogging suits, with oversized ball caps on their heads, and scarves around their necks.
"It's not what you think Kevin," Kami said.
Kevin looked at Zoey who sidled up next to him before he looked at his sisters. "I don't have to think. I know. I know you killed someone."
"We did." Kaley hung her head down to match Kami's downward head.
"What did you call me—" Kevin put his arm around Zoey. "Us for?"
Kaley looked up and was past her embarrassment. "Crime concealment since you can conceal like no concealer ever concealed before."
Kevin had to chuckle at that. He could tell that neither one of his sisters was in a manic panic over killing. Aside from whatever emotion they felt when they hung their heads down, they looked cool, calm, and collected. "Walk us through it."
Kami turned and took slow steps toward the entrance of the alley.
Kevin listened intently as he followed the others walking slowly in the dark alley.
"We were out and about doing some recon—" Kami said.
"And figured it would be smart if we had stuff to use in case a killing chance popped up and we needed stuff," Kaley said.
Kami continued as the darkness of the alley that was blocked by the passing over of the afternoon sun enveloped them, "We walked down this alley and saw this one bum—"
"Homeless man," Kevin interjected. He knew that wouldn't piss off either one of his sisters. They had corrected him on what was socially acceptable all of his life out of necessity.
"One homeless dude was beating the crap out of another homeless dude." Kami had to shake her head at the recent memory of that.
Kevin's eyes hadn't adjusted to the darkness well enough to see Kaley's face, but he felt her urgent grip as she stopped him.
"He really was beating the other man within an inch of his life," Kaley said.
Kevin was glad they couldn't see the grin on his face. He knew they all enjoyed killing, but they never grinned about it. That would be too evil. He was grinning about the 'inch of a life' thing she said. Could you beat someone within a foot of their life? In Europe, do they say beat within a millimeter? He put his intense ability to focus back on the crime story.
There was a spot where a crack of sunlight lit up a few feet like a spotlight shining on a dark stage.
Kami reached into a drawstring bag.
Kevin looked at the thin nylon rope with the hard-plastic balls attached on the end. "My Spanish bolas?"
"I know that bolas means balls," Zoey said.
Kami held them up to Kevin's scrotum. "Tell us how they size up to the real thing, Zoey."
Kevin snorted and was hit by a laugh attack so hard it doubled him over.
Kaley explained when they all stopped laughing, "Your old toy makes a lovely ligature."
"A garish garrote," Kami said.
Kaley patted Kami on the back. "I need a dictionary to keep up with you now, Sissy."
"Guys, can we get through the crime?" Kevin knew that he couldn't sound upset because he was feeling happy. So happy. That image of Nonie's face was finally fading from his mind. Now, all he had to do was keep his mind off his first time of mutual pleasuring with his first girlfriend.
"The dude taking the beating was drunk off his ass." Kami pointed to a spot that was littered with trash and a lot of empty wine and vodka bottles. "His eyes were bloody and beaten shut so bad, he couldn't see his hand in front of his face."
Kaley pulled her cap down and pulled up the scarf around her neck. "We took turns on the beater, with one of us choking him with your balls—"
Kevin snorted, but apologized quickly. "Sorry, go on."
"And the other watching the eyes bulge out," Kami said.
"It was so cool to feel the strangling and then watch the dying," Kaley said like she just experienced something so beautiful it moved her.
"We'd gloved up." Kami lifted her foot. "No tread shoes."
"We know the bola balls aren't suspicious, but we planned on soaking them in bleach—" A slight grin paused Kaley briefly. "Before we used them again."
The girls stopped like that was all there was to it.
"Where did you put the body?" Zoey asked.
Kevin turned and smiled for her getting to that critical thought before him. That put him on the being grateful to have a partner thought track. She could anticipate things for him. Think of things he missed. Think of things he never would've thought of. It was having his life and having someone who filled in the cracks to fill out his life. He knew it was an odd thought, but he thought it. Zoey was the calk that filled in what he didn't have and sealed up his life to make it impervious to damage from outside forces. He made a note to tell her he equated her with calk. She would think that was funny.
They followed his sisters to a dumpster.
Kevin had to take a stab at the sarcasm his sisters purveyed so proficiently. "Hey, put the body in the dumpster. No one would ever think of looking there."
Both of his sisters gave him looks that mixed anger and embarrassment even though they knew he didn't stand a chance of sorting out what the looks meant.
"Here's the problem." Kaley pointed as Kami held the lid up.
Kevin and Zoey looked inside.
"Holy crap!" Zoey said.
"No body," Kevin said.
Kami let the lid drop and shrugged after that. "The only thing we can figure is we didn't kill him."
"But, it felt like you killed him?" Kevin heard his voice rising and making that sound like a question. He hated when the girls at school talked like that. He remembered hearing Kami speak that way, but only when she was at school. She knew her father would mock her playfully. That was one of the things Kevin loved about his Dad. He made fun of himself and he made the rest of his family not take themselves too seriously. In a funny way.
"It really felt like we killed him," Kaley said honestly.
"It really did," Kami affirmed just as honestly.
"Looks like it's time for a hobo-hunt." Zoey's palm was up before Kevin's head was turned to her. "Homeless-hunt."
They laughed like normal teenagers after that, and after that, they searched earnestly like any teenagers going on a scavenger hunt would search, with the only difference being they were scavenging for the body of the homeless man freshly killed.
****
They kept together because the labyrinth of alleys, side streets, and dead ends in that part of the city was shaded with shadows from the fading sunlight and interspersed with shadowy inhabitants they encountered on their body search. The sound of laughing followed by coughing hitched a ride on the afternoon summer breeze that was fragranced with the pungency of the garbage that adorned that trashy part of town.
"That's him." Kami pointed.
"Both of them." Kaley pointed.
Kevin saw one old grizzled homeless man whose face was so badly beaten it didn't look like a face anymore. The man next to him was propped up against a brick wall and not moving at all.
"Let Zoey and me check it out," Kevin said quietly, but firmly.
"Zoey and I." Kami grinned before she put her cap and scarf in the hand Kevin had extended.
Kevin grinned back and ignored the snickering of the young women. "Do either of you have sunglasses? I need to hide my eyes."
Kami explained to Zoey as she dug in her purse. "Kevin's eyes are unusu
al."
"And unusually memorable," Kaley said.
"Duuh," Zoey said as she took the cap and scarf Kaley handed her. "I was lost in those icy blue eyes the moment he laid eyes on me."
"Yeah, he's my brother, and it's weird to say," Kaley said, "I wouldn't mind a guy with those eyes."
Kevin was about to tell his sisters to stop, but a joke edged the words of admonition out of the way. "First my balls, and now my eyes, you guys are the ones who need to see the shrink."
They laughed good laughs at that.
Kevin noticed the laughter broke through to the drunk. He took Zoey's hand. "Showtime."
They walked over to the odd pair of live and dead homeless men.
"How's it going?" Kevin asked the man who was having a hard time zeroing in on his grimy cracked lips with the bottle of cheap vodka he held in his shaking hand.
"It's going fine and dandy for me and my buddy—" The drunk patted the dead man's leg with his free hand. "Randy."
Zoey stifled a giggle before she spoke with a muffled tone through the scarf she'd tied too tightly around her mouth, "Randy's not much of a talker, right?"
The drunk man turned his head and tried to get his eyes that were beaten open enough to look his buddy over. "Randy's more of a doer than a talker."
"Has Randy ever done anything to you?" Kevin asked nicely.
"Yeah, Randy gets me food and drink when I'm out." The drunk used his free hand to scratch his unwashed head. "He gives me a beating when I need a beating." He looked back at Kevin. "That's what friends do."
Kevin saw the lesions on the man's face. He watched him double over from a horrible cough attack. He reached and put his arm around his girl. Watching death in that way wasn't a good way to watch death. He watched his father die a natural death. It wasn't over years, but the months, weeks, and days of seeing that vibrant man wasting away were so painful to watch. Minute by minute. Second by second. He felt Zoey leaning in to whisper.
"I can tell my idea man has an idea. Go with it Kevin."
Kevin nodded before he asked the man a question, "Have you ever been in jail?"
The Killing Rileys- First Love, First Kills Page 13