The Crimson Z

by Robert Cloud, Lee Rush, Richard Savage

  Anne's smile grew a little wider. “Virginia, you're shameless!"

  "Will you listen to me please?” Jason stepped forward, right through Virginia, then jerked back in reaction. “Did Virginia do something?"

  "No, you did. You walked right through her."

  He shivered. “Remind me not to do that again. It felt like someone plunged me in icy water."

  Anne placed her palms on his chest, his warmth radiated through his shirt. She massaged the uneven plane of muscle. She closed her eyes, wanting to strip away the thin layer of fabric and skim her hands over his skin. “Virginia, give us a few minutes of privacy."

  "Your wish is my command.” She winked and disappeared.

  "I know what you're doing.” Jason grasped her wrists but didn't move them away from his chest. “And it's not going to work."

  "It's not?” Anne grinned. The fact that he held her wrists without trying to stop her as she drew circles on her palms with his tight nipples contradicted his statement.

  "You're trying to distract me, but it won't work. You shouldn't have gone to Williams’ office without me."

  Anne skimmed her hands down his ribs, then cupped his crotch. The fine fabric strained over the bulging arousal of his pants. “No? You could have fooled me."

  He huffed out a sigh. “I want you, but I'm still upset that you took such a risk with your life. I don't want to lose you."

  Anne slid her arms around his waist, pulling him tight against her body. Right now, she didn't need or want a lecture. What she needed was his arms around her, to hear his heart beating against her ear, to have him make love to her and chase away the uneasy feelings that had taken root since her meeting with Mike Williams.

  "Be upset in my bedroom while I'm undressing you,” she murmured, tugging him toward the stairs.

  "We're going to talk about this later,” he promised then slid his hand around the nape of her neck, burying his fingers in her hair. He brought his head down and kissed her, touching his tongue to her lips.

  Anne opened to him, teasing his tongue with hers, inviting him to begin the primitive dance.

  "You really were succeeding in distracting me,” he said with a laugh.

  Anne laughed softly. “I figured out that much.” She pressed her hips into his groin, sandwiching his stiff penis between their bodies. “You aren't exactly subtle."

  He swung her up in his arms and started up the stairs. Anne looped her arms around his neck, impatient to drag him to her bed and sate the wet ache growing between her legs. He wasn't the only one who could be distracted by the promise of sex.

  When he lowered her legs to the floor, she cupped him once again, anxious to feel the soft skin of his rigid shaft sliding between her legs and deep inside her. No one had ever fit into her body or her life as well as Jason.

  She slid her hands under his suit coat and pushed it off his shoulders. He shrugged it off and tossed it over a chair, then peeled off his tie. Anne started to unbutton his shirt. Tempted by the sight of his tanned skin dusted with whorls of soft curls exposed as she undid his shirt, she pushed the fabric aside and circled an already wrinkled nipple with the tip of her tongue.

  "Distract me any time you want,” he murmured, grasping the hem of her shirt then pulling it over her head.

  Anne unhooked her bra and tossed it to one side, then reached for his belt buckle, while he cradled her breasts in his hands, stroking the soft curves. She pushed his trousers and briefs down together, anxious to see him naked. His stiff shaft stood out from his body, rising from a dark circle of pubic hair. She curled her fingers around his warm flesh, drawing her hand along his rod. “I love touching you."

  "And I love being touched by you. Anywhere and everywhere."

  He hooked his finger inside the elastic of her underwear then pushed them over her hips. They slid down her legs, and Anne stepped out of them. Still holding onto him, she led him to the bed, marveling at how quickly intimacy with him had felt right.

  She pushed him back onto the bed then crawled toward him. She licked a glistening drop of precum from the slit in his shaft. She traced the outline of the helmet shaped head with her tongue. She took the head into her mouth, circling him with her tongue, while her hands stroked his scrotal sack, the rough but soft skin was pulled tight over his testicles.

  She loved the salty taste on her tongue. If someone had told her a week ago, she would drag Jason ‘Ice Man’ MacIsaac’ to her bed, tasting him and exploring his body inch by delicious inch she would have signed the papers to have them committed and yet here she was.

  Broad shoulders pressed into the mattress, his eyes closed. Anne climbed higher, nipping and licking, then suckling his nipples. She centered his penis at the top of her sex then stroked the tip with her body. Each pass teased her clit, and she arched, stroking him again and again. Basic instincts moved her body. She resisted the feral urge to impale herself on his rod, no matter how badly she wanted him inside her. Slowly she slid along the length of him, up and down until he was arching under her.

  "Woman, have you been taking lessons from Virginia on how to drive men out of their minds?” he growled.

  "Maybe one or two,” she admitted, accelerating the pace of her strokes. Suddenly, she was on her back with Jason's body pressing her into the mattress.

  He shackled her wrists above her head. The head of his engorged shaft slid easily into her lubricated vagina.

  She sucked in a ragged gasp of air. The touch of him, sliding into her body, stole her breath. Of their own accord, her hips lifted off the bed and her body swallowed up the length of him.

  He withdrew and thrust, and she matched him in the mating dance.

  "Oh, God,” she murmured. A gasp of pleasure slid through her lips on a raspy breath.

  He ground his pubis against hers. The climax was building, rising like a rocket toward an explosive climax. His shout of release came at the same moment her body clenched in primal satisfaction.

  For a few moments, he didn't move except to drop feather light kisses on her shoulder. “Every time I think it couldn't possibly get better, it proves me wrong,” he whispered, then rolled to the spot beside her on the bed.

  "Lets forget supper,” Anne murmured. “And just have dessert again."

  "How about a nap first,” he suggested, drawing her snug against his body.

  "Sounds like a plan,” she said, drifting in the languorous wake of sex.

  By the morning, she'd had sex as much as she'd slept. She smiled as she thought of their shared shower and his lingering good bye before he left for work. If every day could be like that, she'd be a very happy woman. Heck, she already was a very happy woman. She'd be deliriously happy.

  "Good morning, you sexy thing you!” Virginia appeared at her side as she strolled into her workroom. “If I wasn't so happy for you, I'd be green with envy."

  Anne curled her hands around her mug of steaming coffee and smiled. “I'm definitely going to keep him. It's happened fast, but I know that I love him, and the next time we're together I'm going to tell him."

  "Don't wait,” Virginia said, her expression thoughtful. “I toyed with Clay for weeks, hinting about my feelings. If I could do it over, I'd have told him from the get go."

  "He knows now. It's not the same, but I think it's helped him.” Anne put her coffee on the table. “How about we finish the sculpture?"

  "Let's,” Virginia replied, then held her hands in the air, twirling around shedding her clothes.

  By the middle of the afternoon, the figure was finished, only the wig was left to make. Anne glanced at the clock. It was almost suppertime, and she hadn't heard from Jason. Ever since they'd started having sex he'd called her every lunch hour. Almost as if in response to her thoughts, the phone rang.

  "Hello?” Anne said, a smile playing on her face.

  "Miss Kemper? Mike Williams."

  Her stomach knotted. “Hello, Mr. Williams."

  Flashes of color, like miniature fireworks, burst over Virgin
ia's shimmering image at the mention of his name.

  "I understand that you've grown close to Jason MacIsaac and Clay Montgomery."

  A cold chill shivered through her body at the cool tone he used when he said their names.

  "Yes.” Anne's grip on the phone tightened.

  Virginia pressed her ear to the receiver.

  "Close enough that you wouldn't want anything to happen to them."

  Her breath left her lungs in a single, painful gasp, suspecting what was coming next.

  "If you want to see them again be at my estate on Greenwich Drive within the hour. Otherwise they'll be keeping Virginia company."

  Her hand shook when she replaced the receiver in the cradle. Tears blurred her vision, but she wouldn't let them fall. Tears wouldn't help Jason or Clay. She swallowed hard then turned to Virginia.

  "I think we need a plan,” she said, glad to hear that her voice didn't shake like her insides.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Anne parked her car in front of Mike Williams’ mansion overlooking the bay. Her heart beating so fast and hard it made her breath shake. Her hands, still gripping the wheel, were icy cold, and yet sweat slicked her palms.

  "Gorgeous place,” Virginia observed. “And he probably used my money to pay for it."

  "Probably.” Anne turned to the shimmering figure at her side. “Can you find Clay and Jason and make sure they're all right?” When Williams had said he had them and would kill them if she didn't come, she couldn't help but wonder if they were already dead, but she still came. She couldn't risk not coming if they were alive.

  Virginia shook her head. “I'm not sure ... I just don't like the idea of leaving you alone any sooner than I have to with that creep. Besides, I'm pretty sure if anything happened to them, I'd know."

  "I hope you're right.” Hot tears blurred her vision. Anne blinked them away. This wasn't the time to give into tears. If they were still alive, she had to rescue them. If not, she'd make damn sure that Michael Williams paid for his actions.

  She climbed out of her car.

  "Good evening, Anne."

  At the sound of Williams’ voice, Anne started and swung around and watched him walk down the stone steps from the front door of his home. “I want to see Jason and Clay."

  He smiled, baring his teeth in a gesture that had nothing to do with welcome. “That is exactly where I intended to take you."

  He grasped her upper arm in a cruel grip. “You and your male friends are going to go for a little boat ride. Straight to Davy Jones’ locker."

  "You don't really believe that you can get away with killing three more people?"

  "Four, actually,” he said pushing her ahead of him along the flagstone path leading to the private dock. “Once the bitch I'd hired to impersonate Virginia got wind that someone was investigating, she threatened to turn state's evidence if I didn't pay her several million dollars."

  "And now she's dead."

  "And speaking of the dead, where is Virginia?” He looped his fingers in the chain, then scanned the area around them, then dropped the chain.

  "She couldn't leave the city,” she said. “Loads of rules for ghosts."

  From the penetrating glance he sent her way she wasn't sure if he believed her or not. She held his gaze hoping she could deceive the master liar.

  "How unfortunate for you,” he said, then dragged her down the dock toward a gleaming white yacht.

  "This must have swallowed up a tidy chunk of Virginia's money."

  "Not really.” He pushed her ahead of him onto the boat. “She's worth a couple billion. Early on, one of the investments I made with her trust fund turned a huge profit. I kept investing, and for some reason, anything her money touched succeeded. I just kept collecting my ten percent. She was one lucky bitch."

  "Not really. She had the misfortune of trusting you, and now she's dead,” Anne contested as realization struck. “When she willed everything to Clay, you knew you'd never be able to convince her to marry you and that it wouldn't be long before she would get him to help her invest her money instead of you, which would mean losing control over her money and your inflated fees."

  He shoved her forward. “You're right, but it's not going to do you any good because in a few minutes, you'll be joining her in the spirit world."

  * * * *

  Virginia felt anger boil up inside her. She wanted to toss the louse overboard and perhaps she would, but she'd promised Annie that she'd try and find Clay and Jason if she could move that far away from the locket. Reluctantly she left Anne with Mike. She drifted down the stairs, and through a palatial sitting room, testing the limits bonds to the locket.

  "Damn you to hell, Mikey!” she muttered under her breath as she moved toward the bedrooms. She leaned through one door, cursing the luxury and the empty room then she pushed through another.

  "Clay!” she exclaimed and pushed into the room. He was alive, bound and gagged on a large bed. His arms strained as he tried to work at the ropes holding his hands prisoner. She shot over to the bed then started working on the knots. He stilled.

  "Virginia?"

  She slid her hands inside his jeans and cupped him.

  He drew a sharp breath. “Damn it. If you're here, then Anne's here. That woman is as stubborn as you are."

  "All the more reason to quit gabbing and get you out of here,” she muttered even though she knew he couldn't hear her.

  He grinned. “You're probably cursing me, aren't you, Ginny?"

  An ache seized her chest. Virginia's movement faltered. It had been thirty years since he'd used her nickname, and usually then he'd only used it when he wanted to annoy her. She tugged the last knot free then ruffled his hair. The silver mingling with the dark brown waves only made him more attractive.

  "God, Virginia, I've missed you,” he growled. “For so long, I hated you because I was hurting so badly.” He leaned over and untied his ankles while he spoke. “Damn it, if I'd only been less of a coward, I would have tried to find you. But then, the ‘Dear Clay’ letter brought me to my knees, I wasn't about to get a rejection face to face."

  Virginia cursed every deity she could think of because she couldn't talk to him. Moments when Clay opened up like this were rare, she hated the fact that she couldn't communicate with him.

  He stood up, rubbing his wrists. “If I'd gone after you, instead of feeding my wounded pride,” he continued. “I couldn't have saved you, but Mike wouldn't have gotten away with murder or lived off your money for the past three decades."

  Clay crossed the room and grabbed the doorknob. Dark brows with flecks of grey arched as he looked over his shoulder. “I don't suppose that you can unlock doors."

  "Being a spirit does have its advantages,” she quipped and slid her fingers into the lock, manipulating the tumblers. “There! Try again."

  Clay turned the knob and opened the door a crack. “I think Jason is in the next room,” he whispered and moved quietly into the hall.

  Virginia peaked into the next room. “Bingo!"

  She slid her hand in the lock, clicking tumblers in place, unlocking it just before Clay grasped the handle.

  "Thank you, Ginny!” he whispered, then opened the door.

  With a speed that surprised her, he slipped into the room, shut the door, and untied Jason.

  "The girls are here,” Clay said quietly. “Virginia untied me. She has a way with locks."

  "Annie?"

  "She must be here."

  The yacht shuddered as large engines sprang to life. The large ship rocked.

  "Damn it! He's probably planning to dump us all out in the bay.” Jason sprang off the bed. We've got to stop him."

  Virginia moved away. Clay and Jason could take care of themselves. She'd left Annie alone with the maniac far too long.

  * * * *

  Anne sat in the overstuffed, leather pilot's seat on the bridge of the yacht, while Mike Williams stood at the helm. His gaze was trained on the ocean. Where was Virginia? Had she fou
nd Clay and Jason?

  As if privy to her thoughts, Virginia appeared beside her. “The troops are rescued and on their way. And in the meantime I'm going to provide a little distraction.” She stretched out on the control panel and played with a few knobs.

  "What the hell?” Mike muttered, quickly readjusting levers with one hand and holding the small wooden wheel with the other. The vessel's engines shuddered then fell silent.

  "Virginia!” Williams growled.

  Anne swallowed hard as he turned and pinned her to her seat with a searing look. “Loads of rules for ghosts, are there?"

  Virginia moved forward, placing her hands on his chest forcing him backward.

  Anne held her breath as he staggered backward, fighting for his balance.

  "Bitch,” he growled, his hands flailing as she lifted him off the floor and started carrying him toward the door.

  Clay and Jason burst onto the bridge. Anne sprang out of her chair and into Jason's arms. Tears filled her eyes. “I was so worried about you."

  He smoothed her hair away from her face and wiped her tears with the pads of his thumbs. “God, I love you. And if you ever do anything this risky again, I'm going to kill you."

  "Hey, lovebirds,” Clay interrupted. “Virginia seems to have Mike well in hand, but we'd better do our part."

  Anne turned to see Mike Williams dangling mid-air over the water. As she watched, he slid his hand into his pocket and pulled out a plastic square that looked like an electronic car lock.

  "Should I drop him here or a little further out?"

  Anne shook her head. “Virginia was wondering if we should drop him here or take him a little further out."

  Williams held up the little plastic square pressed against his palm. “Drop me, bitch, and you'll be doing me a favor. This is the trigger for a detonation device. The yacht is loaded with C-four. One touch and your friends will be joining you in the here after, and I'll be safe and sound in the water."

  Anne watched anger and frustration play across Virginia's glistening features then she saw something else. Alarm sparkled in her ghostly eyes.

  "Annie, I can't hold him much longer,” Virginia said. “I think I overdid it a bit."