Matt stood in the doorway.
“I’m starving and I can’t wait any longer for you two,” he stated with his arms crossed in front of his chest.
She giggled and Tyler walked into the bedroom.
“Just let me grab a change of clothes. I have to head back in a couple of hours.”
“I need to go to work, too,” she stated as she walked toward her duffel bag.
“Oh no, you’re not,” Matt said loudly, and she turned toward him. Both Matt and Tyler looked at her.
“I have to go to work. It’s my responsibility and source of income.”
“You are not going back there. Not until this asshole is caught,” Tyler yelled, and even Matt looked stunned by his brother’s tone.
“The club is my business, too, Matt. I am part owner of Dixie Chix like my other friends. I need to go back to work, and I need to go back home, too.” She turned away from them until she felt Tyler’s hand on her arm turn her toward him.
“You are not going into work tonight. Your friends do not expect you there.”
“That’s not your call to make. It’s mine.”
“No, you’re wrong. It is my call to make,” Tyler stated.
“And mine, too. You will listen to us. We know what’s good for you.”
“Arrr,” she growled as she stomped her foot then sat on the bed.
Tyler got dressed and she looked up to stare at him. He was going about his business as if he got his last word in.
“I’m not going to live like this. I’ll be safe at the club, and at night I’ll be with you both.”
“No, Paula, you’re not going there tonight.”
“Yes, I am. I won’t let another crazy guy make me feel so out of control and scared. I’m tired of being scared.”
Matt stood to the side of her. “What do you mean by another crazy guy?”
“Forget it. I don’t want to talk about it.”
“You will. You brought it up, and we’ve been meaning to discuss your past. This has something to do with it, doesn’t it?” Matt asked.
“He’s not responsible for the letters. It’s not him.”
“And you know this how?”
“He’s locked up in prison for life. He’s not getting out on good behavior or any other bullshit.”
“What was he charged with?” Tyler asked.
“Rape and murder.”
“What?” Matt asked, sounding shocked.
“And that was when he wasn’t beating and controlling me.” She reached for her bag to get her clothes out. Tyler grabbed her wrist and pulled her up to him.
“He beat you?”
She turned away from him.
“It doesn’t matter now.”
He grabbed her face and made her look at him.
“You had a boyfriend who beat you and bossed you around who then was charged with rape and murder?”
She swallowed hard.
“That’s the gist of it, Tyler. I’m not going to give you two all the painful, gory details. I’ve been living in fear and feeling weak for way too long. I’m tired of men like that, who think they can control women and destroy their lives. I haven’t been with a man in over four years.”
Tyler pulled her against his chest and hugged her tight.
“Baby, I wish we had gone slower. If we had known that you were controlled and abused, we would have eased you into this type of relationship,” Matt whispered as he caressed her shoulders. She pulled from Tyler and shook her head. She had tears in her eyes. She cared about them so much and they were healing her.
“I don’t want to talk about what happened in the past. I thought I would never be able to have another relationship with a man. I thought I was incapable of trusting one again. But, can’t you see that the two of you have helped me through this? If I didn’t get turned on by your use of control and demands in the bedroom, then I wouldn’t be here. It’s a feeling and sensation that I craved, but my ex was not a dominant and didn’t know what to do. He read about stuff online and thought he was being manly by abusing me and, obviously, other women. He didn’t understand the word no or care about causing pain. He was a self-centered asshole who is rotting in prison where he belongs. I have been trying to get stronger every day and to feel not so frightened like before.
“You both showed me that there is a difference in this type of relationship as opposed to an abusive one. My ex was out to cause pain, both physical and emotional. He had me walking on egg shells and thinking that everything that he felt was wrong was my fault and he punished me for it. God Tyler, he had me so scared, so insecure that when I walked into my own apartment and my own bedroom and found him having sex with another woman, I allowed him to blame me. He made me think that it was my fault.”
“What an asshole,” Matt stated. She took a deep breath.
“You complete me. Both of you. You make me feel good inside.”
“We don’t want to scare you. If our demands in the bedroom are too much for you…”
“No. No, Tyler, I love what you do to me and how you make me feel. I can lose control and not worry about getting hurt physically or mentally. I trust you both entirely.”
“You’re safe here with us. We’re going to take care of you and give you what you need and deserve, baby.” She hugged him back.
“I need to work, Tyler, and live a normal life. I can’t let some idiot who writes silly letters and takes pictures of me in my bedroom ruin my life. The club is always crowded and I’ll be safe there until you pick me up.”
“He’s not just some stalker, Paula. He’s a murderer and he’s also a serial arsonist. He’s responsible for the dead bodies found at the fire scenes.”
Paula covered her mouth as she gasped.
“What? When did you find this out? When were you panning on telling me?” Matt asked, sounding angry.
“I just found out a few hours ago.”
“How?” Matt pushed and Tyler appeared as if he were hiding something. Paula didn’t like the feeling she had.
“Tell us.”
“The fires have been set in the same fashion, using the same accelerant, turpentine. This was used to cause major damage and to cover up evidence of murder. We’re making connections, and right now, Detective Louis and the sheriff are trying to find out if these women were being stalked, too.”
“What? That’s crazy. How did you figure this out?” Matt asked, and Tyler looked away.
“Tyler, how?”
“I got an envelope today.”
“What?” both Matt and Paula asked.
“What was in it? What did it say?” Matt asked, and Tyler shook his head.
“The sheriff and detectives have the information and we were able to help two other potential victims.”
“What? Who? There were other women getting letters?” Paula asked.
He thought about it a moment and he appeared more upset.
“What did the letter to you say?” Paula asked.
When he didn’t answer, Paula stepped forward and pushed him for answers. “What did the letter say?”
“It said to stay away from you. It stated that I would be the cause for two other women to die.”
Paula stepped away from him, and Matt grabbed his brother’s shoulder.
“What two women? When did this happen?”
“It was Marla and Carole, and apparently they were receiving letters up until two months ago. This guy wants Paula, and the other women could have been previous obsessions. It’s what the detectives are leaning toward as a motive.”
“Fuck!” Matt exclaimed.
Paula was shocked and totally scared. Plus, Tyler received this letter and threat from the killer. What if he went after Matt and Tyler to get to her? She couldn’t allow them to get hurt or worse. There had to be a way to stop this guy.
“What were these women to you two? The ones you helped saved today?” she asked, concerned for the women’s safety. Tyler remained silent. He wouldn’t tell her. She knew t
hey had been with other women. She wasn’t stupid. But he had asked her to trust him and Matt and now he couldn’t trust her with the information? She was insulted and angry.
Tyler reached for her, and she pulled away and began to get dressed. She pulled on her camisole without putting a bra on first and then slipped into the skirt.
“Paula, they were just two women Matt and I knew from over a year ago.”
“You had sex with them? You did these types of things with them? I understand all that. The point is that you asked me to trust you fully. You asked me to give in to one of the biggest fears I have, and I did. I trusted you despite the fact that, initially, every time you raised your voices or made a demand it brought back memories of the fear I had when I was abused. I allowed you to restrain me, lay me over a table, and have your way with my body despite some of the hurtful, horrific things my ex did to me. And now, now, the two of you stand here and want to have secrets? You want to not share what’s going on in this case? Where the hell is the God damn trust, Tyler? Where?” She hadn’t meant to raise her voice like that, but it just came out. She swallowed hard to regain control and hugged herself.
Tyler crossed his arms in front of his chest.
“Don’t, Paula. Don’t you see that I want to protect you and not hurt you? Why do you need to know how we knew these women? It doesn’t have anything to do with us and our relationship now.”
She stared at him with anger in her eyes and her body.
“They were playmates every now and then with no strings attached and never with us together,” Matt offered.
Did that make her feel better? Hell no. She knew they shared women. Just not those two. The two he saved today, the two that this killer felt might be of concern to Tyler and Matt.
“Obviously, it was more than just play. Otherwise, this guy wouldn’t use it to get Tyler to jump into hero mode,” she stated, sounding bitchy before she turned to walk away.
“Don’t you dare!” Tyler yelled as he gripped her wrist and turned her to face him.
“We don’t use women and we don’t go around breaking their hearts. Sure, we’ve had a lot of women, but we never found the perfect one for both Matt and I until you. Don’t you dare let this asshole’s attempt at tearing us apart work.”
“Having sex may be no big deal to you, Tyler, but it is to me. I haven’t had sex with anyone in years, and my only lover abused me, so sorry if I feel a bit jealous thinking about how you and Matt got to play your sex games all around Delite. I don’t like hearing about it or knowing about it, and I don’t care what you say, I am jealous, and I am angry, and mostly I’m scared out of my mind that this guy will hurt you or Matt. I won’t be able to live if something happens to either of you because of me.”
Tyler pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly. Matt hugged her from behind and they held one another.
“It will be okay. We’ll work this out. We’re with you for the long haul, baby. We’re not giving you up to anyone,” Tyler reassured her.
“Don’t be jealous of our pasts, Paula. It’s the present that counts, and I can tell you that I’ve never felt like this before. I’ve never had such a strong and immediate connection to someone, and neither has Tyler. You’re what we’ve been searching for, and we’re not going to screw this up with jealousy or lies, and we sure aren’t going to let this asshole screw it up,” Matt stated, and Paula hoped that what they said was true.
“I’m sorry to sound so possessive of both of you. I’m glad that you were able to get to those women in time and that this jerk can’t hurt them. I’m worried about you two now. Who is this guy and what does he want from me? I don’t even know who it could be. But please, Tyler and Matt, please don’t keep anything from me. I don’t have anything if I don’t have the two of you,” she admitted as they hugged her.
Their relationship was new, but the love she felt for them both was already too strong and too powerful to give up, even though she was thinking that giving them up could save their lives.
* * * *
The week had passed and more information was coming in from an area outside of Delite called Cellar County. There had been a series of arsons there a year or two ago, and in almost all the fires there were remains of bodies left behind and all female. As Detective Louis spoke with a detective from the department, they started to think that their killer and arsonist was the same as the one in Delite.
Detective Louis was waiting for the files to come through as he sat in the office, updating Tyler and the sheriff.
“So you think this is the same guy?” the sheriff asked Detective Louis as Tyler looked over the fire inspector’s reports.
“It’s the same MO and same concrete connections. The only difference is the lapse in time between the last fire in Cellar County and the first one here in Delite,” Detective Louis stated.
“Fuck. I can’t believe that no one picked up on this. It’s like the guy disappeared,” the sheriff stated.
“Maybe the arsonist thought the detectives were getting closer to figuring out who he was? It states here that the accelerant was turpentine, just like our arson cases,” Tyler said.
“The detective I spoke to had a feeling that the suspect didn’t live in the community but liked it there. He also felt that he or she was involved in a profession where they used turpentine on a regular basis so it was accessible and they might be involved with fire regularly. They had knowledge of the results they would get in setting the fires a certain way and in specific locations.”
“Shit, that leaves everyone from painters, builders, and carpenters to officers and firefighters,” Tyler stated.
“That’s it! That’s it right there. A firefighter. That could very well be a route we should investigate or even someone waiting on a list to get onto the fire department. A firefighter has special training and knows how to set blazes and what an arson investigator looks for. He never messed with any wiring or electrical units to make it seem like the fires were accidental. He set them using the accelerants which ignite quickly, spread rapidly and cause the most damage,” Detective Louis stated then rose from his chair.
“What about some of these guys who are waiting to get hired who take on odd jobs like painting or construction?” the sheriff added.
“I can check with Matt to see if he’s heard anything in that department.”
“I can check our list of potential persons of interest that I came up with after questioning Paula, the women at Dixie Chix, and Carole and Marla. There were also some fairly general descriptions from eyewitnesses who saw a man leaving the trailer park in a hurry, but they couldn’t identify him,” Louis stated.
Just then the sheriff’s cell phone rang.
“What’s that? I’m putting you on speaker, Monte.” The sheriff pressed the button on his cell phone.
“Yeah, I was working on figuring out the surveillance video that the stalker set up in Paula’s apartment. As I was rewiring the new security system, I came across a hidden wire that leads up to the rooftop. Anyway, there’s a direct signal. It’s still active.”
“What the fuck does that mean, Monte? We’re not familiar with that technical talk,” Detective Louis stated, and Tyler was thinking the same thing.
“It means that I can get a direct hit and pinpoint an exact location where this signal is coming from.”
“Holy shit. Get on it and let us know.” The sheriff pulled the phone off speaker as Monte filled him in on the details.
“Let’s go over this list and see what we’ve got. His brother may just give us an exact location and name of our suspect,” Detective Louis stated.
Tyler felt his stomach ache and his worry for Paula increase. She was at the club, helping to do inventory with Alexa, and assured him and Matt that she would be safe behind the locked doors in the basement.
As they went over the list, numerous names stood out to him. He knew a lot of these guys. He saw most as just fun guys who liked to have a good time who were single and lookin
g for action. But one in particular wouldn’t leave his thoughts. He kept scanning back across the paper and thinking about what Detective Louis had said about firefighter, builder, or painter. Something was nagging his gut. He just couldn’t ease it no matter how hard he tried to focus on the other information.
A while later, the phone rang, and the precinct erupted in chaos.
* * * *
“Okay, so I’m totally jealous, Paula. Matt and Tyler are way hot, and they totally adore you. It’s awesome,” Alexa stated as she counted the bottles of tequila that lined the shelf in the basement. Paula knelt on the floor, looking into a box of newly delivered peanuts in sealed bags.
“I still can’t believe that we’re together. It’s been crazy, especially since I didn’t think they knew I existed.”
“Oh, they knew all right. They had been watching you for a while. They make you happy, huh?”
Paula smiled. “They sure do.”
“Shit. I don’t remember if Sally put the new box of vodka upstairs in the center bar or if we need to order more.”
“I’ll go check. You continue or we’ll be here all morning,” Paula stated then smiled.
“Great. I’ll start on the next box.”
Paula headed through the long basement and up toward the back staircase. Just as she made it to the first step, she felt the hand cover her mouth from behind and the sharp object against her throat.
“Make a noise and I’ll kill Alexa.”
Paula froze and wouldn’t move. She wouldn’t let Alexa get hurt. The stalker. This was the arsonist and killer.
“Move,” he whispered, and slowly she climbed the stairs. As they reached the top floor, he turned her right toward the back door. Just as they headed that way, she caught a glimpse of Susanna standing near the bar area talking with Carl. “I’ll kill them just like I killed the others.”
They exited the door and she began to struggle.
“You caused me nothing but trouble, and you’ll be making up for it, Paula, starting as soon as we get home.”
He opened his trunk, and she struggled to get free. The blade from the knife hit her arm and she felt her skin open up. He lifted her and threw her inside as she tried to fight and get out. He punched her in the mouth and she fell backward, but not before she saw her attacker’s face.
The Sinful 7 of Delite, Texas 2: Double Inferno (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 12