“I still don’t see why I wasn’t warned!” Jack yelled. “That bitch already stabbed me in the balls and now I have to worry about her psycho boyfriend. This is bullshit!”
“Calm down,” Jennings said, and smiled. “They won’t kill you—at least not until I’m done with you.”
“Then what?” Jack asked. “I’m on their unofficial ‘hit list’?”
Jennings looked at the younger man for a few moments; he opened his mouth to speak, but Jack beat him to it.
“Fuck it! I’m not scared of them,” he ranted. “I’ll kill them first. They better stay the hell away from me.”
Jennings sighed. “You really do need to calm down. They might not do anything to you, but I can never be sure with them. Just watch your back and try to steer clear of them. Do your job, stick with Roger, and more than likely, you’ll be fine.”
“More than likely?” Jack asked with a laugh. “Oh, I’ll be fine. They better not fuck with me.”
He stormed out of the meeting room just as Roger was coming back in.
“Hey, watch it!” Roger exclaimed when Jack bumped into him and almost knocked him over in his rush to get through the narrow doorway.
Jack didn’t respond; he headed for the factory’s exit.
Roger looked at Jennings with an expression of confusion.
“What’s up his ass?” he asked. “He’s the one who caused this mess.”
“He’s mad because we didn’t tell him about Lloyd and Sonya,” Jennings said. “I also warned him they might be angry.”
“Shit,” Roger breathed. “Is he scared?”
Jennings chuckled and shook his head. “I don’t know. I think he is, but I think he’s also dumb enough to do something stupid, thinking he’s protecting himself, and will anger them further. I don’t think he understands what those two are capable of.”
Roger sighed. “Do you think he’ll get what’s coming before the job?”
“No,” Jennings said. “But after, your guess is as good as mine.”
***
Sonya stood beside her car, still holding hands with Lloyd. She looked down at their linked fingers and sighed. Glancing up at Lloyd, who was watching her every move like a predator would its prey, she smiled slightly.
“Nothing happened between me and Roger,” she said softly, looking him directly in the eyes. “I swear.”
His jaw clenched and his eyes traveled over her beautiful face, looking for any signs of a lie.
“Why did he stay then?” he ground out. “He’s never stayed at your place before, so why now?”
She sighed and looked at their hands again.
“I was having a rough night,” she said with a shrugged. “He slept on the couch.”
She felt his hand tighten around hers and looked up at him.
He looked down at her and noted the unshed tears pooling in her green eyes.
“Why were you having a rough night, and why didn’t you call me?” he asked with a voice full of disbelief, anger, and pain. “I would have come and stayed with you.”
She half-smiled and tears slid down her cheeks.
“I know you would have,” she said, and used her free hand to caress the side of his face. “Everything started at the meeting, when we decided to harvest the children…”
Lloyd nodded. “Jennings told me about that. Roger didn’t want to do it, right?”
She nodded. “I tried to find out why, but Jack interrupted. I told Roger to call me, so we could talk about what was bothering him. He decided to come over to talk and when he got there…”
Lloyd growled as she scrunched up her face in a pained expression and more tears fell.
“What happened?” he almost yelled. “Did he hurt you? I’m going to kill the bastard!”
He tried to pull away and head for the building, but she wouldn’t let go of his hand.
“No, he didn’t hurt me,” she whispered. “He helped me.”
Lloyd froze and turned back to her, squeezing her hand in reassurance.
“What happened?” he asked, shaking off her hand and wrapping his arms around her. “Please tell me, babe―I’m going insane. I still can’t believe you didn’t call me.”
She shuddered and relaxed against his chest, closing her eyes.
“When he got to my house, I was asleep and having a bad dream,” she whispered. “He woke me up and made sure I talked it out.”
Lloyd smoothed the hair on the back of her head with one hand, comforting her.
“What were you dreaming about?” he asked gently, sensing she needed the encouragement to continue.
“The night my brother died.”
“Oh, babe,” he said, squeezing her tighter. They’d talked about her brother only once a long time ago, but he still remembered the frigid pain in her voice as she’d shared her trauma with him. “Did it help?”
She nodded and sniffled. “Yes. After, we drank wine, ate pizza, and he told me why he didn’t want to harvest the children.”
“Oh, man,” he groaned. “Wine and pizza too! Now I’m really gonna have to kill him.”
Sonya laughed and Lloyd smiled.
She pulled back slightly and brushed tears from her cheeks, looking up at him.
“The pizza was cold though, so you wouldn’t have liked it.”
He sighed dramatically. “Okay, then I’ll just beat the fuck out of him.”
She laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him.
“After we ate, he slept on the couch,” she said. “Neither of us wanted to be alone.” She paused and looked up at Lloyd. “Roger is like a brother to me—there’s nothing between us. I love you.”
He brushed a stray tear from her cheek with his thumb and tucked a couple of loose strands of hair behind her ear. Bending forward, he kissed her lips gently.
“I love you too,” he breathed against her lips.
She closed her eyes and sighed.
He sighed as well and pressed his forehead against hers.
“So, why didn’t he want to take the kids?” he asked.
She opened her mouth to speak, but the banging of the factory door, as it opened, distracted them both. They pulled away from each other slightly, and turned their heads to see Jack storming out of the building.
“That fucking bastard,” Lloyd snarled. “I could gut him like a pig for starting all this shit—for upsetting you and making me hit Roger. I don’t like this douche bag. Where did Jennings find him?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know, but we can’t do anything until the job’s done—we’ll need him.”
“We can’t do anything?” Lloyd asked, glancing at her. “Why do I have a feeling you already have plans for the bastard?”
She smiled sweetly and said, “Because I do.”
Lloyd laughed.
***
Jack didn’t know where the “psycho love birds” were until he heard Lloyd laugh. A chill of fear slid from his neck down his spine as he jumped, but he realized they were snuggling by Sonya’s car and he calmed down. He decided he’d be damned if he was going to be afraid of them and extended the plan he had in mind to pay Sonya back for the stabbing to include Lloyd as well.
He ignored the couple and walked briskly over to his car.
He was reaching for the door handle when he heard the door of the building open again. Roger and Jennings stepped out, chatting amiably.
“Wait up a second, Jack!” Roger called, breaking away from his conversation with Jennings to rush out into the parking lot.
Jack waited, and even though he tried, he couldn’t keep his eyes from darting over to where Sonya and Lloyd were—they seemed to be engrossed with each other and weren’t paying any attention to him.
“Hey, thanks for waiting,” Roger said, catching his breath after his brisk jog. “You okay?”
Jack nodded. “Why wouldn’t I be okay?”
“Well, you do seem kinda pissed and upset about Sonya and Lloyd,” Roger said with a shrugged.
<
br /> “I’m fine,” Jack snapped. “Do you want anything or can I go?”
Roger blinked a couple of times.
“No, that’s all I wanted—have a good night,” he said, and backed away a few steps before turning and heading toward Lloyd and Sonya.
Jack got in his car, slammed the door shut, and started the engine. He peeled out of the parking lot, heading toward home.
***
“Everything cool now?” Roger asked as he approached the hugging couple.
“Yeah,” Lloyd said, freeing one of his arms so he could hold out his hand to Roger, who reached forward and shook it. “Sorry about punching you.”
Roger shrugged and let go of Lloyd’s hand.
“It’s no big deal,” he said, and smiled. “I hate that this even happened. I would never do that to you, and besides, Sonya’s like a little sister to me. I’d be just as pissed if I thought someone was using or hurting her.”
“Thanks, man,” Lloyd said, wrapping his arm around Sonya again.
Silence stretched between them as Sonya and Lloyd watched Roger.
“Where did Jennings go?” he asked, looking anywhere but at them.
“Home, it looks like,” Sonya said, and pointed at Jennings’ car as it pulled out of the parking lot. “Why are you so nervous?”
“Um…er…you guys aren’t going to…” He paused, cleared his throat, and looked at them. “You guys aren’t going to kill Jack, are you? Because we need him for the job.”
Lloyd and Sonya looked at each other, then back at Roger. They were both grinning.
“Let’s put it this way…” Sonya said. “He’ll pay his debt.”
Lloyd snickered.
Roger shook his head.
“I don’t even want to know,” he said, and laughed. “I’m taking off to get some sleep. You two have a nice night.”
“You too,” Lloyd called as Roger walked away, heading for his truck.
“Do you think he’ll tell Jack?” Sonya asked.
“Does it matter?” Lloyd asked, looking down at her upturned face. “If he doesn’t know it’s coming, the guy is stupider than I thought, and I really don’t see how that’s possible.”
Sonya laughed. “I suppose I should head home and get some sleep.” She sighed. “I have to figure out how to befriend this woman and ‘infiltrate’ the family.”
Chapter Fourteen
The next morning, after the first good night’s sleep she’d had in a while, Sonya looked over the paper Roger had given her the night before with the target family’s information. She’d called off work at the hospital, claiming to be sick, so she would have time to do the extra task of befriending the late Bill Housen’s wife. The list of places the woman had visited the day before included a dry cleaners—she was betting it would be the best place to bump into the woman, as she could take some clothes to be cleaned and have a legitimate reason for being there. She was still pissed about the need for this subterfuge, knowing it was an added complication. The idea that she had to get close to the people they were going to harvest bothered her in more ways than one, but she had to agree it was probably the best and quickest route to accomplishing their goal.
She sighed and headed for the kitchen to put her dirty cup in the sink. She glanced down at the piece of paper in her hand and at the clock on her microwave, noting she had a half hour to get dressed and make it to the dry cleaners, assuming the woman went back at the same time she’d visited the day before.
Cursing herself for not asking Roger to stakeout the woman’s house again so she would have an idea when she was running errands, Sonya headed for her bedroom to get dressed for the day and to find something in her closet to take to the cleaners—she decided on the red dress she’d worn the night she’d picked Bill up at the bar.
Smirking about how ironic is was to be cleaning what she’d used to lure the man to his death to trick his wife into trusting her, she headed out to the garage, hung her dress in the back seat—on the fold down hook by the window—and settled herself behind the wheel. She backed out and sat in the driveway for a few moments, checking for messages on her phone while her garage door closed.
The drive to the dry cleaners was a short one, taking only ten minutes. Sonya parked in the far corner of the parking lot where she had a good view of the door to the small rectangular building, and she waited.
To keep herself from getting too bored, she responded to the text messages she hadn’t answered before she’d left the house—most were from Roger and Lloyd.
After only a few minutes, a car pulled into the parking lot and a woman climbed out. Sonya was in the middle of sending a response to Lloyd and glanced up. Noticing that the license plate on the car matched the one on the paper, she threw her phone down into the passenger seat and quickly climbed out of her car. She made it halfway to the building in her rush and had to turn back and run to the car to get the dress she’d brought. By the time she finally made it to the door, the woman was coming out with an armload of clothing. They collided.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Sonya said, pretending to be upset, but was happy it had happened that way; she was relieved she didn’t have to think something up to start a conversation. “I should watch where I’m going.”
The woman nodded and bent down to pick up a man’s dress shirt she’d dropped and stood again.
“Are you okay?” Sonya asked, frowning when the woman didn’t look at her or say anything; she put her hand on the woman’s shoulder and felt a shudder.
The woman glanced up at Sonya nervously.
“I’m okay,” she said, and burst into tears.
“No, you’re not,” Sonya said. “I’m really sorry I bumped you. Did I hurt you? Or is something else bothering you?”
The woman shrugged. “I’m having a very bad day. Don’t worry about it…”
She sniffled again and turned toward her car, but the plastic sheeting on her clothes got caught on the door frame and pulled the entire bundle out of her arms as she tried to leave.
“Damn it!” the woman exclaimed.
Sonya bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing.
“Let me help you,” she said, throwing her dress over her arm and picking up half of the mess.
The woman reached forward and tried to take the bundle from Sonya, but she shook her head and laughed gently.
“I’ll help you get these to your car,” Sonya said. “They seem bound and determined to do you in.”
The woman laughed and finally took a real look at Sonya.
“Thank you,” she said, smiling.
“Which car?” Sonya asked, looking around the parking lot the dry cleaners shared with a sub shop and a small appliance rental store, pretending she had no idea which vehicle the woman had arrived in.
“That one,” the woman said, pointing to a light green sedan. “I’m sorry about all this.”
Sonya laughed, following the woman as she led the way to her car.
“Nonsense! I bumped into you in the first place.”
“Really…it’s not your fault,” the woman said, opening the trunk of her car with a push button remote.
Sonya handed the woman the bundle of clothing when she reached for them.
“If you don’t mind me asking…what’s wrong?” Sonya asked.
“I don’t want to bother you,” the woman said, stuffing the clothes into the trunk and shutting it. “What’s going on with me isn’t your problem.”
Sonya smiled and stepped forward, taking one of the woman’s hands in her own, squeezing.
“You look like you could use a friend, and I don’t have anywhere I have to be. Why don’t we have lunch and you can talk? I’ll buy! After all, what’s better than telling your troubles to a stranger? I mean, it’s not like I’ll go and tell all your friends.”
The woman smiled tentatively, sniffed, wiped away tears, and nodded with a shrug.
“Okay,” she said. “I’m Jan.”
Sonya thought about giving the
woman another name, but decided to stick with the one she was currently using.
“Sonya,” she said, and smiled. “Nice to meet you, Jan. Where would you like to eat?”
They stood and discussed food for a couple of minutes and agreed on a restaurant, planning to meet there after Sonya took her dress inside and dropped it off. She thought about not bothering, now that she’d accomplished what she’d set out to do, but did it anyway, just to make sure things didn’t seem “weird” to Jan.
***
The restaurant they’d chosen was practically deserted, since it wasn’t quite lunch time yet. The women were shown to a booth and left with menus; Sonya waited until after they’d ordered their meals before she pressed Jan about why she was upset.
“Now, spill, woman,” Sonya said encouragingly. “Get it all off your chest. I promise you’ll feel better.”
Jan took a deep breath and tucked her shoulder length, straight brown hair behind her ear.
“My husband has gone missing,” she said, and her eyes welled up with tears.
“Gone missing?” Sonya asked.
Jan nodded and looked down at her hands, which she had clasped together in her lap.
“He never came home from work one night…after a late meeting. It’s been a couple days and I haven’t heard from him. He doesn’t return any of my calls…”
“Do you think something happened to him?” Sonya asked. “Or do you think he left you?”
Jan shook her head and covered her mouth with her hand as tears flowed freely down her cheeks.
“I…I don’t know,” she muttered, and covered her face with her hands.
Sonya frowned and looked Jan over. She was average height and pretty. She wasn’t skinny, but wasn’t overweight either. Bill could have done worse, and she was sure Jan could have done better.
“Did you report him missing to the police?” Sonya asked.
“What?” Jan asked, jerking her hands away from her face, looking at Sonya. “Report him missing? Involve the police?”
“Isn’t that what you normally do when you think someone has gone missing?”
Nurse Blood (The Organ Harvester Series Book 1) Page 9