Sonya barely heard Miles as he droned on and on in her ear about how wonderful she was and how much he cared for her. Normally the rambling would annoy her or make her sick to her stomach, but she kept thinking about the look on Lloyd’s face when he’d said he was going to kill Miles, and it turned her on. Apparently that pent up sexual energy came through in her voice whenever she spoke, because Miles seemed to be getting turned on too, and was highly disappointed when she wouldn’t agree to meet him somewhere to repeat what they’d done earlier.
Reaching her car, she ended the call with him, promising to see him tomorrow at the hospital. She sighed as she hit the “end” button and looked across the parking lot to see Roger had already left, and Lloyd was starting his car. She paused before getting in to text a message to Lloyd.
Sonya: I WANT you. Come by my place later if you want.
Not waiting any longer, she opened the door and climbed into her own car and started the engine.
Lloyd was leaving the parking lot as she was backing out of her parking space, and she jumped as her cell phone received a text.
Grabbing her phone, she brought up the message.
Lloyd: Maybe.
She sighed, shook her head, and drove out of the parking lot, heading home.
***
Lloyd felt a rush of hot satisfaction course through his body as he read the text from Sonya. He wasn’t going to let her off the hook easy for what she’d done, though. He fought the urge to say “fuck it” to tailing Jennings and go over to her house and make her remember she was his. He wanted to fuck her so good it would ruin her for any other man for the rest of her life. He thought about what he wanted to do to her when he did get his hands on her again and groaned as he got an erection.
Jennings was out of the building and heading toward his car less than five minutes after Sonya had pulled out of the parking lot, so he decided to go ahead with his plan despite his discomfort.
Watching and waiting, he drove away from the curb he’d pulled up beside after Jennings had driven more than a block away.
After twenty-three minutes on the highway, Jennings got off at an exit to a town Lloyd had never visited before, and it wasn’t hard to keep an eye on where he was going, since it was a very small town with few roads.
Lloyd got off the highway as well, and pulled to the side of the road for a few minutes to let Jennings take the lead and show him where he lived.
***
Jennings pulled into his garage and sighed with relief. He treasured the times when he didn’t have to worry about having to deal with anything or take care of anyone. Knowing his planning of the family harvest would be taking up a lot of his time, he’d taken a couple of vacation days, and since Sonya had given them the news the FBI was getting close, he would now be even busier in the short time he had to devote to the team and its endeavors.
He climbed out of his car and slammed the door as the garage door slid closed, and entered his house through an adjoining door. Everyone on the team looked for houses with this set up because they could load and unload things from their cars without the prying eyes of neighbors.
Out of habit, he said, “I’m home,” to a picture of his deceased wife as he passed her photo hanging on the wall right inside the doorway. He went to the kitchen—straight to the fridge—and took out a home-cooked meal on a plate, which he’d put there the night before. He unwrapped it and heated it in his microwave, then took it and the tumbler of scotch he’d poured himself while the food was heating, with him into the living room. Sitting on the couch, he set his plate on the coffee table.
He sighed heavily and looked up at the large photo of his wife he’d set at eye level on his entertainment center, where most people would put their TV.
“This is getting complicated,” he said to her, looking deep into her blue eyes. “That Lloyd bastard killed Jack and the FBI is now trying to get us.” He sighed and glanced down at his plate, picking up his fork. “I don’t know what to do about them anymore.”
He took a bite of food and chuckled. “Yes, I know we’re doing the right thing and we’re saving people like you, who need organs that are hard to find, but sometimes I want to quit, to just walk away and let everyone else handle it.” His fork clinked as it hit the plate when he scooped up another bite. “Don’t worry. I won’t though. I promised you I’d make things better for people—it’s my responsibility, being a doctor—and I’ll make sure I keep that promise.” He shoved the bite of food into his mouth and chewed, but swallowed hard and responded to the voice of his wife in his head. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you, damn it! I tried.”
Jennings dropped his fork to his plate, covered his face with both of his hands, and wept.
***
Lloyd watched Jennings through the window where the curtains had gapped slightly. He frowned in confusion, watching the old man talk to himself and start to cry.
He circled around the house silently to look in a different window, to see the room in which Jennings was in better, thinking that perhaps someone was there that he couldn’t see. When he arrived at the new window, he peered in through the sheer curtains hanging over the glass and was even more confused to see that there was almost nothing in the living room of Jennings’ house—only a single, large photograph of a woman, sitting on a simple wooden entertainment center.
“He’s off his rocker…” Lloyd said. He shook his head, turned, and walked away into the night. When he got back to his car, he texted Sonya.
Lloyd: On my way, babe.
***
Sonya jumped when her doorbell rang and her cell phone received a text at the same time. Laughing at herself, she pulled out her phone and headed for the door while she read the text from Lloyd. She was smiling when she opened the door, expecting to see Roger.
Miles stood on her doorstep holding a dozen red roses, smiling like a goofy idiot.
Her smile started to turn to a frown of anger, but she quickly glued it back in place and gasped with fake excitement.
“Oh, you brought me flowers,” she cried, and reached for them.
He stepped forward, handed her the flowers, and gave her a passionate, wet kiss on the lips.
She swallowed her reflex gag and kissed him back, hooking her free hand around the back of his neck.
He moaned and groped her ass, nudging her backwards into the house with his body.
“I can’t stop thinking about you,” he whispered, pulling back slightly to look down at her.
She noticed he already had a hard-on and was panting.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t right now,” she said, and pouted, batting her eyes at him. “Roger—from the team—is coming over to talk shop, and we can’t let him know we have a relationship.”
“But I need you now,” he panted, trying to nudge her back toward the couch while stumbling a few steps because of their tangled feet. Sonya caught a glimpse of Roger’s truck pulling into her driveway through the open door.
“He’s here,” she squealed, and tore herself away from Miles. “You have to go! This is serious.”
An angry expression possessed his features as he straightened up and looked at her.
“I don’t get why he can’t know,” he said. “Are you ashamed of me?”
“No, no,” she whispered, and rushed forward to rub his arms reassuringly. “We just made a promise not to get involved with anyone we work with—I could get fired! I really need the money, babe―we both do.”
He sighed and rubbed both his hands over the top of his head.
“Okay,” he finally said. “I don’t want to get you in trouble.”
“Thank you,” she whispered, and smiled broadly. “You have to go.”
“I’ll see you at work tomorrow,” he said with a leering smile. “He won’t be around to interrupt us then.”
“Yup,” she said, and shoving him toward the front door gently; she nearly jumped out of her skin because Roger was right on the other side, ready to ring the doorbell.
“Uh…sorry, am I interrupting something?” he asked, looking back and forth between the two.
“No,” Sonya said in a rush, “not at all. Miles just stopped by to give me something, but he’s leaving now.”
Roger looked at her and tried to stop himself from smirking, but only half-succeeded and ended up twisting his face in an unnatural way.
“Are you okay?” Miles asked as he stepped out of the house. “You’re not having a seizure, are you?”
Roger laughed. “No, I just thought I was gonna sneeze.”
“Oh, okay,” Miles said, and looked back at Sonya. “See you tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow,” Sonya said, smiling and nodding.
Roger stepped into the house and she quickly closed the door.
“So…does Lloyd know?” Roger asked behind her, bending down to pick up the bouquet of forgotten roses from the floor where they’d been carelessly dropped.
She spun to face him and hissed, “Yes!”
He laughed and shook his head, holding the flowers out to her.
“Poor bastard.”
“Who?” she asked, yanking the flowers from his grasp with one hand and putting her other hand on her hip.
“Miles,” Roger said, “because what Lloyd does to him will make what he did to Jack look like a day in preschool.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
“I know,” Sonya said with an evil grin.
Roger arched an eyebrow in question, but didn’t say anything. He found it rather strange that she liked the idea of Lloyd slaughtering men for her, but then he considered that it was Sonya he was thinking about and almost laughed out loud. She was one of the strangest women he’d ever met and she definitely had some perverse appetites.
Following Sonya as she walked to the kitchen, he asked, “So, what did you want to talk to me about?”
She paused with her hand halfway to a cabinet door and looked over her shoulder at him.
“What do you think about Jennings?” she asked, and turned back to her task. She opened the cabinet and withdrew a vase, and after putting the flowers on the counter, filled it half full of water at the sink.
Roger frowned and watched her movements, trying to figure out what he was supposed to say, knowing his response was in some way important.
“He gets on my nerves sometimes, but other than that he doesn’t bother me,” he said, hoping he’d said the right thing.
Sonya was silent as she filled the vase with the flowers Miles had brought her.
“I want to bring you in on our plan,” she said softly, still focused on her task, “but you can’t tell Jennings.”
“What kind of plan?” he asked, moving forward and turning around, resting his hip against the counter to see her face while they talked.
She looked over at him calmly.
“We’re going to kill him,” she said. “Right after we harvest the family.”
Roger was shocked and had to fight hard not to show it.
“Why do you want to kill Jennings?” he asked, and frowned.
She sighed and finished arranging the flowers before she answered.
“He’s been lying to us.”
“You’re going to kill him because he’s been lying?”
“Yes,” she said, and smiled at him as she lifted the vase and walked it over to her dining room table, setting it in the center. “He’s been lying to us for a long time, and he’s been withholding money.”
“I find that hard to believe,” Roger said, standing up straight and walking over beside her; he placed his hand on her shoulder and gently turned her around to face him. “Why would he lie to us or steal from us? How do you know any of this anyway?”
She sighed and crossed her arms. “I’m not lying. Lloyd told me—when we first got together—how much money he was giving to Jennings when he sold organs. Most of that money we never see.”
Roger frowned. “What’s he using it for if he’s not giving us our share?”
“I don’t know,” Sonya said. “That’s what we’re trying to find out and why he’s still alive. Peter knew too, and it’s one of the reasons he quit.”
With a sigh, Roger ran his hands through his hair in frustration. He’d known that Peter and Lloyd had become close while working together, almost like brothers. It had upset Lloyd deeply when he’d decided to quit and get married, because they couldn’t have much contact after that without risking Peter’s safety.
“I thought he quit for Megan…” Roger said. “Now you’re telling me there was more to it?”
Sonya laughed. “There’s a lot more to it—there’s a lot more to everything. You remember when Peter bought their house?”
Roger nodded.
“Well, remember that job we made less money on than Jennings had anticipated? The one that convinced him it was time for us to move on to a new town?”
He nodded again.
“Lloyd gave Peter the money we usually don’t see from that job—one job—and it was enough to pay for his house. He didn’t have his money in the stock market and made a bunch all of a sudden like he’d said. Hell, the stock market sucks right now—everyone knows that.”
Roger’s mouth fell open in shock as he thought about it. “That was a three hundred thousand-dollar home!”
“They had enough to pay for their wedding and honeymoon too,” she said, leaning forward to drive the point home. “All that money from one job.”
“I’m finding this hard to believe,” Roger said. “I mean…Jennings just gave us a lot of money for that Bill guy.”
Sonya nodded. “That’s because he knows Lloyd knows and didn’t want him to say anything about it.”
“But why would he bring Lloyd here, after the move, if he didn’t want us to find out about him squirreling away money? I mean…it just doesn’t make sense that he would do that.”
“He asked Lloyd out of courtesy but didn’t expect him to come, or at least that’s the crap I’ve been fed on the subject,” she said, shaking her head and crossing her arms. “Really though, I knew Lloyd was coming because we planned it before the move. I just didn’t let on to Jennings that I knew, and acted pissed off and surprised when he got here.”
“I wondered why you weren’t madder about that…” Roger said, and chuckled. “So, what’s the plan then? Just to kill Jennings? What about finding out where the money is?”
The door from the garage opened and Lloyd walked in, hearing Roger’s last question.
“Oh, we’re going to find the money,” Lloyd said. “Then the bastard will die.” He paused and looked at the flowers sitting in the center of the table, and clenched his jaw to keep from screaming and breaking something; he looked at Sonya. “They’re from Miles, aren’t they? Why didn’t you throw them away?”
She sighed heavily and shook her head. “Because if he decides to show up again, I don’t want to have to explain where they are and make it up to him.”
“He was here?” Lloyd asked, clenching his fists.
“Don’t worry,” Roger said, “I got here before he could maul her too bad.”
Lloyd didn’t laugh like he’d expected him to, so Roger tried to get them all focused on the plan again.
“Okay, so your plan is to kill Jennings after finding out what he’s done with the money, correct?”
Sonya and Lloyd nodded, looking at Roger.
“What would have happened to me if you hadn’t brought me in on this?”
Sonya looked away and shrugged.
Lloyd stared him straight in the eyes and said, “Kill you too.”
Roger swallowed hard. “What if I say that I don’t want to be involved with this?”
Lloyd’s gaze never wavered as he shrugged.
“Fuck,” Roger said, and gripped the back of one of the wooden chairs around the dining room table. “I can’t believe you two were going to kill me.”
Sonya looked at him with tears in her eyes. “I didn’t want to, but I would have done it.”
; “She’s been bugging me about bringing you onboard for a long time,” Lloyd said, stepping forward and wrapping his arm around Sonya’s waist, tugging her up against him. She went willingly.
Roger laughed nervously. “That’s nice to know,” he said, and shrugged. “I guess I’m in then, since I don’t want to die. How are we going to do this?”
Sonya glanced up at Lloyd, who nodded, and then she started explaining the plan to Roger.
“Well…”
***
An hour and a half later, Roger left Sonya’s house with a lot on his mind. He couldn’t believe all the money Jennings had been pocketing. Lloyd had filled him in on all the financial information from the time he’d started moving parts for them; three million dollars had been taken by Jennings. He had to admit, it did make him mad to know they were all risking their lives and freedom, and had trusted the old man while he was screwing them over. On top of that, Lloyd had informed him and Sonya that Jennings lived alone and talked to a picture of a woman. Sonya deduced that the woman must have been Jennings’ wife, which he’d led her to believe was alive.
This was another mystery tossed into the muddled mess of Jennings and his dealings. Together they were determined to get to the bottom of everything, and end things once and for all, with a big payday to boot.
The drive back to his small house didn’t take very long, and when he arrived he didn’t waste any time climbing into bed. He was mentally and physically exhausted and there was a lot to do to make all the plans come together. He knew he needed his rest.
***
“I think Roger was freaked out about us planning to kill him,” Sonya said to Lloyd after Roger had left.
He nodded and glanced at the flowers on the table.
Turning abruptly, he took ahold of her arm and fast-walked her down the hallway toward her bedroom.
Sonya gasped, but didn’t say a word, even though he was squeezing her arm too tight and it hurt.
Nurse Blood (The Organ Harvester Series Book 1) Page 15