“I’m better now, as always.” She stood outside the Navigator and watched muscles flex in James’s arm when he reached over her and closed the door. “Are you sure you need to go home? I’ll be alone all evening tonight.”
“It will probably be the best evening you’ve ever had,” he said, winking at her. Those bright green eyes were prettier than rare gems.
And so what if he was a pretty boy? She already married Rough-and-Ready, and he turned out to be spoiled and stupid.
“I have an exam in the morning at seven thirty or you know I would love to spend the night with you here.” James glanced around them and then bent over, kissing her quickly and straightening with a mischievous glint in his eyes. “Of course if you need anything in the morning after nine, I’m at your beck and call, my lady.”
“Damn right you are,” she snapped, and then wagged her eyebrows until he gave her that knowing smile that she loved seeing. He had fucked her as soon as she got the hell out of that nasty police station and already he wanted more. That’s the way all men should be. None of this five-minute “wham bam thank you, ma’am” for her. “I’ll text message you if there is time in the morning. Now be a good boy and walk me to my door.”
James nodded and gallantly turned, hurrying to open the gate for her, and then walked along the stone path to her back door. The motion-sensitive light turned on before they reached the house. She hated that thing and all of the other ridiculous security precautions that Steve insisted upon. Like anyone would want to steal any of his crap. Hell, she’d pay good money for someone to steal his wardrobe. Maybe she should have it all packed up and shipped off to Goodwill while he spent the night in jail.
“Did you say your father was sending over some of the servants to keep you company tonight?” James looked up at the house warily.
“He said he would if I called for them.” Susie walked onto her back porch and then turned, holding the screen door and smiling down at James. God, he was the epitome of perfection. “Go make those good grades, my boy toy. Maybe when you graduate, Daddy will give you a nice job and an allowance to keep you happy for a lifetime.”
“Works for me.” He gave her a quick salute and then turned and jogged back to the Navigator.
Susie entered her quiet house, exhaling as she closed the door and then leaned against it. Most of the time she didn’t mind a bit leading a completely false life. Well, it wasn’t false in her mind. The rest of the world didn’t need to know shit about how her life really was. If she wanted to have a rich daddy, who owned corporations around the world and had enough servants at his disposal that he could send some over to her on a whim, then that was her business. No one needed to know she didn’t have parents, rich or poor. Hell, Steve didn’t even know until they’d been married a few years. And more than once she’d kicked herself in the rear for her moment of weakness when she thought she actually loved him and could confide in him.
“I can’t believe it!” She laughed out loud, staring at the clock hanging on the wall. Steve got his ass thrown in jail, and all because of that stupid fucking gun. What an idiot.
Although the cops were even bigger fucking fools if they believed for a moment that someone as dense as her husband could pull off five murders. Hell, he couldn’t even pick up his goddamned gun without hurting something. She stared at the hole in the cabinet and started laughing again.
“Probably the best shot you’ve ever made in your life, you moron.” Susie shook her head and headed through the kitchen toward the back stairs, not bothering with lights.
After soaking in her garden tub, which she had to fill with water by herself since her stupid husband wasn’t here to do it for her, Susie wrapped her silk bathrobe around her and headed into her bedroom. She knew she was alone, but even so, she glanced around the room before sliding the small wedding picture that hung on their wall to the side. After all these years, she didn’t need to see the pad to push the correct buttons. Her closet door buzzed, indicating she’d unlocked it.
Steve might have thrown a fit hundreds of times that he didn’t know the combination into her personal office, but tonight was proof she’d made the right choice there. But then, how often did she make a bad decision?
“I hope you rot in prison for life,” she mumbled, entering her closet and hitting the light as the door swept closed behind her, locking her in.
Susie pushed the button on her scrambler that prevented anyone from detecting her inside her own piece of sanctuary. It was no one’s business what she did while in her own home, or anywhere else for that matter. The only difference between her and the rest of the fucking world was that she had the brains to outsmart all the fools who purchased those spy contraptions and believed they could learn what everyone else did with their own time.
After typing in her password and then pulling down her favorites, Susie popped over to one Web site after another, checking hits first, making sure links worked properly. She was killing time and she knew it, but building up the anticipation always made the moment of discovery all the better.
“Well, I’ll be, I almost forgot.” She grinned and leaned across her desk where she’d placed the CD earlier this morning. “Susie, you truly are the smartest person on the planet.” She kissed the CD case and then opened it and slid it into her D drive.
How many women figured out how to make a million, or two, on their cheating husbands? She meant to create a new Web site when she had time, maybe when she got older and was content to sit at the computer longer. She would design it specifically for those poor pathetic souls who needed to be counseled when they discovered the man they loved cheating with someone younger, prettier, and with more energy to get their man off.
But until that time, she wouldn’t be greedy. For now, uploading movies of her husband fucking the little tramps he enjoyed and then selling them for fifty dollars a pop on one of her several Web sites that members could join for thirty dollars a month and then pay fifty dollars for the good stuff. Susie shook her head. If she had an ounce of scruples, she might feel guilty for how much money she drained out of some poor saps. But then if she didn’t, who would keep her in the lifestyle she enjoyed? She glanced at the hits and then at the download figures.
“They definitely prefer it when you fuck them in the ass, my dear.” Susie couldn’t wait any longer and pulled open her personal account to see how much money came in while she’d been down at that pathetic police station. “Come to Mama, baby!” she purred, and grinned from ear to ear at the balance from her shopping-cart Web site.
Clicking to transfer the money out of the account and into one of the several bank accounts she had around the country, she leaned back while the computer hummed. Once her cash was transferred, she probably needed to transfer some of the money from one of her out-of-state accounts into her local bank.
“Idiot is going to cost me some money.” She scowled.
Susie stared at her monitor but didn’t focus on the screen when it changed and told her the transfer was complete. Instead, it hit her. What the hell had she been thinking?
“My God,” she cried out, pushing her chair back and standing so quickly she almost tripped over her own feet. “Crap,” she hissed, and then looked distractedly around the small room. “Okay, think. You’ve got to think.”
There wasn’t a shred of doubt in her mind that Steve didn’t kill any of those fools. Letting him take the fall for it, and praying in fact they would actually press charges and not simply keep him in a holding cell while they gathered their evidence, would be an answer to a prayer. But in the meantime, the real killer was still out there. And she knew who it was. Granted, she wasn’t positive. And a shred of doubt was something she hated having. She needed to know for sure.
“Proof yet again as to how damned smart you are, girl.” Maybe the cops were stupid, but she sure as hell wasn’t.
Susie pushed her chair into her desk but then finally saw her screen. “Okay. Take a deep breath.” Not a good sign. Susie almost wa
lked out of her office with her computer still booted up.
Maybe all of this mess had her a bit more frazzled than she wanted to admit. Not that she would ever let a soul know, but it scared the crap out of her, being hauled down to that station. If they searched her and Steve’s home, discovered the code pad under their wedding picture, her life would be over.
Not that owning and maintaining a handful of pornography Web sites was against the law, but selling movies of people who didn’t know they were being filmed was a minor crime. And it wasn’t against the law to make a killing selling videos, or photographs, or live webcam footage, which wasn’t really live, but again, it was not a crime. But moving the money around the country, laundering it until it arrived home safely and clean as a whistle, would give the IRS a field day. Susie hadn’t reported a dime of income in the past ten years and didn’t want to start doing so now.
She took her time closing out her programs and then turning off her computer. Then looking around the large walk-in closet that she’d converted into her own private office so many years ago, she made sure everything was in order. Satisfied that it was, she turned and punched in the code to unlock her bedroom door, turned off the light, and then let it close behind her.
Okay, now for a game plan. Susie paced her bedroom floor, nibbling at her fingernail, while carefully thinking over what had transpired so far.
Steve’s gun was the murder weapon. She didn’t doubt it, although she knew he couldn’t have killed those people. Therefore, he had loaned it to someone, which was probably why he was trying to clean it himself the other morning. Whoever borrowed it had just returned it. Of course, idiot that Steve was, he more than likely had wiped all fingerprints off of the gun other than his own.
She continued pacing. She was smart enough to know that if she left the house, went anywhere for that matter, she would be watched. Susie didn’t doubt for a moment that the cops watched her ride James the moment she left that lame excuse for a station.
Grinning, she continued nibbling on her fingernail, remembering how she put some extra show into it tonight. Usually she made James do all the work. Why should she build up a sweat just to get off? Tonight, though, knowing someone had binoculars pinned on her, and probably the equipment to see through the heavily tinted windows of James’s Navigator, she got off even more imagining them getting a woody watching her fuck.
She even fantasized about some young, buff thing in uniform coming to the car with his long black stick and handcuffs. Crap! She got wet all over again just thinking about it.
“Damn it, woman,” she hissed, banging her fist against her forehead and then planting her butt on the edge of her bed. Once again her mind was wandering. This wasn’t like her. “I guess even you react to a traumatic situation.” And getting called into a police station because she had married a moron definitely qualified as trauma.
The questioning she had endured was beyond preposterous, although she deserved a goddamned Oscar for her performance in that interrogation room. Like she would exert the effort to kill any of those people. She didn’t care enough about any of them to waste her precious time murdering them.
But someone cared, and it sure as hell wasn’t Steve. The only person he cared about was himself.
Again she focused on how to go about finding the real murderer. It was up to her, and worse yet, once she got her confession, she would have to make sure they didn’t kill again. At least not while Steve was in jail. That would absolutely ruin everything.
Somehow she needed to get out of the house. There was only one thing she could think of. The cops would know. There wasn’t getting around that. They were watching her and she knew it. But if she simply called Joanna, asked her to come get her because she was distraught and didn’t want to be alone, when the law listened in and heard her phone call and then saw her being picked up it would all look perfectly legitimate.
“You are good, my dear.” She slapped her palms on her knees and grinned. “Too damned good to be wasting your time with so many losers.”
Susie dressed simply, choosing her jogging outfit, although she sure as hell didn’t jog. Then heading into her bathroom, she took care doing her face. If she had to spend the evening with the redheaded bimbo, she would at least look good while doing it.
The stage needed to be set properly before she made her phone call to Joanna. Susie entered her kitchen, imagining she had servants doing this while preparing one of her finer blends of coffee and then taking her silver set out of her cabinet. Once the coffee was in the silver coffeepot and the saucer, cup, cream, and sugar were placed perfectly on the tray, Susie carried it to her parlor, placed it on the small end table, and then sat in her large reclining chair, sighing as she leaned back to make the footrest come up and reached for her coffee.
“Thank you, my dear,” she told her imaginary servant, and waved her hand in the air to dismiss her invisible hired help as she prepared her own coffee. “Crap,” she groaned when she realized her cell phone was still upstairs.
It really sucked that her imaginary servant couldn’t bring it to her. “One of these days,” she mumbled, although she knew she would never hire real servants. That would mean allowing servants into her home to go through her things. No one could be trusted that much.
Getting up, she sprinted upstairs, grabbed her phone, and then hurried quickly, like she was in a race, back to her chair in the parlor. When she reached her chair, she skidded to a stop and then slowly turned, held herself gracefully, and reclined like the royalty she should have been back into her chair. She prepared her coffee, a drop of cream and one scoop of sugar, and then sipped slowly. Good. It was still hot.
“Excellent as always, Jeeves,” she called out to her imaginary servant. Then picking up her cell phone, she placed the necessary call.
When that damned alarm system Steve insisted on wasting money on beeped twenty minutes later, Susie knew Joanna had let herself into the house, just as instructed.
“Hello?” she called out, her heels clicking as she walked slowly across the kitchen floor.
Damned bimbo. Did she hurry to put on something sexy to come over, hoping to spend a moment with Steve drooling over her?
“I’m in here,” Susie called out, and then waited while the heels clicked until Joanna reached the carpeted part of the house.
“Hi, Susie,” Joanna said, definitely dressed to the hilt in a dress that was so fucking tight on her it showed off the thirty pounds she could stand to lose.
Not that Susie cared. Although fashion leaders claimed the world adored anorexic women, Susie knew from experience that when it came to watching them get the shit fucked out of them, most men loved a bit of meat on their sluts.
“Thanks for coming over, sweetheart,” she said in the smoothest voice she could master. “Please, have a seat. Coffee?”
Joanna glanced around at the quiet setting, obviously not what she expected. Susie fought a smile.
“Sure. Thank you.” Joanna again looked at her warily before smiling easily and accepting the seat offered, an intentionally incredibly uncomfortable, stiff upright.
Susie let Joanna squirm a bit while taking her time preparing her coffee. The silence spread out, with only the grandfather clock in the hallway clicking away each second. Susie swore she could hear Joanna’s heart thudding along with it. The bitch ached to know where Steve was.
Susie extended her hand, holding the cup out to Joanna, but made her stand and come get it. Now to lay her trap.
“Steve isn’t here right now. I thought you could keep me company. Every now and then I let him go over to his little girlfriend’s house to get a piece of young action.” Susie watched with amusement when Joanna almost choked on her coffee. “But mind you,” Susie continued, keeping her tone as sweet and placid as she could muster. “He only is allowed to go fuck her when he gives it to me very, very good. I swear, I’m absolutely exhausted after fucking him. But my Steve, he will come up with the energy, no matter what, to go spend
time with his young college student, sweetheart. She’s such a precious young thing.”
“Oh really,” Joanna said, her gaze darkening on Susie as she stared at her over the rim of her cup. “And that’s where he is right now?”
Susie glanced at her watch, then laughed, loving how melodic she made herself sound. “I’d say right about now he’s got her spread-eagle and is riding her hot and hard.”
“I see.” Joanna put her coffee cup down, her hand noticeably shaking. Damn good thing she didn’t spill any of the coffee on the cherry end table. “How long has he been seeing this college student?”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Susie pretended to think about it. “A few months or so. He picked her up online. But you know how it is. We all behave so well, staying with our group. I don’t want you to think I allow him to do this all of the time. This is the first. And he wasn’t complaining. My Steve never complains. You know that. But the little comments he dropped.”
“Like what?” Joanna tried to look like she was comfortable in that too-tight dress she wore and the uncomfortable chair she sat in. She picked up her cup, sighed, and made a noticeable effort to relax.
“I’m sure it was only comments that a wife would notice,” Susie said, and then sipped at her coffee. She wondered if Joanna had a clue how expensive and perfectly brewed the coffee was that she was drinking. “Things like it would be nice if we had some new blood in the group. I sure do know he can’t wait to fuck Rain Kayne. She sure is a hottie, wouldn’t you say?”
“Most definitely.” Joanna looked so venomous it was priceless. It should have been obvious sooner, but now she stared with eyes that glowed with a rage ready to boil over. “So he is tired of all of us, then?”
“Oh heavens, dear. All of you are wonderful friends. Steve will never tire of having fun with you.” Susie sipped her coffee and then placed her cup on her silver tray. Then lowering her footrest, she eased to the edge of her seat. “You realize I wouldn’t have told you this if I believed you would tell anyone else about it.”
Long, Lean and Lethal Page 29