by Lissa Kasey
“Not sure I’m going to be able to think coherently with you dressed like this.” The top of the garters was an opaque edge of thick white lace that gave just the tiniest peek of skin before his baby blue denim shorts began. Literally, it was like a couple centimeters at most, but I think that tiny bit of sensitive golden flesh fried my brain. I couldn’t stop from touching him, and having my hands up under his shorts in public was probably a bad idea.
He bit my lip just enough to hurt.
“Ow.” I frowned at him.
“Can I drive?” he asked cheerfully as he pulled out of my embrace. He took both our bags and reached for the keys.
“No.” I held them out of his reach. “I’ll drive.”
“If you two lovebirds are finished, we’re going now,” Ty interrupted us. He didn’t sound annoyed. In fact, the grin on his face was huge, smug. But there was never any question about how much Ty liked Ollie and me together.
Jacob wasn’t looking at us. He was looking at the Taser in his hand. Ty plucked Jacob’s bag and phone off the couch. “Taser inside the bag, else the cops will find you a threat and you’ll be paying four times my regular fee.”
Jacob took the bag, stuffed the Taser inside, and turned toward the door. No longing glances at Ollie or sneering words for me. Grief? Or did Ty scare him that badly? He sort of moved in a zombielike fog. Was he on something? He was too far away for me to see his eyes.
“Don’t go anywhere without Ty,” I instructed him. “As soon as we’re done talking to your family today, we’ll be picking you up.”
“I’m coming back here?” he said quietly, sounding wistful. Maybe the lack of excitement here appealed to him, Newt’s adventures aside.
“Unless you’d rather go to a hotel,” I told him. “Might have less problems with cats in the vents, but you’d have a legion of bodyguards and the press waiting for you to sneeze. Here you get full control of the TV.” I waved at the TV hanging above the fireplace. It worked fine. We just never used it.
“What about the cat?” Ty asked, glancing between Ollie and me. “Vents?”
I shook my head. “Later. The rock star has a date with the police.”
Ty shrugged with exaggerated irritation and led Jacob out through the garage to where he’d parked his Lexus. Ollie grabbed my hand, giving me a tiny smile, and we went.
Chapter Twenty-Three
THE COFFEE shop Ollie directed us to was a small, out-of-the-way place. Large, but dark, with a lot of corners. It could have been a seedy bar in another life except for the smell of dark roast and the whir of the espresso machine. It was no chain store, and the baked case had actual sandwiches instead of just sugared pastries. The setup was more like a “build your own sandwich and have coffee on the side” sort of thing. It smelled good. Maybe we’d have lunch once this was over.
Ollie found Jeremiah before I did. Yesterday the man had looked a lot like Jacob’s brother. Today he could have been a celebrity in his own right with hair perfectly coiffed, highlighted, and styled up. His suit was pale brown and not off a rack. Flawless skin and a bit of chalky residue near his ears let me know he used a lot of makeup to look like he could have been doubling for the host of the next American Idol show. He probably would have been handsome without all the staging, since with it he looked like a real live Ken doll.
He got to his feet when he saw us, eyes flicking over me, but lingering on Ollie, taking in everything. There was nothing casual about the look. Jeremiah stared at Ollie like he was something he considered tasting. Ollie rewarded him with his classic come-hither smile. It wasn’t his real smile. It was the one he used to disarm others. His real smile was this ‘small upturn of his lips, tilt of his head, and slant of his eyes’ combination, not the baring of bright white, perfect teeth that often left others reeling.
Jeremiah was no more immune than anyone else I’d seen exposed to that smile. He nearly tripped over his own feet trying to pull out a chair for Ollie to sit. I suppressed a chuckle, and took a chair from another table to sit beside Ollie. Jeremiah gave me a half-irritated look. Did he think sitting at a two-seater table would keep me from sitting with them? Or had he just assumed it would only be Ollie meeting him?
“You’re looking as amazing as always,” Jeremiah complimented Ollie. He reached across the small table and took Ollie’s hands with his, cradling them. I wanted to smash his face, but had to suppress the urge. Ollie actually dealt with people really well. Nathan had commented on it years ago, warning me that Ollie was good at manipulating anyone, or almost anyone, into doing what he wanted. It was one of the many reasons Nathan hadn’t wanted Ollie to work as a private investigator full-time. People tended to get angry and dangerous when they realized they’d been duped. “Can I get you something?”
Ollie shook his head, carefully withdrew his hands from Jeremiah’s, patting them gently. “Have you had a chance to look at Jacob’s schedule?”
“Emily is taking care of most of it. Rescheduling stuff. It is her job after all. I’ll forward what’s left to your phone. Kisten was just around to get Jacob out of bed and moving most days. I’m sure he can find a new lover to do that for him.”
No remorse. Had Jeremiah not liked Kisten? Or was it something more?
“Kisten and Jacob were never lovers,” Ollie said.
“Oh, I know. Kisten was more ball-busting than Jacob. And Jacob doesn’t submit to anyone anymore,” Jeremiah assured him.
“He used to?” I asked. “Submit to others?” I couldn’t imagine it.
Jeremiah shrugged. “Sure. We’re all young once, right?” He looked over at Ollie again and sighed. “What do you say we lose your pal and talk for a while? Just you and me.”
“Pal?” Was he serious?
“Kade and I are solid, Jeremiah,” Ollie said, taking his hands out of range of Jeremiah’s touch and putting them in his lap.
“There’s no ring on your finger.” Jeremiah looked me over. It was fast, but assessing, not all that unlike what Jacob had already done. “He’s not bad to look at, but you can do better. Jacob gave you a better life. He’s got the means….”
“I don’t need money,” Ollie interrupted him. “I don’t love Jacob. I never really fit into his life. And you only want to play for a while. I’d be nothing but a notch on your bedpost.”
Jeremiah shrugged. “You were the one who got away. The one the rest of us never got to try. Jacob kept you for himself until, like always, he got bored and was too stupid to realize what he had.”
I took one of Ollie’s hands in mine, letting him control the conversation, but squeezing it so he knew I was there as more than just backup. “We’re here about Kisten. Do you know who might have wanted to hurt him?”
Jeremiah laughed. “Who wouldn’t? He was an asshole. Did you know he hated you? He bragged after you left about being the one to make sure you walked in on Jacob and—what the fuck was that assistant’s name—?”
“Gary,” Ollie supplied. Because of course he’d know the name of the man who had marked the end of his relationship with Jacob.
“Right. Gary. Such a fucking bottom whore. I know Joel, Levi, and I gang-banged him once. Spit roasted him, and then double-teamed him. He pretended to be all virginal and sweet, but that kid could take cock like you wouldn’t believe. I could probably have shoved both of my fists up his ass and he’d have taken it while moaning for more.”
I choked on my own spit, coughed into my hands until my eyes watered. What the fuck was wrong with this family? Jeremiah glared at me. I waved him on. “You were talking about Gary and Kisten. Is Gary around at all anymore?” I asked.
“No. Jacob fired him after Ollie walked out.”
I glanced at Ollie. “Kisten manipulated me into going to see Jacob that day,” he confessed. “I didn’t realize until afterward that he knew Gary was there and what they were doing. Just the night before, Jacob had proclaimed that he would never touch one of his assistants. He didn’t mix business with pleasure. It was just another lie
in a long line of endless lies he’d been telling me.”
“And of course vanilla sex was saved for Ollie,” Jeremiah said. “But you’re not as vanilla as you pretend to be, are you? Bet I could show you how to take cock like Gary did.”
Ollie’s grip on my hand tightened to pain. I squeezed him back and decided to take over the conversation. “So Gary got fired. He has no access to Jacob anymore?”
“He’s working for another band down in LA.”
I was still trying to get over the idea that Jeremiah and Joel, who were brothers, would fuck around with a guy together. Oh, and Levi too, the guy who looked like a schoolteacher who happened to be married to their sister. “So you’re all pretty familiar with Jacob’s extracurricular activities?”
Jeremiah gave me a patronizing smile. “Of course.”
“And does Emily know her husband is involved when you have these parties?”
“Sure. She married him for the financial stability. Not because they actually love each other. Levi loves twinks and Emily is ace—though how anyone could not be interested in sex floors me. Is that even real? Even a thing? Emily assures me it is. Levi takes care of her and she lets Levi do whoever he wants. He trained her how to be the manager she is today. They are more a partnership than a real marriage, but it seems to work for them.” Jeremiah stared at Ollie as he answered my questions. I had thought my family was messed up, but these guys should have been on TV. The ratings would have been astronomical. “Emily certainly controls the relationship, but she lets Levi have enough freedom to fuck whoever he wants so long as he comes home to her.” Jeremiah growled, “She can be one ball-busting bitch. Gets shit done, but most days I hate working for her. How Levi tolerates her, I don’t know.”
“How’d they meet?” I could have asked Ollie later, but since Jeremiah was talking, I’d try to get from him what I could, and maybe Ollie didn’t know.
“Levi worked with our dad. He’s the one who got Jacob started, booking shows for him, and helping him with his first contract to his label. After our mom passed, Jacob spent a lot of time touring and making a name for himself. He paid for Emily to go to school to learn music management with the idea that she’d take over from Levi. One day they just showed up and announced they’d gotten married.” Jeremiah shrugged.
Interesting. “Why was Jacob planning to remove Levi as his manager?”
“Levi was already doing most of the accounting. I think it was just too much. Jacob got famous fast, and the work was huge. Too much for one person. Both Joel and I worked as assistants for a while, trying to get him to all his shows and appearances. Sometimes he was double-booked. It was a mess. Emily fixed that when she took over. Joel was more interested in the music aspect so he started playing backup for Jacob, and I took a job in PR. It’s easier to work with Jacob if you don’t know him well. Most of his assistants only last a few months.”
“Why do you think that is?” Ollie asked.
“You know him,” Jeremiah said. “He’s demanding, and an asshole. He works everyone to the bone. I don’t know how Kisten stayed with him so long. He could never have a life outside of his job. He was on call twenty-four hours a day. Jacob expects the same devotion from everyone, but we all want lives too.”
“So you work in PR, Joel does crew stuff, Emily is his manager, Levi does his books, and Erin does what?” I asked.
“Promo like me. We meet with people. Call radio stations, organize events like meet-ups, signings, and interviews. Arrange advertising, put out fires when bad things come up in the media.”
“Like all the articles claiming he’s with minors?” I prompted.
“Erin deals mostly with that. It’s why she’s in LA most of the time. Closer to the major hubs to shut things down. Jacob likes them young, but Emily screens everyone. No one underage even gets in to see him without parents and half a dozen guards present.”
“And you work with Emily for all this, right? So she always knows where he is? Who he’s with?” She held the reins in more way than one, it seemed.
“Yes. She approves everything and would then feed the schedule to Kisten to make sure Jacob was on time. Sometimes we go to events. Most of the time this is where I work.” He motioned to the shop around him. “I could work from home, but I get tired of seeing my family all the time.”
Jacob’s feelings were mutual. It was interesting that Emily would have to know where Jacob was all the time. Did she know Jacob was with us? Rush said he’d be reporting to the family that Jacob was with the police. It made me worry. Could she be involved? Maybe. I hated when people brought us a case and they were the one doing whatever. It wasn’t even that uncommon. People just wanted attention. But why kill Kisten? Was Emily jealous of Jacob’s fame? Had Kisten been in the way? Maybe asking for more money? Did Emily feel like she wasn’t paid well enough for all the work she did?
“Any idea where Joel is?” Ollie asked, interrupting my thoughts.
“I dropped him off at rehab two hours ago. He went on a bit of a bender when he found out Kisten was dead. I guess they were banging. I had no idea Joel bottomed.” He said it like it was a disgusting idea.
“How do you know he did?” I asked.
“Kisten was a total top. No one topped him, no one touched his asshole. I figure it was just because he was such a giant asshole himself, he demanded to always be the dick in charge. No. Joel whined to me this morning that he was totally in love with Kisten and was going to kill himself because now he was all alone. He said he was next and not safe. Total girl,” Jeremiah growled. “So I took him to rehab to sober him up and keep him on watch. We don’t need another Joshua on our hands. It’s bad enough to learn he was taking it up the ass from Kisten. I’ll probably have to plan a party once he’s out to help him man up. Find a few pussies to fuck. Remind him what it’s like to sink into something hot and wet.” His eyes were all over Ollie.
Ollie flinched. I couldn’t believe this guy was for real. There were a million questions I wanted to ask, like how this guy became such a douchebag, but I couldn’t seem to think past the shock. I was about to call the guy a douche to his face when Ollie abruptly stood up and glanced up at the clock near the register of the shop. “Gosh, the time just flew. We have to meet up with Emily in like ten minutes,” Ollie said.
We did?
Jeremiah stood too, reaching for Ollie’s hand, but he took a step back. “I can call her and reschedule for you. Or maybe your friend can go talk with her. Let me buy you lunch.”
I got up, put a possessive arm around Ollie’s waist, and steered him away from Jeremiah. “Thanks for your time. We really have to go.”
Jeremiah’s smile faded and he glared at me. “Don’t know what you see in him, Ollie. He’s not even that good-looking. You can do better than a cookie-cutter toy soldier.”
This time I flinched, but Ollie tugged me out the door. I knew Ollie was way out of my league, but I didn’t need some douchebag to remind me. We were in the car, with me sitting in the passenger seat and Ollie in the driver’s seat, before I even realized that I’d been grumbling the entire time with fists clenched at my side. “I wasn’t going to hit him,” I said, “much.”
“Jeremiah has that effect on people.”
“I didn’t think it was possible for me to dislike someone more than I dislike Jacob.” Shit, Ollie was in the driver’s seat. “Can I drive?”
“No,” Ollie said firmly, adjusting the seat and the mirrors like he always did.
I put on my seat belt, wishing there was a second one I could use, just in case. “Christ, what an asshole. I know you said Kisten had a thing against fem gay men, but Jeremiah seems to be shooting himself in the foot.”
“He’s not gay.” Ollie carefully backed us out of the parking spot. He actually did okay with driving so long as we weren’t on the highway. Maybe he’d just take the side roads and save my heart the stress.
“Bi. Whatever. No guy that fucks other men up the ass is straight.”
Ollie s
hrugged. “He doesn’t see it that way. As long as he’s the one doing the fucking, he’s the man. Kisten was that way too. Societal norms and all that. Interesting that Joel and Kisten were dating.”
“Or at least fucking.”
“I wonder if we can get in to see Joel. He said he was next. It would make sense that Kisten was killed because he knew something about what was going on. Maybe had even discovered who was blackmailing and/or sending Jacob nasty presents. He might have shared his suspicions with Joel.”
“Maybe Kisten was dumb enough to confront the person himself? Threaten them? Try to blackmail them back? That would have been a good reason to kill him,” I pointed out. “They tried to make it look like suicide and failed miserably. Panic, maybe? Or well planned, do you think?”
“A little of both since Kisten was drugged. Maybe they hoped the drug would kill him, and when it didn’t, they had to do something else?”
“Good point,” I told Ollie. “I wonder what he was on and how much.”
“I’ll look it up in a while,” Ollie said. “I put Jeremiah first because Kisten’s job falls to him. If I had access to all Jacob’s financials, I could narrow down our focus. I thought maybe Jeremiah would have wanted Kisten out of the way.”
“You thought Jeremiah might have been the guy because he wanted more money.”
Ollie shrugged. So far he was sticking to side roads, but he had a tendency to slam on the brakes instead of ease to a stop for lights and signs. “He doesn’t want to work. So it makes no sense for him to take out Kisten. I do need the financials to see if I can follow the money trail anywhere.” Normally it wasn’t something he had trouble getting access to, even if his methods weren’t always legal. The fact that he couldn’t get in meant really good security. Funny how well Jacob’s money could be protected even when the man himself could probably have been knifed by an overzealous fan in the backseat of his own limo at any time.
“Are we really meeting with Emily?”
“Yes. Though we have an hour yet. She said she’d have Levi with her.”