“You and I both know they aren’t. That’s why you quit your real job and do this shit with me now. There’s no one like me.” Kel shoved himself up onto a barstool.
“Maybe not someone like you, but what about your parents? They could be creating more people like them, getting them impregnated so they can have more little Kelly Daniel Liams running around. Ever thought of that?”
“All the damn time,” Kel said through gritted teeth. “I have no way of stopping them from doing that.”
“No, but you can help those people. You can make a cure, and then together we can reveal what’s going on. Maybe the authorities would actually believe us this time. You were supposed to do something about it, not waste away in a prison cell of your own making.” Max rolled his shoulders back then popped his neck to the right. He swung his arms, limbering them up as if he was about to knock some sense into Kel.
“You’re right, I just . . . If I don’t have touch, I can’t think straight.”
“Then I’m going to ask you one more time—do I need to hire some streetwalker to come in here and do it for you?”
“No! God no. I don’t want that.” Kel set his elbows on the bar and slammed his forehead into his waiting palms. His fingers roamed back, and he gripped into his hair. “I just . . . I need some time.”
“You need Casey. Stop pretending she didn’t do something to you.” Max slapped the top of the bar and then finished wiping it down since Kel did a half-assed job.
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I need,” Kel said with a biting tone. He watched Max out of the corner of his eye, and Max went about tidying up behind the bar. “Some know-it-all-bitch that took me to a shrink and wanted to lock me back up. Yeah, great plan. She’s a fucking social worker, and she doesn’t believe me. She thinks I’m nuts.”
“You told her?” Max moved in slow motion as he pivoted around and his eyes went wide.
“I told her bits and pieces. She knows what she needs to in order to keep safe.”
“Is that code for you fucked her?” Max pushed his hands into his pockets and leaned back into the wall behind him.
“Yeah, somethin’ like that.”
“Why the hell did you do that? You know how dangerous that is—Hannah almost di—”
“She didn’t almost anything—she died, pure and simple.” Kel got up and pushed off the bar.
“You didn’t ever see it.”
“I sure as hell did. And Casey’s different. It’s not a problem.” Kel roamed toward the hallway.
“Then stop being a pussy. Go get her.”
“Fuck you.” Kel moved back into his apartment, put the key in a drawer Max had given him, then sat his grumpy ass down on his bed and wallowed for hours until it was time to get back in that cage.
* * *
The crowd was even thicker tonight.
Kel didn’t care. His eyes were glazed over, and he sat in a hunched over ball, staring at his feet.
Music pumped through the club, and the women waited patiently for Kel to do something—anything.
When it was obvious he was a useless lump, Max did the unthinkable, shoving some dark-haired woman dressed in some naughty secretary-getup inside the cage with him.
Kel lurched at her, pinning her up against the bars and then he chained her there so she couldn’t move.
Then he went to the opposite corner, whimpering and going back into a circular blob shape.
She looked enough like Casey to torture him that he had to keep his eyes off her.
“Fuck her! She wants it bad,” someone shouted from the crowd.
And something snapped inside Kel.
He ripped the key out of his jeans pocket, unlocked the cage door, leaving the chained woman gaping after him as he rampaged between the club tables, touching every whore around him. He licked cheeks, rubbed his jeans covered cock on some woman’s shoulder blades and shoved his ass in some other bitch’s face.
They were pawing at him, making his skin crawl and then blaze with a thick fogging pain that made his vision blur.
His lungs were choking up on him, and he coughed, gagging when some woman kissed his cheek and groped his chest.
Casey, why don’t you want me or like me anymore?
His gut twisted, and he collapsed on a table, sending drinks flying everywhere.
“Touch me,” Kel whimpered.
Women’s hands stroked his thighs, ran across the ridges of finely honed muscles on his abs. It didn’t matter how much agonizing pain he was in.
He closed his eyes, let his breathing shallow and his arms went lax at his sides.
Max could be heard, shoving women aside, rushing to get to him.
The next thing Kel knew, he was being carried in a fireman’s grip back to the cage. He was thrust inside, landed with a thud on his back and Max was hollering for the women to back off. They were crushing their way into the cage like a feeding frenzy of sharks, able to smell Kel’s blood.
Max locked himself in the cage with the brunette still chained up and Kel, barely functioning.
He squatted next to him, and his head loomed over his face.
“What can I do? What’s going on? Do I need to get you out of here? If I take you to your place, they’ll know where you are, and I don’t think if I’ll be able to distract them like I did last time. Casey helped me so no one saw where I took you.”
“No. Just leave me where I am. Give free shots, and they can watch me back here.”
“Are you gonna give a show or not? I can shut the curtains until they leave,” Max said, glancing over his shoulder at the women protesting outside the bars like a regular prison riot was going on.
“They want me. I’ll strip down and figure something out.” Kel shook his head, his body warring with what he was telling Max.
“Fine, but we’re closed tomorrow night. You need some time to get your shit together.”
Kel’s hand flew out and gripped Max’s shirt. “She didn’t come, did she? Not even her friends. She’s given up on me completely.”
“No, you fucker. She came, but she left when you broke out of the cage. She thought you’d seen her, and I wanted her safe, so I helped her get to her car. That’s why I was so late getting to you.”
Kel’s eyes flooded with tears, and they ran freely down the sides of his temples. “She was here?”
“Sorry.” Max got up, freed the woman that was clearly high off being touched and singled out that way by Kel. She wore a dazed expression as if she thought she was the reason he went berserk with lust.
She had nothing to do with it. None of them did.
And now Kel cried like a pussy in his cage while the woman was ushered out by Max and then reunited with her friends, rejoicing over her success at being chained to his bars like she was a hunter’s trophy—stuffed and mounted on the wall.
Not that he could see them celebrating very clearly. Kel’s eyes never stopped being moist until the next morning when he all but drank himself into a coma and vomited up his scrambling device yet again.
It sat next to his unconscious body; both covered in bile and regurgitated alcohol.
Chapter 8
“Hey, didn’t I see you at that club, Sleeves, a week ago?” a perky woman with light blonde, straight long hair asked Casey while she stood in line at the grocery store.
“No, I don’t think so. I’ve never heard of that place before.” Casey scratched her chin on her shoulder, braving a glance down into the woman’s purse.
What was wrong with her?
Ever since she went back and saw for herself how out of control Kel was, she was on high alert, like the feds were after her or something.
“You should totally go. There’s this insanely hot man there, lets women touch him all they want, and no one can quite break through to him. Well, except I’ve been told some woman finally did, and he’s going nuts without her. It’s so romantic, don’t you think?” The blonde was chewing gum, and her perfectly manicured finger nails fanned her fac
e as she spoke of him.
Casey’s gut tightened. The women attending that club were getting more porn-like if this was the type of woman going there now.
This blonde’s breasts were enormous, or at least they seemed that way since they were tucked up right under her chin. She had a tiny waist, and her legs were curvy, exposed by her Daisy Dukes.
Even her flip flops were sexy along with her stupid gray wife beater.
Casey was drab in her boring work clothes. All business in black slacks, a white blouse and black heels.
Her hair was tucked up in a sloppy knot, but it was really hot today.
It was supposed to break records in LA all week.
This woman was probably in her late twenties and spent plenty of time at the beach, or that was the impression Casey got of her.
“No, I don’t go to places like that. Sounds too nerve racking.” Casey started placing her grocery items up on the conveyor belt. “Besides, if I ever got caught there, I’d probably lose my job over it.”
“Oh, you’re a police officer? Woops!” The blonde covered her mouth and made a dopey, fake surprised look. “I guess I shouldn’t have told you about that place then. It’s not exactly legal I guess—the things he does—shit. It makes me hot just thinking about it. This man’s sexier than you can believe.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet.” Casey turned away, her stomach dancing with rippling knots, making her nauseous.
Why did everyone everywhere she went wind up talking to her about Kel? How had this turned into an inescapable nightmare in her life? She was at the grocery store, for Christ’s sake, and some random stranger was talking about him like he was a rite of passage for all women around.
Was his success skyrocketing and he’d gone viral with every ovary located in the LA area?
She snorted and smiled at herself. Lucky her—didn’t have any ovaries, so she should be safe from him.
Only—she wasn’t. She missed him like crazy, and no matter how often she went to the gym to feel good about herself, talked to other nice men, she couldn’t bring herself to go on dates anymore. Not that it had been that long since she met Kel. It had only been two weeks, but still . . . she was off. Everything felt skewed.
Her shower was definitely not the same, that was for damn certain.
Casey’s shoulders were tight, up around her ears and her nostrils flared as this clearly promiscuous woman behind her in line kept spouting off about what he’d done last night at the club. About how many women had licked, touched, done obscene things to him, and they were all inside the cage.
Yet, he never orgasmed.
“He’s a machine, I’m telling you. Can you imagine having him in bed? He’d be able to go all night. Think of how many times you could climax in one evening from that insanely gorgeous man touching you like a caveman.” The blonde was fanning her face again and leaning toward her. “I’ve worn out my vibrator because of that man.”
Without thinking, Casey blurted, “Me, too.”
“What?” The woman’s eyes widened. “I thought you hadn’t heard of him or the club.”
“I lied.” Casey straightened up and moved forward, waiting to pay for her groceries that were already being scanned.
“Why would you lie about that? Did you get to touch him?”
“Repeatedly,” Casey admitted.
Why was she telling this stranger all of this? For some reason the pressure had built up and Casey was exploding all over the place, erupting on this frustrating woman. And Lord, did it feel good to vent to someone when she’d been keeping it all inside for what had seemed like forever.
Or was it because those knots were loosening in her stomach and for some reason, mentioning him even a little helped her lungs to expand and expel the air without her forcing them to keep functioning?
Whatever the reason, she was clearer, rejuvenated from this small outburst.
The blonde gave her a knowing glance with a little smirk.
All at once, Casey admitted to herself and this woman, how depressed she’d been lately.
“Yeah, I touched him a lot. I took him home with me actually, and we made love more than once. He’s incredible. Probably the best man I’ve ever known, but I screwed it up by saying and doing stupid things. He doesn’t want me anymore.”
“Oh my God!” the blonde gasped and pointed at her. “You’re the one! You’re the one he’s destroying himself over. You have to come to the club tonight! He’ll see you and he’ll go ballistic. He’ll probably force you to do . . .” the blonde looked around then lowered her voice “. . . really kinky shit with him.”
Casey mimicked her to show her how ridiculous and childish she was being. She hunched over and whispered back, “I don’t think so. We’re not good for each other, and he’s merely a fantasy man. No one’s that perfect, even if he can work a crowd into foaming at the mouth without even trying.”
Casey paid for her groceries, waved at the woman whose face had dropped down to her breasts, which admittedly wasn’t much of a drop, and at least her jaw was cushioned, but still . . . The woman needed to get a life, and preferably one that didn’t involve lounging at the beach so damned much.
Why didn’t she eat a burger and find some cellulite to befriend while she was at it?
Casey wrinkled her brow, set her jaw and left in a rush.
Now would be a good time to get home, put on her granny jammies and eat ice cream.
* * *
What the hell was she doing here?
Casey’s feet soldiered their way through the parking lot and brought her into the club.
She avoided Max’s watchful eye this time. Maybe if she wasn’t with Max, Kel would be oblivious of her presence and wouldn’t come rampaging after her out of his cage.
She found an inconspicuous spot to hide out in the back of the thick herd of a female pride of hyena’s, yipping at the rear of the room. They were charged and filled with anticipation.
She was, too.
She waited.
And waited.
Watched the covered cage.
Her stomach turning green.
The curtain wasn’t opening.
Why wasn’t it opening?
Right when her blood was near bursting out of her veins, she moved to go after Max but stopped when he abruptly announced, “Sorry, ladies. Tonight’s show is canceled. Kel’s not feeling well. He’s sick with a stomach virus and can’t keep anything down. But we’ll give you each one free pass for admission this Friday night.”
Casey moved straight to the door, and right as she reached out to open it, that annoying blonde bombshell from the grocery store accosted her, pulling her into a hug.
“I’m so glad you made it. I bet he didn’t show because he saw you! Wow, he’s really in love with you. Are you just dying over it?”
“Uh, no.” Casey dipped her head down, grabbed her keys out of her purse and said, “I’m going now. I’m sure he’s fine and it has nothing to do with me.”
“Are you coming back on the weekend? I’m sure he’ll be back up for it, if you know what I mean.”
Casey rolled her eyes and shook her head a little. “Yeah, I know exactly what you mean, but I won’t be coming back. This was really stupid of me to even come here tonight.”
“But you have to!” The woman gripped Casey’s shoulder. “You’re the reason he even puts on a show—I’m sure of it.”
“Sorry, but no.”
Casey pushed the blonde’s hand off her, but the woman’s hand gripped her arm instead. “You have to.”
She squeezed, her nails digging in.
“No. I don’t.” Casey dropped her keys and fought off her grip, but then she was shoved backward out the door into the parking lot, without her keys.
The blonde woman’s air-headed look turned into utter vehemence.
“Take her!” she called out.
A man lurched at Casey, grabbed her around the throat and before she could scream, he had some rag moistened with chemicals
, covering her mouth.
She sputtered and coughed, scratching at his hands and kicking furiously behind her. Previous self-defense classes came rushing back into her mind, but it was too late. She was fading away into oblivion, being dragged off, then stuffed into a car.
* * *
When Casey woke, she was in a cage, similar in a lot of ways to the one Kel had at his club.
Only, she had a cot with a dingy mattress, a small table with a bottle of water on it, a chair, some chains and cuffs hooked to the bars.
What the hell was going on?
She jumped off the cot and immediately went into caterwauling. “Let me out! You have no right to do this!”
The blonde woman from the grocery store and the club approached her, wearing a lab coat with a stethoscope slung around her neck.
“Did you already run the diagnostics?” some Asian man asked the blonde while he sat at a desk several feet away, buried in paperwork and surrounded by various coffee mugs.
“Yeah, she’s infertile. No ovaries,” the blonde woman replied and then looked at Casey’s inner left elbow.
Casey’s eyes immediately flung down to her arm. It was bandaged. “What the hell did you do to me?”
“Relax . . . We only took a sample,” blondie replied.
“A sample of my blood? Why?”
“We had to make sure you weren’t pregnant before we started our procedure.”
Casey gulped and shifted away from the edge of the cage that was closest to this blonde demon. “You can’t do this.”
“We already did.”
“He’ll find you!” Casey glared. “There’s video surveillance at the club, and he’ll see that you took me.”
“Oh, I’m depending on it. We finally found him. You think I’m going to try and wrangle him out of there?” Blondie chuckled. “We want him back, and you were the lure we needed. Thank God you’re too stupid to realize when someone’s manipulating you. You’re obviously in love with that idiot. You deserve each other, and I’m sure he’ll love sharing his old cage with you.”
Sleeves Page 12