by J. L. Drake
Her phone vibrated in her pocket. She pulled it out to check who was trying to contact her—Lloyd had answered her text. She smiled as she read his message.
The door clicked open in front of her and she slid her phone back into her pocket.
“Sorry,” Miles mumbled. “I wasn’t expecting to see you standing there.” He ran a hand over his balding head nervously.
Sonya smiled sweetly at him. “I guess I should have called first. Your paperwork didn’t get ruined, did it?” she asked, biting her bottom lip and blinking innocently.
His eyes fell to her mouth and he stared for a moment before taking a deep breath and answering. “It’s okay,” he breathed, and glanced up to her eyes—what she said finally registered in his mind. “Oh, yes, the paperwork is fine. I managed to grab it before it got wet.”
She smiled broadly and stepped through the door. He backed up awkwardly to allow her through.
“I’m glad it didn’t get ruined because I would have felt bad,” she said.
He chuckled and ran a hand over the top of his head again. “Don’t worry about it. What are you doing here?” Realizing he must have sounded bluntly rude, he rushed on to say, “Er…I mean, what can I help you with?”
She laughed and playfully swatted him on the arm. “I came to see you, silly, and to make sure you didn’t have any issues with ‘moving’ things.”
“Oh,” he said, and blushed again. “Um…I did the paperwork this morning, but it’s not quite finished yet.” He walked over to his desk and picked up a file lying in a small rectangle basket on the corner of his desk. He sat down in his chair while he opened it and spun to face her. “What do you think I should put in for the source?”
She walked over to him, tucked her hair to hang over one of her shoulders so it wouldn’t come between them, and bent forward to look at the open file, standing close to him.
“I was thinking…” she said, turning her head slightly to look at him, making sure their noses were mere inches apart. “Why don’t we use the accident to our advantage? You could say the person’s body was severely damaged in the wreck and only certain things—like blood—could be salvaged. Wouldn’t that be possible if someone was carrying a donor card?”
Miles fumbled with the file, looking down at it and clearing his throat. “Yeah, I think I could do that.”
“Great!” she exclaimed, standing erect and walking toward the door. “There’s going to be a meeting tonight—I’ll let you know if anything important is discussed.” She reached for the door handle, ready to leave.
Miles tossed the file down on his desk, swore when it landed on the wet paper towels, and quickly moved it, laying it back in the basket. He stood and his hurried movement sent his chair spinning backward, but he quickly grabbed it before it slammed into a glass fronted cooler.
“Um, wait a second,” he said, coming forward, letting go of the chair. “Would you…um…like to go out to dinner sometime?” He rubbed his hands on the sides of his pants nervously and tugged at his white lab coat, looking anywhere but at her.
Sonya let go of the door handle, walked over to him, lifted her arms, and pressed her hands to his shoulders. She blinked at him as he looked at her, surprised at her touch.
“I would love to,” she said, looking him straight in the eyes, biting her bottom lip, “but we have to be careful who sees us together while we’re doing business.”
He sighed, nodded, and looked down. He tried to step back.
Sonya dug her fingernails into his lab coat, holding him in place.
He stopped and looked at her again.
She stepped forward, closing the small gap between their bodies, and tilted her head slightly to the side, brushing her lips gently against his.
“It’s not that I don’t want to,” she whispered against his lips, looking into his eyes. “We can’t.”
He thrust a hand into her hair awkwardly and kissed her again.
She let him, allowing her body to melt against his, knowing the false seductive actions would satisfy him for now and keep him thinking she was interested so she could get what she wanted from him. After about a minute, she pulled back.
“I have to go,” she whispered.
He nodded, breathing heavily.
She smiled and stepped back—he let her go willingly enough. “I’ll call you later,” she said as she walked over to the door and opened it, waving one last time before she stepped out into the hallway.
As she walked down the hall, she glanced through the window. Miles was still standing in the same spot, staring off into space with a lovesick smile plastered on his face. She sighed, shook her head, and thought, Men are too damn easy.
She took the elevator back upstairs, feeling like she was in control and had Miles handled. She fast-walked out to her car before anyone had a chance to stop her or talk to her.
She arrived at her house fifteen minutes later and pulled into the driveway with a content sigh, happy to be home. After entering the garage and closing the door behind her, she reached for the doorknob to the door leading into her house from the garage; it was unlocked and turned easily in her hand. Cautiously she entered the house, still clutching her keys in her hand with the one for the door jutting out, ready to stab an intruder. She knew she’d locked the door that morning, as she was meticulous about always locking the door.
Shadows dominated the rooms of her home, with sunlight shining in around closed drapes and blinds, giving her just enough light to see by. She slowly made her way from room to room, looking for anything that would indicate the presence of another person.
Just as she entered the hallway leading to the bedrooms and bathroom, someone grabbed her and slammed her into the wall face first, pinning her.
She struggled, dropped her keys, and tried to push herself away from the wall.
Her attacker grabbed her wrists and pinned her hands above her head with one hand.
“Now, now, now,” a male voice breathed into her ear, “you need to calm down. We wouldn’t want anyone to get hurt, now, would we?” He nibbled her earlobe while she struggled to get her hands free.
“Let me go,” she panted.
“No,” he said, and slid his free hand down her body and under the hem of her shirt. “I’m not done.” The man slid his hand down the front of her pants and reached for her crotch while rocking his against her ass.
She relaxed her body for a moment and then tugged her wrists hard―to no avail—he’d been prepared for her escape attempt.
He chuckled and scraped his teeth against her neck, moaning. “God, I’ve missed you, woman.”
She smiled and rocked her hips back against him. “I’ve missed you too, babe.”
He let go of her wrists.
Sonya turned to face Lloyd. “I was hoping it was you who broke in. Did you have any trouble?” she asked.
He laughed. “No. I parked a couple blocks away and walked over. Your lock wasn’t hard to pick.”
He pressed his body against hers, again pinning her to the wall.
She whimpered, wrapped her arms around his neck, and thrust her hands into his hair, pulling him down for a kiss.
Breaking off the kiss, he pulled back slightly and nibbled along her jaw, moving toward her ear.
“I could take you right here, against the wall,” he panted, tugging at her clothes.
She laughed seductively. “I’d let you too, but I need a shower.”
He stopped and pulled back. “A shower, huh? Well, let’s go wash you and get you all clean so I can make you dirty again.” He winked, took her hand, and pulled her down the hallway toward the bathroom.
***
Sonya purred and stretched, enjoying the feel of Lloyd in her bed beside her.
He opened his eyes and smiled at her when she lifted her head.
“Shit!” she exclaimed, spying the numbers on her digital alarm clock.
He was instantly alert. “What’s wrong?”
She laughed. “Nothing othe
r than I’m supposed to be at a meeting with Jennings and the guys right now.”
“Fuck!” he exclaimed, and she laughed again.
“You’re supposed to be there too, huh?” she teased as she threw the covers off and climbed out of bed.
His eyes followed her every movement while she started dressing. “Can’t we just call the thieving bastard and tell him to fuck off?”
She turned to look at Lloyd and noticed he was getting aroused again.
“I wish,” she said with a sigh. “But you know I can’t do that.”
He grinned. “I know. He really bought the whole thing about you not knowing I was coming.” He climbed out of bed and walked up behind her, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her shoulder. “You did a good job acting mad about not knowing.”
She relaxed against him and let her head fall back onto his shoulder. “I did my best. I don’t think he caught on at all.”
“Let’s keep it that way,” he whispered in her ear, turned her body so she was facing the bed, and pushed her torso down gently, bending her over.
She put her hands flat on the bed and shivered with anticipation while he slipped off the panties she’d just put on.
Both of their cell phones rang a few minutes later, but neither of them made a move to answer them.
Chapter 9
“Why the hell aren’t they answering?” Jennings snapped. “They can’t both be busy—I’ve called them five times each.”
“Wanna bet?” Roger asked with a smirk.
Jennings gave Roger a dirty look and slid his cell phone back into the pocket of his designer pants.
Jack looked back and forth between the two men.
“Why do I have the feelin’ I’m missin’ somethin’?” he asked.
Roger opened his mouth to tell Jack about Lloyd and Sonya’s previous relationship, and where he thought they were, when Jennings’ phone rang. He suddenly thought better of sharing the information with Jack and sat back to listen to Jennings’ conversation.
Jennings jerked his phone out of his pocket and answered it.
“So nice of you to finally call me back, Lloyd,” he said sarcastically. “Are you ever going to show up? I’d hate to take you away from something more important.”
“I have some things to take care of, so I won’t be at the meeting tonight,” Lloyd said. “Let me know if I miss anything important.”
“Fine!” Jennings barked into the phone and hung up.
“Lloyd won’t be joining us,” he announced. “Apparently he has other, more important business.”
Roger snorted a short laugh. “I bet,” he mumbled.
Jack frowned, still confused. “What aren’t you guys tellin’ me?” he asked.
“Maybe it’s something you don’t need to know,” Sonya said, walking into the small corner office on the ground floor of the abandoned building they’d designated as the meeting room.
Their heads all turned in her direction.
“Sonya,” Jennings said, “it’s so nice of you to grace us with your presence.”
Roger nodded, grinned, and turned away, folding his arms across his chest.
Jack looked her over with a puzzled expression as she walked forward and sat down in one of the rusty metal chairs. He didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.
“I would have arrived sooner, but I blew a tire on the way here,” she said nonchalantly.
“You couldn’t have answered your phone when I called?” Jennings asked, obviously annoyed.
“I forgot my phone in the car and it was jacked up—I couldn’t reach it,” she said and smiled. “Then I figured I’d be here in a few minutes, so what was the point?” She shrugged.
“Did you get everything taken care of?” Roger asked, and then chuckled.
Sonya looked at him with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. “Yes, everything went great.”
Jack just sat back listening and watching the exchanges with a puzzled expression. He shook his head and shrugged, making a mental note to ask Roger what was going on later, since no one was going to tell him now.
“Well,” Jennings said, “since we’re all here now, I suppose we can discuss what we need to.”
Roger, Jack, and Sonya gave Jennings their attention.
“We brought in way more money on our last harvest than expected,” he said. “I wanted to let you all know that you’ll be getting double the normal rate.”
Jack smiled, happy to hear he was indeed making the profit—plus more—that he’d been promised.
“Too bad Sonya can’t find people with that blood type all the time,” he said.
“Sorry,” Sonya said sarcastically, “I can’t sniff out blood types like a damn dog.”
Roger laughed. “Would be nice though, wouldn’t it?” he teased.
Sonya stuck her tongue out at him.
Jennings smiled and continued: “I was actually wondering, Sonya, if the man spoke of his family when you picked him up. We know he was married, because he told you and his ring, but did he say anything about having children?”
Sonya frowned, thinking. “Nope, he didn’t say anything about having children. Why?”
“Well,” Jennings said, pursing his lips, “I was just thinking that if he had children, they might have the same blood type as their father.”
Roger sat forward. “We’ve never done a kid before,” he said. “I don’t know if I’m cool with that.”
Jennings glanced at Jack.
“What about you?” he asked. “Could you help us harvest a child if we chose to do so?”
“Doesn’t matter to me as long as I get paid,” Jack said with a shrug.
“Would it be worth it to harvest a child?” Sonya asked, doing calculations in her head of how much blood there would be to collect and the size of the internal organs.
Jennings nodded. “I’ve done some nosing around and there are a couple of people—some of them children—on the list needing organs from an AB-Negative donor, so yes, there would be a use for them.”
Sonya shrugged. “I’m okay with it then, but how will we find out if he had children?”
“You could look for pictures in his wallet,” Roger said stiffly. “Or did we get rid of it already?”
“That’s a good idea, Roger,” Jennings said. “I think the wallet is still downstairs—I was waiting until we had enough clothing built up to make a decent donation to a shelter, so we still have all of the man’s personal effects.”
“I’ll go get it,” Jack said, standing. “Is it still in the pants? Or did ya move it?”
“I believe it’s still in the pants, yes,” Jennings said, nodding.
Jack left the room and turned right, heading for the elevator.
“You really won’t help if we bring in a child?” Sonya asked Roger.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. It would just be…different.”
Jennings nodded and looked at Roger. “If you can’t do it, that’s fine, but you won’t get a share of the money.”
“What are you going to do with the mother? Harvest her too?” Roger asked, rubbing his face with his hands. “I mean, how the hell are you going to get at a kid without taking the mother too?”
“We’d probably have to do that,” Jennings said. “We’d harvest the entire family.”
“It just sounds so heartless—killing a kid just because we can make more money off them,” Roger said.
“How is it any more heartless than taking the father?” Sonya asked. “We took the father, so already the family is suffering. If we take the wife and child, or children too, wouldn’t that lessen the hurt all around? They’d all be dead and no one would be left.”
Roger looked at Sonya and suddenly felt bad for her—she had no real sense of morals. He sighed, not knowing how to explain what he was feeling to someone who didn’t seem to have any feelings at all.
Jack walked back into the room and saved him from having to try to answer Sonya.
“Yup, there ar
e children,” he announced, looking through pictures he’d found in the wallet. “Two girls and a boy, if they’re all his.”
“Great,” Jennings said. “We’ll have to find out if they’re his…would you and Roger mind staking out their house for a couple of days and finding out who lives there?”
“Sure,” Jack said.
All eyes turned to Roger when he didn’t answer.
“Sure,” he mumbled, stood, and walked out of the room.
Jennings glanced at Sonya, and she nodded before standing and following Roger.
***
“Roger, wait up!” Sonya hollered as she exited the decaying brick building and jogged toward the parked vehicles.
He stopped with his hand on the door handle of his pickup truck and looked back at her.
“What?” he called.
She didn’t answer until she reached him and took a deep breath.
“What’s going on with you?” she asked, staring up at him.
He shrugged and turned away to look off into the night.
“It has to do with the kids, doesn’t it?” she asked softly, laying her hand on his forearm.
He sighed and looked down into her upturned face, seeing real compassion in her eyes. He was shocked to see genuine caring in her when just minutes before he’d thought she was completely unfeeling and heartless.
“Yeah,” he said, “it’s weird thinking about chopping a kid up for parts.”
She nodded. “I try not to think of it that way. I try to think of all the lives we’ll be saving from one life lost. Think about it. We could save eight—or more—people’s lives, sacrificing one.”
Roger nodded, closed his eyes, and sighed.
“I know,” he said, opening his eyes again, “and that’s how I think of it normally, but kids are just so damn innocent. It’s one thing to pick up some horny bastard in a bar to slice and dice, but a kid…”
She stepped forward, wrapped her arms around his waist, and pressed her cheek against his chest while she hugged him.
“I know it seems wrong, thinking about it,” she said, “but you know they wouldn’t feel any pain, and we’d make sure they were unconscious before they even had time to be scared.”