Down by the Lake

by Jisa Dean

  He looks up at me with tears in his eyes, "Are we...?"

  It took a while when we finally started trying. Who knew it just took me getting sick before it happened.

  "Yes!" I squeal and jump into his arms crying now because he's crying. I'm sitting in his lap now holding his head between both of hands so we can share a searing passionate kiss with as much skin touching as possible.

  I know the answer but I want to listen to him say it so I ask, "Will you love me forever, even when I'm as big as a house and I'm so swollen I can't see my feet?"

  He leans into me and whispers in my ear,

  "Always."

  The End

  BLUE VENUS

  By:

  JISA DEAN

  BLUE VENUS

  By:

  JISA DEAN

  Penelope “Poppie” Weiss just can’t catch a break. She was dared to hack into a government database and steal files on a senator who everyone loves AND now she’s on the hit list of a group of assassins called ‘The Brothers’. She doesn’t know where the person who put her up to this is anymore or if they may want to kill her too. She can’t figure out who wants her dead and who wants to keep her safe and she doesn’t have the luxury of time to wait and find out. Either way, she’s pretty sure it’s not the blue haired club kid named after the god of the Underworld who wants to take her to a kink club to keep her “safe”. That doesn’t stop her from wanting to find out just how much of a god he really is. The day Penelope is having might not let her get to the future she’s craving.

  This may be my dirtiest one yet! If you like your alpha bad boys’ tall, dark, and sporting blue hair, Hades is the guy for you. Remember Ladies, he’ll show you a Hell of a good time! This safe read pushes the boundaries of decent and launches the new series ‘The Brothers’. It’s a standalone with no ‘cliff hangers’ or ‘to be continues’ that promises a happy ever after - or his name isn’t Hades.

  1

  ________

  Lights flash all around me and the music is pumping like the heartbeat of a wild animal. The room smells of sex and liquor, and honestly, it's giving me a fucking headache. There was a time when all of this; the lights, the noise, the sex made me happy, but now it just annoys the fuck out of me. People laughing and having a good time is not what's really going on. They are here so they can escape whatever fucked up part of their life isn't going right for them.

  I shouldn't complain. I make money and my club is always busy but, where once it made me happy to escape into the throng of bodies gyrating on the dance floor, now I just find it...mundane. Normal. God I hate normal.

  You would think a kid with blue hair and a bad attitude wouldn't be the business man who owned a successful night club in one of the more urbane parts of the city. You also wouldn't guess that same blue haired kid with a smart mouth wouldn't be very good at hacking into places where he wasn't supposed to, but wrong again. I bet you would never think that said blue haired 'kid' was a thirty year old assassin who moonlighted as this club brat on the side.

  Being one of the most feared hit-men in the greater tri-cities area is probably not something to be proud of but who gives a shit. I worked hard to be where I'm at today and I have my own world because of it. Even if that world is pissing me off currently, it's mine.

  I get itchy feet, or itchy trigger finger, and after too long I go looking for a job. It reminds me to be thankful for all that I have and all that I had to do to get it. Some people go to church, some take up bingo, I shoot people. We all got our little vices, don't we.

  I'm a part of a fucked up group of assassins who have bonded over being two people at once. We have normal lives during the day, or in my case the night, but once the time comes to throw off that normal shit we turn into the animals we really are. They call us the ‘Brothers’.

  We started out as nothing more than a pissing contest between me and the brother we call Zeus. We were both hired to take down a low level dictator in some small back water country in the hottest fucking part of the jungle known to man. The asshole actually thought having two hit-men was a good thing. Thought whoever did the job first would be paid and the other guy would just go away. It doesn't work that way.

  Instead of killing each other we got drunk on bad liquor and started talking about being too damned old to do this much longer. From there we brought on our brother we call Neptune. Yeah I know, the bastard couldn't stick with a Greek god he had to be different. But that's pretty much Neptune's M.O., pissing people off and doing what the fuck ever he feels like doing.

  Me? I'm the brother they call when they want shit done the other two old farts won't do. In I'm an equal opportunity killer. Doesn't matter if it's a man or a woman to me. If they're a douche, and they have done bad shit they need killing for, I am more than happy to put a bullet in them. They call me Hades. I stop for no man and no amount of tears can sway me once I have you locked in my sights.

  There are a few things we won't do. Children. We never kill children and innocents. Very seldom do we even try to use innocents to get to our target. We screen our clients and we screen our hits. We have a handler who makes sure we won't be held up by politics-Kronos. But he's not one of us. We are just three guys who got tired of the bullshit at work and started our own business. It just so happens we kill people for a living.

  I know what you're thinking. How the hell did we come up with our names but they make a difference in the communities we run in? We had to take code names because what the fuck where we going to do, walk by and go 'hey Henry you watch the game last night, shit dude you missed one, BANG.' Our code names are what keep the guaranteed distance between our normal lives and our work lives. Hades just felt right and I ran with it.

  Hell, the name of my club is Blue Venus and I had it open for a year before I found these guys. Not a real far stroll for me. I opened The Underworld about six months after I met the guys. It just seemed fitting somehow, to call the darker side of the club that after I got stuck with the name Hades. I'm just glad they didn't try to call me fucking Pluto. That would not have been okay with me. All I can hear when I think of Pluto is a happy cartoon dog chasing his own tail. Not something that is going to inspire fear and terror in your colleagues and marks.

  Underneath the lights and the music of Blue Venus, is the 'other' club. You have to be a part of an exclusive group of men and women to even hear about it, and then you have to pay the annual fee. You also need a member to vouch for you before you can even pass through the little black door leading down to the club. It's a kink club with privacy and professionalism in mind.

  Instead of everything being blue, down below everything is red and black. Private rooms are set off from the other areas of the club, a fully stocked bar and staging areas for those who like to watch and those that like to be watched are all down below. There's a fully functioning doctor's room for those into medical play and finally there are cooling off rooms for after. I've thought about putting a pool or tank for water play but my insurance would go through the roof. Do you know how many people I would have to kill to pay that a year?

  I am king of all I see and yet I am bored out of my ever loving mind. It’s the same thing day in and day out. I look at horny twenty year olds trying to fuck on the dance floor above and down below 30 year olds are trying to fuck and get their rocks off but in a different way. All the sex must be burning me out or maybe because I see it every day I've become desensitized. My dick hasn't been hard in months, maybe years, and I can't tell you the last time I fucked.

  This club used to be my escape from all the death and destruction I caused but here lately it seems to be sending me towards that life again. That's the only explanation I have for sitting here on a Monday night looking at my computer screen waiting to confirm or pass up this latest target. Otherwise, I'm just sad and pathetic, and at thirty two I am way too damned young to be sad and pathetic.

  My hand hovers over the keys as I speak into the hands free device so I can stay in touch
with the other two Brothers. We've been batting around who would go and off this poor sucker who had the bad misfortune of stumbling upon government secrets. No photo, no address, just a hacker name and the last IP address used.

  According to Kronos, the kid hacked into the personal computer of a senator or congressman or something and the bastard wants the files destroyed and the problem eliminated. Otherwise we are looking at a national security mess when it hits the media, weakening our place in world politics enough to cause wide spread panic, foreign attack, and general fuckery.

  "Man, how old is this guy again? I mean are we sure we're not killing a really talented fourteen year old?" Neptune won't kill a kid.

  "That's why you put the time in and stalk your prey before you go off half cocked and shoot everything in the room." Zeus is always thinking and planning. It may take him twice as long to get the job done but he'll be thorough and there won't be a mess to clean up after.

  "Let Hades have this one. He don't mind killing anything over the age of thirteen."

  You shoot one sixteen year old in the ass and it follows you around for the rest of your life.

  "That kid was a complete douche and deserved worse than what I gave him." Bastard was trolling middle schools looking for his next victim, counting on daddy's money to get him off without a record. After I had a chat with him he won't be looking for love for a long, long time and that's if they were able to fix him back well enough.

  "I think Neptune is onto something though. It does have to do with hacking and Neptune doesn't know how turn a computer on," a 'fuck you' interrupts Zeus. "And I don't have the patience to go that slow while trying to verify if this kid is in fact a kid."

  "Sure why the hell not. What the fuck else do I have going on right?"

  "Dude, is the club doing okay?" Neptune asks with concern in his voice, or as much concern as we can show anyways. "Cause you sound like someone shot your grandmother, Man"

  Funny considering I was the orphan out of the three of them.

  "Fuck man, you do realize which one of us you are talking to don't you?"

  Complete silence for once and I would pay good money to see Neptune's face right about now.

  "Uh, I'm sorry, dude. You know I'm a complete asshole..." even though having Neptune grovel for me is the highlight of my night I stop him.

  "No worries. You can't miss something you never had." I hit the confirmation button and the chat window pops up immediately linking me to Kronos.

  "You are one more hard core bastard, you know that. You got fucking ice for blood. Tell him how fucking hard core he is Zeus."

  "Yes, Zeus, do tell me how I have 'ice for blood'."

  K: No confirmed age, which is troublesome. Were there not the matter of national security involved I wouldn't have fooled with it myself. Guy wants it over fast and clean. Says to make it look like an accident.

  I listen to the two of them go back and forth on the three way. They are the closest thing I have to a family but I'm not going to tell them that. They already give me enough shit.

  H: Price?

  Nothing is for free. One of the first lessons you learn on the streets.

  K: ...

  Don't play dumb mother fucker. Even though I had never met Kronos I knew he wasn't a stupid man. He knew what I was asking but, like the three of us, he had an issue with being the alpha in the room. Even through a fucking computer message.

  H: How much?

  K: Whatever you ask for he's willing to pay.

  The reply was almost instantaneous. Damn. I might get that water tank this year after all.

  H: I'll confirm age and tell you when I make first contact.

  If I have a problem I'll let you know.

  I wait to see the information I'll need downloaded into the files we use.

  K: As always, happy hunting.

  I’m not one to judge somebody. I am, after all a fucking killer, but the way Kronos always signs off is kind of fucked up. I lean my head back against the sofa I'm on and think about how different life would be if I had something to lose. Would I stop then?

  "Dude. Are you dead?" shit I forgot we were still connected. "I mean, I know you were typing 'cause we could hear it over the line, but you stopped and if your ass is dead I'm hanging up. I got horses that need taking care of." Ah Neptune. You got to love the bastard because he was way too hard to kill.

  "Go be with your horses, water boy. I've got work to do as well," he fucking hated when I called him water boy.

  "Told you the son of a bitch would take it," he didn't take the bait this time. Neptune cackled before hanging up.

  "No joke, you sure you're okay buddy?"

  "Yes, Dad. I'm okay," even though I was the youngest and Neptune was the oldest Zeus was the one parenting the both of us.

  "I'm just asking as a friend. You don't have to get all bitchy. But if you do need help let us know. And I mean with more than the case. Till next time brother," Zeus hangs up and I am left with silence in my ear for the first time in hours.

  I'm not sure if they worry about me putting a bullet through my own brain, or hiring someone to take me out, but I can tell they're worried. If I did need them they wouldn't hesitate to drop everything and come to help me. I can’t begin to imagine what they would do if they knew how close I was to ending it all out of nothing more than boredom. They'd be like a bunch of old women running around up in here.

  For assassins they were a bunch of pussies. But I dare anyone else but me to say it. They are my brothers. They are the reason I don't put an end to it all. They might need me one day and I have to stay around for that if for nothing else.

  If I were a young hacker on a Monday night where would I be? I go back to the scene of the crime and easily hack into this guy's system. For someone with so much government clearance he doesn't know shit about keeping his files safe online. Dumbass.

  I look for anything, a digital fingerprint or signature the guy might have left. Once I find what I’m looking for, I pull out and go deep to find where the guy is now. I find DarkKore on a gaming site trying to fend off orcs or some shit. I sit and wait for the opportune time to engage.

  H: Nice one. How long have you been playing?

  DK: Who is this? You don't have an avatar?

  H: Nope. Not yet. I'm new.

  Only on level five but I hope to be as good as you one day.

  DK: As flattering as that is,

  I don't talk to people I don't know.

  You could be a pedophile or something.

  H: Wow how old are you if you're worried about that?

  DK: Old enough.

  She, and the only reason I say she is because her avatar was a female, which doesn't mean shit, but for now she is a she, signs off. But not before I can track her ass down and follow her when she enters another site. It looks like she is typing a message to someone in a chat group now.

  DK: You know that thing we talked about this morning. It's really starting to freak me out and I don't know what I should do. Someone just tried to creep on me in my game and I went right to the worst case scenario. I can't even play my stupid game anymore. I can't live this way.

  I wait for the response. And wait and wait. Eventually she goes off line and I realize they either communicated some other way other than online or they met somewhere to talk. I close my computer and sit back. There's always tomorrow.

  Chapter 1

  Vera

  Being the broke friend in a group of successful twenty-somethings wasn't exactly my life's goal. It's not who I want to be but I am so thankful for friends that, even when they can move on to bigger and better, they don't leave me behind. I only hope that one day I fit in. For now, I am content to stand at the window of a giant library full of hundreds of books and watch as people laugh and have fun and make drunken fools of themselves.

  The party thing isn't really for me. I don't do casual conversation. In fact, I would be much more comfortable sitting on the couch reading a book, or binge-watchi
ng Netflix. Tracie wouldn't let me beg off this one. She knew I would say no and try to catch some overtime, so instead, she came to pick me up so she could guarantee that I would be here.

  We've been friends since we were little girls. Her family is almost mine because of all the time I spent over at her house. Her parents are both business associates at one of the bigger firms in the city. They tried to keep Tracie as far away from any of the prestige as they could. They wanted her to grow up and find her own way not be a trust fund baby. And she did wonderfully at it too. On the first day of school, she chose the poorest, weakest kid to befriend; me.