by M. Stratton
“Nice to meet you, my name’s Morgan.” They shook hands. “You have no idea what it means to me, coming into the store today, and finding out about these events you have. I’m looking forward to talking to people who also enjoy my passion for reading.”
“I used to be pretty shy,” Stormy said. “But opening this store really brought me out of my shell. I found it’s so easy to talk to someone if you have something in common. And if you are talking to another book lover, you always have something in common, even if you don’t like the same genres or authors.”
“Exactly!” Morgan smiled. “You have no idea how happy you’ve made me. Thank you so much for all of your help.” She picked up her book and waved to Stormy as she walked out of the door.
Stormy smiled to herself. She always loved helping people, and if it included the mutual love of books, it was all the better. She was hoping that Morgan would come to one of the next events at the bookstore. There were a lot of other women that could be potential friends to the new resident.
Whistling quietly to herself, she went about setting up a new display for cookbooks.
Ten
“Oh, Lover,” Morgan called out. She knew he was close by, and he’d heard the whole conversation with Stormy. It was all part of the plan. “I brought you a present.” She had already checked the cameras, so she knew he was alone, and therefore could talk and even go upstairs if she wanted to, but she preferred to stay below. She didn’t want anything to tie the two of them together. Even if this room was ever discovered, she couldn’t have her name associated with his.
“What have we here, Kitten?”
Morgan clapped her hands together. “Happy Anniversary! Look what I brought you.” She gestured to bed. “I even put a bow on his head. Now you can go play. Create something beautiful for me.” She walked over to a stool and sat down on it. “Go on. He’s all yours.”
Nutter’s hands shook as he picked up a knife. Morgan knew what going through his mind. This was his first kill, alone, since he’d been released. Up to this point, they’d killed together, and always someone that had wronged him in the past. This one was all for him. She needed to watch him work. To simply enjoy. She’d read all his files, everything he’d done, including him telling her everything that wasn’t in the files. She wanted to see this in action.
“Are you sure?” Nutter gestured toward the man tied up on the bed. “Are you sure you won’t join me?”
“Oh, Lover, let me watch you in all your brilliance. Let me see the genius that is you. Show me what you are capable of.”
A smile spread across his face. “Anything for my Kitten.” He turned back toward the man and tipped his head to the side. “Now, what shall I create today? Hmmm…” He poked the tip of the knife in a couple of places along his body, smiling as blood dripped out of him. “Should I work in the flesh or the blood today?” His tongue came out and he licked the end of the knife. “Well, it looks like you are pretty lean.” He turned to her. “What’s his name?”
“His driver’s license said, Nick.”
“Ahhhh, Nick, I think you’d make a delicious steak. I just so happen to have some new baby red potatoes and some asparagus. A nice combination with the new wine you brought over. On that note, we should prepare the meat.”
Morgan smiled at Nutter as he walked back over to the workbench. Her lover was in his element and it turned her on. Wondering what he was going to be doing, she rested her chin in her hand and waited for the show to start.
*****
Picking up a torch, Nutter adjusted the flame, nice and low. Didn’t want to burn the flesh, too much. He smiled as he walked back over to Nick, who appeared to be in his twenties, and then back to his Kitten. “Gee, I wonder how you got him to come home with you?”
Laughing, she smiled at him. “You know how easy these base males are to manipulate. Show a little tit and leg and they’ll follow you anywhere.”
“It sure makes things easy for us.”
“Yes, it does, now go play.” She nodded to the bed. “I want to enjoy you creating.”
He turned from her and leaned down to whisper in the man’s ear, “You really shouldn’t have been so stupid to fall for that. I’d like to tell you this isn’t going to hurt, but it is. A lot. And the smell. Have you ever smelled burning hair and flesh? Most people can’t stand it, makes them throw up. I’d appreciate you not doing that. I don’t want to contaminate my work here with your vile stomach contents.” Nutter licked his ear and laughed as the man tried to move away from him. “There’s no escaping.”
Getting lost in his work, Nutter burned a scene across the man’s body. At one point, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kitten get up and try to get a closer look. Simply with one finger and a quick look, he made her sit back down and wait. He wanted her to see the whole thing when it was done, and not a moment before.
Losing track of time, he continued, blocking the man’s screams out as his focus was on the scene coming to life on this man’s skin. Adjusting the flame higher or lower depending on what he needed. Heating up metal surgical tools to make cuts or to be able to burn the skin to get the detail he needed. Sweat dripped from his brow, landing on the skin. He watched while the skin quivered as the salt seeped into the wounds and he smiled. This was a side benefit he loved, the extra pain that came along for the ride, that wasn’t part of the original plan.
Finally, he turned off his torch, and it clattered on the bare floor, as he dropped it. He stretched the muscles in his back, twisting one way and then the other before he turned to look at his Kitten.
There she was, where’d she’d been for the past three hours, waiting for him to finish. He could see the hooded look in her eyes. Her pussy had to be throbbing and soaking wet for him by this point. His cock was ready for her, but first, he wanted her to see what he created. Holding his hand out to her, he smiled as she came closer. “For you, my darling Kitten.” He smiled at her, the joy of being able to share this with her was almost overwhelming to him.
She gasped, “It’s beautiful!” Her voice was a whisper.
“I wanted to show you what our life is going to be like after we finish up our business here.” He’d laid out for her their life on the island he purchased years ago. The open-air house, the warm ocean breezes blowing the curtains. The beaches, the flowers, and the lush jungle; along with their house hidden deep in their private island jungle. Where no one could hear the screams of the men and women they’d bring there to kill. He’d have an endless supply of blood, bodies, and bones to create a masterpiece larger than he’d ever done before. He wanted something that stood at least twenty feet in the air, just under the canopy of the trees. Hiding it from above and other peering eyes, he wanted to create a temple dedicated to his Kitten, a place he could go to worship her.
“For you, it’s all for you,” he whispered in her ear before nipping at the lobe.
She turned toward him, and grabbing the sides of his head, pulled him in toward her. Holding him back for a moment, their eyes locked together before she crashed her mouth into his. Both fighting for supremacy, they fought to rid each other of their clothes before falling on the floor and letting go of their control.
Eleven
“Oh, Morgan? I didn’t expect to run into you here,” Stormy said to the woman, she literally had run her cart into at the local Shop-Mart.
“Ha.” Morgan smiled at her. “Me, either.”
Stormy looked down at the woman’s cart. “Wow. That’s a lot of rope.”
Morgan laughed again. “I know, right? We’re trying our hand at building a cat playground for those feral cats I told you about, to have something fun to play on. The book you found for me has really been helping. They’re still a bit skittish, but some of them are really coming around and have such sweet personalities. I’m sure what we’ve been feeding them as something to do with it, but they really seem to be thriving.”
“We used to have a lot of cats in the neighborhood about ten years ago,
then they started dying off, and now there’s hardly any. I never thought of that before, but some of them were pretty cute. I always felt so bad for the kittens, not having a home, or to know what it would be like to not have to worry about where you slept, or to go hungry. Not to mention crossing the street.” Stormy shook her head. “It’s a weakness to see animals, children, or the elderly suffering.”
“Some people think compassion is a good thing,” Morgan said.
“Well, sometimes it gets me into trouble, too.”
“Oh, I can’t believe that.”
Stormy laughed. “My husband is always saying I’m too trusting and my bleeding heart will someday cause trouble.”
Morgan tilted her head to the side. “Has it? So far? Has it got you into any serious trouble?”
Frowning Stormy looked down. “Just once. But sometimes, once is enough.” Shaking her head, she tried to clear the image of the elderly neighbor Nutter had killed and displayed across her bookshelf. “Anyway, it was good to run into you.” She moved her cart to the side.
“You, too.” Morgan started to walk away. “Oh, and Stormy, the bad things only have power over you if you keep dwelling on them.”
Stormy tried to focus on shopping and making sure she watched out for her safety, but Morgan’s words wouldn’t leave her alone. While one part of her understood having to let go of the past, the other didn’t want to forget. The people Nutter hurt or killed deserved to be remembered for more than how they died. Automatically, she finished her shopping and was standing in line when her phone rang. Glancing at the number she saw it one of the phones registered to The Night Club. “Hello.”
“Hello, Princess. It’s been too long.”
Stormy screamed and dropped the phone like it was a live snake and backed away from it, afraid it would somehow still strike out at her.
Morgan was right there, putting her arm around her. “What’s wrong? Stormy, look at me. What’s wrong?”
Feeling lost, Stormy focused on the one person she knew there. Absently she again pushed the panic button, hoping Bender would be there soon.
“No.” Stormy stopped Morgan from picking up the phone. ‘Don’t touch it.”
“Why? What’s wrong with your phone? Talk to me, Stormy, let me help.”
“There was someone who shouldn’t be on the phone.”
“You’re not making any sense. Who was it? Let me see if that person is still there.” Again Morgan tried to reach for the phone on the floor but Stormy held onto her.
“No, please. Bender should be here soon. I’ll be okay once he’s here.”
“Do you need me to call him? How do you know he’s going to be here?”
Without thinking, Stormy held up her bracelet to show Morgan. “This panic button is tied to my husband’s phone.”
“Why in the world would you need a panic button?” Morgan was confused by her words.
“Something from my past. That terrible thing I can’t undo. I have to…” Stormy’s breathing became rapid. “I can’t pass out now. I can’t have a panic attack.” Her head started whipping around, searching through the faces of everyone staring at her like she was crazy. “Please, I need help.” Tears ran down her face as she pleaded with Morgan to help her.
“I don’t know what you need. Tell me how to help you,” Morgan begged her.
“I need to get away from here.”
“Come on, I know exactly where to go.” Morgan grabbed her hand and pulled out of the store and to her waiting car.
Twelve
“What the ever-loving fuck were you thinking?” Bender yelled.
“Stop it alright, obviously I wasn’t thinking.” Stormy had her hands tangled in her hair with her elbows on her knees, looking down at the ground. “I’ll never forget that voice. He was like he was there watching me. I had to get away.”
“So you pick some strange woman and get into her car?”
“She isn’t strange, she’s a customer. She’s been in my store, we’ve had conversations, she’s new here. Besides, have you ever had a panic attack? I did what I thought was most logical at the time, what felt right to me at the time.”
“What’s her last name?”
“What do you mean?”
“All you’ve ever said was her first name, what is her last name?”
Stormy frowned. “I can’t remember or don’t know. What does it matter, she helped me. She was there for me, Bender when you weren’t.”
“You don’t need to bring that up. Don’t you think I’m beating myself up enough for that? I don’t need you to add to it.”
“Too bad, I was freaking out. I hit the button. No one showed up. What else was I supposed to do?”
“Call me for Crist’s sake.”
“I didn’t want to touch that phone. He was on the line.”
“Yeah, do you know what it was like to go running into that store, and to see your phone lying there on the ground, and frantically asking people where you went? I was only seconds behind you, but it felt like years.” He grabbed her by the arms and lifted her up so she was eye level with him. “Don’t you ever fucking do that to me again. I almost lost you once, I can’t do this again. You stay put. You wait for me.”
Stormy’s eyes filled with tears, and she couldn’t stop them from flowing over and down her cheeks. “I was so scared. His voice, the one that haunts my nightmares, was just like I remembered. I don’t think I’m strong enough to survive this anymore.”
“Oh, baby, yes you are.” Bender pulled her into his arms, holding her tight against him. “You’re the strongest woman I know. You can totally do this. But you can’t just disappear with some stranger. It just about gave me a heart attack.”
“Me, too. What’s he doing? Where you able to trace the call? Did anyone go talk to him?”
“I don’t know what game he’s playing. We’re trying to figure out how he got one of the numbers from The Night Club, the ones that are used for my men only, the ones who are undercover. Right now, we’re working on getting new phones and numbers for everyone.”
“You have those numbers so buried it’s hard to believe someone could find out what they were.”
“Exactly, which is why the tech guys are going over everything, we’re hoping for more information tomorrow.”
“The sooner the better.”
“The call bounced off a cell tower close to where you were, which is nowhere close to where Nutter is living right now. His tracker was still on him, he didn’t move.”
“How can that be? It was him. There is no voice like his. He called me; ‘Princess,’ he’s the only one who’s ever done that.”
“I know, and I believe what you heard was Nutter. But when the cops got there to interview him, he was there with his parole officer, who’d been there for the past hour. There was no way he could have made that phone call.”
“It makes no sense.” She turned her haunted eyes toward him. “I feel like I’m losing my mind.”
“No, I think he’s playing a game with us. You, obviously, were right about feeling like you were watched. He’s got some kind of game going on. We know from past history. he can use kids to get what he wants. He wouldn’t be above hiring some local kids to get some extra money and report back to him what is going on in your life. He must be feeling trapped and is trying to lash out. Trying to make you feel you need your own safe house or prison; since you’ve been allowed to run free while he’s been locked up. You can come and go as you please, he can’t. And hasn’t been able to for years.”
“Maybe.” Stormy sniffled. “When is this all going to end, Bender? I don’t want to leave the neighborhood we call home. We’ve both worked so hard to rebuild from the ruins of him and Mick, but I don’t know how I can stay if he’s so close by. I thought I could. I have for five years, but not anymore. Now for the first time, I’m thinking of running away.”
“You’re not a runner.”
“You got that shit right, but I don’t know how much longer
I can take this.” Her voice caught in a sob.
“We’ll figure this out, and if we can’t, then we’ll move anywhere you want to go.”
“Anywhere?”
“Anywhere. Why?”
“Well, The British Library in London has over one hundred and seventy million books. Add that to the number of rainy days they have, it’s like my dream come true. Then there is the fact Evie spends part of her time over there. Think of the history, Bender.” She tried to latch on to something positive.
“You know, the Library of Congress is closer.”
“Yes, but then we’d have to deal with all the crap that goes along with living in Washington D.C., I’d much rather see the world. I’ve always wanted to travel.”
“I’ll figure this out, and then if you still want to live in London, we can do that.”
“Deal.” She hugged him close. “Just don’t ever leave me.”
“Never, lady, never.”
Thirteen
Morgan sat alone in her house, listening to the conversation between Bender and Stormy and smiled. Everything was going according to plan. They had timed it so Nutter would have an airtight alibi when the call came into Stormy. It was easy enough to follow her through the store. She was so distracted; she didn’t realize Morgan was always close by. Nor did she notice when Morgan called her from the second phone she had in her bag and played the recording of Nutter, so she’d think it was actually him calling. Then it was simple enough to disconnect the call, turn the phone off, and give her comfort. They were working on gaining her trust. It would make it that much easier to grab her, and that much more satisfying when she realized she’d been taken advantage of.
