Relentless

by Vanessa Dare

  “Hi, Stormy Dawn. I’m Anna.”

  When Elizabeth realized she wasn’t going to get anywhere, she flopped down on the couch with the TV remote.

  “Anders filled me on the way from the airport. It’s nice to meet you all.” She gave a small smile, approachable, but clearly here for business.

  Anders was turning out to be a decent guy, considering his profession. He had to know I was a cop, it took one in the industry to know one, but he didn’t care. Clearly, he took the protection business seriously. Either that or the threat of being executed by Carmichael was his motivation. He’d been nothing but courteous to Anna, and even more so with Elizabeth. When he learned she was engaged to Lawton, I thought he was going to lose it, and he was one cool customer. He followed the code, killing only those evil enough to deserve it. He didn’t mess with women or kids. Protected them when needed.

  Between Anders and Stormy Dawn, we seemed well equipped for tonight. Somehow, Anders, even with his giant size, had slipped into Lawton’s suite to bug the place. It would let us know when he arrived and when Stormy Dawn should arrive. All we had to do was prep and wait. Elizabeth watched a movie on satellite and Anna, giving up on any amount of patience just sitting around, went to take a bath in the suite’s Jacuzzi tub. Now wasn’t the time to join her—it was large enough for two—but I vowed to do so before we left.

  “Are you going to sleep with him?” Elizabeth asked Stormy Dawn. The woman sat in a comfortable chair perpendicular to the sofa, her feet up on the ottoman in front of her, reading a book she’d pulled from her suitcase. I was setting up the computer that would record everything that happened in Lawton’s suite: video and audio. Stormy Dawn would carry a bag with a hidden camera and mic. She’d be going in alone, relying solely on the wires for us to see her and help if needed. She wasn’t nervous about the job she was about to do, in fact, she was downright relaxed. She’d obviously done this kind of thing before, so I had to let it go.

  Stormy Dawn flipped over her book to hold the page, looked at Elizabeth, unfazed by the probing question. I pretended to fiddle with the machine as I watched and listened. Kids could ask questions grownups couldn’t. “With your fiancé? No. I don’t sleep with any of the marks.”

  “He might be my fiancé, but I’m not marrying him. Do you…um, do you kill them?” Elizabeth questioned, biting her lower lip as she did so.

  Smiling, Stormy Dawn leaned forward and patted the ottoman. “Sit.” When Elizabeth did, she continued. “I’m a lawyer. That’s really what I do. This,” she pointed to herself, “is all fake.”

  No kidding.

  Stormy Dawn chuckled. “Yes, they’re fake,” she added when Elizabeth just gawked at the other woman’s breasts. “What I mean is, Stormy Dawn isn’t the real me. I don’t normally dress like this. I bet you wouldn’t recognize me if I wore my regular clothes, did my makeup and hair like normal. And that’s the point. People see what they want and I use it to my advantage. You need me to be a call girl to frame your fiancé. So that’s what I’ll be. I don’t need to have sex with him to do that.”

  This was a relief to me. Honestly, I had no idea the kind of woman Carmichael would send. I knew the plan, but didn’t know how she was going to achieve it. Stormy Dawn, or whatever her real name was, was right. I had only looked at her assets and made immediate assumptions about her. She was a lawyer. She was no dummy.

  “What kind of law do you practice?”

  “Public defender. In New York.”

  There was the connection. Twenty bucks said she worked with Adam Carmichael.

  “When you listen in tonight, remember, whatever you hear is not real. Okay?”

  “She shouldn’t be listening in, period,” Anders said from across the room. He was still working with the electronics but gave Elizabeth a hard stare. “It’s not appropriate for a kid.”

  Elizabeth’s chin bumped up as she narrowed her eyes at the big man. “I’m not a kid. I’m eighteen.”

  I swore beneath my breath. “Hey, kiddo. He’s trying to protect you. Lawton’s not going to be a gentleman and we don’t want you getting the wrong impression.”

  She cocked her head. “About what? Todd? I think I know more about him than you do.”

  “No. About sex.” Jesus, I was having a sex talk with a kid. I was getting old. “This isn’t how it’s supposed to be.”

  “It’s not all rainbows and sunshine,” she countered. I smiled to myself, remembering I used those same words about my life undercover.

  “No, but you need to find the right guy—”

  “Todd’s not the guy,” she said as she stood, crossed her arms over her chest. Defiant.

  “Thank Christ,” I muttered. “You need to find the right guy and make it special. When you’re thirty,” I added.

  “Like you and Anna?”

  I thought for a moment. Thought about all the women I’d been with who’d meant nothing to me. I couldn’t remember their faces, let alone their names. I thought about Anna and how she did something to me, filled something inside me that had been empty. That when I put my hands on her it was with reverence—and a whole lot of lust. The difference was, I needed Anna like I needed my next breath and that wasn’t going to change. Ever. “Yeah, like me and Anna.”

  “Don’t worry, you’ve both given me the same sex talk now. I’m good.”

  A door opening then closing came through the speaker of the laptop. We turned our attention to the machine, listened. Lawton had arrived.

  “Listen, the deal needs to go through,” he said. Then silence. “No, Edwards isn’t involved. He’s in Asia somewhere with a client.” He was on the phone. “Look. I’ve got a meeting. Solve this problem and get back to me tomorrow.”

  His voice was clipped, cultured. Cranky. He sounded like a complete asshole. Hearing that Anna’s father was in Asia only validated what Anders had said.

  We heard a clatter, probably his cell being tossed onto a table, footsteps, nothing for about thirty seconds, then a toilet flushing.

  Stormy Dawn stood, pushed her blond hair back over her shoulder. “Looks like I’m up.”

  I sent Elizabeth to get Anna. If I’d gone into the bathroom and seen her in the tub, bubbles on her slick skin, I wouldn’t have cared what Stormy Dawn did. I’d have been too busy making Anna wet in other ways. Yup, I had it bad.

  Anna

  This was it. I’d been waiting for over ten years to get back at Todd. We heard Stormy Dawn’s knock through the hidden mic, the video feed from her large purse showed the hotel room door. Anders, Grif, Elizabeth and I pulled chairs from around the dining room table to sit in a semicircle around the laptop. We were quiet, eyes riveted to the screen.

  Todd made her wait, which ratcheted up my nerves. What if he found the wire? This wasn’t a simple game. I knew what he could do firsthand. He was dangerous.

  Finally, the door opened and there stood Todd. He wore a white dress shirt and tie, the top button undone, but the camera only showed as high as his chin so I couldn’t see his face.

  “Hello,” Stormy Dawn said, her voice softer, more sultry than normal.

  She stepped into the room and the door clicked shut behind her.

  “Wow. When the service said Mindy was sick and sending a replacement, I wasn’t expecting sheer perfection.”

  Elizabeth didn’t say anything, but stuck her finger in her mouth and rolled her eyes. Yeah, I wanted to gag, too.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Stormy Dawn.”

  “Well, Stormy Dawn, you can call me John. Want a drink?” Todd asked.

  John? Seriously?

  Grif muttered something along the lines of fucker.

  “Whatever you’re having, John.” Stormy Dawn followed Todd into the large room. From the fisheye lens of the camera, the suite appeared similar to ours with the layout reversed. Stormy Dawn kept the camera on Todd and he poured scotch into two glasses. I remembered that was his drink of choice. The smell of it even now was repulsive to me. H
e turned to face the camera as he handed one to her, then took a big gulp of his own. Set it down with a loud clink on a table.

  I finally got a glimpse of his face. Even through the screen, I recognized him. I sucked in a deep breath at seeing him again after all this time. I’d seen pictures, but this was different. He was moving and talking. Breathing. Living his completely fucked-up life as if I never existed.

  His hair was still cut parted to the side, neatly groomed. Clean shaven, I could see new lines around the corners of his eyes. Even though the screen only showed black and white, I could tell he still sported a healthy tan. He was grinning at Stormy Dawn, his white teeth almost sparkling. He was so fake, so two-faced. He really was a sociopath. Grif took my hand in his and I felt the warmth there, making me glance up.

  “Can you do this?” he asked, his eyes serious.

  I pinched my lips together, nodded. This wasn’t easy to watch. It stirred up…everything. I glanced at Elizabeth.

  “What?” She pointed at herself. “You think I have a problem with this? Hell, no.”

  Grif gave my hand a squeeze and we turned back to the screen.

  “Let’s fuck,” Todd said.

  “We have all night, don’t we?” Stormy Dawn laughed.

  He held out his hands in front of him, palms up. “Look, sweetheart, you’re a sure thing. I don’t want to chat. I want to fuck. So strip.”

  There was the Todd I remembered.

  The camera moved, stilled. She’d angled it so that we could see the profiles of both of them. Her hands worked the buttons on her blouse. As she undid them, slowly, she said, “I’ll give you a taste. What do you want that your wife doesn’t give you?”

  Pulling the hem of her blouse from her skirt, she slipped it from her shoulders and it fell to the floor. She stood before Todd in a lacy bra, her very ample breasts practically spilling over the top.

  “Big tits.” Todd’s eyes were glued to them. “I’m engaged. She’s young. Inexperienced. Once we’re married, she’ll come with me to learn from the best. Do you do girl on girl?”

  Girl on— Oh my God, visions of being eighteen again popped into my head. No, he’d never made me be with another woman, but he’d said something like that once. I’ll teach you, baby. I was going to be sick. I stood abruptly, knocking my chair back and dashed to the bathroom. As I heaved up my dinner, I felt hands pull my hair back, run down my spine.

  “You’re okay,” Grif murmured, soothing me with his words, but his voice was rough.

  Finally, when there was nothing left, he went and wet a washcloth, handed it to me. It felt cool on my clammy skin. A nasty taste filled my mouth. I wiped my face, my mouth, then took the toothbrush he offered. I leaned back against the wall, the marble floor chilly against my legs.

  I brushed my teeth as he knelt down in front of me, met my gaze. His look was haunting. “I can’t take it away, Anna. God, I wish I could take it away. What he did to you.”

  I pushed myself to my feet, went around him to the sink, spit and rinsed my mouth. Our gazes met in the mirror. “Every time you touch me, you make me forget,” I told him. “Every time I think about sex, I think about you. I just can’t handle the thought of him touching Elizabeth.”

  Grif’s shoulders went back and a dangerous glint came to his eyes. “He won’t touch her. Ever.”

  “Okay.” I didn’t know what else to say. “Later. Later, with your hands on me, you can make it go away.”

  He ran a hand over my hair, brushed his knuckles across my cheek. “Yeah. I can do that.” He dipped his head, looked at me carefully. “Can you go back out there?”

  I took his hand. “Let’s go.”

  Both Anders and Elizabeth looked at us as we came back, concern mixed with anger on their faces. I held up my hand so they didn’t have to say anything. Grif and I sat back down, but he kept my hand in his as if he refused to break the connection between us.

  “What did we miss? he asked.

  “Not much,” Elizabeth commented, eyes glued to the monitor. “Stormy Dawn talked about girl on girl for most of it. It was pretty educational.”

  Anders glared at her. A vein in his temple stood out.

  “What? It’s not like I want to do it or anything. I was only giving a recap.” Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

  I think I heard Anders growl.

  “Now, I need to freshen up first, so get more comfortable in the bedroom while you’re waiting,” Stormy Dawn told Todd. If she hadn’t taken off her shirt, Todd probably wouldn’t have liked being told what to do.

  Without waiting for an answer, she picked up her purse and we watched as she walked into a dark room, turned on a light. The screen brightened on bathroom fixtures and we could briefly see Stormy Dawn’s reflection in a large mirror. Closing the door behind her, she set the purse down on the vanity with the camera aimed at a glass-enclosed shower.

  Nothing happened for two, maybe three minute before we were on the move again—a hallway, a low-lit room.

  There was the bed, with Todd sitting on it. He’d removed his tie, kicked off his shoes. The bag was expertly placed across the room so we could clearly see the bed.

  “I forgot my drink,” Stormy Dawn said outside camera range. “I’ll bring you a refill.”

  We watched as Todd stood, removed things from his pants pockets, placed them on the end table next to the bed. A few coins, a cell phone, wallet. Muttering to himself, we couldn’t make out the words.

  Stormy Dawn came back in the room, handed Todd his drink, stood in front of him so her breasts were directly at eye level. “You want to fuck?”

  Todd nodded, his eyes on cleavage.

  “Drink up,” she said. “You’re going to need it with what I have planned for you.”

  We all watched as Todd emptied his glass. If his eyes hadn’t been glued to Stormy Dawn’s breasts, he’d have seen her faking a sip before placing it on the table next to Todd’s things.

  Returning to face him again, she reached behind her and unzipped her skirt, let it slip over her hips and down her legs to pool at her feet. She pushed Todd onto his back, his legs off the side of the bed. If I didn’t like her, I’d hate her for her body alone. She had long legs that went on forever with those stilettos and a to-die-for ass that looked great in her lacy panties. Climbing up on top of Todd, she straddled him.

  “Ooh, you feel so big.”

  “This is so gross,” Elizabeth murmured.

  I couldn’t disagree. I think Anders growled again.

  Stormy Dawn was an exceptional actress. I’d had sex with this guy. I knew how big he really was, and Stormy Dawn was lying through her teeth. It wasn’t all that big and unless he’d improved with age, he didn’t really know what to do with it.

  She leaned forward so her breasts almost spilled over the top of her bra as she unbuttoned Todd’s shirt. Slowly, she undid one after another, letting him ogle her chest, making him forget he was in a rush. She had to stall for five to ten minutes. With Todd, he could have fucked her and been done in that timeframe.

  Parting the shirt, she ran her hands over his torso, taunting him, before she tugged at the shoulders, pulling the shirt down behind his back, pinning his arms in place. It was an expert move that looked seductive, but had a more practical purpose.

  Todd tugged at his wrists, but with his expensive cufflinks holding the shirt tight, it wasn’t going to give. His arms were pinned at his sides. Before he panicked or caught on to her moves, she spoke. “I’ve got you at my mercy. I like this. Now you can’t touch me as we fuck.” Her voice took on a soft, slow cadence, almost a purr.

  She pinched one of his flat nipples and he hissed. “Like it rough?”

  “Hell, yeah,” Todd replied.

  Her hands slipped to his belt and she started to undo it. The clanking of metal on metal as she did so was loud in our hotel room.

  Anders broke the silence. “Elizabeth. Close your eyes.”

  “Don’t worry. I’m not watching this. It’s grossing me out
. No way do I want to see Todd’s shlong.” She looked away.

  Shlong? To be honest, I didn’t want to see any naked parts of Todd either.

  The tenting of Todd’s pants was unavoidable, so instead of sliding down the zipper, Stormy Dawn rubbed her hand over him. That was a small mercy, but that act alone made us all shift uncomfortably.

  “This is like a really bad porno,” Grif commented.

  “So, John, do you want my pussy or my mouth first?” Stormy Dawn asked.

  Todd said something, but it was slurred, like he was drunk. I think he said pussy but it came out more like shush me.

  Stormy Dawn grinned. “Let me get a condom.”

  Shimmying back, she slid off him and stood, walked over to her bag, her full body on display until she moved out of camera range.

  We watched as Todd struggled for a minute with his shirt, then tried to prop himself up on his elbows, before he slumped back.

  Stormy Dawn sauntered back to Todd, hips swaying as she held up a strip of condoms, tossed them on the bed next to him. “One’s not going to be enough, is it, John?”

  No response.

  “John?” She leaned forward, one hand on the bed and nudged him. He muttered something too low to hear.

  From her position, she turned her head and looked directly at her bag. At us. All slutty looks gone, she nodded her head.

  Anders stood, towering over us. “Let’s go.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Grif turned to me. “Stay here. Please.”

  This was hard for him, too. He wanted to keep me as far as possible from Todd, from anything that hurt me. I couldn’t imagine how he had to fight with himself to even help organize something like this, but that’s why I loved him so much. There were limits to what he could take, to things he wanted me involved in. Our relationship was a compromise. He was giving me this revenge. I had to give him the reassurance that I was safe when he couldn’t be with me, but also sheltering me from the seedier side of life Grif worked in and Todd delved.

  So I nodded my agreement and gave him a swift kiss. He ran his hand over Elizabeth’s hair.