by Jackson Lear
“What is it today?” he asked.
“Do you have any more bullets?” Daniel asked.
“Maybe,” James said, with little more than a shrug. “But bullets aren’t free. And if you shoot anyone I’m the one who’s going to get into trouble. And God help you if anyone catches you with that gun. So how am I going to know to trust you?”
“You can trust us,” said Daniel, trying his best to look like he was in a secret military squad trying to get the general to okay the riskiest of battle plans.
Ian was less convincing. “We won’t tell anyone.”
James looked over each of their faces, jutted his jaw forward, and settled into a chair. “That’s a big ask. Very big. How can I trust you?”
“Maybe we can buy the bullets,” said Daniel.
“Yeah. They’re expensive,” said James. “But how would I trust you to not get caught with the gun?”
“We’ll be really safe with it,” said Ian.
“And if someone catches you with it, what happens then?” James asked.
“We won’t tell them.”
“They won’t let you go until you tell them,” said James.
“We’ll say we found it. In the field,” said Daniel.
James rolled his eyes. “No one leaves a gun behind for kids to find.”
“Maybe someone threw it away,” said Daniel.
“We’ll say the Beast had it,” said Warrick.
All eyes turned on the boy. James had to rattle his mind to go over what the kid had just said and even then it didn’t make the slightest bit of sense. “The what?”
Daniel grumbled at Warrick and tried to translate for James’ sake. “There’s a weird guy who walks around. He looks like he’s homeless. He never talks to anyone. We call him the Beast.”
“And you think some homeless guy is going to throw a gun away?” James asked.
“Maybe. He’s really weird,” said Warrick.
“And he walks around all hunched over,” said Ian, dropping his own shoulders in demonstration.
James glanced to one side as he called upon an age old memory. “What does he look like?”
“Tall, very thin. Kinda looks like Nosferatu,” said Warrick.
James raised an eyebrow at that reference. “You’ve seen Nosferatu?”
“Yeah,” said Warrick. “My dad collects old movies.”
“Does this guy have black hair?” James asked, raising his voice as though as he was grasping at something of an impossibility.
“Yeah.”
“Well, fuck me,” James said, before settling on the verge of a laugh. “You boys call him the Beast?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ve seen him a couple of times and never had a name for him. But yeah, if it’s the same guy then he’s not all there in the head. But he certainly wouldn’t be throwing guns at kids. I might have to ask for it back.”
“Please?” Daniel asked. “We like playing with it.”
“Yeah, but if you boys do something stupid and shoot someone that’ll be it for you. No more games, only jail.”
“We’ll be careful.”
“You used those bullets quickly, didn’t you?”
“Yeah,” said Daniel. “But we only had three each.”
“How much are you looking for this time?”
“Twelve each?” Daniel asked.
“Twelve?” James ran a hand across his unshaven chin and shook his head. “That’s a lot of danger walking around Luxford. Someone’s gonna notice you fellas shooting off twelve bullets each. And if you start waving that thing in front of cars or a train and an accident happens then you’ll be in the worst shit of your lives and it’s going to stay that way for good.”
Daniel pulled himself up so high that he almost popped out of his spine. “Please? We’ll buy them.”
“I’m going to need to trust you first and twelve bullets each is a big ask. Very big.” James raised his hands together and laid them against his chin, tapping them gently as he thought it over. “Make me an offer.”
“What do you want?” Daniel asked.
James rolled his eyes and shook his head. “That’s not the proper response to ‘make me an offer.’ What you do is you three come up with something worthwhile that only you three can do. Or one of you can do and is generous enough to let the other two share.”
“We can get some more bras,” said Daniel.
James snorted. “It’s going to take more than bras. Try again.”
Daniel looked over to the other two. They all shook their heads at each other, drawing a complete blank.
James felt the mood dive into frustration as no one could read his mind, nor could he project an image into theirs. “Do any of you boys have parents who are on medication? Pills. Good mood pills.” He was met with a set of shrugs and vacant looks. “I guess those secrets are well kept at home. How about this; you boys have cameras, right? Video cameras, computers with cameras, phones with cameras, yeah?”
“Yeah,” said Daniel. “You want a camera?”
“No, I want what you can film on a camera. I want something secret that’s just for us guys, you know? A secret video. You boys know what I’m saying?”
They all shook their heads and held a slight squint in their eye, trying to put it all together.
James sighed and was quickly losing patience with them. “Fine, I’ll spit it out for you. I want videos of your mums, your sisters, your neighbours, anyone with a fine pair of titties and a nice pussy. I don’t want just one video, I want several from each of you. Just set a camera up so they can’t see it. Do it so that when they’re having a shower the camera gets it. And when they’re alone in their bedrooms playing with themselves. Naked videos. On the toilet videos. It’ll be a secret, okay? So no telling any of your other friends. You bring me some of those videos and I’ll give you some videos in return, plus the bullets you want.”
Ian turned his head to one side. “You want me to film my mum?”
“Yeah. More than once. I’ll tell you what, since it’s a difficult job and a big ask, I’ll give you a bullet each right now. It’ll help you get through the day.” James stood and paused by the door. “You know when I first found out about you lot in the back of my garden I was going to kill you, but you fellas are showing yourselves that you’re not too bad. It’s good as well, you know? Being friends with an adult. They can help you get a job as a vet, or be a pilot, or architect. I have connections. I know people. Even so, this stays between us, okay?”
“Okay,” said Daniel, while struggling to figure out the logistics of getting secret footage of his sister and mum.
“You boys understand?”
“Yes,” said Daniel.
“You won’t be too long, will you?”
“We’ll be quick.”
“Good.” James went to one of the chests of drawers and picked out three bullets. “Here you boys go. Go nuts. Just don’t shoot anyone or they’ll bring the law down on you so hard you won’t be able to shit right until the day you die.”
“Thank you,” said Daniel. He pocketed the three bullets and felt a burst of pride for knowing that there was an adult who didn’t perpetually treat him like a five year old.
James started rummaging through the kitchen cupboards. “You should head along. I have to make lunch.”
29
Josh
It was Friday morning. Lucy’s hen night in London would begin in a few hours. Josh fired off a cheeky smile at Brooke as she entered their morning yoga class. Despite readying his bravura all week, Josh had never felt his heart beating as wildly as it did right then. Even at breakfast in Krifi he couldn’t keep it in check.
“Okay, what is with you this morning?” Brooke asked.
“It’s the hen night tonight,” said Josh.
“Oh,” said Brooke. Then she put it all together. “Ohhhhhh. So that’s why you’ve been smiling like a goofball. The whole place to yourself for a weekend.”
Making the decision
was one thing. Voicing it and risking being shot down – or worse; being accepted – was another. “Come over tonight.”
Brooke glanced away in surprise before quickly staring back at her toasted sandwich.
“You already have a pretty good idea of what I want to do with you.” He reached his hand across the table and stroked Brooke’s fingers. “I want to rip your clothes off and have you moaning until dawn.”
Brooke finally looked up from her breakfast with an arched eyebrow, her eyes locked firmly onto Josh. “I’ve heard my husband say that and it never comes true.”
“All right. I’ll have you moaning until three a.m.”
“I don’t think I can stay out that long,” said Brooke.
What Josh noticed in particular was that she hadn’t refused him. “Come over tonight.”
“That all depends.” Brooke went back to her chai latte and sipped it slowly until it was all gone, leaving Josh agonising over her tactics.
“I have a key to a spare house,” Josh said.
“Whose?”
“Amanda’s.”
“New York Amanda?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh, you two have been planning this for a while, haven’t you?”
Josh nodded. “Come over.”
“It’s not a threesome, is it?”
“I’m afraid not.” Though it did raise an interesting idea.
Brooke held her breath, glanced around the café, and fell into a dead serious whisper. “If anyone finds out I’m going to lose my husband and probably my job.”
“I won’t tell a soul,” said Josh.
“You’re going to tell Amanda. And one day you’ll tell your friends. It might be a year from now but when you do you’ll think it’s safe to tell them. And maybe they’ll keep it to themselves for a while but eventually they will think the story is harmless enough to pass on and so they’ll tell someone else.”
Josh dropped one hand under the table and rested it on Brooke’s knee. “I adore you. This isn’t just hormones at work here, I lie awake thinking about how you make me feel. I know you do the same and you love it.”
Brooke eased into a smile. “And what about my husband? He’ll be pacing around the house losing his mind until I’m back. And if he finds out he’ll divorce me.”
“I’ll take care of you,” said Josh. “Hell, move in with me.”
“You have a girlfriend.”
Josh shrugged it off. “Probably not for long.” He fired off the best bedroom eyes he could muster. “You know you want to give in. You and I are horrendous flirts but even what we have going on here is far more than just flirting, even by our standards. You know it’s a bad idea for us to have breakfast like this, out in public, and yet you love the danger of it all.” Josh slid his hand halfway up her thigh and gave her a squeeze. “So. Tonight. Come over.”
Brooke glanced down at Josh’s hand on her thigh. A battle raged within her, one that had been swinging from one edge to the other for months. She looked to the bathroom and gave Josh the slightest of shrugs. “I’ll need a minute to think about it.”
“By all means,” Josh said, knowing full well that Brooke had already made up her mind. She just enjoyed toying with him.
Brooke slipped away to the bathroom. What she didn’t expect was for Josh to catch her as she came out. He pressed her against the wall and slid his hand against her waist. The surprise caught her completely unprepared. Josh moved in for a kiss. He reached one hand up behind her and simultaneously squeezed the back of her neck and waist as he kissed her with a deep exhale of relief through his nose, all to rattle her senses into overload. Brooke sank almost immediately into his arms.
He released her but remained an inch away. She couldn’t even look Josh in the eye. All she could manage was a stunned glance from one side to the other. “I, uh ... what ... what did you do?”
Josh wrapped his arms around her back. She instinctively wrapped her arms around him, then she allowed herself to feel the energy bristle between themselves.
“Stay with me tonight,” Josh said.
“I’m married,” murmured Brooke.
Josh felt her head rest against his chest and he rested his cheek against her curly blonde hair. “I know we’re in some weird situation where I’m crazy about you, you’re crazy about me, and neither of us are allowed to acknowledge any of it and it’s driving both of us insane. But I’ve felt something with you that I’ve dreamed about for years and never had. You make me happy. You’re one of my favourite people I have ever met. You’re the reason I haven’t had a single bad day since you started work. I have a light in my soul and I feel it every time I see you smile.”
Brooke pulled away as she heard someone from the front of the café move towards the bathroom. The duo stepped away like school kids claiming that nothing happened, before proceeding back to their table so no one could clear away their half eaten breakfast.
“I’m not leaving my husband,” Brooke whispered as she sat down.
“I’m not asking you to.”
“You’re just asking for an office fling? A secret between us?”
“I know what I felt back there when I kissed you. Even when you hugged me it was as though we’ve known each other for years and that we’re going to burst if we can’t get a handle on this. Come see me tonight. We don’t have to mention our partners, we don’t even have to mention ourselves. If you’re nervous we can go with pseudonyms. That way I’m seducing Anna Surensa and you’re being seduced by Chester Argyle.”
Brooke eased into a school-girl grin. It had been their first conversation, talking about the novel Brooke carried to work. It was also the one thing that separated Josh from the rest as he was the only one who knew more about the book than simply the title. “So I’ll be sleeping with Chester and you’ll be sleeping with Anna?”
“Exactly,” said Josh.
“Ugh. Karma’s going to bite me in the ass. You’re not afraid you’ll go to sleep with the fantasy and wake up with me?”
“Not at all. I’ve seen you groggy, yawning, and come into work in a hungover daze. I can handle that.”
“It sounds like you’re looking for more than just a casual fling.”
Josh dug into his pocket and handed Brooke a thin black mask that felt like velvet. Brooke turned it over in her hands.
“A blindfold?”
“Yeah. There’s nothing casual about us. Leave your car here. I’ll drive you to work and I’ll drive you back. You still have until five thirty to decide. Otherwise, you’re mine for the evening, and you’ll be wearing this blindfold while I strip you of everything you’re wearing and have you all to myself.” He slipped one hand under the table and squeezed her thigh again. “You don’t even need to consult the Magic 8 Ball. Just say yes.”
Brooke felt a moment of absolute panic, beyond anything she had known before, and yet she found herself hiding the blindfold in her purse instead of returning it.
30
Amanda
Ten minutes after arriving at work, Josh sent Amanda a message. ‘I have a dangerous way in for you that you probably won’t like, but it will certainly get him thinking about you.’
‘This better be a genius-level idea, because I’m a couple of hours away from potentially screwing up my entire life and joining a convent.’
She was now operating on far too much caffeine and too little sleep. The combination made her need to go to the bathroom every forty five minutes. After swearing at Josh and his hormone-driven brainwave, Amanda went back for another coffee and did a quick check of flights back to New York. If this failed as much as the three a.m. demons told her it would then she could be back State-side by tomorrow afternoon.
At last, after pacing around for three hours and coming up with nothing better than what Josh had to offer, she fired off a message to Anthony.
‘Krifi. Lunch. My shout.’
Fifteen minutes later, Anthony strolled through the door and gave Amanda a kiss on the cheek.
“Can’t complain,” said Anthony. “You?”
“Great. Just got a good work out and spent a few sociable hours with Mum. Of course, she did pull out some old photos and I wish someone had told me not to wear half the things I wore as a kid.”
“Fluro coloured tops?”
“Yeah, that’s an era that needs to be photoshopped. She was asking how you and Gemma are doing.”
“We’re fine,” said Anthony, with a throwaway smile.
Amanda leaned in over the table. “How are you two doing?”
“Fine,” said Anthony, slowly, as he worked through several avenues of deduction. “You asked me the same thing the other day, right here.”
Amanda waved her hand in dismissal. “Well, you do have the place to yourself tonight, so I was expecting you to be a little more excited at the prospect of utter freedom.”
Anthony shook his head. “Gemma’s leaving, the kids are staying. So I’m on full parental duty.”
“Why not drop them off at Claire’s or your parents and finally have a quiet night at home?”
“They’re going tomorrow afternoon, but I can’t leave them out all night. It’s not fair on my folks.”
Amanda looked away to hide the crack in her eyes. “Well, at least you’ll have tomorrow. Is Gemma looking forward to getting away?”
“She is, and a little more than she expected.” Anthony leaned forward and locked his fingers together over the table. “So how are you doing?”
“Fine, fine,” said Amanda.
“People usually say ‘fine’ when it’s the furthest from the truth,” said Anthony.
“You said ‘fine’ about yourself and Gemma,” said Amanda, leaning in to match Anthony’s position.
