Dirty Laundry

by Lauren Landish

  “No arguments. You’re staying here,” I reply in a more commanding tone.

  Carsen chuckles. She’s probably never heard me use it with anyone but her before. “Don’t bother arguing. Once he uses that drill sergeant voice, just forget it.”

  “Oh, his ‘drill sergeant voice’? Is that what you call it?” Elise asks, giving in, but in her way. She’s going to stay . . . but she’ll give me plenty of sass while she does it, too. Lowering her voice, she mock-whispers to Carsen loud enough for everyone to still hear her. “I usually call it his caveman voice . . . but I’m no dummy and I only say that in my head so as not to poke the bear.”

  Carsen laughs, her eyes twinkling as she glances at me and mock-whispers back. “Poke the bear? Is that when he gets all growly and grumpy?”

  I keep my voice deep, but the amusement is obvious as I interrupt them before they can go further. “That’s enough, you two. I’m right here and can hear you making fun of me. Next commentary outta either one of you gets punished.”

  Carsen smirks, giving me a raised eyebrow. “I’m basically grounded already. What else you gonna do, Dad? Spank me? I’m too big for that now.”

  I laugh at her joke, thankful she seems to be moving on from the trauma of the morning. I harrumph at them both, crossing my arms over my chest and looking down at them mock-threateningly.

  Elise laughs too. “I know . . . he’s the worst at punishments, isn’t he?”

  Elise’s eyes are flashing fire as she teases, and I silently promise her with my eyes that she’ll definitely be getting a punishment later. Maybe exactly the spanking she obviously wants.

  Sarah interrupts us before things go on, probably for the better. “So Elise, for tonight, we’re good, but do you need me to pick up anything from your apartment? I can have someone go with me, just in case they’re scoping your place, but I can get whatever you need.”

  “Oh, would you?” Elise asks, relieved. “Thank you! Yes, I need some clothes and bathroom stuff. But mostly, I need my laptop and my knitting bag. Maybe while we’re cooped up here, I can show Carsen a few stitches?”

  Carsen’s face lights up as she realizes that our new family dynamic could have some benefits for her as well as me. “That’d be awesome! Thank you.”

  A plan in place, Carsen asks to be excused, wanting to see if her phone has blown up with texts from friends at school. As she gets up, I give her a final bit of warning. “Remember, honey. Don’t say too much. Just that I’m your dad.”

  She rolls her eyes at me. “I know! Don’t worry.”

  I sigh, knowing she’ll do her best. “Just . . . be careful. Everyone’s going to be asking you questions. And I want you to . . .” I reply before stopping, seeing Sarah’s tiny shake of her head. Let her fly on her own, Keith. Even if it scares you. “Just be careful, baby.”

  Carsen leans over and kisses my cheek, “I will. I love you, Dad.”

  “I love you too, Carsen.”

  Sarah gets up, grabbing her keys from the board next to the door. “Well, no time like the present. I’ll grab the hunkier of the guards and stop by your place. Think you can text me a list of what you want before I get to your place, or should I just ransack it and grab what I think you need?”

  Elise laughs, taking out her phone. “I’ll have it for you. Don’t stress if you can’t, though. Seriously . . . it’s not like I need to meet any deadlines. I’m kind of unemployed at the moment. Be careful, okay?”

  Sarah pshaws, waving it off. “I’ve spent years knowing how to look normal after leaving this place, and I’ll have a cute guy with me who knows how to kick ass. He can even help me pack.”

  Having a caveman moment, I let out a growl. “But don’t let him touch her stuff, especially not her clothes.”

  Sarah smirks, twirling her keys in her hand. “Oh, really? I figured he could pack up her bras and panties while I got her makeup. No?”

  I growl, but I know she’s messing with me. She knows better than that. I just couldn’t control myself. “Get out of here . . . and thanks again, Sarah.”

  She sticks out her tongue and heads for the door, and I hear her calling to the driver before she gets too far away.

  Once it’s the two of us, Elise comes over to me and I push back from the table, spreading my legs wide to let her step between them. She sits down on my left thigh, wrapping her arms around my neck. “Are we okay? I mean, really okay?”

  I encircle her waist with my arms, nuzzling her neck, pressing my lips to her racing heartbeat to feel the soothing arousal she brings me before answering. “Yeah, we’re okay. At least, we’re gonna be.”

  I pull back, grabbing her chin with my fingers in a firm grip so she’s forced to look into my eyes. “Elise, I love you. All of this drama, that’s outside of us. What I want is right here . . . you, me, Carsen, and Sarah. That’s all I need.”

  I see her eyes soften as she sighs, letting the rest of the guilt she’s been feeling slip away from her conscience. “I love you too, Keith. I still feel so bad it’s all turned into this . . . this shitstorm,” she says, gesturing toward the world outside before laying a hand on my chest. “But I wouldn’t change this right here.”

  I growl, covering her hand with mine and clasping it to my chest. “Stop worrying yourself or I’m gonna have to smack your ass for it every time.”

  She grins, raising an eyebrow. “You are so bad at punishment.” She leans in, kissing me sweetly. As our lips part, I slip my tongue into her mouth, exploring and tasting. I feel her relax into me, and I rear back and smack her cheek where she’s lifted it from my lap.

  “Hey!” she gasps as I grab a handful of her ass, kneading it firmly, spreading the heat from my hand and turning the outraged gasp into a deep, throaty moan. “God, yes.”

  I nip at her chin, licking the spot before pulling back reluctantly. “There’s more where that came from, but while Carsen’s distracted with her friends, I really do need to call Todd. Make sure everything is okay on the professional front.”

  Elise sighs in disappointment and acceptance, placing her head on my shoulder. “Do you need me to leave while you call?”

  “What? No way. We’re done with secrets around here. Everything in the open, at least between us. Okay?”

  She hums happily but still gets up to let me get my phone. “Okay.”

  Grabbing my phone, I dial and Todd picks up on the second ring. “Hey, Keith! How are you doing?” His voice is serious, not his usually chipper clip.

  “Well, all things considered, I guess I’m okay. Still, I think I’d rather be in the Yukon right now. How’s it looking on your end?”

  “Good and bad, if I’m honest.”

  I freeze, not liking the sound of that. “What do you mean? Tell me.”

  Todd adjusts, and I can hear a tap-tap-tap sound that tells me he’s fiddling with a pen on his desk. “The media is having a goddamn orgy with the news about your ‘secret daughter,’ still-frame shots of the show are already hitting online news sites, and there’s lots of speculation about why you’ve hidden her, where her mom is, that sort of thing. We kinda expected that though, right?”

  “Yeah. You got a press release ready about that, though, I assume. What else? There’s obviously more, judging by your voice.”

  “Yeah, that’s the bad news. Donnie and the tabloid already lawyered up. They contacted me within minutes of your accusations on TV. They’re talking about suing you for slander.”

  “It’s only slander if it’s not true. And it’s definitely true.”

  “Yes, I know. But we’re going to have to fight it, since it’s your word against his. I’ve already contacted the local authorities. They’re sending out a detective this afternoon to talk to you and Elise. You’re going to have to file a report so the paper trail starts on our end. With no real evidence, there’s not much a DA can do, but at the same time, a civil suit could be a possibility.”

  “A civil suit? You’ve gotta be joking.”

  “Don’t sweat it
, man. The lawyer from the label I talked to said that there’s no jury in the country that’d find against you for trying to protect your little girl. And if Donnie says one bad thing about Janie, about your past, any of it . . . I’ll have his ass nailed to a board so fast he’ll wonder what the fuck hit him. Just hang in there, bud. And no talking to reporters. Other than Elise, that is.”

  Chapter 27

  Elise

  When the doorbell rings at about three in the afternoon, I jump, dropping the Ritz and cheese that I’m trying to eat to calm my nerves.

  Sarah, who’s been a great calming presence since coming home, gathers up a few dishes that still have food on them. “Hey, Carsen, let’s go watch a movie upstairs while your dad talks to the police officer. ‘Kay?”

  Carsen goes without complaint, and Keith answers the door after checking that one of the guards is with him. “Hello, Officer. Please come in.”

  I don’t know what it is, but as soon as the guy walks through the door, everything about him screams ‘cop.’ He’s in his mid-forties, and he’s got on a pretty decent suit, but I think it’s his eyes that make the difference. They say he’s seen some shit, and that despite Keith’s celebrity status, there’s a lot of other things he’d rather be doing on a Monday afternoon.

  It makes me like him, relaxing some. If he’d come in starry-eyed and asking for Keith’s autograph, I know I wouldn’t trust his ability to handle a case like this. But his air of professional indifference and just-the-facts seriousness seems like a bigger help. He offers a hand to Keith, then me, shaking them in turn. “Detective Morrison. Nice to meet you, Mr. Perkins . . . Miss Warner.”

  Keith directs Detective Morrison to the living room, and we sit on the couch next to each other, holding hands.

  Detective Morrison pulls out a small notepad and pen, along with a voice recorder, and begins. “I’ve already seen the interview you did this morning. Just for my records, I’ll need you to confirm everything. You said the threat was over your daughter. Is that correct?”

  Keith nods, leaning forward, his elbows on his knees. “Yes, and that I’m dating Elise. The threat was to publish both of those things.”

  “Can you tell me how the threat was made?”

  With a large sigh, Keith starts telling Detective Morrison about the suspicious phone call and our late-night meeting with Donnie and Francesca.

  Detective Morrison writes in his notebook as Keith talks, but he looks up sharply when the $3.5 million blackmail is mentioned. He seems to search Keith’s face for a moment, then motions for him to proceed.

  As Keith wraps up his retelling with the Monday five o’clock deadline, Morrison hums. “And what happened then? Did you approach him in any way? Touch him at all?”

  “No. I was furious and I damn sure wanted to. But in that moment, I was just thinking about keeping everything quiet for Carsen’s sake. As mad as I was, I needed to figure out my play, not rush in hot-headed and make things worse. So we left.”

  Detective Morrison turns to me. “Miss Warner, you were there to witness these events? Anything you’d like to add?”

  I shake my head, wondering what Morrison’s hinting at. “No, that’s exactly what happened. Maybe add in there that Francesca and Donnie are sleeping together? Not sure it’s relevant, but I’m not covering up anything for them.”

  “Okay. Mr. Perkins, so after leaving, where did you go?”

  “Why? Do I need an alibi?” Keith says, getting a little pissed. “I’m the one getting blackmailed here, for fuck’s sake. No, I was here at home, and nobody was here with me. But there are cameras. The feed is recorded so there’s video of me coming in. No person to really confirm, but video of the whole house for the whole night.”

  Detective Morrison scribbles something down and then turns to me. “So, Miss Warner, you weren’t here that night? Where were you?”

  Keith sighs, his anger evaporating as he looks ashamed for the first time. I squeeze his hand. “Well, we had a bit of an argument about the whole thing, so Keith dropped me off at home. Later, I went to see a friend to help me figure out what we could do. I went to the club where she waits tables, and we talked while everyone cleaned and closed up. Lots of people saw me there.”

  He nods his head once, his eyes skimming his notes. “Okay, I will need the video from the cameras and the names of the people who saw you that night.”

  Keith and I nod, still not sure what that has to do with Donnie’s blackmail. “I’m feeling like I’m being charged with something here when Donnie is the one who committed a crime. What’s going on?”

  Detective Morrison looks at us, and it feels like he’s scanning us for mistruths or misdeeds, like he’s a living lie detector.

  Finally, he caps his pen and puts it back in his suit pocket. “Mr. Perkins, I believe you and your accounting of what happened. That’s important for you to understand because I don’t think you’re going to like what I say next. We received a phone call this morning, shortly after you went on-air, in fact, from Donald Jardine. He reported that you came to his office two nights ago, angry about an article he was publishing. He stated that you were violent, aggressive, pushing him against the wall and breaking things throughout his office. He said you then punched him several times, in the abdomen and across his cheek. I went to see him at the hospital this morning.”

  “That son of a bitch!” Keith seethes, getting to his feet. “I never laid a hand on him! I wanted to, but I didn’t.”

  Detective Morrison doesn’t even flinch. He’s stone cold as he gestures back to the couch. “Please sit down, Mr. Perkins. Remember how I said I believe you?”

  Keith takes a big breath, obviously steadying himself, and sits down. “Sorry. I didn’t lay a hand on him,” he says more calmly.

  “I’ve been doing this a long time, learned a few things along the way. One of which is how to read people. Mr. Jardine doesn’t particularly strike me as an honest character, just based on his storytelling. It was full of sensationalism that made sense with his particular profession. I took pictures of his injuries. I visited his office too, took some evidence shots there as well. My gut tells me he saw you on TV this morning, concocted this story, and went so far as to have someone punch him to give the story credibility.”

  I blurt out in shock and frustration. “So what do we do?”

  “Stay right here at home, get me the tapes and the names of your alibi witnesses, and wait for me to write up this report.”

  “That’s it? I’m just supposed to sit here and wait?” Keith growls. “My family’s being threatened, and I’m supposed to sit on my ass?”

  “Yes, exactly that. And leave your cameras on and recording just in case. I think this will be pretty quick once the alibis check out, but if Mr. Jardine is willing to blackmail you, and I suspect intentionally injure himself to make you seem violent, he might be willing to play hardball in other ways too. Just stay put and I’ll be in touch.”

  Keith shows Detective Morrison out and comes back to sit next to me before pulling me into his lap to straddle him. He holds me tight, pressing his cheek to my breasts, breathing heavily as he calms down. “This is so fucked up. I can’t believe he’s saying I beat him.”

  I scratch my fingers along his jaw, letting the scruff tickle my fingers, letting my man know that I’m here for him. “It’ll be okay. Detective Morrison seems to be on our side and will check everything out. Donnie’s a media pro with strategies and manipulations at his fingertips, and this is his move in response to our going public. He wants to create drama and questions about your character to save his own skin. But we know the truth, and that’s enough.”

  “You know as well as I do that sometimes the truth isn’t what people want to hear,” Keith says, pulling back and looking up into my eyes. “They want scandalous secrets and dirty laundry, told with dramatic flair. It makes them feel better about their small lives. Most folks don’t get that a small life, just you and the people you love living simply, is the best thing to
have. They want for more when they have the best thing a person can wish for.”

  I lean back, marveling at the wisdom he spouts off so easily. “You’re a good man, Keith Perkins. I love you.”

  “I love you too, Elise,” Keith rumbles, looking at me with desire as the mood changes. There’s still anger, but it’s against something we can’t change right now . . . but we can celebrate us and what we have.

  He grabs my hair and the back of my neck, and I eagerly go to him, opening up as he plunges his tongue in to twist with mine. He cups my breast through my t-shirt, letting his thumb trace back and forth across the already pebbled nub.

  Gasping, I push back, even as my body betrays me and my hips grind in Keith’s lap, knowing what it wants. “Keith, we can’t . . . Sarah and Carsen . . .”

  He grins evilly, not even glancing in the direction of where they went. “Are watching a movie upstairs. I’m in charge here, Elise. And we need this . . . something normal, something that feels right.”

  He waits for me to protest, but he’s right. I need this as much as he does, to let the drama outside our doors disappear and get lost in each other’s bodies for a moment. I nod, and his grin widens as he lifts me off his lap. “Get on your knees. Suck my cock between those pretty lips, looking in my eyes like you know I love.”

  As I move to the floor between his legs, unbuckling his jeans, he runs the pad of his thumb over my lips and I suck it into my mouth, teasing his pad with my tongue. “Mmm . . . like that?”

  Keith’s eyes are locked on my lips, watching his thumb disappear and reappear from my mouth. “Yes, just like that. Suck it like a good girl.”

  When I finally manage to get his jeans open and boxer briefs pulled down, his cock springs free, thick and hard. There’s already a drop of precum at the tip, and I lean forward, keeping eye contact as I lick the delicious drop, moaning at his sweet masculine taste. “God, I love your fucking cock.”