The Hard Way (Box Set)

by Stephanie Burke

  “You think I won’t?” But before Jessica could move, there was a whistling and then a sharp pain in her neck.

  She twisted and saw James lowering, of all things, a blowgun. He smirked as the world began to swirl.

  “Oh fuck,” Jessica breathed before her face met the carpet and her lights went out again.

  Chapter Seven

  “I’m beginning to hate this place,” Jessica mumbled as, with a rush of sound, her consciousness returned.

  “Not as much as I hate you.”

  Bumm bum bummm.

  “And I hate those bass hits,” Jessica added, rolling her eyes.

  “What are you speaking of?” Jamie walked around Jessica and smiled.

  “You are about as crazy as that old bastard that spawned you,” Jess spat.

  “That would be your father as well, Psycho,” Jamie pointed out.

  “Which one?” Jess asked, raising one eyebrow. She tried to lift her arms and realized that she couldn’t. It seemed that she was immobilized, tied to a straight-backed chair. “The Egyptian prince or the militant preacher?”

  “You think you are funny? Well, you won’t be so funny when I make your ass disappear. Don Carlieonie couldn’t do his job properly. Like the old saying goes, if you want to do something right, you have to have your man do it.”

  She reached out one arm, and James walked over. He paused to pull his Black Widow woman into his arms for a hungry, tongue-dancing, wet kiss.

  Of course this sent nausea rolling through Jessica’s stomach, but it could have been the drugs that they used.

  “You know, you guys keep injecting me with things,” she called out, breaking the impassioned moaning coming from the couple in the intense clutch. “You ever think about drug interactions or something? You guys could get unlucky and kill me.”

  “Drug interaction?” Jamie wrinkled her forehead as she pushed James aside and stalked toward Jessica. “You have more to worry about. Like the fact that because of you, my fortune is lost to me.”

  “Like I had anything to do with that.”

  “Your existence threatens mine. My father never married my mother, making Jennifer and I bastards. Bastards, I tell you!” Jamie shouted as she leaned into Jessica’s face.

  “And melodramatic ones at that.”

  Jessica’s comments gave her pause, then she grinned, her eyes going crazy. “You don’t know drama, bitch. You try living up to legends, his precious baby Jessica. Millions he spent looking for your sorry ass. Time he spent looking for his perfect baby girl who would succeed him. No matter what I did, it was never enough. I was never enough. So when the old bastard claimed to have found you living in the lap of luxury in some prince’s castle, and raced to bring you home, I devised a little surprise for Daddy.”

  Dramatic music began to play as Jamie got into her storytelling, relishing each and every acid word as she spat it forth.

  “The little bomb was not the work of assassins. It was mine. And when it only killed off the old bastard, I contacted the don to finish you off so that your presence would never infect that place. But he failed. So that leaves me to handle this bit of nastiness. You will die, Jessica. You will cease to be and I will run this company in your stead. Jennifer is too soft and you will be too dead. How does that make you feel? Knowing that your hours are numbered?”

  “Like I want an aspirin for my headache. And after that, I am going to hang my foot so far up your ass that you will be picking these gaudy little rhinestones out of your teeth for weeks. And I will make it happen. Now tell me, how do you feel?”

  The intensity of her words gave Jamie a frisson of fear, but she rose to her feet and moved to the elevators that faced the open living room.

  “Watch her, James. I will return after telling the others that Jessica dear is a bit indisposed and wishes to take a nap. That will delay things long enough for us to hide the body.” Then she smiled at Jessica. “You, my dear, will be having a teensy little elevator accident shortly. So sad, but it will allow me to take over the company and run it the way Prefect Industries should be run.”

  James lit up at the prospect and actually wiggled his tongue at Jamie.

  “Wait!” Jessica cried out as she watched the hunger build up in James’s eyes. “You can’t leave me here with him! He wants to fuck me!”

  “James?” Jamie was incredulous. “James only wants what I want.”

  “Absolutely,” James agreed with his woman, who blew him a kiss and climbed into the elevator.

  “Don’t use this car, James. I will rig a delay when I am in the boardroom. The car will not respond until I place the master key back inside.”

  “Of course, my love,” he purred, but he slunk closer to Jessica. “Be safe.”

  “As always, love.” She turned and entered the car, whistling as she went.

  James turned to trussed-up Jessica. He chuckled, licking his lips and rubbing his hands along Jessica’s thighs. “Alone at last, Boo. Now it’s just me and you. I always wanted to try a black girl. And now, I get to get down to some business.”

  Then his hands were everywhere -- on her face, across her breasts, sliding down her legs…

  “Enough!” Jessica cried out, desperate to get away from the many-tentacled monster James had become.

  “Never enough, baby,” he breathed as he began to lick her neck. “Bubblin’ brown sugar. You got me trippin’, Boo. And I want to feel the best.”

  Then his hands were parting the front of her robe, his mouth suckling at the exposed cleavage.

  “Now back the fuck up!” Jessica screamed, drawing his attention for a moment.

  “What?”

  “What?” Her mind ran a thousand miles a minute. She had to think of something! Then inspiration struck. “Is this how you seduce a sistah?”

  James backed off and waited for her to continue.

  “Damn, man. You know what a woman like me likes?”

  “No. What?”

  “A forceful man.” As she spoke, she allowed her voice to drop to a low octave, husky and sexual. “And baby, these full lips I got are worth more than looking cute in photos.” She winked and James drooled.

  “For real?” he asked in his not quite right street slang.

  “For Shizie.” She licked her lips at him, dropping her lids to half-mast and hissing between her teeth. “And I have a thing for blond, skinny white boys.”

  “I’m… I’m skinny!” James informed her of what she could already see, lifting up his shirt to show where his ribs were clearly exposed through his skin. “And I am white. But I always knew that if I could find the right sister, she could show me why once men go black they never go back.”

  Jessica resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she continued to lead James where she wanted him to go. “Play on, playah,” she urged. “But you know, I can’t get that meat where I want it with my hands tied.”

  “Where you… want… it?”

  “Yeah, baby. I give killer head. I can blow your mind so good that you would swear that your name is Dr. Dre and you need to keep both hands strong.”

  “That good?”

  “Mother fucker, I’ll make you cry for your mother. But I need my hands to work the base and the balls. Come on, honey, let me go. You are a strong man and there is no way I can escape you. But if I’m gonna go, I’m gonna go with some white meat filling my stomach and bustin’ a nut.”

  That was all James needed to hear. He unbound her hands faster than she could blink.

  “I’ve always wanted a black woman,” he gushed as he tossed the ropes aside. “I knew I just needed a chance and I could find out if what they say about black women and their skills were true.”

  Jessica lapped at her lips and reached for him. “Lose the pants, baby. I want to see what I’m working with.”

  James dropped his pants, and Jessica had to do a double take. Damn! The man’s cock swung at about eight inches semi-erect! And it was thick! No wonder Jamie kept him around.

  �
�You like what you see?” he asked, his khakis around his knees and a pleased look on his face. “I know I’m the biggest man in this building, all prime pink meat, baby. All for you.”

  He stepped closer, and Jessica tore herself out of her amazed stupor.

  “Give it to me, big daddy!” she urged him. But then held her hands out as he approached. “Um, daddy, we have a problem.”

  “Ain’t no problem, bitch. Open up your mouth and let me ride!”

  His pseudo slang was starting to get on her nerves.

  “The problem, Lil’ Busta’, is that I can’t get to my knees to take that meat in. I need to be on my knees.”

  “I can stand on the chair,” he offered, looking distressed at the prospect of not getting any head after she’d pointed out her thick juicy lips.

  “Let my legs free and I can get to my knees, baby. That vanilla stick looks ready to explode, and I want to be in on the uptake, if you know what I mean.”

  He knew, all right. His grin could not be contained as he bent and started to work on her bindings.

  Within seconds her legs were free and James stood back, cock erect and a big pimpin’ grin on his face. “Give it to me!”

  “Like you want it, Balla’.” Jessica grinned, before her hand connected neatly with his exposed groin.

  James let out a shriek as Jessica dodged to the right and tried to make it across the room, putting as much space between her and James as she could.

  But now, James was pissed off and in some serious pain. He bellowed like an animal and dove at Jessica, hoping to take her down.

  With a loud squeak, Jessica dove out of the way, ignoring the loud thump of James hitting the ground behind her. Her heart was racing like a hamster in a wheel as she dodged around some furniture and made it to the bank of elevators.

  Forgetting that one was rigged, she slammed the down button and prayed that it would open.

  It did.

  In fact, two of the three elevator doors opened, just as James made another desperate dive for her. Instinct made her sidestep and she watched in horror as James missed her by a foot, but found himself connecting with the metal of the shaft.

  He fell straight down, his screams echoing in the open area of the apartment, mingling with the feminine shouts from beside her.

  “No!” Jamie wailed as she saw the love of her life hurtle through the air and disappear into a dark void.

  Then she turned, leaped from her functioning car and onto Jessica.

  “You bitch!” she shrieked as the elevator doors closed and the fight music began to play.

  And, damn, it almost sounded like the Captain Kirk kick-ass music from Star Trek.

  Jamie rushed her, screaming, arms flailing wildly, her hands grabbing the rollers Jessica still wore in her hair. “Bitch!”

  Jess winced as Jamie began a serious bout of hair tugging, her face a mix of anger and loss. As one roller went flying, Jessica pulled herself together, the sharp lingering pain of the hair pull breaking her out of her shock.

  What the hell was this? Dynasty? She was not Crystal, Jamie was not Alexis, and this was not an action movie, damn it. But dirty street fighting she could handle.

  Snarling, she drew back her fist and let it fly… straight at Jamie’s face.

  And the fleshly thumping sound her fist made connecting with her right eye was music to her ears.

  “Come on, skank,” Jess hissed as Jamie flew back, arms see-sawing to regain her balance. “Remember I said I was going to hang my foot up your ass? Well, bitch, the time has come!”

  Jamie shrieked and attacked again, adding kicks to her wild swinging, but Jessica sidestepped those and delivered a sharp kick to her middle, knocking Jamie to her knees.

  “Just as I promised!” Jessica’s voice was filled with triumph as she circled around Jamie and landed a sharp blow to her upturned ass.

  Jamie shrieked. She flew through the air to land on her face, skidding across the carpet.

  “Tai Bo won’t save your ass now!” Jessica moved in for the kill, but skidded to a halt as Jamie played her final card.

  “How about… I just… shoot the shit out of you instead?”

  Chapter Eight

  Jamie approached Jessica, madness in her eyes. “You killed the man I love.”

  She reached behind her back and pulled out an almost comically large barrel attached to some high caliber handgun. Jamie made a show of reaching into her jacket pocket and pulling out a silencer, which she slowly screwed on, never taking her eyes off her wayward older half-sister.

  The woman had skills, Jess thought, hiding that huge thing and getting the silencer on without ever looking!

  “Actually,” Jess corrected as she held her hand palm out before her and took a few steps back, “he kind of killed himself. I never laid a hand on him.”

  “That is beside the point!” Jamie shrieked, advancing further.

  “And the elevator thing was your idea.”

  “Don’t you ever shut the fuck up?”

  No answer for that one, because Jessica was playing a dangerous game placating the mad woman. It was important to humor the insane, she concluded. You were less likely to get shot that way.

  “You ruin everything you touch! First my father, then my business, and now my man! You are going to die!”

  “Look! Over there!” Jessica suddenly shouted. “A unicorn!”

  As stupid a tactic as it was, it worked. Jamie turned away and Jessica hurled herself at the other woman, knocking her to the ground and falling on top of her in a cloud of dirty terry cloth and rhinestone shoes.

  There was an audible pop and Jamie jerked beneath her, then lay still.

  Jessica rolled off of her youngest baby half-sister and watched as the life drained from her body.

  “You… you…” Jamie struggled to speak. A bright light focused in on her face, her makeup and features perfect even after the fight, and with her dying from a self inflicted bullet wound. Only a trickle of very bright red blood trailed down the corner of her lips. “Daddy… always loved… you… best.”

  Her head tilted to the side as she drew her last breath.

  Jessica took in the sight of the dead woman with no visible bullet wound, glanced back toward the elevator that James had fallen through, and she began to wail.

  “I want to go home! I don’t like it here!”

  She stumbled to her feet, backing away from the body, and actually clicked her heels together three times.

  “There’s no place like home! There’s no place like home! Carter? Phil? Murray! Get your personal paternal desire-granting asses down here and take me home!”

  Tears rolled down her face as she fisted her hands at her sides and threw her head back.

  “‘Carter! Fuck you, you stupid fairy! Get your tutued ass down here! I wanna go home!”

  “Well, you don’t have to yell,” an irate voice said from behind her.

  “Carter!” Maybe they had come to take her out of this disaster of a wish!

  “And you really need to clean up your language, young lady.” Carl was not amused.

  “And while I admire the attempt to actually do something with your hair,” Phil groused, “rollers are not a fashion statement.”

  Murray said nothing, but made his way over to the bar, stepping over Jamie’s body to do so. Then he snorted in disgust when he realized there was no real alcohol in the place, just colored water.

  “Screw that and screw you!” Jessica walked right up to Carter and faced him nose to chest, one finger jabbing at his stomach. “I want out of this crazy town.”

  “No can do, sweetie,” Carter’s rough voice informed her, while Phil made small comments about Jamie’s clothing and hairstyle to Carl, and Murray sulked, sipping on brown water and frowning at Jessica as if it was her fault the bar wasn’t particularly well stocked.

  “No can do? Well, you had better do something! So far, I have been attacked, knocked out too many times to count, drugged, kidnapped, tied to v
arious pieces of furniture, put into a prison, damn near raped two times, scarcely avoided the Broomstick Brigade, and now almost shot to death. Two people -- no, scratch that. Three people died before me, counting the Mafia don who was trying to get into my pants!” Her tears dried up and her anger began to take over. “I want out of this fucked up wish!”

  “Impossible.” Carter patted her on her roller-covered head. She looked up and yes, the pink rollers were back.

  “Why not? I want out of this wish!”

  “Well, sweetie, it’s like this. Prefect City is a hit. Every creature from the Chubacabra to the water sprites is eating this thing up. We are a hit! The endorsements are flying in and me and the guys are making us a mint!”

  “A television show? You guys have turned my life into a television show?”

  “Not just any television show, sweetie, but the best running daytime preternatural soap opera ever! And there is more good news!”

  “Good news?” Was there any good news in this piece of trite crap her life had become?

  “Yeah! It’s sweeps week and we’re killing them in all markets! Congratulations, you’re a hit.”

  “But… but I just want my life back, Carter!” Tears began to well up again as she stared at her personal fairy. “I want out!”

  “No can do, sweetie. But if it’s any consolation to you, we are going to toss in more of Darious. The public likes him, and his approval ratings go through the roof. Who knew assassins would test so well?”

  “Carter!”

  “Sorry, love, it’s sweeps week. And now that the commercial break is over, we have to go.”

  “Go? Don’t leave me alone here!”

  “Got to! Prefect City moves on! Later, ducky.”

  And with that, all four of her personal paternal wish granters winked out of existence, leaving no traces of themselves.

  Sighing, Jessica made her way back to the elevators, pressing the down button on the still functioning unit. When the doors opened, she examined it carefully to make sure that the car was really there. Satisfied that there were no alternate universes or portals to the great unknown, she tightened her robe’s belt and climbed inside. She would go and tell Jennifer that Jamie was dead. Hell, it was better than standing over a dead body and moping. Things couldn’t possibly get any worse. Right?