Dirty Money

by Michelle Love

  Rowan stopped short as he walked from behind the car. “Steele, what the hell?”

  Steele took off, trying to hurry away from Rowan, but he easily caught up to her and grabbed her by the shoulder, making her spin back around. “Rowan, don’t,” she said under her breath.

  “What are you doing with him?” he demanded.

  Her eyes went wide as Arsen came up behind Rowan. Arsen’s voice was low and stern.

  “Hands off her, boy.”

  Rowan lifted his hand from her shoulder and turned to face Arsen.

  “This isn’t right. You could be a murderer.”

  And just like that Arsen knocked him out.

  “Oh, God!” Steele fell to her knees as Rowan lay on the ground. She looked up at Arsen. “Not necessary, Arsen!”

  She patted Rowan’s reddened cheeks. He moaned and his eyes fluttered open.

  “Bastard, you sucker punched me.”

  Arsen leaned over and sneered. “That was no sucker punch and you will keep your hands off her and mind your fucking business.” He looked at Steele. “What are you doing? You need to get to class, Steele.”

  She stood up and took off towards her class. She glanced back once to see Arsen pulling Rowan up and dusting him off roughly. Steele was shaking as she went into the classroom of Professor Goldstein.

  “Mornin’ Steele,” he said happily.

  “Good morning,” she said back and Rowan came in after her, a bit of grass on the back of his head and a swollen jaw.

  Rowan went straight to Tanner and said, “I need to talk to you after class.”

  Although Tanner was whispering, Steele heard him.

  “What the hell happened to you?”

  “Arsen Sloan happened to me and it seems he’s been happening to Steele as well.” Rowan looked directly at her as he said it and she dropped her head.

  This will be very bad!

  ARSEN

  Arsen had pulled a bag of ice from the office freezer and he held it over his red knuckles. He cursed Rowan. His cell phone rang, and he cursed again. When he saw it was the San Francisco Police Department, he cursed one more time.

  “Arsen Sloan,” he answered.

  “Hi, this is Detective Riddle, Mr. Sloan. I need to talk to you this morning. Now I can come to you or you can come to me, but I need this taken care of before noon.”

  “I’ll come to you. I’ll leave now,” he said and hung up.

  After making a stop in his office to purposely leave his phone in a locked drawer, he left his office. Before he left it, he called Paul from the office phone and told him to be outside.

  Something told him this day would not be a good one, and it was all falling into place. A numb sensation was filing his body, and he thought about not being able to hold Steele anymore if he went to prison.

  The young woman was creeping under his skin. Her subtle defiance was a thing he couldn’t stand in most women, but she had him thinking of her as strong instead of head-strong. He never thought he’d find himself experiencing such feelings again, not after what Beth did to him all those years back.

  Arsen cursed again as he realized he needed Tanner to be there. He pressed a button and the privacy screen went down.

  “I need to borrow your cell, Paul.”

  Paul handed it back and Arsen made the call to his attorney. Tanner told him he’d meet him there and not to say a damn word until he got there. Arsen gave the phone back and tried to settle back into the seat. His eyes caught something on the floor and he picked it up.

  He saw one of her buttons from the first night they’d been together. Letting her go is what he should do. He was nothing but trouble and the poor thing would be devastated if he went to prison. But his selfishness knew no bounds as he wasn’t about to give her up.

  He put the button in his pocket for reasons he didn’t even know. It was a piece of her that he could keep close to him and it brought him a tiny thread of security. In this insecure world there was Steele, and he was beginning to hate himself for needing her so damn much.

  Arsen had never found it so hard to maintain his disciplined demeanor. When she was looking at him, when he refused to give her the goodbye kiss he had given her each morning before dropping her at school, he had to mindlessly look at his phone in order not to give in to her.

  He shook his head and sighed deeply. His world seemed to be falling apart. It seemed almost nothing was in his control any longer and he hated it all. The car pulled to a stop and when he looked up, he saw the police station.

  What can they possibly have found?

  STEELE

  Heart pounding, Steele followed Tanner up the stairs of the police station. He’d taken her and Rowan out of their second class to go with him to be there. Some detective was going to talk to Arsen.

  Fear was coursing through her veins and she wanted to break down and cry so badly it physically hurt to hold it all back. Rowan had told Tanner what he saw and suspected. Tanner told Rowan there was not a thing illegal about it so he should mind his business with a man like Arsen. Steele was relieved Tanner didn’t ask her anything about it.

  She bound up the stairs in front of Tanner and Rowan, making Rowan remark, “Worried about your boyfriend, Gannon?”

  She ignored him and made her way inside. Finding him sitting on a chair, waiting. His eyes met hers as she came through the glass doors and he stood up. “He brought you?” he asked her.

  She nodded and stopped short as she nearly had thrown her arms around him and this was not the place to be doing that.

  “Are you okay?”

  He nodded.

  “I’m glad you’re here,” he whispered.

  Her heart pounded with his admission and she brushed his hand with the back of hers.

  “Me too.”

  Tanner and Rowan made it in and Arsen’s eyes darted to the young man he’d punched earlier. His jaw still swollen.

  “He brought him too, huh?”

  “Yes, Tanner is his mentor as well.” She looked back to find Tanner telling the officer at the main desk something then he gestured for them to follow him as a man in a white shirt and tan slacks opened a side door. “Here we go then.”

  She and Arsen walked side by side behind Tanner and Rowan as the officer greeted them with a smile and a nod. “This way please.”

  They followed the detective down a long hallway and eventually into his small office. Only two other chairs, besides his, were sitting in front of his small desk that was strewn with papers. She and Rowan had to stand behind Tanner and Arsen.

  Steele took out her notebook and pen and prepared to write down every word. She stood right behind Arsen and looked at the detective as if he was the devil himself.

  The detective sat down.

  “Mr. Sloan, I have a few questions about your relationship with Meagan Stanley, the first homicide victim.”

  Arsen nodded but kept his mouth shut. Steele’s stomach knotted as the detective turned over a picture on his desk and revealed a caramel-colored woman who was naked and had marks around her neck that clearly showed where someone’s fingers had gripped her throat. Her wrists and ankles were bound with rope.

  The detective pushed the picture towards Arsen. “Would you like to tell me when you made these marks on Meagan Stanley’s neck?”

  Without any hesitation Arsen answered, “At two in the morning on the date of September third of this year.”

  Steele wrote the words with a trembling hand. He had choked the young woman and had just admitted to it.

  “Care to clarify why?” the detective asked.

  “She asked me to do it.” Arsen ran his hand through his hair and Steele knew he was nervous.

  “I see. So this is a thing you practice often? Choking women?” The detective leaned back in his chair and his eyes roamed up to Steele. “You’re a woman near Miss Stanley’s age. Do you like to be choked, Miss?”

  “Miss Gannon,” she answered. “And no I don’t.”

  The detecti
ve looked back at Arsen.

  “Was Miss Stanley your current sub at that date, Mr. Sloan?”

  “No. I had no sub at that time.” Arsen’s foot began to tap a little.

  “But she had been your sub at one time. I do have the contract you gave me on your relationship which had ended about when was that?” The detective moved some papers around and picked up a stapled stack of three pages.

  Steele knew it was the contract he’d made with the dead woman and her heart was pounding so hard she was afraid they all could hear it. She had to swallow hard to get the bile which had gathered at the top of her throat to go back down.

  Detective Riddle looked at the papers and turned to the very back. He turned it for Arsen to see. “See here at the bottom where she and you both signed, terminating the contract some two years before you choked her?”

  “I do, and I understand there was no written agreement about that at that time, but it was consensual. She was into that kind of thing. I don’t know what to tell you. But we both know that was not what killed her. Those marks were days old.”

  “A couple of days old, Mr. Sloan. Forensics also found your semen still in her.” The detective laced his fingers and placed them behind his head.

  “I don’t see how. I used a condom,” Arsen argued.

  “I didn’t say it was in her vagina, did I?” Riddle smiled. “I’m sure I don’t have to spell it out for you.”

  Arsen shook his head. “So are you telling me that she was murdered after I left her house?”

  “You tell me. It seems you two were having sex pretty often.”

  Arsen fidgeted in his chair.

  “Three nights in a row. The first night is when the marks on her neck were made. The second night was different, and no marks were left and the third night there was no actual penetration but there was oral. But she’d made me remember why it is we didn’t work out in the first place and after she gave me oral sex, I left with no intention of seeing her again.”

  Steele was reeling and had to lean against the wall. Her face had paled and the detective saw that. He stood up and excused himself then left the room, coming back with a chair. He placed it next to his then went to Steele and took her by the arm, placing her in the chair.

  She hated it. She was able to see Arsen’s face then, and she found she could barely look at the man. He wasn’t happy with it either. His eyes bore into hers and she looked down at the notebook.

  Arsen let out a sigh and said, “Look, there had to be someone who went to her house after I left it. That’s where you need to be focusing on. I’m not a killer, Detective Riddle.”

  “But it does seem that your hands are the ones on the other two women as well. Do you mean to tell me they all liked to be choked?” The detective leaned over and looked at the notebook Steele was writing in. His shoulder touched hers and she turned her head, finding him much too close. “Do you know any women who like to be chocked, Miss Gannon?”

  She looked up and shook her head. Then her eyes traveled to Arsen’s finding him frowning at her. She crossed her legs in the opposite direction and leaned more to the other side so the detective was no longer touching her.

  Arsen spoke between clenched teeth, “I do believe Miss Gannon does not frequent the clubs those women did. If you had ever been in one, Riddle, you would find the majority of the women there beg for it. They want the marks left on them. Personally, I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as they did.”

  “Hmm,” Riddle said then tapped his fingers on the desk. “I’ve been reading up on this whole dom/sub thing that you seem to be all about. You must have a lot of controlling issues that you should most likely be seeking therapy for, Mr. Sloan.”

  Arsen stood up and Steele’s eyes flew to him.

  “Now you listen to me, you sawed off piece of shit. I did not kill those women and you are wasting precious time finding out who did while you fuck with me. My sex life is not what’s illegal here and you damn well know it. Now if you have nothing better to do then I have business to tend to and really need to get the fuck out of here.”

  Riddle smiled as if he’d gotten just what he wanted from Arsen.

  “Temper issues too. Hmmm.”

  Arsen slammed his fist on the desk and Steele stood up abruptly.

  “Arsen! Stop!”

  Every man in the room looked at her as if she was insane. But Arsen sat back down.

  “I’m sorry, Riddle. Perhaps I should see someone about my quick temper.”

  Steele sat back down and looked back at her notes. Riddle cleared his throat and said, “Okay then. I do need you to go ahead and give us your prints and we’ll be taking some whole hand prints for our forensic specialists to verify the marks on the women’s necks. You see, they all were strangled and if the prints match then you are our only suspect.”

  Arsen’s tanned skin paled a bit and Steele knew it was because it was his hands that had made the marks and he would be taken in and most likely proven guilty. Her heart ached for him, but her mind was asking her how the hell she could trust he was telling the truth.

  ARSEN

  He wiped the black ink away from his hands with a towelette they had provided him after taking his prints. The things which would damn him. He took the stairs out of the police station as Steele walked by his side.

  Arsen could hardly look at her after all he’d said. He wondered if she thought he was a murderer.

  “Will you ride with me?”

  “I think that’s a bad idea,” she mumbled as Tanner came up on the other side of Arsen.

  Tanner said, “Look, I know it’s just a matter of time until they pick you up. The prints will come back as yours and we both know that. But the plan is that I’ll get you out as soon as they set bail and then we can begin an investigation into the murders on our own. I’ll need you to really think about all you did with the women so we can see if any of the places you went had surveillance cameras that might have caught someone of interest following you when you were with the women.”

  Tanner’s car was parked in front of Arsen’s and they all stopped at it. His driver opened the door and Tanner gestured for Steele to get in first. Arsen grabbed her hand and pulled her back and whispered, “Steele, I really need you.”

  She pulled back and looked at him. Then she looked at Tanner.

  “I’m going with him.”

  Rowan rolled his eyes and said, “Are you an idiot?”

  Tanner gave Rowan a swift pat on the back.

  “Get in the car, Rowan.”

  He did as Tanner said but looked at Arsen.

  “Nothing better happen to her.”

  Fire flashed through Arsen.

  “Little boy, you should watch what the fuck you say to me and her for that matter.”

  Tanner tried to ease the tension.

  “Watch your temper, Arsen.”

  Steele took Arsen’s hand in hers and gently pulled him.

  “He’ll be fine, Tanner. Come on Arsen.”

  He allowed her to pull him away and as they walked he squeezed her hand. “Are you mad at me?”

  She shook her head. “How can I be?”

  “Are you disgusted with me?” He stopped and turned her to look at him.

  The way her eyes darted back and forth answered him and he dropped his eyes and led her to the car where Paul waited for them with the door open.

  Steel slid in and Arsen moved in next to her. After Paul had closed the door she turned to face him and took his face between her palms.

  “Arsen, you can tell me anything. Even if you did do it, you can tell me.”

  Fury filled him and he pushed her hands off his face.

  “So you don’t trust me! Steele I have to have your trust or we have nothing!”

  “Arsen! How the hell can I just blindly trust you?” she shouted back.

  “Cursing, that will cost you,” he said in a low growl. “Or are we done?”

  She looked away, and he could tell she wasn’t sure.

/>   “I’m sorry. It’s just that I’m very confused and I know it all happened before me, but I’m jealous too.”

  “Jealous? We both have pasts, Steele. Nothing can be done to change that.” Arsen grabbed a bottle of liquor from the little fridge and took a long drink. He sat back and held the bottle.

  After another long drink, Steele placed her hands over his around the bottle. “Arsen, that’s not a wise decision.”

  “I know that, Steele. Believe me, I know that I make poor, mother fucking decisions all the fucking time. You are a poor decision. I should leave you the fuck alone and I know that. I’m about to rot away in prison anyway. If I can’t get you to trust me and believe I didn’t kill those women, then I’m fucked for sure.” He took another long drink then let her have the bottle.

  She put it away and got on her knees in front of him, placing her hands on his thighs.

  “Arsen, don’t think like that. I’m sorry. I wish it was as easy as you telling me you didn’t do it and all the doubt could disappear, but I would be lying to you if I told you that.”

  He took her chin and ran a finger over her lips.

  “I need you to believe me, Steele. Or this is over.”

  He could see her thinking and pulled her up to sit on his lap. He had to convince her. She looked at him and he saw she desperately wanted to believe him, but her brain was battling her heart.

  Arsen pressed his lips to hers and felt her body turn into liquid. He pushed his tongue through her lips and ran his hand up her skirt, finding her warming already. One finger he pressed against her clit and she moaned and ran her arms around his neck.

  He stroked her clit until she was squirming with the need to release. He stopped moving his finger and took his hand away then pulled his mouth from hers. She was panting and looked at him with confusion.

  “Steele, do you trust me?” Arsen looked hard into her eyes and he found the answer behind them.