by Lainey Fox
He stumbled out for lunch, and followed the sound of laughter to Suda’s new room. He was stunned at the changes. Somehow the women had wrestled a heavy memory foam mattress up there. The loft had a delicate, wispy teal curtain and was studded with jewel-tone pillows. They had apparently gone to Suda’s place and come back, because her things were hanging in the open closet, covered by another wispy curtain, this one in burgundy with a hint of silver woven along the side. The wide-screen TV had been installed on a moveable arm. A small table with a silver bowl held keys, a name badge, and a doctor’s sphygmometer in bright yellow. They desk had a little box filled with USBs and an external computer drive.
The laughter came from the loft. The women were on their stomachs, watching something on a laptop. Danielle pulled back the curtain. “Hi, Mike!” she said.
“You ladies want any food? I’m hunting up sandwiches for lunch,” said Mike.
Suda looked down at him. “I’ve got chicken marinated in tandoori sauce in the container with the red top, with stone-ground mustard with the blue lid, and ginger-soy with the orange lid.” She shrugged. “I defrosted the bag of frozen chicken breasts last night and marinated them this morning.”
“Good thinking,” said Mike. “I’ll take care of it.” He left them to their web surfing, and he padded to the kitchen. He went in and put the soy chicken breasts in the toaster oven. He cut some carrots and cucumber and bell pepper into strips, and he took out some butter lettuce. He tore off individual leaves, rinsed them, and patted them dry. He lay out a bottle of some lime-ginger dressing he found in the refrigerator. He took out the chicken, and finished it in the microwave, as he was hungry. He rung the little silver bell in the kitchen, far easier than yelling in the house. The dogs came, too, and he gave them a treat. The cats sunned themselves in spots distant from one another.
Suda and Danielle exclaimed over the food. They fell on the lettuce wraps as if they had not just eaten a huge breakfast several hours before. Suda and Danielle exchanged stories about people they knew at the conference, and how they would run their own conference. Mike let it wash over him, just relaxing after the hard day the day before. They all put on jackets and took the dogs out and threw balls and toys. Even the greyhound was exhausted when they came back in, windblown and laughing.
They took off their jackets and sneakers, and Suda kissed Danielle. Danielle kissed Mike. He kissed Danielle deeply. Mike relaxed in some place he hadn’t realize he was tense. They ended up in the inside loft again, taking clothes off as they went. Mike lay back on a cushion as Suda stroked Danielle all the way down her back, pulling her hair aside to kiss her neck. Mike groaned and lay back as Danielle kissed him deeply, pulling him into her. Mike propped himself up in the middle of the bed, and found himself getting crushingly hard as Suda and Danielle kissed over his legs.
Danielle spread his legs, and lay back against him as Suda kissed and stroked her front. Mike stroked and kissed Danielle’s back and neck, and massaged her shoulders. She writhed against him as Suda kissed Danielle’s breasts, and made her way down to her thighs. Mike was amazed at how hard he found himself as he held Danielle close, stroking her arms, kissing her neck, as she writhed in pleasure. She bowed her back, and Mike held her hands. He let go as she caressed Suda’s hair. Mike took the condom out of the nightstand drawer and put it on. Mike was stunned as Danielle moved him inside her, then lay forward, legs back near his shoulders. He held her thighs as she moved back and forth. Suda kissed and touched Danielle’s face, neck, and shoulders. Danielle groaned deeply, clenched, then let go as Mike came explosively.
Danielle took herself off of him, and Suda padded down the ladder. Danielle helped him remove the condom and throw it away in the tiny trash can off to the side. Suda padded back up with a warm, wet cloth. Danielle wiped him off, and he took himself downstairs as Suda and Danielle come together. He could hear their laughter as he showered and prepared to do more gaming. He took Danielle to a meeting that night, leaving Suda to decorate her space, and they met Raoul afterward for appetizers and Dr. Pepper. Raoul was destroyed with exhaustion, but making a pretty penny on the tiny house he was building for his parent’s company.
“How’s it going with Jasper?” Danielle asked, stroking his arm.
Raoul smiled. “He’s fun. We’re going biking next weekend. But, he’s skittish, like a horse. His ex got the house. And the dog. And the damn divorce isn’t over yet.”
Mike cringed. “Take him to the animal shelter. Or go with Danielle’s greyhound group. He needs a dog.”
Raoul nodded. “Just getting him to relax is difficult.”
“How does he feel about poly?” asked Danielle.
“It’s weird. He feels safe, because he knows I’m not here to chase him and get a ring on his finger. He’s find with sharing me. But he doesn’t want to live with us.”
Mike smiled widely. “He’ll change his mind. Or, you can build him a tiny house somewhere on the property or nearby.”
Raoul laughed. “I might. He needs time to recover financially, too.”
Mike smiled. “Tell him about the Coyote Fraud app. If he’s programmed games, he may want to get in on it. The eventual goal is to get it all over Nevada. LaShonda is trying to get the paperwork and procedures for big cities like Nevada and California. If we can get multiple versions…”
“...it could take off,” said Raoul. “Hmm. Budgets are frozen...but it’s a lot cheaper way to train.”
Danielle stole a fry from each man, and they laughed.
2
Mike found his missing dancer in a flophouse after a raid, having sent out the girl’s face out to Narcotics. He suspected she had gotten hooked on something and disappeared for that reason. They held her for him. He took LaShonda, as she was less threatening than Cat. He told the young woman that her father had been flying in from Kansas every six months to find her, showing her face on the street, and had hired a private detective to find her. He got her into a spin dry to get her off the junk, and let the father know his daughter was alive. The man wept when Mike told him to stay put until she could get herself together. He told Mike that he would gladly fly her back to Kansas and pay for her recovery. His daughter, Aimee-with-two-ees, was in no condition to listen to the offer. He promised the father he would approach her when she was out of her initial treatment about the offer.
“She’s aged fifteen years in two,” said LaShonda.
Mike nodded. “The street pounds you down here. She needs to get sober and get back to Kansas.”
LaShonda nodded. “My brother went back out six months ago. Hope he gets back.”
“Me, too,” said Mike. He made extra-sure he attended his own meetings, and he met with his own sponsor, an ancient biker named Harry, more often. Harry was covered with tattoos, and cursed nearly every other word. He was also the sweetest man Mike had ever known, and found Mike’s poly life amusing.
He took on a complex fraud case with LaShonda, investigating a mortgage scheme where two sisters worked together to sell property they didn’t really own to a mark, making money on the sale and lying to have the mark take out loans she wasn’t qualified for in the process. The mark cried fraud, and LaShonda walked Mike through the process of finding other times the sisters had done the same thing. They found they had done this three times, once in Reno and twice in Las Vegas. They arrested the sisters, and charged them with a host of charges, including mortgage fraud and wire transfer fraud.
He also finally met with Jasper alone, who needed money to pay off debt. Mike took him out to dinner to talk about Coyote Fraud with him. Jasper told him he was about to move out of week-to-week housing and sign a lease, as he had finally saved first month’s rent and security process. Mike told him how much money he had saved moving into the “tiny house complex”, as he called it. Mike explained he had paid off all his credit card and saved a huge deposit for the electric car after moving in. Jasper nodded, and Mike suspected Raoul had already broached the subject with him. “Seriously,�
�� MIke said.”No pressure. We can build out behind the hydroponics garden. Or, take the guest room. Put a sign on your door when you don’t want to be disturbed.” He laughed. “We’re kind of seriously disturbed mentally, but we won’t disturb you.”
Jasper said, “I’ll think about it. Tell me about this game.” Mike launched into an explanation on how it was used as a training tool to walk people, step by step, through complex financial crimes. Jasper got a light in his eyes, the first time Mike had seen anything but sadness there. “We can jazz it up, make it kind of like CSI. Kind of cool. It can have two versions, the training one and one for cop and CSI wannabes. Maybe even a FBI version!”
Mike laughed. “Whoa, there. We’ve sold it to some locals, gotten some money to pay you to add code to the framework. I’ll put you in touch with LaShonda for that. And, financial crimes are exciting to me, but they involved a lot of digging and a massive amount of paperwork. Not so thrilling then.”
“So, cut down or streamline the paperwork for the masses. It could make money!”
Mike texted LaShonda, who was actually nearby after having drinks with a friend. She joined them and ordered a cola, and soon began talking a mile a minute, waving her hands around so much that she almost knocked over her soda. He left Jasper and LaShonda alone after sharing nachos and cheese sticks, leaving them to hammer out their plans for their brand-new gaming company.
He was stunned when, two weeks later, he found Jasper waiting for the shower after he had taken his. “Moving in?” he asked, toweling his hair on the way out.
“Almost,” said Jasper. Raoul followed Jasper into the shower, and Mike headed off to eat some breakfast.
Raoul’s preoccupation with Jasper had Danielle dragging him into bed with her, or with her and Suda, far more often. He was midway through a game where he was trying to put together a case on a sister involved in filing for unemployment and medical benefits in her sister’s name when Danielle tapped on his door. He froze the game, and turned in his swivel chair. Danielle crawled on his lap, and began kissing him.
“Mmm,” he said, smiling. “I take it Raoul’s out with Jasper somewhere?”
“Teaching him all sorts of things in the wood studio,” said Danielle.
“And Suda?”
“Called in to cover for someone else at the medical center.”
“And me?”
“Here for my amusement.” She ran her hands over his face, neck and shoulders, using a stroke he had seen Suda use with her. “Suda’s been teaching you Thai massage,” he observed.
Danielle laughed. “Let me show you.” She took off her shirt, then his.
She walked around him, stroking his shoulders. He leaned forward and groaned as she found tight spots, dug in, and released. “You have forever to stop that,” he said. She worked on him, stroking, kissing, and massaging his back. He stood up and dropped his pants, and so did she.
He walked her to the bed, where he took up massaging her. He started at her right foot, and worked his way up to her thigh. “You have forever to stop that,” she said, laughing. He did the same with her left foot, working his way up to her left thigh. He could see she was wet, and she was groaning with his kisses. He turned her on her side, and kissed and massaged his way up her back. He stroked her hair with one hand as he got a condom out of the drawer with the other.
He turned her over again, and went down her other side. He put her on her back, and kissed her thighs again. He flicked out his tongue, and she writhed. He took her to the edge, then went back to strokes and light kisses, then went back again, this time with insistent fingers. He made her go over the edge twice, then once more, before he finally rolled on the condom, and slid into her standing up. She gasped and groaned. He found he could go a little deeper, so in he went. She groaned again. He used slow strokes, in and out, bringing her to the edge again. He thrust one more time, and they came together. He threw away the condom and took out some wipes, and wiped them both down.
He pulled back the sheet and comforter, and they spend the rest of the evening kissing and touching. He went to the kitchen stark naked, sure no one else was in the house, and brought back half a pint of ice cream and two colas and two glasses and two long spoons and an ice-cream scoop on a tray. They had chocolate peanut butter cola floats, and soon found the strength to go another round, soft and slow, him on his back, her taking what she needed from him. She brought in her robe and her phone, and they read together, snuggling in the dark while the wind shook the windows. First Jasper and Raoul, then Suda, peeked in and found them curled up around each other, both cats and dogs there in the room, and left them to snuggle with one another. They fell asleep with their cell phones in a stack on the side table, with the moonlight streaming in.
3
Mike helped Raoul hang winter lights. “Jasper’s a mess,” said Raoul, screwing a hook into the side corner of the courtyard. “Some friends of his went to the asshole ex’s house for a pah-tay and there was no sign of the dog. I thought we could go up there to Tucson...”
Mike shook his head, and handed up the string. “We need leverage.”
Raoul laughed, came down from the ladder, picked it up in one hand and unraveled the lights with the other, and walked across the courtyard. “What are they going to pop us for? Dognapping?”
Mike shook his head, following with the hooks in one hand and Raoul’s drill in the other. “What does this asshole ex do?”
“He’s a real estate attorney.” Raoul put down the little ladder and kicked it open.
Mike grinned wolfishly, taking back the string and handing the drill to Raoul. “When you’re done hanging this, text me his name.”
“Jeffrey S-M-Y-T-H-E.” Raoul drilled the hole, and Mike handed him the hook. Mike texted LaShonda with the name, occupation, and city.
They had the ones strung up going the other diagonal when LaShonda texted back. “He a perp?”
“Probably,” texted back Mike. “Keep it on the DL.” They strung lights all around the inside of the courtyard. Mike was seriously thinking of going inside, because even with the moving around, he was getting cold, when LaShonda called.
“Just saw a picture on his Facebook of Jasper and this a-hole,” she said. “Got hidden assets, probably hiding from Jasper due to their pending divorce.”
Mike hissed, “Jasper is paying off lots of debt. He needs the assets. And give me anything else you can find.” He carried the boxes of lights in one hand while he held the phone with the other. “And keep it dark.”
LaShonda laughed. “Got it on a private server and I’m routing it overseas.” She hung up.
By the time they were done with the lights and were on the Mexican hot chocolate spiced with cinnamon and cloves, LaShonda texted back a picture of a golden nugget along with a link. He laughed. “Mother Lode,” he said. He went to the secure file upload site and download files. He read Shonda’s precis she had attached, and he sucked air through his teeth. He grabbed a duffel and started throwing in a change of clothes.
Raoul was in the kitchen, reheating some chicken tortilla soup. He took a look at the duffle, and eyed Mike throwing cans of dog food and a dog harness into the duffel. “Going somewhere?” asked Raoul.
“Road trip,” said Mike. “Right after the soup.” Raoul handed a bowl to Mike, and went to his own bedroom to pack.
The trip in Raoul’s truck was long, but they had music and audiobooks and funny stories to tell. They were just past Kingman, Arizona when Raoul finally asked what they had.
“This asshole did some Very Bad Things. We’ve got proof of a few funky deals. Shonda’s digging for more.” He sighed, and cut his eyes to Raoul. “We were hoping we could use his hidden assets to help pay off Jasper taking on debt. Quite a bit of it is Asshole Jeff’s. But…”
“But?” asked Raoul.
“LaShonda and I have to report this. Have to.” Raoul nodded. “Of course, we can report a little...later.”
Raoul smiled with absolutely no humor. “As
long as Jasper doesn’t have blowback.” They drove in silence for a while, listening to Tom Petty run down a dream. “Jasper told me about Miss Henrietta. She’s a queen who dishes online. Very popular in Tucson.”
Raoul laughed. “I like the way you think.”
The arrived in the wee hours of the morning. They stopped at an all-night waffle place, and wolfed down some food. They went to a cheap hotel and crashed for a few hours, and Mike poured bottled water on the licence plate, then kicked dust onto it. “Good move,” said Raoul.
They arrived at the asshole’s cookie-cutter sand-colored three-car-garage home in the faint pinkish light of dawn. A dog barked weakly from the backyard. “That doesn’t sound good,” said Raoul. He went to the back, and Mike pounded on the front door. The dog quieted, and Raoul was out the side gate and in the truck, a bundle in his arms, before the door opened.
