by K. J. Dahlen
Jinx snorted. “Your Michael is one sick sonofabitch.”
Jessie shivered in revulsion. “He’s not my anything. I want nothing to do with him. In fact, I wish I’d never heard of this monster.”
“So where are these journals you talked about?” Lucifer asked.
“I have them hidden in case I need to turn them over to the police.”
“If we find the bodies, you can’t turn them over to the cops,” Lucifer stated grimly.
Jessie glared at the man. “I can and I will.”
“No you won’t,” Lucifer stated stonily.
“I have to. Those women and their families need closure. Don’t you understand?” Jessie cried out softly.
“Yeah, I get that part but what you don’t seem to understand is the fact the cops will blame us for their murders. They’ll drag our asses to jail, throw us in a cell, throw away the key and forget about us.”
Jessie looked around the room. All the men standing there glared back at her. Looking back at Lucifer, she asked, “But why? You didn’t kill them. You don’t go to jail if you’ve done nothing wrong.”
Demon snorted. “You don’t know the law very well, do you lady?”
“I know you’re innocent until proven guilty,” she stated.
Lucifer shook his head. “Are you really that naïve? More than one man has gone to jail for a crime he didn’t commit and more than one person has been railroaded by the law into confessing to something he didn’t do. Besides wearing an MC patch, most of us aren’t exactly model citizens. We all served in the military, but when we could no longer do what they wanted us to do, we were discharged without the benefits they promised us. This place is all most of us got left and I’m not giving it up without a fight. I’ll be damned if I’m gonna let you fuck this up for all of us. The cops come here and find bodies buried on this land and they will take what is ours and throw the book at us before they even got the full story.” He leaned closer to her and pointed his finger at her. “I will not let that happen. My men have lost enough. I won’t let them lose their freedom for something they didn’t do, even for a day.”
“Now you know why I didn’t want to tell you,” she insisted stubbornly.
“We had a right to fucking know what was coming.” Jinx snarled.
Lucifer watched her closely. He could tell she was telling the truth as far as she knew it. But she was hiding something else. How could there be bodies here on his farm? It was impossible. But if it were true, their way of life might just disappear if the authorities came out here. His vow to protect his men and keep them sane could be broken. Simply because of this woman who claimed his land was a burial ground for a serial killer.
*
Jessie wanted to pull her hair out but that would get her nowhere. She needed to get free of this place and these men.
She pushed herself up and turned to Lucifer. “Thank you for your hospitality and now it’s time for me to return. I’ll just collect my things and go home.”
Lucifer chuckled. “I don’t think so. You aren’t going anywhere.”
“You can’t keep me here,” she protested.
“Wanna bet?” Lucifer smirked. “I want to read those journals before I make up my mind about letting you go.”
“But they aren’t even here.”
“Then tell me where they are and I’ll send someone to collect them but you aren’t going anywhere.” Lucifer shook his head. “At least not until we know what we’re dealing with. And who. This Michael bastard is still out there somewhere. We have to at least try and find him.”
“And if he doesn’t want to be found?” Jessie asked him softly.
“Well then, that’s just too fucking bad, for him ain’t it?” Lucifer held her eyes.
Jessie searched his posture and found nothing soft anywhere on his body. Looking around, she saw each and every man was set like stone in their commitment.
As she sat herself back down on the chair, she remembered the conversation she had the day before when she stopped at the diner Michelle disappeared from. Was that only yesterday?
It was that little interchange with Margie at the diner that had made up her mind to go forward with searching the stone bench area and dammed if this guy and his big thugs were gonna derail her.
Jinx came back over to the table and asked, “Prez, do you want I should go get her things from Maudie’s place?”
Lucifer stared at Jessie for a moment then nodded. “Yeah, maybe we should. That way when she doesn’t come back, no one will question where she went in the first place. We sure don’t need all kinds of people searching for her, cluttering up the landscape.”
“If I don’t come back? You guys are threatening to what? Bury me here too?”
The man they called Lucifer stared at her for a moment then he laughed. “We don’t kill women.” He leaned close to her. “But you won’t be going back there anytime soon.” His eyes met hers.
Jessie just glared at him while Jinx stomped over to the door and disappeared.
Chapter Five
When Jordan Tate walked into to Darrel’s Diner, it felt like coming home. His tan uniform fit him well and he looked every bit the professional he was supposed to be. His short blond hair was slicked back and gelled down. He was clean shaven and his eyes were hidden behind a pair of dark tinted aviator sunshades.
When he sat down at the counter, his back was straight and unbending. Without moving his head, he took note of every patron in the place. He knew if he moved his head slightly to the left, he would see the info wanted poster Michelle’s family put up ten years ago. He saw it every time he came to this town. For the longest time, he’d been the only living person who knew what really happened to her. He didn’t know if he could say that anymore. He hated that feeling. He was one that liked to be in control and if the girl knew his secret that wasn’t a good thing.
He watched as Margie the waitress came over to him. “Well, hi there sugar, haven’t seen you in a while.” She smiled at him.
Jordan smiled slightly. “Haven’t been here in a while.”
“Well, you’re here now. If I remember correctly, you like your coffee strong and black.”
“You remember correctly.” He nodded.
“And you like your bread with butter and honey. Got a bit of a sweet tooth.” Margie’s smile widened.
Jordan nodded, then moved his head around slowly to take note of everyone else in the diner. Not one of them stood out to him but then maybe none of them would. All he knew was the girl he was looking for was Emma Bennish’s granddaughter. He had heard old lady Bennish was dead a week or so ago. He knew then he had to return and take his journals back. He didn’t want them to fall into the hands of the police. They wouldn’t understand what he had written over the last ten years. No one would. He’d left the books a few years ago thinking they would be safe for the time being. He’d gone to the farmhouse and tore the floorboards up. His journals were missing. He needed to find this woman and soon.
He didn’t even know her name. In all the time he’d stayed with Emma, he had never seen any photos of her granddaughter, and Emma never mentioned her by name. She’d only ever mentioned her grown daughter one time.
She kept pictures of her daughter growing up all over the house but they were cut off when she was about seventeen. He didn’t know her story but he had never cared before. Now of course, he wished he’d cared enough to ask. But that was a whole other story.
Now he had to find a stranger in a town full of tourists and summer people. Find her and stop her from turning his journals over to the police.
He glanced down at the tan uniform he was wearing and smiled. The whole world knew him as Jordan Tate, but only a very select few really knew the real him and for that, he was thankful. For now anyway. Of course, all that knew him by a different name were all dead but that was neither here nor there at this point.
“Hey Margie, have there been many tourists in town this year?” he asked as he sipped his
coffee.
Margie smiled and brought his bread over to him. “It’s been steady all season.” She chuckled. “But then you know people, they smell the bread and they just got to get them some of that. You know Darrel can bake the bread. I gain ten pounds from just breathing the air in here.”
He smiled but inside he was cursing this woman to hell and back. He didn’t give a flying fuck about the bread, he needed to move quickly and find this girl. Before she had time to share his story with anyone.
His eyes finally moved to the old poster on the wall.
Margie stopped what she was doing and stared at the poster for a moment as well. “I have to wonder if we’ll ever know what happened to her?” she said quietly.
Jordan shrugged as he turned to face the counter. “You know if the police don’t find the victim within a reasonable amount of time, say a month or so their chances of finding them years later, unless they are found by accident, are very slim.”
When Margie gave him a funny look he shrugged, motioning down at his uniform. “I’m a cop I know the drill. I go from department to department to further cops’ education on the different techniques for profiling abusers and serial killers. That’s what I do.”
Margie’s eyes grew in her face. “Oh my god, I didn’t know that. I mean I saw the uniform but I just thought you were a cop, maybe picking up prisoners or something. Had no clue you were a profiler.”
Jordan shrugged. “I don’t usually tell people what I do. I prefer to watch people, learn their habits and look for any signs I can relate to an ongoing investigation. I can’t do that if they know what I’m watching them for. I study how people react to certain situations and project to the police if I think they could be guilty of a certain crime or not. I can pick up on a lot of things they often miss and lead them to make or break a suspect.”
“I didn’t know you could do that.” Margie commented. “Huh, guess it is true that you learn something new every day. Just never thought about it before.”
“Not everyone can but I can,” Jordan boasted. He got to his feet. “Well, I’d better get checked in. I’ll be here for the next week or so.”
Margie just nodded and watched as he left the diner.
*
Jessie sat at the table in the main room. She hadn’t moved from when Lucifer dragged her out here earlier a couple of hours ago. She was still refusing to tell them where the journals were hidden. But she wasn’t sure how much longer she could hold them off. When Jinx got back here with her tablet, she knew they would find the copy of the journals Michael had written and then she knew the gig would be up.
Lucifer was sitting off at another table and glaring at her the whole time. The other men came and went and she had no idea what they were doing, but Lucifer hadn’t left her alone for a moment. She did feel a kind of tingle from just his gaze on her and she tried to ignore it. Those eyes were just so penetrating though, like he could see into her soul or something.
Just then, the front door opened. Jinx walked in with her suitcases and things from the Bed and Breakfast.
Jessie glared at the man as he carried her things over to Lucifer and dumped them at his table. She huffed as she stood up. She couldn’t watch him go through her things so she got up and went back to the bedroom she’d been in earlier.
One of the men in the room followed her and stopped at the door when she slammed it in his face.
She walked over to the window and looked outside. She watched detached as men came and went from the compound. There was a lot of traffic as the men did their jobs all afternoon. They hauled barrels and went into a huge building at the edge of the property. Whiskey? She spotted the oak barrels with that on the label. How odd. An MC that made whiskey? She thought these types dealt drugs and robbed places or something. Apparently, these bikers worked for a living. Still, it didn’t give them the right to hold her hostage.
As the afternoon grew later, Jessie became tired. Her nerves were shot too. Being on edge as they decided what to do with her. Instead of going over to the bed, she slid down the wall and laid her head back against it. Closing her eyes, she brought her knees to her chest and hugged them.
Tears rolled down her cheeks almost silently. She came here looking for a killer and failed in her quest on the first day. She not only failed but was taken prisoner by an MC. The sad part of her quest was that the man who called himself Michael would get away with his crimes.
She couldn’t fail Sydney. She owed justice to her friend. Really, she’d been the only friend Jesse ever had. Determined to find out if this killer had been here, she would just bide her time.
*
Lucifer walked into his room. He looked toward the bed and frowned when he found it empty. Staring at the window, he saw the evening was well upon them. The creeping darkness was like a gap between daylight and the darkness. He knew it was well past midnight and nothing was stirring outside. Where could she be? She’d better not have snuck out somehow. Stumbling around in the dark would be a bad idea.
Turning to leave the room in search of the girl, he caught sight of her curled up in the corner. He paused and looked her over carefully. Her head laid on her knees with her legs tucked to her chest. He could see her tear tracks and the sight slightly softened his heart. He ran his hands over his chin in contemplation of what he was going to do about her. He hadn’t quite made up his mind yet, but he knew he couldn’t let her go. Not yet, depending on what there was out there for them to find. His future and that of his men might just depend on this girl and those damn journals.
He didn’t even think about it, he bent over and picked her up from the floor. Carrying her over to the bed, he laid her down on the mattress. Her head lolled back and he had to brush the hair away from her face.
As he stared at her face he noticed her skin, so soft and pale, the fine line of her cheeks and eyes blended so well with the shape and contours of her head. And the soft fullness of her hair and neck just made her beautiful in his eyes but he had no right to bring her into his life. And he knew by that kiss that she was attracted to him as well. He knew he should just let her go, yet there was something about her he just couldn’t bear to never be around again.
He didn’t know why but he had a feeling they’d been destined to meet. When they had kissed earlier, he didn’t feel the rage he usually felt when someone else touched him. For some unknown reason, he could tolerate her touch, maybe even desire it? When he found himself grabbing her up and kissing her nothing could have shocked him more. He had reached for her! It was astonishing to him. He wasn’t sure what he felt or thought at this point, all he knew was he couldn’t let her go. He also knew if he didn’t, she would end up hating him. Instead of dwelling on it, he quickly undressed her and slipped a t shirt over her bra and panties.
His eyes lingered for a moment on her bare skin before he allowed the t shirt to cover her and then he brought the covers up to her chest. Before he could crawl into the bed and ruin her, he quickly turned and left the room.
Grabbing a bottle of Jack off the bar, he moved over to a corner table and sat down.
Demon walked over and sat down beside him. Neither man said a word for a moment then Demon reached for the bottle. Taking a good healthy sip of the hooch, he set the bottle back down in front of Lucifer and asked, “So what are you going to do with her?”
Lucifer stared at the bottle between them rather than at the other man. “Not quite sure yet. But we can’t let her go. Not yet. Not without finding out if what she said is true or not.”
Demon cocked his head and stared at the other man for a moment. “Do you really think there are nine bodies buried on this farm?”
Lucifer shrugged and lifted his head to stare at him. “What if there are? We can’t have the cops looking around. I won’t go to jail for something I didn’t do and I won’t let the others go either. They’ve been through enough. I barely made it through the first time, and I vowed if I ever got out of that hellhole, I would never be locked up again
.”
*
Demon nodded as he stared at his friend. He was as familiar with suffering as any of them. He and Lucifer especially knew what it was like. Lucifer even more maybe.
Then he’d seen Lucifer grab her up in the main room this afternoon. It had shocked him and he saw it’d shocked Jinx as well. The man never touched anyone. He watched his president. He didn’t think Lucifer had even been aware of doing it. He just grabbed her when he was upset about the bodies and this wild story of hers. Still, it was a shock after all these years to see the man touching another person. He paused. A woman? A woman for Lucifer? Nah…that’s crazy. He had to push the thought away. It just couldn’t be.
The damage done to Lucifer was permanent. Demon remembered back when the squad they were part of had been caught in an ambush by the rebels they had been fighting. There had only been four of them left alive when the fighting had stopped. Eight of the men in their squad had been killed in the battle before the rebels ran over the top of them. It had been a slaughter, twelve men against a hundred. Lucifer had been wounded the worst but he and the other three men hadn’t gotten off lightly. All four of them had been dragged out of the desert that day. They’d been held for four very long and painful months before they were rescued.
The troops that rescued them had pulled the four missing men out of that hellhole during a battle in which all four of them had expected a bullet to the head before it was done. They came back alive but not whole. While they all had endured torture and pain, Lucifer’s had been worse than the others. Demon knew that much, even if Lucifer had never spoken about it. He knew. He had been the one listening to the other man’s screams, he was the one who had seen the awful scars left by the torturers. And that was before Lucifer covered his scars with tats.
The rebels had tried to break Lucifer but they couldn’t. They figured, as he was their Captain, he would know more military information and troop movements than the rest of them did. He endured whatever they threw at him but they never broke him. Lucifer hadn’t betrayed his men or his government. That gave Demon and the others the strength to handle the pain as well. They all had gone into hell and came back out, bent but not broken. The rebels themselves had given him the name Lucifer, the devil himself and through it all the name had stuck, now he wore it proudly to remember the hell he’d lived with and would remain somewhere inside his memories.
