He reached the bottom of the stack of case files the same time he reached the bottom of the whiskey bottle. Neither gave him any peace.
Chapter Two
The atmosphere was what she wanted it to be: dark, hazy with cigarette smoke, and hot from all the warm bodies packed into the small, tight space. It reminded her of sex and betrayal, and that made her smile, knowing she’d get what she was looking for because the stage was already set for the tragedy.
Sonya Garret wove through the press of bodies toward the bar, planning to get herself a drink and find…someone. There were plenty to choose from since it was Ladies’ Night at the East Corner Bar and the men had flocked in like sheep, looking for smashed women to take advantage of. The thought of their intentions infuriated her, but then she thought about her intentions and a broad smile spread across her face.
Finally reaching the bar, she waited patiently for the attention of the bartender, who was completely swamped. She wasn’t in a hurry, so she spent the time surveying the patrons of the bar.
Women of all ages and ethnic backgrounds were dressed from conservative-sexy to downright slutty. The men were just as varied, with some middle-aged guys wearing cheap suits standing next to others who looked as if they weren’t even old enough to drive; it was a comical array.
Everyone was spread out among the many small tables standing in two-thirds of the room. Women were clustered together as they surveyed the buffet of men in front of them, and the men did the same. Laughter, yelling, and the noise of a live band setting up on the stage against the far left wall permeated the air.
“What can I get ya?” the young, blonde bartender asked. When Sonya didn’t answer instantly she got huffy. “I don’t have all night.”
Blinking at the rudeness, Sonya ordered her drink. “Vodka and cranberry.”
The young woman nodded and quickly made her requested beverage, sliding it to Sonya across the bar. “That’ll be four-fifty.”
Sonya handed her a five-dollar bill as the band started playing and yelled, “Keep the change!”
The bartender rolled her eyes and moved on to the next customer.
Shrugging, Sonya sipped her drink and wandered off through the crowd, looking for the perfect man to take back to her motel room. She finally spotted him, standing alone in a dark corner, away from everyone else.
Sauntering toward him, she noticed men checking her out with her peripheral vision; she knew exactly what they were seeing and sipped her drink to hide the smirk on her face. At five feet, eight inches tall, with long black hair, most men couldn’t resist her. Add a little red dress that barely covered her ass, fit snugly against her slender waist, squeezed her pert breasts almost completely out of the neckline, and some high heeled shoes, and she could render the strongest of men into drooling fools.
Pretending like she didn’t know he was there, she moved a step past the man in the dark corner, looked up, and glanced around. She jumped and let her hand leap to her chest, where her fingers fluttered against the exposed skin of her breasts.
“Oh,” she gasped, “I didn’t see you there.” She smiled and giggled. “What are you doing hiding in the dark like that, anyway? A handsome man like you…”
The man blinked for a couple seconds while his gaze followed her fingertips as they slid over her skin before they traveled lower, taking in the full view of her standing there. He swallowed hard, took a long drink of his beer, and blushed crimson.
“Sorry,” he muttered, and laughed nervously. “I didn’t mean to, um, startle you.”
She pouted and blinked her dark brown eyes at him. “What are you going to do to make it up to me?” she teased, as she advanced toward him, stopping just short of touching him.
“Uh,” he said, his eyes darting around like he’d been trapped and was looking for a way out. “I don’t know. Buy you a drink?”
She laughed, shaking her head. “Have one,” she said, holding up her glass and taking a quick sip of its contents. “Is that the best you can do?”
He laughed nervously again and gulped down more beer. “I don’t know…what would you like me to do to make it up to you?”
With a saucy grin, she stepped forward and pressed herself against him from pelvis to chest; he moved his hands out of the way, trying not to touch or offend her, letting her get closer.
He closed his eyes and gulped as she leaned forward to speak directly into his ear so she wouldn’t have to yell over the music throbbing around them.
“I want you to take me back to my motel room, strip me naked, and show me what a big, strong man you are,” she whispered, nuzzling her nose against his ear lobe. “Think you can do that?”
He was shaking as she stepped back. He quickly downed the rest of his beer, set his empty bottle aside on the nearby table, and held up his left hand, showing her a gold band on his ring finger. “I’m married.”
She laughed, throwing her head back and letting her long, loose hair cascade down her back and over her right shoulder as she cocked her head to look at him.
“I don’t care if you don’t, sexy,” she teased. “I just want to get to that man under those clothes. I don’t care what you’re wearing on your hand.”
“Well, uh, I don’t know,” he muttered, shifting his weight nervously, swaying back and forth. “I should get home to my wife.”
She pressed herself up against him again. “I’ll have to go back to my room all alone, with no big, strong man to hold me. Can’t you just come with me for a little while? I promise you won’t regret it.” She winked and playfully licked the tip of his nose.
“O…Okay,” he said.
You cheating bastard, she thought, smiling at him.
Sonya glanced around them and noticed a couple of the men were watching them with disgusted, confused expressions. She knew what they were thinking, since they were all good looking. They were thinking, “What does she see in that old, fat guy?” and she didn’t blame them. She thought he was revolting too. The man she’d just picked up looked like he was close to fifty. He was going bald and was trying, in vain, to cover it up by combing his hair over the top of his head, which shone through regardless of his attempt. He was wearing an ugly, dark purple polyester suit that did nothing to hide his stomach—he looked five months pregnant.
She turned back to the man she’d picked up—after setting her barely touched drink down on the table he’d set his beer bottle on—and asked sweetly, “So, what’s your name?”
“Bill,” he grunted, taking her arm with his clammy hand. “What’s yours?”
“Hillary,” she lied easily, and glanced down at the hand on her arm.
They walked through the bar together and she felt like everyone was staring at them, knowing who she was and what she was doing. But she knew there was no way anyone here had any idea what was going on. It was a fresh city and the news hadn’t started reporting anything from last time…yet.
They’d no more than cleared the doorway and stepped outside than Bill was on her, pinning her up against the brick wall, shoving his tongue down her throat.
Trying not to gag and vomit on him, Sonya pretended she was into it and thrust her hands into what little hair there was on the back of his head, whimpering like she wanted more.
“You really want me, don’t ya?” he panted, pulling back to grope her breasts with shaking hands.
She bit her tongue so she wouldn’t yell at him and tell him to get his hands off her. Instead she licked her lips, blinked seductively, and moaned.
“I can’t wait to have you,” she sighed, pressing her chest into his hands. “Let’s get out of here. My car’s right over there.” She nodded toward the more secluded side lot.
“What about my car?” he asked. “Should I follow you?”
“No,” she breathed, forcing herself to give him another kiss. “I’ll bring you back for it later.”
He smiled and stepped back so she could stand up straight and walk over to her car.
She hit th
e button on her keychain remote as she walked and a short, loud beep sounded from the vehicle while the lights flashed for a moment.
He grabbed ahold of her hips and dragged her back against him, grinding his swollen crotch on her ass. “You wanna, um, have a quickie in the car?” he asked in a slightly unsure, lust-saturated voice, and licked her neck.
She cringed, but hoped he interpreted it as a shiver of excitement. “No, babe,” she whispered. “I want to see all of you before I have you.” She turned slightly so she could look into his eyes. “I want you to see all of me.”
He stared at her for a moment and then let go, laughing while his eyes darted around, making sure they weren’t being watched. “Okay, we’ll do it your way.”
They climbed into the car and were off. The motel was only a few blocks away, so it didn’t take long to get there, which Sonya was glad for, as she was felt up by a clumsy Bill the entire ride.
After getting out of the car, they made their way up the external metal and concrete stairway to her room. The room had been paid for in cash by one of her colleagues, Roger Dunn, so the sleazy motel worker wouldn’t have a description of her.
As soon as the door was closed behind them, Bill was trying to bend Sonya over and push her skirt up, and would have accomplished his goal if he hadn’t been so nervous and awkward.
She quickly turned around to face him. “Slow down, babe,” she said, pushing him to sit down on the edge of the bed. “I have plans for you.”
He didn’t argue.
She walked over to a small cooler she had sitting on a table in the corner, and opened it. She pulled out a small bottle of liquor and pretended to have a very hard time opening it, and then poured the contents into a plastic cup she’d retrieved from the bathroom earlier for this purpose. She took the drink over to Bill and handed it to him.
“You drink this while I undress for you,” she said. “I should be naked by the time you have it all gone.”
He took a large gulp, drinking nearly half of the amber liquid in the cup.
She turned away from him and reached behind herself to unzip the back of her dress. She did it slowly, taking her time, hoping he would finish the drink soon and the drug she’d put in it earlier would work its magic before he had a chance to touch her.
She slipped the straps off her arms and slid the dress down while wiggling her hips; she heard his breath quicken in excitement. When she bent over and slid it down her legs, exposing the red, lace thong that matched her bra and dress, he muttered, “Hell yeah.”
She quickly stepped away before he could touch her, kicking her discarded dress aside. She turned back to face him and was pleased to see his cup was empty and he was fighting to keep his eyes open.
“Come ’ere, ’Illary,” he said in a slurred voice, motioning to her with floppy arms.
She smiled and did so; by the time she took three steps and was standing beside the bed, he’d passed out and fallen to the floor.
Laughing, she kicked him with the toe of her shoe. “Party’s over, cheating prick!” she announced cheerfully.
She turned and walked over to the table the cooler was on. She picked up her cell phone and pressed the number that would speed dial Roger and his partner, Jack Parsons. He answered on the first ring.
“I have meat to deliver,” she said with a smirk and a glance at the man on the floor.
Chapter Three
A faint tapping barely made it through the motel room door as someone knocked. Moving cautiously forward, Sonya reached up and spread the ugly, thick curtain covering the large window of her room. Two large, tall, muscular men were standing outside.
She moved over to the door and opened it quickly. “What the hell took you two so long?” she snarled, motioning the men forward into the room before closing the door behind them.
“Keep your panties on,” Roger said, and laughed. “You look good with dark hair and eyes, by the way.”
“Whatever,” she snapped, and stalked over to the table to slip on a pair of rubber gloves. “Get him out of here so I can clean this place.” She nodded toward the man lying on the floor beside the bed.
Jack stepped over to the man, dropped a folded duffle bag on the floor, and looked down at him. “Got us a big one this time—older than normal too. Are ya slippin’? Can’t ya get the young ones anymore?”
Roger laughed, but choked it back when she spun to glare at them with hostility scrawled across her features.
“I’m not slipping, you ass!” she ranted. “He was off by himself, and since this was our first ‘pick up’ here in Pittsburgh, I thought I’d better get in and out fast. I didn’t want to get noticed or draw attention, now did I?”
Jack smiled and crossed his arms across his chest, staring at her. “What’s got ya all pissy? Didn’t he tickle your fancy? I mean…he’s such a stud and all. Since he apparently didn’t please ya, I’m willin’ to take a stab at makin’ ya happy.” He winked at her and watched her face darken as her anger intensified.
“In your dreams, fucker,” she hissed with her hands balled into tight fists at her sides. “Keep talking to me like that and I’ll beat your face in with the four-inch heel of my shoe.”
At that Roger and Jack both bent over laughing.
“You’re both assholes. Do your job and get that bastard out of here.”
She turned and stomped into the bathroom with a container of disinfectant wipes.
“I don’t think she finds you attractive, Jack,” Roger squeaked out, still laughing.
Jack gasped for air and wiped a tear from his eye. “I don’t think I could ever match up to this guy,” he said, and motioned to the man on the floor. “If this is what she’s lookin’ for, I’ll never be her type.”
“I can still hear you!” Sonya hollered from the bathroom.
This caused them both to start laughing again, just as they were starting to get their mirth under control. When they finally calmed down again, they maneuvered Bill’s body into the large duffle bag they’d brought with them. It took some finagling, but they finally managed to get the portly man encased in the bag.
“A little help, princess,” Roger called, and Jack chuckled. “We need you to open the door.”
With an audible huff—even though she was in the next room—she stomped out and tugged the motel room door open.
The men lifted the bulging canvas bag and headed out the door hastily.
Jack smiled suggestively as he passed her. “I’ll be waitin’ for ya,” he said.
She ignored him, but he saw the tightening of her lips across her teeth and he knew she’d heard what he’d said. His laugh carried easily on the cool air of the quiet night, and she shut the door behind them to silence it.
***
Shrugging off Jack’s smartass remarks, Sonya got to work cleaning the rest of the room. She’d finished in the bathroom already, since there hadn’t been much in there she’d touched. Besides, all the smooth surfaces were easy to remove fingerprints from and she’d been doing the cleanup sweeps for years—she was a pro.
She grabbed a roll of clear box tape out of the small suitcase she’d stashed in the closet when she’d arrived, and unrolled a generous amount around one of her hands with the sticky side out. She then pressed the hand with the tape to the bedspread to lift any fibers or hair from where Bill had been on the bed and then on the floor, after which, she pulled the tape off, threw it in the trash, and pulled a small vacuum out of the case. She plugged it in and vacuumed the motel room to pick up any other stray strands of hair or particles.
Satisfied that she’d done the best she could with the room, she packed everything up, grabbed the trash can liner with all her trash in it, and deserted the room, wiping down the door and knobs with another disinfectant wipe as she headed out. After stowing the trash, cooler, and case in the trunk of her car, she wiped off the room key and put it in the drop box by the motel office.
***
“You really shouldn’t tease her so muc
h,” Roger told Jack as they maneuvered Bill down the narrow outdoor stairway of the motel. “Someday she’ll drug your ass and have you stripped for parts.”
“As long as she strips me,” Jack joked, being careful as they descended. “She may be a vicious bitch, but she’s hot.”
Roger sighed and shook his head, knowing Jack wasn’t going to listen no matter what he said. Jack was the newest man on their crew, since Peter had decided to quit and take up a “real life”—as he put it—in Ohio. Roger knew Peter’s decision had more to do with a woman he’d met than anything else, and he’d wanted to go legit before things got hairy.
Glancing at Jack again as they reached the bottom of the stairs, Roger contemplated how far Sonya would allow him to push her before she pushed back. He’d known her for three years and she scared the shit out of him. There was something broken in her that he couldn’t place. It wasn’t so much that she was crazy, it was more that she did sadistic things to anyone she felt like with no remorse. He honestly believed she enjoyed shredding people’s bodies. He’d watched her do it once, assisting Dr. Jennings in “surgery,” and it was enough to turn him off the woman no matter how good looking and seductive she was. Over time they’d settled into a kind of brother/sister relationship. He was fine with that and never thought about anything more.
“Are they always this heavy?” Jack asked with a grunt after accidently stubbing his toe on a concrete parking stop, stumbling, and bringing Roger’s thoughts back to the present.
Nurse Blood (The Organ Harvester Series Book 1) Page 2
