The Crime of Protection

by Gloria Martin

  “The problem is, I can’t come up with anything either,” he says, “Nothing you’d believe anyway. Ramona was right. You’re too smart for that.”

  “So...it’s true?” I ask. “All of it?”

  “Yes,” he says nonchalantly. “We’ve been planning this for several months. Ever since your stepbrother showed up in Canada. When he dies, Ramona gets everything. That’s how it always works.”

  I stare at him for a long while, taking this in. I knew, of course, coming in here, that what I’d heard was true. But, I didn’t expect Jake to come straight out and tell me that. And I certainly didn’t expect him to be so casual about it.

  “Why are you telling me this?” I ask. “You know I won’t let you get away with it.”

  “I’m telling you this,” Jake says, stalking towards me, “because I know you won’t say anything to anyone else.”

  “Why wouldn’t I?” I ask, squaring my shoulders and giving him a glare that usually makes men shrink away in fear. He simply smirks at me and moves closer.

  “Because,” Jake says, “I know things about you, Emma. Things you probably wouldn’t want anyone else knowing.”

  I blush when I remember what I revealed last night under the influence of red wine. I’d told him all about me and Gus and our history.

  “And, if you try to tell Gus about what happened, Ramona and I will just say that you’re jealous. You’ve always been in love with him and you’ll do anything and everything to stop his wedding,” he says.

  “And what if I go to the police instead?” I ask. He chuckles.

  “With what evidence?” he asks. “And even if you do acquire some, we’d stop you before you even made the call.”

  “How would you do that?” I ask.

  “Well, Emma, unrequited love is a very powerful thing. It makes people do things they wouldn’t normally do. A lot of people have killed themselves for less. So, when they find you with a rope around your neck and a suicide note, I’m guessing no one’ll think twice about it.”

  He moves towards me and I step back, finally I’m pressed against the wall of the office.

  “So, you see, Emma? I’ve got the upper hand,” he says. He grabs my neck and kisses me fiercely. I stand rigid and motionless.

  He pulls back still smirking.

  “See you after lunch,” he says. “We still need to go over the color scheme for the reception.”

  With a chuckle, he leaves me standing in the office with a look of terror and shock on my face.

  When the door closes, I replace the feigned look with a smile of my own.

  Slowly, I saunter over to the computer on Gus’s desk, turn the microphone back to its original position, further away from where Jake and I were standing and press the stop recording button on the desktop.

  *****

  It takes two days for the police to come back with information on Ramona and Jake. It turns out their real names are Gene and Robert, and have links to the mysterious deaths of four other men under various aliases.

  I make sure I’m there when they’re both taken into custody. The memory of Ramona screaming and crying to Gus that it’s all a huge mistake as well as the memory of Jake looking at me in shock as he’s handcuffed and taken away is one I’ll relish forever.

  The best part is, Gus asks me to go out for celebratory drinks with him that night.

  “I still can’t believe I was that stupid,” Gus says. We’re sitting in a booth at our favorite bar just a block from Gus’s apartment.

  Deciding I’ve had my fill of red wine, I’m sipping on a light beer as Gus drinks his traditional Guinness.

  “It wasn’t just you,” I tell him honestly, “I’m the one who decided to go home with some guy I’d only known for two weeks. That’s why Jake...Robert...whoever he was thought he could blackmail me.”

  “Honestly, I’m glad you went home with him,” Gus says. I put down my beer and my eyes widen in shock.

  “I mean, I’m not glad you...you went home with him...like that,” he amends quickly. That adorable blush is coming into his cheeks and I can’t help but smile, “I’m just glad you heard what they were planning. If you hadn’t, I’d have been dead in two weeks.”

  “I’m glad I heard it too,” I say with a smile, “I like you alive.”

  “That makes two of us,” he says with a smile of his own.

  We sit at the bar for another hour. We don’t talk about what’s just happened. Instead, we talk about the new Star Wars that’s just about to come out, (Gus thinks it’s going to be amazing, I’m nervous about it); about the new gossip around the office, and about what music is trending.

  In short, we talk about everything and nothing. When both of us are feeling fairly inebriated, we finally decide to close out the tab. I offer to split the bill, just like we always do when we go out for drinks together, even though he is so rich. But this time, he insists on paying.

  “You saved my life,” he tells me when he hands his card to the bartender. “I think that’s worth a few drinks.”

  I can’t help but smile as a pleasant tingling sensation begins in my stomach. The reason we always split the bill is that Gus didn’t want his outings with me to feel too much like dates. He said it would be too weird.

  Now, clearly, something’s changed.

  The tingling sensation continues when he invites me to stay at his apartment so I can sleep the drinks off.

  We walk in silence the two blocks to his building. Tension seems to be growing with every step we take.

  When we reach his apartment and step inside, I almost don’t trust myself to act normally around him.

  I try as best I can when he offers me a glass of water and we both sit on the couch.

  I see him sipping out of his water glass out of the corner of my eye and I can’t help but imagine crawling into his lap, kissing him and continuing right from where we left off in his office three days ago.

  “You know it is a shame,” he says finally.

  “What’s a shame?” I ask trying to keep my voice as steady as possible.

  “You did all that work for the wedding,” he answers. “The church is booked, so is the reception venue. The flowers, the invitations. We’re going to have to cancel the cake, the silverware, the catering. Everything.”

  “It’s okay,” I answer. “Like I said, I’d rather you be here and alive than pull off a perfect wedding.”

  “I know,” Gus says. “But, I’ve been thinking about it the past couple of days and I thought...well...if you want...we could still have a wedding.”

  “What do you mean?” I ask my heart beginning to hammer in my chest as I pray he’s talking about what I think he’s talking about.

  “I mean,” Gus says, “I love you, Emma.”

  My heart stops beating and my breath catches in my throat.

  “I...I think I have for a long time,” he says. “I just tried to ignore it because I thought it would be too weird. I think that’s why I proposed to Ramona in the first place. I thought if I was with someone else, I could get you out of my head. But, it didn’t work. Even before I found out about...you know...I still couldn’t stop thinking about you and—”

  He never gets a chance to finish. In one move I reach over, wrap my arms around his neck and press his lips desperately to mine.

  It’s not long before he kisses me back, pulling my body once again into his lap so that I’m flush against him.

  He pulls back gently and whispers.

  “Does this mean you’ll marry me?”

  “Yes.”

  He smirks and pulls me back against him.

  He kisses me desperately, passionately. I can feel his member growing beneath his pants as his hand travels to my knee once again.

  This time, he doesn’t stop.

  His hand moves over my panties and I adjust my waist to help him slide them off me. Soon, I’m pressing against his fingers, writhing in pleasure, shaking and moaning against him.

  He moves his hand out
from beneath my skirt and I gasp in protest before he picks me up, like a bride on her way to the honeymoon suite.

  “Aren’t we supposed to wait until after we’re married to go across the threshold?” I ask teasingly as he opens the door and moves me to the bed. He places me on it gently and, with the sexiest smirk I’ve ever seen from him says.

  “Well, we’ve never exactly done things the proper way. Have we Emma?”

  I smile and shake my head ‘no’.

  It’s not long before we’re completely naked in front of each other. I stare at him as he traces my body lightly with his fingers before placing a kiss on each of my breasts in turn.

  He kisses his way down my body as though he’s paying it homage. Under his hands, I don’t feel like I did with Jake. I don’t feel like an object to be had.

  I feel like a goddess, I feel like something to be cherished, adored, and loved.

  When he slides into me, I cry out in pleasure and keep my eyes locked on him. He looks at me with a desperate, hungry expression as he pushes into my body in an ancient rhythm. He wants me. I can feel his want. He thrusts hotly and heavily inside me.

  I feel pressure building inside of me as I feel Gus above me, moving faster. Just before he loses control completely, he leans down and whispers into my ear.

  “I love you so much.”

  That one phrase sends me over the edge. Gus joins me and soon, we are lying together in a tangle of messy and exhausted limbs.

  He moves aside and opens his arms to me. I move into them willingly. He presses a soft kiss on my hair and snuggles against me. I smile to myself.

  In that moment, I remember what I told Gus that night in his office. If you can’t imagine life without a person, that’s when you know it’s right.

  I can’t imagine my life without Gus.

  And now, finally, I know that I won’t have to.

  THE END

  Bonus Story 31/40

  The Bandit Biker Club

  Olivia

  “Yo, Liv! Beer me.” One of the hunky, tattooed guys called over to me, somehow managing to yell over the top of the heavy riff that was blaring over the jukebox.

  “Sure thing.” I winked back, giving him a little show as I twirled around, allowing my Rockerbilly, fifties-inspired dress to sway as I went. That, combined with my over the top make up, red lipstick and curvaceous body, seemed to get a lot of the guys going. It was safe to say that the large number of tips I got kept me above water—financially. I flirted because I needed the cash, but also because I enjoyed the company of these men. They were different, and I adored that about them.

  I loved working in Pete’s bar; I’d done so for a very long time, so I’d gotten to know the clientele pretty well. They were generally the sort of heavy rocker type guys who didn’t really fit in with the rest of society, which suited me just fine because I felt a little like an outsider myself. But just like the rest of them, I didn’t want to fit in. I was quite happy being me. I found it more fun not fitting in with societies rules.

  We’d recently acquired a new gang who’d rapidly become regulars—the Bandit Biker Club they called themselves. They were a collection of super hot, very rugged men’s men and I loved each and every one of them. They’d been great to me from the start, and now we were becoming firm friends.

  Especially Max. Except what I had with Max was far from mere friendship.

  He’d made his intentions with me pretty clear from the get go, and I hadn’t been able to resist his charms. He was absolutely lovely—all floppy haired and muscular, my type exactly—and dating him felt amazing.

  And the way he straddled that Harley… well, that had me going on another level entirely. He’d taken me out on it a couple of times, and the nights that followed were always steamy and passionate. I’d never thought of myself as a bike enthusiast before, but now I wasn’t sure that I could ever be with someone who didn’t ride.

  I felt like I was really falling for him.

  Well, all except for one thing. It felt like he was holding something back from me, and it was driving me crazy. I wasn’t sure what it could possibly be, and why he felt like he had to keep it a secret. I was open-minded, I wouldn’t judge him, whatever it was. I kept trying to find ways to ask him, but I felt a little uneasy trying to force him to tell me something that he so clearly didn’t want me to know.

  I just wasn’t sure how we were supposed to progress our relationship to the next level with such an elephant in the room.

  “The Bandits in tonight?” Pete asked me, sending me an over exaggerated, jokey wink.

  “No.” I murmured, trying to ignore his blatant teasing. “They’re meeting me over at the club later on.”

  The club was where I worked my second job, my favorite job. It was where I got to express myself, an outlet for some of my creativity. It was where I worked as a burlesque dancer, and luckily, Max enjoyed it just as much as I did.

  *****

  Max

  The music thumped so loudly that it vibrated through my chest as we sat in the club, waiting for the dancing to start. I couldn’t wait for Olivia to get up there and shake her thing. She really was the sexiest damn woman that I’d ever been with, and I liked her a whole damn lot.

  I might have even loved her.

  Sure, it was soon. We hadn’t been together for too long—a few months at most—but the feelings were there, I couldn’t deny them to myself. She was just perfect for me—voluptuous, sexy, feisty, exciting, fun loving… and on top of that she loved my Harley! For a guy like me, that was the absolute best that I could ask for.

  There was only one issue, one thing that I hadn’t told her, and I was afraid that it might tear us apart. I was bisexual. My closest friends didn’t have a problem with it, nor did the biker gang, but my parents did. And so had some of the women I’d dated in the past. It had torn apart more than one relationship, and I really didn’t want that to happen again.

  I typically dated women over guys, but the sexual attraction was still there. It wasn’t like I was going to race around cheating on Liv with both sexes, should the opportunity arise, but I would have preferred her to know. It felt like I wasn’t being fully myself until I did, and I guessed that she’d probably picked up on that.

  “You okay?” asked my closest buddy, Jace, nudging me gently. “Only you’ve been a bit… quiet.”

  He was a great friend, the best that I could ask for, but I found it a little difficult to be around him. There was an electricity between us, and I had no idea whether or not it was one sided. We’d never particularly discussed it, but I was under the assumption that he was as straight as they come, so I guessed that it was just me that felt it, which was a little uncomfortable. When I was around him, I spent most of the time trying to hide any possible signs of my feelings—I didn’t want him to pick up on it at all. I didn’t want things to get unnecessarily complicated.

  But when I was alone, just occasionally, I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like if we took things to the next level…

  “I’m fine.” I smiled blandly, watching him push his dirty blond hair out of his mesmerizing green eyes. I gulped down my feelings and quickly snapped my head away, training my eyes on the stage once more. “Just… enjoying the beer.”

  “Hmmm…” He pursed his lips, suspicious of me, but all I could think about was him doing something else with his mouth. It was incredibly distracting, and very embarrassing.

  “I’m gunna get another drink.” I jumped up from my seat, needing to get away from him before I could say or do something stupid. “Want one?”

  “Sure.” He sat back in his seat, staring up at me, and I could have sworn that I could see a flicker of hurt in his eyes. I paused for a split second, wondering if there was anything I could do to take that away, before forcing myself to tear away.

  *****

  Jace

  Being around Max was incredibly confusing. I found my feelings towards him teetered dangerously over the line, which w
as made worse by the fact that I knew he was bisexual. It made me believe that if I just allowed it, something could actually happen between us.

  This got even worse when he started to date Olivia, because she was exactly the kind of woman that I was attracted to—I’d never, ever fancied a man before. So seeing them together was like an explosion of sensuality, and it was extremely challenging to hide.

  I was certain that if I’d met Olivia first, I would have been able to make her mine. She was the most gorgeous red-haired beauty that I’d ever had the pleasure of laying my eyes upon, but by the time I’d arrived at Pete’s bar that night, she’d already fallen under Max’s manly, rugged spell. She’d been sitting in his lap, giggling like a school girl, and I’d known in that moment that she was lost to me.

  Every now and again, I felt like we made meaningful eye contact and I felt a zinging of desire pinging through me, but before I could read too much into it, she would be lost in Max’s dark, brooding handsome face once more, leaving me as nothing more than a distant memory.

  I was jealous, of course I was. But not just of him. I was also jealous of her, because she could express her feelings for Max without fear of judgment or causing confusion. It was terribly confusing, and gave me many sleepless nights. I just couldn’t understand why I was feeling this way, and why I couldn’t turn my emotions off. I didn’t need the added complication in my life—I really could have done without it.

  But as I watched Max walk away, I knew there was no way that would be happening any time soon. Then, Olivia was announced on stage, and my heart began to race for her as well.

  I was a mess, and the more time I spent with the gang, the worse this became. But I couldn’t leave, the Bandits were the closest thing to a family that I’d ever had since I’d been raised in various foster homes. I needed the guys—all of them—so I was just going to have to suck it up, and hope that the feelings would go away in the end.

  *****