She saw the naked desperation in his eyes, smelled his fear, and felt absolutely nothing. Even the anger had left her. Where there was once so much love, now there was only numbness. Her voice sounded as hollow as she felt. "How much? How much will it cost me to be rid of you permanently?"
Rico pressed the heels of his palms to his eyes. He could hardly believe his ears. The life raft she was holding out had a hole in it, but it was the only one in sight. Keeping his eyes downcast, he mumbled, "Seven grand... in cash."
Teri gritted her teeth. Seven thousand dollars was nearly twice what she'd received from the gallery for the recent sale. She could refuse... and risk having her studio burned to the ground. Or she could bail Rico out one more time and trust him not to contest the divorce when the time came. Forced to choose the lesser of two evils, she said, "All right, Rico. I'll have the money for you by the time you get home tomorrow. And I'll have a settlement agreement drawn up for your signature at the same time."
She touched her cheek and felt the beginnings of swelling. "But I want you out of my sight. Now. Unless you want me to call the police, you will pack a bag and be out of here in one hour. And after tomorrow, I don't ever want to see you again."
* * *
When Teri told Selena she would be completely tied up painting for the next week and would not need her to model, Selena decided not to waste a minute of those days. By Saturday morning, Selena had the details of Plan B all worked out and ready to launch.
She laughed at the image in her bedroom mirror. It had taken almost two hours after she left Teri's, but she had done it. No two pieces of the costume had been purchased in the same place. The ugly black wig, thick moustache, wraparound glasses, and silver skull earring looked like duplicates of the originals. Only the hoodlum's clothes had to be revised to allow for additional padding. An old black vinyl jacket and gloves hid her feminine arms and hands, and dark beige makeup altered her ivory complexion. If the guy who threatened Teri were standing beside her now, they'd look like twins.
It pleased her sense of irony that the thug should have a role in her little play, albeit in absentia.
She had come to the conclusion that her previous attempts to seduce Rico had failed partly because he'd had time to consider the consequences of his actions. Even if he had succumbed to her flirtation and agreed to a rendezvous, he could change his mind before the appointed time. The solution was simple. Rico must not be given time to think, let alone resist.
She could effectively implement her plan without having sex with Rico. She hadn't actually promised Teri that she would go that far, but she couldn't forget what a kick Teri had gotten out of the imagined scenario. One day she might tell Teri what she had done for her, then they would share a laugh even greater than they had the other day. No sacrifice was too enormous if it ensured Teri's happiness.
Just as she had ensured her mother's.
Dressed in her man's disguise, she went apartment hunting. She remembered seeing a poorly maintained, partially vacant complex along Rico's delivery route. Leaving her car at the shopping plaza a few blocks away, she walked the short distance to the run-down building.
The manager had been perfectly content to take three months' rent in cash, plus an advance deposit for use of the building's utilities, in lieu of identification or references, for a minimally furnished apartment.
On Friday morning, she scrawled four words on a sheet of paper, folded it, and sealed it in a letter-sized envelope. Once again dressed as the thug, she went to the post office arranged for the envelope to be delivered overnight to the apartment she'd rented, with signature proof of receipt.
All that was left to do on Saturday morning was sit in her new apartment and wait for the mail.
When the doorbell finally rang, she almost forgot to look through the peephole to make sure it was Rico before opening the door. As soon as she saw it was him, she deepened her voice and called, "Just a minute."
Closing her eyes, she inhaled slowly. It had been a long time since she had stepped into her chosen role of vigilante. A fresh surge of exhilaration filled her as she reveled in the forgotten sense of power. This day's challenge would see her vanquish another enemy.
She turned the lock.
* * *
Rico's mouth gaped as the door opened in front of him. For a moment he thought he was hallucinating. Standing there, with nothing but her long hair to cover her abundant curves, was Selena. The impact of seeing her unexpectedly... and totally naked... left him speechless.
"Hello, Rico. I've got something for you." She grasped his arm and pulled him inside.
He could barely move as he watched her close and lock the door. It occurred to him to protest but there really was no need. Teri had thrown him out and was filing for divorce. He was completely free to take advantage of his incredible luck.
Even before he finished that thought, she pressed his body back against the door and claimed his mouth in a searing, tongue-probing kiss. The mailbag hit the floor with a thud as his fingers released the Express Mail letter. When his own body joined her assault, any objection he might have had was overruled.
Now that he had finally given in, he couldn't touch enough, couldn't taste enough, as quickly as he needed. Not wanting to remove his hands from the flesh she so willingly offered, he allowed her to yank off his clothing. When she knelt before him to pay him the ultimate homage, he could barely tolerate the mind-boggling pleasure. She used her tongue and teeth to drive him to the brink of insanity, only to leave him hanging there as she rose to her feet.
She led him into the bedroom and slowly crawled onto the bed where a condom packet was sitting on a pillow like a little mint treat. She tossed it to him and waited for him to put it on. Then, holding her breasts up to him, she asked, "Do you want me now, Rico?"
He emitted a low growl as he pressed her backward and took one big nipple into his mouth. He was already about to burst, but he wanted to hold on to the feeling a while longer. Controlling the urge to bury himself deep inside her and be done with it, he made himself savor each of her feminine secrets. She moaned and squirmed beneath him, heightening his desire with each of her kittenish sounds.
Suddenly, as if he were weightless, she flipped him onto his back and mounted him. He groaned aloud with surprise and intense pleasure as she enveloped him completely, but prevented him from thrusting.
"No," she whispered. "I'll do it. You just enjoy yourself." And with those words she leaned forward, pressing her breasts to his face and creating a silken curtain of white hair around their heads.
With agonizing deliberation, she tightened her vaginal muscles, eased herself to his very tip, then made him wait for the moment when she would descend and begin again. He had never had a woman tease him into such a state. He hadn't even come and he was thinking of how soon he could manage a repeat.
His climax began slowly and built rapidly into an explosive finish that almost stopped his heart. In some far corner of his mind he was aware that her hand had slipped beneath the pillow and back out, but he could barely breathe, let alone open his eyes to see what she was doing. He felt her raising her upper body, and smiled when her muscles gripped him again and he was able to give her a valiant salute in return.
Selena sneered at the macho pig as she raised the knife in her hand. His egotistical grin contorted as she punctured his jugular and slashed his throat.
Selena's thighs clenched around the body until the involuntary twitching ceased. The initial spurt of blood settled into a low-pulsed flow as Rico's life oozed out onto the mattress. Indifferent to the blood splattered on her body, Selena got off the bed and reached for the items she had hidden beneath—a shower cap, washcloth, ammonia, a hand-held vacuum, two large self-locking storage bags, a heavy-duty trash bag, a wooden cutting board and a meat cleaver.
She centered Rico's right hand on the board, then whacked it off with the cleaver. Raising it by a finger, she let the blood drain from the appendage then dropped it into a bag.
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In one of the many true crime novels she had read, a branch of New York's Irish mob kept the hands of someone they killed to use his fingerprints on some future job. Since the thug had mentioned "a certain Irishman", Selena decided this act would firmly tie Rico's murder in with that mob. Also, the idea of using the fingerprints had intrigued Selena enough to risk keeping such clear-cut evidence of her accomplishment.
She stared critically at the body on the bed and decided she had done a professional-looking job. She severed Rico's left hand, put it in another bag, then secured her tools in the garbage bag, along with the used condom.
She put a tight shower cap over her hair and quickly rinsed the blood off in the shower. She knew it was imperative that nothing be left behind—even in a drain—that would suggest this was anything but a mob hit. She had exfoliated her body with a rough scrub and shaved from chin to toe before she'd left her apartment. She wasn't sure if it would matter but she washed Rico's penis and crotch area just in case.
Though she had purposely limited her movements around the apartment she soaked the cloth in ammonia and wiped every surface then went over the entire apartment with the vacuum.
Finally, only a few details remained. It could be days before anyone discovered the body, and she needed to be sure it was still somewhat identifiable without the fingerprints. To slow the decomposing process, she turned the air conditioning down as cold as it would go, closed off all the vents except the one in the bedroom, and shut that door. Her fascination with the criminal mind pushed her to perform one more eccentricity, just to confuse the police. When she left the apartment, taking every bit of evidence with her, she was wearing her man's disguise with two variations.
Although it was a snug fit, she had put on Rico's uniform shirt. The black wig was tied in back and tucked inside the shirt collar. If someone witnessed her departure from the apartment complex, it would be the postal uniform that would be remembered. If that someone was very observant and knew what the regular postman looked like, that witness would be supplying the information Selena wanted given. The description of the man who had left the premises in Rico's mail truck would fit that of the thug that had threatened Teri and rented the apartment.
It took only a bit of common sense to deliver the mail for a couple more blocks and return the truck to the post office branch parking lot. Again, she knew luck was smiling on her when no one noticed her arrival. But as she headed toward the employee parking lot to move Rico's car, there were too many people milling about outside to carry that part out. She had no choice but to leave it where it was and depart on foot. Selena could only hope those efforts would have his superiors think he'd finished his work and took off for his two-day weekend without performing whatever end-of-shift duties were required.
Unfortunately, she had no choice but to change clothes behind a building and hike back to the shopping plaza where her car was parked.
Later that night she would dump her tools, disguise, and Rico's belongings, except for his keys, in the murky East River, but for the moment, Selena simply drove back to the parking garage where she kept her car.
Only when she had locked and chained her apartment door did she permit herself to relax. She stored Rico's hands in the back of her freezer, put his keys in her special souvenir box, then methodically reviewed her activities, assuring herself she had overlooked nothing. Besides disposing of the remaining evidence, there remained one small detail. With a satisfied smile, she opened the envelope Rico had delivered to her and smoothed the creases from the paper within.
She had to find the right place for it. Taking the paper and a thumbtack into her bedroom, she smiled as she always did upon entering this place of purity. The French provincial furniture was just a shade off the snow-white of the ceiling, walls and carpet. With a critical eye to perfection, she studied the only adorned wall—the one opposite her elegant canopied bed.
Teri's new painting, which Selena had purchased anonymously from the Forsythe Gallery, held the center position. Around it were a collection of photos Teri had taken of her and thought she'd thrown away, one photo of her and Teri together in her studio, various newspaper notices announcing Teri's exhibits and the magazine article about Teri. She tacked the new addition next to the picture of the two of them.
For a final inspection she crawled onto her bed with its white eyelet spread and canopy and picked up the pretty porcelain-faced doll lying on her frilly white pillow. As she hugged her oldest and very best friend, her knees automatically folded up to her chest and her thumb slipped into her mouth. Softly sucking and rocking back and forth, she read and repeated the four words that made up her vow:
I AM THE PROTECTOR
And she recalled the day she had first learned what those words meant to her...
* * *
"I'll protect you, Juliette. Don't cry," Selena whispered to her favorite doll as she slid the closet door almost closed. Selena thought herself brave for a five-year-old, but not so brave that she could stay alone in total darkness. Without that sliver of light, she might imagine that the soft ribbon hanging from the dress above her head was a spider's web brushing her cheek instead.
"Now, Juliette, you know we must be very quiet, just like Mommy told us the last time. She'll make sure he doesn't find us again." Curling herself into a ball in the corner, Selena wiped her runny nose on her sweatshirt sleeve and reminded Juliette not to sniff aloud. Her parents' voices carried clearly from the living room downstairs. The angry words that her father had shouted only moments after arriving home had been warning enough.
She only wished she'd had time to go to the bathroom before hiding. The memory of how he'd hurt her the last time she'd had an accident made the tears fall faster. To keep from thinking of how much she had to go, she made herself listen to the argument going on outside her room.
"It's none of your goddamned business where I was tonight. I don't have to—"
Selena missed the rest of what he said because of the loud crash. She supposed he'd tripped and knocked something over and broken it. That sometimes happened when he came home late like this. And she also knew that besides being clumsy, he would smell bad and squint and blink a lot, like he couldn't see very well.
Her mother's voice was softer, and she couldn't make out the words at first, but then they suddenly became clear. Her parents had come into her bedroom.
"I told you, she's not here," Selena's mother said in a strange, scary voice. "She's... visiting my sister tonight."
"Your sister! What'd I tell you about her?"
"Lenny, please—"
"She's probably teaching my kid how to shoot up right now. If you were any kind of decent mother you wouldn't let that crazy cunt near her. I can't work my ass off all day and teach you how to do your job too."
"I—"
A hard smack cut her off, and when Selena heard her mother's cry, she had to peak out through the narrow opening in the closet. Her mother had fallen on the bed. She was pressing one hand against her cheek and looked terribly afraid. Daddy's back was to Selena, but she could tell he was taking off his belt. She knew how bad that belt could hurt and wanted to stop him from hurting Mommy that way.
She was about to push the closet door open when her mother looked right at her hiding place.
"No!" her mother screamed, just as the wicked belt whipped through the air. But Selena understood the order was for her and she obeyed. She knew it was her mother's only way of protecting her. In spite of the fear and hatred making her small body shake, she stayed quietly in her place long after her father left the room and her mother lay still on her bed.
Someday, she promised Juliette, he'll be sorry. I won't always be so little. This time her mother had protected her, but Selena vowed there would come a time when she would take care of her mother.
How will you do it? Juliette asked in the musical voice that only Selena could hear.
"I don't know," Selena whispered back. "He's so very big."
"I'll help
you. And when you do all the things I say, you will become the Protector."
Selena liked the sound of that so much, she gave Juliette a happy hug. When she thought it was finally safe to come out of hiding, she became aware of a problem that made her tears start all over.
She had wet herself again.
Chapter 4
Tuesday morning, Teri came awake with a start, as if she had forgotten to set her alarm for an important appointment. She yawned and rubbed her eyes before focusing on the clock on the nightstand. To her amazement, it was after ten. She had no appointments, nothing pressing to take care of, no reason to feel guilty over sleeping in for a change.
As she had done the last five mornings, she glanced at Rico's side of the bed and reminded herself that he was gone. She had given him the money he needed on Friday, he had signed the settlement agreement and, exactly as she had ordered, he hadn't returned or bothered her since. She was happy about that. She just hadn't expected him to stay away.
In fact, she was truly surprised about that. Chilly fingers of suspicion scraped her spine. What if he took the money and ran off? No, it wasn't enough for him to do that. But what if he took the money and gambled it away instead of paying off his debt? Under threat of sure death he may have gone into hiding. No, she was positive he was far too frightened to mess with them. Could it be that he was actually just living up to his promise to stay away? Dear God, could she be that lucky?
She took a leisurely shower and headed to the kitchen. She saw the flashing light on the phone but figured whoever it was—especially if it was Rico—it could wait until she had her coffee. For the past several nights, she had shut off the ringer just in case he might have tried to catch her in a moment of weakness, or half asleep, but this was the first morning someone had called before she got up.
When she finally turned the ringer back on and started listening to the messages, she was glad it had been off. There were two calls from Gary, a co-worker of Rico's, who wanted him to call as soon as he got in, as well as a call from Mr. Kelly, Rico's supervisor. The level of his profanity indicated just how angry he was with Rico for some reason. Teri scribbled down the numbers each had given. There was also a call for Rico from someone named Horse who had some interesting advice to share, which she immediately deleted, and Drew and Selena each said they'd see her later today.
Wicked Obsessions Page 4
