“Here.” He had wandered past the bed toward a wall of built in shelves and cabinets on the other side of the loft. Opening the cabinets, he revealed rows upon rows of books. Books on varied subjects – military history, biographies, trivia – lots of trivia. Self-help books lined the top shelf of the cabinet. “How to be a Nice Person”, “Live for Today”, “New You. Better You”.
Really? Pete wants to be a nice guy. Who knew?
Her eyes scanned the rest of the titles. Not one fluffy romance in the bunch…at least from her first glance. She wouldn’t bother scanning again. ‘Pete’ didn’t seem like a fluffy romantic anyway.
“There’s more in the next cabinet,” he stated as he turned.
“Thanks. Umm…so how long do I have to amuse myself?”
“As long as it takes.”
“As long as it takes to do what?” she asked, hoping for a revealing answer and receiving a crooked smile instead before he turned and walked across the small room.
“Hey, Pete?”
“Yeah?”
“If I have to go to the bathroom, can I come downstairs?” She sat down in front of the cabinet with her back towards him.
“Sure.”
“What if I need a glass of water?”
“Jane?”
“I know. Shut up. I got it,” she muttered absently as her eyes skimmed over the titles.
“You know me so well…” She could hear the wry sarcasm in his voice as he descended the stairs. Moments later, a scraping sound could be heard and the sounds of birds chirping become much more pronounced. It was nice, peaceful really. She could pinpoint the exact moment when fresh air blew in and circulated within the wood beamed walls as she continued to scan titles. Wherever the cabin was located, it was somewhat isolated, but not too far from a paved road. From what little time she had to acclimate herself to the outside of the cabin, it was clear that there were no other dwellings around, at least as far as she could see through the dense trees surrounding the property. She had absolutely no clue as to her whereabouts; it took maybe a half an hour or 45 minutes to get from Detroit to wherever she was in her estimation. Kind of hard to tell time or general direction in a trunk…
Her hand reached out and grabbed the most colorful book in the bunch. The Big Book of Trivia… so this is what Pete does for a good time? Other than stalk, kidnap and whack people? The shrill ring of a phone broke into her thoughts and his voice could be heard from down below almost immediately.
“Hi.” His voice sounded wary for some reason.
“Huh? Put her on. No, I don’t care, put her on,” she heard as footsteps sounded from below. The front door opened and shut and she immediately stood up and dropped the book on the bed. It took two seconds of internal debating before her feet crept down the stairs. Maybe this might give her half a clue as to the hell was going on?
He was pacing back and forth a small distance away from the front porch. From his hand gesturing, she could tell something was upsetting him.
A quick glance toward the computer netted a login screen – no help there.
“Why not? Stop being difficult. I’ll be there soon, OK? No, I don’t know when, but soon. Just…hang in there for me, please?” His voice went from commanding to gentle in the space of a sentence.
“I love you,” he stated, then silence.
“Tell me you love me too,” he demanded before a loud sigh escaped his lips.
“Thank you. I need to go. I will see you soon.” He paused a few moments. “Don’t cop an attitude, woman,” he stated then let out a small laugh.
Her feet flew to the stairs, running up as quietly as possible as the sound of footsteps sounded on the stairs outside. Heart racing, she practically jumped half the distance of the room onto the huge bed, flopping on her stomach and immediately grabbing the thick book and opening it upside down. Righting it, she could hear the front door close and her eyes stared at the words, not really seeing them.
Obviously it was a woman. A woman he was in love with. From the tone of his voice and his words, it was abundantly clear. What would she think of him keeping another woman captive? Of course, he wasn’t attracted to her. If he was, he certainly hid it well. Still, it was a bit disconcerting.
*****
Someone was being quiet and incredibly cooperative, he thought as he tried to concentrate on the information scrolling on the screen in front of him hours later. All manner of criminal activity, dropped charges, failed arrest attempts… Miguel Terazzas was about to cease being a burr on the butt of the legal system finally. He knew, or at least had a rather positive idea where to find him tonight. He wouldn’t be alone, and this could be a problem. This made tonight’s activities a bit spontaneous – something that he didn’t look forward to in the least. Instead of concentrating on Miguel, his mind kept wandering.
Jane was just plain bad for business.
Every once in a while his eyes would rise to the ceiling above him, his body remained planted on the stool as the urge to check up on her was rather strong. She must be sleeping. A mumbled word here and there – usually food related, sometimes comical; sometimes just…arousing? Not arousing…annoying. He was trying to concentrate and she was upstairs making weird sounds in her sleep again.
Jane. The most beautiful woman he or most men would ever lay eyes on and she was the strangest person he had ever encountered. What could be so bad that she wanted to end her life? Granted it wasn’t exactly a success, but really? She talked about it like it was nothing – as if she looked forward to it; if it was done to her exacting standards, that is.
What a nut. What a beautiful nut. His fingers flew on the keyboard, hoping for new information but the same sparse text filled the screen. One thing he did know? No one would miss the girl who lay in his bed mumbling something about smothered and covered hashbrowns – whatever the hell that was.
*****
The timestamp on the bottom of the computer showed 6:28 PM, the small rumble in the pit of his stomach was a reminder that he should probably get dinner started. He closed out of the screens, shutting down the laptop before closing it with a click and removing the small tower attached to one of the ports before stuffing everything into the big black case situated on the stool next to him. His fingers sought and found a small plastic bottle tucked into one of the side pockets and he removed it, placing it on the island before wandering over to the cabinet and pulling out a bottle of Merlot. Hopefully she liked wine. She was going to be so pissed.
*****
Rounding the corner, she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and took in the sight of two plates of food – chicken and something green with red flecks in it, a glass of what she assumed was red wine next to each plate on the island. Who knew Mister Healthy drank wine? It was kind of romantic… all that was missing was a lit candle and maybe a guy that didn’t kill people for a living...
“So, what’s on the schedule tonight?” she asked, seating herself on the nearest stool.
Please do not say ‘go to Eden’…she thought. That would be bad. The last time she was there was a disaster. Too many people, too much commotion. Her head fairly exploded with it. It was the 2nd and subsequent last time that Rick had ever taken her out in public for good reason.
“I have something to take care of tonight.”
Whew. Wait, no. Ewww.
“Something as in…a person?”
He looked up from his plate and placed his fork on it lightly.
“Do you really want to know?”
“No! Nope. I don’t…but…I don’t have to go with you…do I?” she asked with widened eyes.
“No. I mean, unless you really want to…” He was teasing her. He was teasing her about coming with him to whack somebody…while he casually ate his food…like he wasn’t in the least concerned with the fact that someone was going to lose their life that night…
“No! I don’t really want to. That’s just…gross. Can we talk about something else?” she asked before taking a sip of wine.<
br />
“Sure. What would you like to talk about?”
“Did you know that the Baby Ruth candy bar was named after President Grover Cleveland’s daughter Ruth?”
“I knew that,” he answered.
“Really? Ok. What’s the only other animal in the world that can get leprosy?”
“Armadillo. Eat up,” he immediately answered then gestured toward her plate and turned back toward his own.
“Did you know that a cockroach can live up to several weeks with its’ head cut off?”
“That’s some appetizing dinner conversation, huh?” He shot a glance that was amused and annoyed at the same time.
“Sorry. That’s what happens when you leave someone alone with a trivia book for four hours. Four hours! What did you do for four hours? Were you looking up their Facebook? What the hell?” She cut a piece of the chicken and placed it in her mouth, chewing vigorously.
“Scumbags don’t have Facebook accounts…”
“Scumbags like Eddie?” she blurted with a full mouth.
“You seem awful concerned about Eddie. Did you make nice in the trunk? I mean, you did help him…”
“He tried to…ugh, never mind.”
“Tried to what?” His fork clanked on the edge of the plate as he turned his full piercing stare on her.
“Nothing. Just eat.”
“Did he touch you?” he continued, his gaze unwavering and jaw set.
“He tried, I guess. For the record, I stopped helping after he said he was going to screw my brains out…never mind. This is good. You’re a very good cook. This is probably healthy, huh?” She cut another piece of chicken and quickly placed it in her mouth.
“I’m sorry about that. I thought I knocked him out pretty good. He just got out of prison that morning. I should have known.”
He was apologizing?
“Yeah, well -” She started before straightening. “What do you mean he just got out of prison that morning? You stuffed me in a trunk with a convicted felon? Are you nuts?”
“In my defense, I wasn’t going to take you yet. I have a few things going on right now.”
“But you took me anyway. Why?”
Why? She wouldn’t want to know the real reason. Hell, he didn’t want to admit the real reason to himself, let alone her…
“Because you were about to be evicted and I might not have been able to track you down.” There. That sounded normal…
“Oh. Ok. Well, can we talk about the ahh…you know the …” She made a swiping motion across her throat with her finger.
“No,” his reply was a bit too forceful.
“Hmmm,” she answered with a thoughtful expression on her face before changing the subject. “This wine is good. I didn’t think you’d be a wine drinker.”
“Red wine is good for you – and that’s actually true. It’s good for your heart; do you want to know why?”
“Nah, I think I have enough useless factoids swirling around in my head now,” she replied before taking another healthy sip. It was warming her body, wrapping around her like a comfy cocoon of peaceful bliss.
“So, why do you want to find Rick, can you tell me that now?” The sudden clang of his fork caused her eyes to snap up and lock with his. The look on his face was intense, his eyebrows were scrunched together slightly and he was so close, he filled her line of vision.
“Were you in love with him?”
“What? No…” She shook her head, her back angling away from him.
“Did you sleep with him?”
“That’s not an appropriate thing to ask!” She turned her face toward her plate once again before his hand shot up and grabbed her chin, turning her face toward his.
“Did you?” His voice was low, somewhat scary, all kinds of sexy and damn, was he close…
“Of course not. I didn’t even know him for two months,” she stated honestly, starting to lose her thoughts as she became almost mesmerized by his eyes. They were brown, but they had a tint to them, maybe from the greenish ring around his pupils. They were really interesting, really…blank. No tunnel vision, no thoughts, actions, past memories, nothing. He’s either truly good or pure evil…
“So what?”
“So what, what?” she mumbled, losing all concentration on the conversation at hand.
“So what if you didn’t know him for two months. What’s two months?”
She straightened abruptly in her stool. “The two month rule. Everybody knows that. You don’t sleep with someone for two months, that way you know if they’re really into you or just wanting to get in your pants. It’s the principle of the thing.” She dislodged his hand from her chin gently. He was in love with another woman and this whole conversation was pointless and completely inappropriate. Another sip of wine just seemed to add to her blissful state, so she took another for good measure.
“I feel funky,” she blurted then widened her eyes. “What did I just say?”
“You said you felt funky.”
“Cool, I thought I said horny. WHAT!” One hand clamped over her mouth as her eyes darted from side to side then squeezed shut before opening a moment later.
His shoulders were shaking a bit and his mouth was clamped shut before a small laugh forced them open.
“That’s not funny. I don’t know why I said that…must be the wine…” she stated absently before turning toward her plate once again.
Oh, it’s definitely the wine…he thought as he took in her blush or maybe she was just flushed. Hopefully she wasn’t allergic to the mild tranquilizer he slipped in her glass earlier. She looked so enchanting at that moment it was hard to remember what his actual intentions were for Jane Hamilton.
“I’m really tired. No, I’m not. I’m drunk! Wait. How can I be drunk? I didn’t even drink the whole glass,” she was speaking more to herself than him.
“Maybe you should go to bed.”
“I just took a nap, plus it’s not even dark out,” she stated as she glanced at the open window. The sun was definitely making its’ descent she noticed, but still. It made no sense. She certainly wasn’t a lightweight…
Peering closely into his eyes, her vision started to tunnel. She could see a hand reaching into a black bag, grabbing and opening a small plastic pill bottle. A tablet was pulled out, pulled apart and a fine white powder was sprinkled into a glass of wine. Her glass of wine. “Did you drug the wine? Ugh…you did, didn’t you? I can’t feel my fingers. Look…” She was attempting to snap them and failing. They just didn’t want to work right.
“Come on,” He pushed back his stool and stood next to her, his hand already encircling her upper arm.
“Did you slip me a woofie?” she slurred as her vision went from tunneled to blurry.
“I didn’t slip you a roofie, you nut. Come on.” He pulled up causing her to pop off the stool and stand for a split second before her knees buckled. Apparently her legs didn’t want to work either.
He caught her around the waist, pulling her to his side as he began to walk toward the stairs.
“Why’d you do that?” She attempted to look up at him as he hefted her up with one arm, lifting her feet from the ground before he easily walked up the steps, her body practically plastered to the side of his. It put her face in awful close proximity with his profile.
“Don’t worry about it,” he mumbled, staring straight ahead.
“But…”
“Shhh.”
Some strange sound escaped her lips, something close to a growl mixed with a huff of displeasure. Whatever it was, it sounded ridiculous even in her inebriated state.
Crossing the room, he deposited her on the bed, gently pushing her back as he sat on the edge and opened the bottom drawer of the nightstand.
“This bed is greaaaaat…what are you doing, whas’ that?” He didn’t answer but he didn’t have to. She attempted to sit up as he pulled long pieces of fabric that would definitely be used to bind her to the damn bed again. Even after she promised to cooperate.
“Noooo…” she whined as he gave her a slight push back down to the mattress. “I’m not goin’ anywhere! You don’t hafta do that…”
“I don’t trust you. Give me your hand.”
“This hand here?” She waved her right hand in front of him as he attempted to grab it. She quickly tucked it under her back. “How ‘bout this one, want this one?” She smirked as she waved the left in front of him then quickly moved it out of grabbing range. “Too fast for ya…” she breathed out as he chased her hands with his own. The situation caused a gleeful smile to play on her lips.
“Jane…” His voice was clearly annoyed as he continued to pursue her hands.
She revealed both hands to him and wiggled her fingers in front of his face. “Now ya see ‘em…” She quickly tucked them beneath her as he made a grab for them, “now ya don’t…” she mumbled before letting out a decidedly un-lady like snort.
“Dammit Jane, stop being a jackass.” Both of his hands cupped either side of her face to hold her still and for a breathless moment, her eyes attached themselves to his. Her body ceased wiggling and all thought seemed to escape her as they stared at each other, their faces far too close for comfort. He didn’t make an attempt to move in but it certainly seemed as if the intent might be there. His face went from annoyed to sensual in a split second and it was confusing as hell.
“I have to pee,” she whispered. It caused him to blink and straighten.
“What?”
“Yeah! You were gonna tie me up for what, the whole night? What if I pissed the bed? Did you think of that? NO…” she stated emphatically.
One eyebrow rose. “Do you really need to go?”
“Yup.”
He let out a frustrated sigh before grabbing behind her shoulders and pulling her up. He turned his body and grabbed under her knees and behind her back to scoop her to his chest before walking back toward the stairs.
This Guy Kills Me Page 10
