The Vigilantes Collection

by Lake, Keri

  “You did.” She rolled her eyes and shook her head again. “It’s stupid.”

  “Try me.”

  “We had a … neighbor when I was younger, who liked to chase me with the hose and spray me in the face. Guess some things just stick with you.”

  No. She seemed too at ease with that story. I’d been around enough girls with triggers to know it took more prodding than that. And most times, they couldn’t even pinpoint what had caused the trigger. Usually something they couldn’t remember.

  I wasn’t buying it, but I wasn’t pushing it, either. The girl had walls thicker than steel and higher than any I’d scaled before. An impenetrable fortress that’d probably kept most men from conquering whatever she hid on the other side of it. Unfortunately for her, I wasn’t most men, and I happened to have a criminal history of breaking into places I wasn’t supposed to be. Would only be a matter of time before more things would come to light about her captivity. I had no doubt about that.

  “I’m just going to close my eyes for a bit, if that’s okay?”

  Stroking her hair back one more time, I planted a kiss to her forehead. “Whatever you need, baby.”

  Only took about twenty minutes for her to crash, and as soon as she was out, I threw some pants on and snuck out onto the balcony. I lit up a smoke, tugged my cell from my back pocket, and sent a quick text to China:

  ME: Thanks for the records. Can I ask one more favor?

  The dots on the screen told me she’d begun writing back already.

  CHINA: You don’t have to ask. I’m here to track down whatever you need.

  I’d wondered if China had been through some shit herself. Why else would a chick go to so much trouble for nothing?

  ME: I need to track down a video. Was uploaded to a site in the badlands.

  CHINA: Gonna need more info than that.

  ME: Snuff. Guys wearing pig masks. Girl drowned in the video. Afraid that’s all I have.

  CHINA: I’ll look around. Might have to get a friend’s help on this one. Sit tight.

  ME: It’s supposed to be bad. Just thought I’d warn you.

  CHINA: Aren’t they all? Talk soon.

  ME: Thanks

  I took a long drag and blew the smoke upward, watching it dissolve into the night. Made me think how easily girls in the dark web disappeared. Faded into stories mothers told their daughters to keep them from doing stupid shit.

  Never heard from again.

  Maybe it’d only been coincidence that Nicoleta had reacted that way to the water. Could’ve had more to do with the act itself than the water, I reminded myself. Like an aversion to surprises, or heat on her face. I’d once dated a girl who flipped out over the scent of Murphy Oil because it reminded her of the times her old man made her scrub the church pews when she was bad.

  I finished my cigarette, tossed it into the designated cup we’d set out, and headed back inside.

  While Nicoleta lay asleep, I shed my pants and crawled into bed next to her. Small tremors still wracked her body, but less than before. Without disturbing her, I positioned myself along her back, slinked my arm around her body, and closed my eyes.

  Couldn’t tell if I’d actually fallen into sleep, or not, when a scream echoed inside my head. Eyes flipped open, I lay disoriented for a moment, double-blinking against the surrounding darkness, until the dull white ceiling came into view. Whimpers drew my attention toward the foot of the bed, and I sat up, finding Nicoleta curled up in the corner of the room, her pale, naked body glowing in the darkness. With her knees bent into her chest, she looked like a frightened animal. No doubt, another nightmare in play.

  Slowly, so as not to startle her, I slid over the edge of the bed and crept toward her, noticing her eyes screwed shut and her hands covering her ears.

  “Nic? What’s going on?”

  “Shhhh.” She removed her hands from her ears and scanned the room. “They’ll hear you,” she whispered, leaning forward as though looking for someone.

  Made my skin crawl every time she had an episode.

  “Who?”

  While frantically shaking her head, she whispered something I couldn’t make out. For about thirty seconds, that went on, until I got down on all fours and reached out to touch her hand.

  She stilled.

  Her eyes popped open. Her body no longer trembling, and she frowned, lowering her hands. “Dax?”

  “You had a nightmare?”

  “I don’t … I don’t remember anything. I got up to use the bathroom, and … I don’t know what happened.”

  I kept contact with her skin, rubbing my thumb across her forearm. “Think you might’ve blacked out?”

  “If I did, it’s never happened before.”

  Sitting back onto my heel, I hiked up a knee and rested my elbow on it. “You said, they’ll hear you. Who were you talking about?”

  A frown flickered across her face, and she rubbed her forehead. “I have no idea.” She pushed to her feet and ran her hand through her hair. “I’m fine now. Whatever it was.”

  “You sure about that?”

  “Yeah, I’m sure.” Light tiptoes took her back to the bed, where she scrambled beneath the covers, her face still smacked with confusion.

  Unsure if she wanted physical contact right then, I opted for the chair by the window, where I could watch her.

  The second I plopped down on the seat, she sat up on the bed. “Will you … will you lay with me?”

  The question sounded foreign coming from her, and as if I’d taken a hard fist to the brain, I sat dumbfounded for a moment, staring back at her with no response.

  “Please?”

  Sliding into the bed beside her, I maintained my distance, letting her decide what she wanted from me.

  She turned into my chest, tucking herself close to my body, just like a kitten, and as soon as she’d settled, I smothered her inside my arms.

  Up until that point, our affections toward each other had been an awkward dance of upholding boundaries, but for the first time, it felt easy. Felt like she was truly mine and no one else’s.

  She ran her fingers over the hairs on my chest, her light touch stoking up urges I didn’t need to act on right then, as my mind searched for distraction.

  “So, what do you know about the second guy?”

  “His name is Kenny Robicheaux. A real weasel of a guy. He’s on Tesarik’s payroll.”

  “Doing what?”

  “Collecting debts mostly. But he’s been involved in a couple productions for him, too.”

  “Do we know where he hangs out?”

  “All I know is that he’s a gambler, and he likes his gin. Drinks Jenever, from what I understand.”

  “He’s a gambler?”

  “From what I hear.”

  A face took shape inside my head, one I’d seen frequently at Frank’s bar on Friday night’s, when he’d hold poker tournaments in the back. Ugly, bald bastard, with half his face all scarred up. I hadn’t talked to him much, at all, but if memory served me, his name was Kenny, and he often had a glass of gin in front of him. “Where’d you hear about him?”

  “One of Tesarik’s acquaintances. Because I was permitted to attend parties with him, I also got to mingle with guests.” Her hand glided to my back as she spoke, her fingertips dancing over my skin in little mind-jacking circles that made it fucking impossible to stay focused on her words. “There was one who frequented the parties, a lawyer, named Karl Kutscher. In exchange for giving Karl some information on Tesarik, Karl provided me with some general information on Kenny. He’d apparently defended him in a recent lawsuit ”

  Well, wasn’t that some shit? Karl was the bastard father of my buddy Ty’s girl—the one who’d provided the IP address that’d helped me track down Nicoleta in the first place. Funny how it all came together like that.

  “Weren’t you a cunning little shit?”

  She smiled and kissed my chest over one of my nipples, shooting a healthy dose of blood straight to my dick. “
Information is power. The more you gain, the more power you acquire.”

  I cleared my throat, trying to ignore what she was doing to me. How at ease she suddenly seemed, as if our little roofscapade had knocked out some of her inhibitions. “So, I might know how to find this Kenny.”

  “The BDSM club?”

  “No. Better than that. I’ll give my buddy, Frank, a heads up. If he shows up for the weekly poker game, he’ll alert us.”

  “You know Kenny, then?”

  Shaking my head, I stole a moment to let a shiver ripple down my spine while she kept on with her maddening tickles. “Seen him around, is all.”

  “This Frank … can you trust him to call you?” She flicked her tongue over the spot that’d remote controlled my cock, and every muscle in my body stiffened to keep from knocking her onto her back.

  “If he had any idea what that pedophile prick was up to? Hell, yes. Frank has three daughters in high school. The trick will be trying to convince the hothead not to kill the bastard himself.”

  “And what’s the plan, if he does show up?” She guided my hand to her breast, enticing me to play along, and let out a sexy little sigh the second my fingertips hit her nipple.

  “We’ll follow him, and strike when he least expects it.” I held on to the peak and tugged just enough to have her arching against me.

  “Sneak attack. Like a shark,” she breathed, eyes hooded with lust.

  “Or a wolf.” I pretended to bite down on her neck, and I growled against her skin, as she squealed and wriggled against me.

  “Dax?” she said, as I released her throat and kissed the shell of her ear. “Do you think you might want to do what you did on the roof earlier?” The way she bit her lip, eyes shying away from mine, was so fucking cute, I wanted to crush her in my arms.

  “Another round?”

  “Yeah. But here in bed.”

  I rolled over top of her, the bulk of my weight braced on outstretched arms, and lowered to kiss her lips. “Baby, I thought you’d never ask.” With another kiss to her throat, I inched my way down her body, leaving a trail of kisses along the way, until I reached the top of her thighs and hid beneath the sheets.

  28

  Nicoleta

  Dax parked his car along the curb in front of the bar, on which a vintage arrow sign flashed Bottoms Lounge, reminding me of something out of the sixties.

  His buddy had told him to keep an eye out for a beat-up gray Astro van, which just happened to sit in the side parking lot of the bar, directly across from us.

  “How do you know him? The bar owner?” I bit into the coney dog Dax had picked up at a small stand along the way.

  “Worked for the Bojanski’s when I was a kid.” Dax chomped down on an onion ring and took a sip of his Coke. “My buddy, Jase, and I would help rough up people who owed them money.”

  “So, really, you do the same thing Kenny does. Minus raping kids.”

  “Yeah, minus that shit.” Shooting me an unamused glance, his lip curled in disgust. “But it’s checks and balances out here, Nic. The line between good guys and bad guys sometimes gets blurred. I never punched an innocent man, though. I can say that, at least.”

  “I’d say you’re one of the good ones.” I lifted his Coke to take a sip, then stuffed another bite of the coney into my mouth. “How long do we wait?” I asked around an ungracious mouthful of bread and meat.

  He lifted a second hot dog from the bag and glanced over at me. The man ate like a horse, which made sense for his size, if not the chisel of his muscles. “Settle in, kid. These poker games sometimes go well into the morning.”

  “If the guy’s a buddy of yours, why not just go in and drag him out the back door?”

  “Too many eyes and neutral territory. You and I are supposed to be laying low, remember? ‘Sides that, we passed a cop about a block back. Someone calls, it’ll be game over.”

  I licked the sauce from my fingertips, savoring the spice of the mustard I’d squirted it with. “So, when you’re not beating up guys who owe money, or pedophiles who send you dick pics, or climbing abandoned buildings, what do you do? For a job?”

  “I worked for a long time, installing floors.”

  “Floors? Seriously? That’s so … boring.”

  The flex of his jaw and bob of his throat when he swallowed held me rapt for some reason. Distracting.

  “Only job I ever held that felt legitimate, though. Kinda made me feel normal for a while.”

  “So, you quit it?” Popping the last bite, I crinkled the paper and stuffed it into the bag set on the floor.

  “Just found vigilante work more rewarding—financially and spiritually.”

  I reared back at that. “You make money doing this? How?”

  “People like the idea of someone going after scum. I post a video online?” He shook his head and lifted his Coke for another sip. “People go crazy when they see it. I’ve been offered everything from weekends on a yacht, to rent-free living and marriage proposals.”

  “Marriage? You’re a celebrity, then.” I set my feet up on the dashboard and crossed my arms, thinking how many women would lose their shit if they knew how skilled he was in the sack, too.

  “No. I’m a guy who goes to sleep every night wishing the world wasn’t such a shitty place, sometimes.” Dax eyed my legs before tearing into his next bite. “Problem with playing a victim is, you become acutely aware of how many predators there are. It’s fucking depressing.”

  The mere thought of him stalking those vile men roused the urge to hop in his lap. Over the last couple of days, my cravings for touch had intensified, thanks to whatever he’d done on that roof. Probably altered my brain when I’d climaxed. As though he’d cracked open my nerve endings, leaving them raw, my skin burned for the feel of his hands. “You’re a predator, too, though. An apex.”

  “I am. I like to hunt pussies.”

  I smiled at that, letting my knees fall open and catching another sly glance out the corner of his eye. “What time is it?”

  “Ten o’clock. Games usually go until two, but I’ve been at some that go until about five in the morning.”

  “So, we’re looking at about four, maybe seven, hours in here?”

  “Looks like it.”

  Rubbing my hands over my thighs peeled his gaze from the food in his hands. I watched his jaw flex, thinking back to only hours before, when his face had been between my thighs, and something tugged at my stomach, not unlike those seconds before a pink pill had been set against my tongue. I needed him again. The tremble of withdrawals made me all too aware how quickly my body had replaced one addiction for another. “You know, I’ve never had sex in a ‘Cuda before.”

  He cocked a brow and lowered the hot dog from his mouth, his eyes seemingly hungry for something, too. Always ready to offer a fix. “Is that an invitation?”

  Biting my lip failed to hold back the smile tugging at my mouth. “What if it is?”

  “Then, you need to get your eager little ass in that backseat before I finish eating.”

  “Or what?”

  “You’re going to end up with coney sauce on your tits.”

  * * *

  There was something deeply erotic about watching Dax in the throes of sex. I felt as if I’d been transported back to the days of Greek gods, ascended into the heavens, as he stared down at me, eyes focused, brow slick with sweat, face rouged in pleasure. No one had ever looked at me so intently during the act before—perhaps because it’d been easier to violate me that way. Small and cramped, the backseat offered little room for his massive body, hunched over me like a steel cage.

  The windows had long since steamed, and the car rocked with every punishing drive of his hips. His muscles contracted and stretched beneath my palms, as I slid them across his back. Slicked by my wetness, his piercing skated over my slippery walls with each withdrawal, and damn near hit my womb with every plunge, always nailing that elusive bundle of nerves with just the right pressure.

  Slow
ing his thrusts, the piercing massaged the sensitive spot, hitting the button that had me arching into him on a warm rush of blood. I’d already climaxed once and was working myself up to round two. It had little to do with the metal itself, and more to do with Dax simply knowing how to use it. The piercing created the right amount of force, but Dax brought the magic in the way he moved and circled his hips. Smooth and controlled, like that of a male stripper.

  Exhausted and out of breath, I reached up to drag my finger down his temple, gathering the sweat from his skin. The veins in his neck pulsed. His jaw clenched, and I braced myself, clutching the handle of the back passenger door.

  My mother would’ve called us sin in the flesh. She would’ve said we were dirty and depraved, immoral, and inevitably bound for hell.

  As needy as I’d become, I’d almost believe her.

  Dax was gentle at times, and rough when I needed him to be, nothing of which felt evil, or wrong. I knew evil. I’d felt it before.

  No, Dax and I were beautiful together—a messy painting, thrown against a canvas, that somehow came together in perfect balance. Both of us an intersecting dichotomy of good and bad, strong and weak.

  The knot building at my core wound tighter, tugging at my thigh muscles, as I inched closer and closer to the edge. His grunts and heavy breaths punctuated each drive of his hips.

  Fucking me into a stupor.

  I smashed my breasts into his chest, and my eyes rolled back, as the orgasm exploded up my spine into a warm burst that spread to every muscle in my body.

  “Fuck!” Dax cried out, still pumping inside of me, his fingers curled tight through my damp hair.

  I’d never had a lover before, never one who connected on a level that transcended me the way Dax had. I smiled as we climaxed together, our bodies trembling, mine both warm and cold with the exertion. My heartrate slowed, muscles sagged, and I basked in the aftershock of pleasure.

  He rested his sticky forehead against my equally clammy neck and breathed, his wide back expanding between my palms clutched at either side of him.

  As the two of us drifted back down to earth, Dax lifted his head to peer out the window.