Five Alarm Lust (23 page)

“Gilli, this is Constable Rick Feller. He was wondering if you’re up to speaking with him.”

Gillian frowned, her face paling even further. “Of course. What can I do for you, Constable?”

“I’m investigating some odd payments made in the past few weeks to a company we suspect of having connections to a rather questionable organization. It was brought to Mister Fritz’s attention by a Miss Willows, who was going through a copy of the yearly statements as per your late father’s request,” Rick started.

“What? I don’t, I didn’t, I don’t know what’s going on.” Gillian bit her lip as she sat up. Jack rushed over to help her, his touch careful.

“Baby, just relax, lie back. There isn’t anything Rick has to say you can’t take lying down. It’ll be okay.” Jack glared across the room, noting the uncomfortable look on Rick’s face. Good, he needed to sweat a bit.

“We’re not accusing you, Miss Hilliard. Instead, we’d like to know if you recognize these.” Rick pulled several plastic-encased checks from his briefcase and extended his arm. “They were made out to BMC Consulting. My understanding is you do not use checks?”

“How would you know that?” Jack demanded.

“We got old bank records as part of our investigation. Miss Hilliard has a checking account, but has never ordered checks, nor has she ever written one.” Rick paused. “I am good at what I do, Jack.”

“No, I don’t. I never have. Doctor Reimer suggested I avoid it to steer clear of my mother tampering with my accounts.” Gillian gagged as she stared at the documents in front of her. Flipping through them, she glanced up. “I’ve never heard of this company. I don’t use any consulting firms. And I really don’t have this kind of cash.”

“I’m going to be brutally honest here, Miss Hilliard. We suspected as much. The account belongs to you. Your legal representative, Miss Willows, confirmed it. It was opened before your father was killed. It was set up to release a set amount each month for living expenses, but someone, a person in a position of trust and power, altered the guidelines of the trust. In truth we suspect someone has been funneling funds, and up until recently they were pretty smart about it. We’d like to know if we have your cooperation in regards to this investigation.”

“What? Why?” Gillian glanced between Rick and Jack, her emotions swinging wildly. “I … of course I’ll do whatever you need. I didn’t know anything about this account. I just don’t understand where the money would come from. I know you’ve explained, but this is all so unreal to me.”

His heart dropped at the meek whimper from Gillian as she dropped the stack of checks on the coffee table and stared at them. Somehow, he doubted this was even close to being resolved.

* * * *

The Warden hadn’t been too keen on her visiting Mike anymore. He’d blathered on about how it was only for family. After promising this would be the last visit, he’d consented to it. Still, she needed to get things taken care of, and she needed Mike to do his share. Barbara paced the confines of the small cabin, her fists planted on her hips. A glance out the window revealed the guards escorting Mike toward her. She paced toward the kitchen and back again, her anger burning hotter with each step.

“Well, if this isn’t a delightful surprise?” Mike whistled as he closed the door. “The old man not doing it for you these days?”

Barbara reached out, the crack of her palm against his cheek loud in the silence. “I asked you to find me a killer. Not someone who couldn’t deliver. Do you think for a moment that if they figure it out you’re going to walk?”

Ignoring the fury twisting his face into an ugly mask, Barbara shook her head. “Gillian’s very much alive, in spite of your friend’s meddling with the car. Frankly, it seems a rather risky method to do the job. Her new boyfriend was at the hospital when she was released, and in spite of my attempts to contact her, she’s beyond my reach. Jack won’t let me anywhere near her. He acts like some besotted fool.”

“He didn’t have nothin’ to do with her car, he favors a knife or something like it. Not my problem. The bitch is—”

“They also froze the account.” Barbara leaned forward, her eyes narrowing. “Which leads me to think they may be aware of a few things, which should they come to light could have far-reaching consequences. For both of us. Yesterday, my asshole husband took away the credit cards, which leaves me a little on the broke side!”

“Well, can’t help you with that husband of yours. Look, Gillian’s a coward, she’s gonna run. Just have to know where to hit her the hardest.” Mike rolled his shoulders. “Just so happens I know. You get me the cell I asked for?”

“Of course I have it. The guards don’t know it or I’d have been refused entry.” Barbara pulled out the slim cell and handed it over. “Why? What are you going to do?”

“You got a number for lover boy?”

“Of course.” Barbara smirked. “If there’s anything good of having my husband, it’s knowing his staff’s phone numbers. Four-oh-three, five-five-five, two-one-two-two.” Hovering over him, she watched Mike fiddle with the slim phone before he punched in the numbers with a happy little snicker. Snapping the phone shut, he offered a slick grin.

“What did you do?”

“Saved the number for later. I’ll just have to make sure the guards don’t get their hands on this little baby.” Mike pressed her back against the wall. “Bitch may think she’s free, but she ain’t. Now, you wanna talk about her or use our time a bit more productively?”

Barbara gasped when his hand tightened around her throat. She shivered, arousal a slow, hot sludge through her veins as he jerked her pants open and his hand slithered inside to rub at her clit. She whimpered, thrusting her breasts out as he slid his hand down her throat, tugging and ripping buttons loose to reveal her black lace bra.

She stifled a wince when he bit her breast, and she raised a hand and ran her fingers through his hair. Whimpering and moaning with each nip of his teeth, she gasped. Spreading her legs slightly, she caught her breath as he rammed two fingers into her pussy, his fingers stretching her, thumb tracing over her clit. Hurried, his touch was rough, careless even. A startled gasp slipped from her lips when he backed away, jerked her pants down around her ankles, and spun her around to press her bare flesh into the table.

The icy tabletop slapped against her bare flesh, and Barbara muffled her scream when Mike kneeled behind her. She sank her teeth into her lip hard enough to draw blood as he lapped at her cunt, his tongue flicking along her clit until she was a burning, twitching mess hanging on the edge of an orgasm.

“On your knees, bitch.” Mike pulled her off the table, rising to his feet. She winced at the sharp tug on her hair as he jerked her head back. “Suck on it, get it wet, baby. Then I’m gonna stick it in you until I blow my load.”

Barbara parted her lips and licked along the head, her mouth wrapping around it as she moved forward. Her tongue danced along the shaft again and again as he thrust. Her fingers crept beneath the lace of her panties to play with her clit as he thrust against her face. Gagging, coughing, she shuddered as he rammed his cock to the back of her throat repeatedly.

Barbara stared at him, her lips swollen, tears streaming down her cheeks, her chin wet with saliva.

“Mmm, is that the best you’ve got, lover?”

Alarm darted through her at his cocky grin. Her hands slapped at his wrist when he pulled her to her feet and dragged her toward the bed. Crying out in pain as her knees hit the floor, he pressed her down, his grip tight, unyielding, as he crushed her face into the bedspread.

With one hand down her panties, she played with her clit as she felt him jam two fingers back into her pussy before withdrawing them and slipping up along the curve of her ass. Barbara stiffened and then struggled as Mike lined his cock up and slid the thick head into her rectum. The burning was intense. Stifling moans of agony, she arched back.
Nothing like a little pain
. The thought barely finished before her orgasm was washing over her in a burst of lights and sensation.

Her hips pounded against the bed with each brutal shove before he groaned, his final thrust burying his cock into her anus as deep as it could go. She shivered with each wash of his ejaculate.

“Still a world class fuck.” Mike leaned over her. “I’ll get rid of the little slut, you just make sure you’re free when I’m done.”

Barbara jumped at the sharp slap on her ass before Mike padded into the bathroom. Collecting her breath, she struggled to her feet. Gathering her clothes, she winced at the tenderness in her lower body. She’d need a shower before she got home to prevent Lenny from noticing anything out of the ordinary.

Idly, she listened to the shower start up and dug into her purse for a hairbrush. She’d need to get into those accounts, and the easiest way was for Gillian to do it for her. The silly little twit would do it, if she knew what was good for her. And she had the perfect tool to use against Gillian. She’d do whatever it took to keep Jack safe, her attachment to the handsome fireman a perfect weapon to be wielded.

Chapter 24

Jack heard the phone ring. Carefully untangling himself from around Gillian, he shuffled sleepily into the living room to pick up the receiver before it woke Gilli. “Hello?” He paused at the faint sound of harsh breathing on the other end. “Hello? Who is this?”

“You’re dead.” Low, gravelly, the voice seemed to swallow his words. “You and the slut.”

Jack spat a curse at the angry dial tone. He set the receiver down and hurried down the hallway to the bedroom. Gillian lay tangled in the thin coverlet, her chest rising and falling with a slow steady rhythm. The bruising around her eyes was starting to fade. A faint line of tiny dots along her hairline revealed where the staples had been. He breathed a sigh of relief she hadn’t woken from her nap. She’d had too little sleep in the week since she’d been released from the hospital.

He shot a hard look at the phone, a niggling doubt plaguing him. Was it possible the accident had been less than an accident? But why? Who other than Barbara would want to harm Gilli? Had her ex gotten out? Turning back, he strode to the kitchen and froze at the faint sound of a cell phone. He dug around his desk, his fingers rifling through papers and bins until he found his. The ringing continued as he tossed the phone down. Jack hurried over to where Gillian’s purse sat. Opening it, he winced as he dug through it. He grabbed her phone just as it stopped ringing.

A tiny flashing envelope revealed there was a voicemail. With a sick feeling in his gut, he checked the number. He jotted it down, put the phone back, and stood. Should he call Rick? There wasn’t any reason to think the calls and Rick’s investigation were connected … was there? He had no doubt Gillian’s ex was behind the calls, but he had no proof.

A pained whimper from his bed had him turning. He pasted a smile on his face and hurried down the hall toward Gillian. “Hey, sleepyhead, are you hungry?”

“No.” Gillian struggled to sit up. “Thank you. I thought I heard the phone.”

“Wrong number.” Jack smiled. He shifted uneasily at her look before she nodded and eased to her feet.

“How much longer do I have to mope around? I feel as though I’m doing nothing.”

“You’re healing.” Jack grabbed her arm when she teetered, and then wrapped an arm around her waist. Pulling her close, his palms caressed her hips. He smiled when she tangled her arms around his neck, her lips lifting slightly. With his head bent, he dropped a quick kiss to her lips. Instantly, the heat flared; desire rushed through his blood. He tamped down on the need and pulled back. “I feel all macho and manly to be taking care of you. Don’t want to ruin my mojo, do you?”

Gillian flushed, a look of fear darting through her eyes. “You may just come to regret it.”

Jack tensed, the threatening call fresh in his mind. Forcing a lightness to his voice he didn’t feel, he chuckled. “Naw.” He pressed a kiss to her temple. “I could never regret having you in my life, baby. Never.”

* * * *

The streetlight filtered through the blinds as Jack sat clad only in his briefs, his feet propped up on his desk. He stared at the growing number of calls from one number marked in red. Every day they came, every day he raced to answer them. Thankfully Gilli hadn’t answered a call yet, but there’d been a few misses. He’d noticed the more regular the calls got, the more Gillian tensed. She’d been plagued by nightmares. At first he’d figured they were of the accident, but he wondered if she’d answered one of the harassing calls.

He raked a hand through his hair, cursing the disembodied voice on the other end of the phone. Every day he noted Gillian’s habits were becoming more and more prominent. His house had never been so clean, the smell of lemon and wood filling every room. His floors shone, scrubbed by hand. He shook his head. He wished she’d relax, let go a bit, but he knew she wouldn’t. Old habits died hard, and for her, scrubbing everything until it shone was a mechanism she’d long developed. The cleaning didn’t bother him so much; her logic for cleaning, however, irritated him, and he cursed her mother for the millionth time.

With a curse, he tossed the calendar on the desk and rose. She still hadn’t told him why. Every time he went to broach the subject of why she had vanished, he got a timid, fearful look and she shut down. He didn’t doubt she knew something he didn’t, but he’d hoped she’d figure out he wasn’t going to just turn away from her. Bitterness nagged at him as he contemplated her reasons. Why would she run?

A memory stirred, something nagging, familiar and important, but he just couldn’t place his finger on it. She’d gotten a call before…

His train of thought was derailed by the faint sound of her cell. Trotting down the hall, he entered the bedroom just as Gillian opened the phone. A moment later, her face went white, the cell slipped from her fingers, and a terror-filled shriek filled the room. Screaming, Gillian struggled with the blankets.

“Jack!
Jack
! God, no, please, no, no, no, Jack.” Sobbing, Gillian all but fell from the bed half a second before he grabbed her around the arms. Screaming, fighting, he narrowly dodged her fists and feet as she struggled. “No. Let me go. Jack!”