Guilty Pleasure (2 page)

Thanks to his arrangement with that singer
Adam, he was now able to take his time, savor, enjoy every second
of this woman’s torture. In the past he had to rush to fill his
need. Oh, not now, he could fill his need completely and all it
took was an act of charity. Adam had no idea what went on in his
apartment while he was gone. It was so easy to get a spare key for
his apartment. Michael did pay the rent. This was worth every penny
he paid.

He slowly lifted the large kitchen knife for
the woman to see. Her eyes widened in terror.

“
You know you are going to
die, don’t you.”

He could hear her muffle pleading.

“
I won’t let this happen
too quickly. By the end of this you will beg for death’s embrace.
It will free you from the pain.” He set the knife down on the
nightstand then walked out of the room. He wanted to give her a
moment to let what he said sink in. He smiled hearing her fight
with the ropes that bound her to the chair. Her sobs were
louder.

He went over to the stereo and put on some
music. He didn’t care what kind of music that played it just had to
mask some of the noises she would be making. He went over to the
utility closet and grabbed the roll of plastic wrap he had placed
in the back. Adam wouldn’t question it being here, he would simply
assume the last tenant had put it in here.

Michael went back to the bedroom. The woman
was full blown sobbing now. He ignored her as he laid the plastic
wrap over the mattress. He securely tucked it under the mattress
then draped some down the bed and let it go out onto the floor.

He walked over to her and untied her from
the chair. She, of course, tried to flee, but he was ready for it
and easily caught her. He slammed her down on the bed then went
about quickly tying her to the bedposts.

He looked at her lying there. She was easy
to trick. They all are. Michael was a very handsome and charming
man. He knew how to make any woman or man want him. Desire fogs the
mind, lowers the defenses. To this woman lying here, when she saw
him in that bar, she probably thought he was Prince Fucking
Charming. It was easy to convince her to come back to his place.
She was his victim of choice. He had watched her for two days
before he approached her. She was shy that was obvious. She looked
as though going to bars was new to her. You could tell her friends
had dragged her there. The first night they all left with whatever
man they picked up, but not this one, she left alone. When she
returned the second night with the same group of friends she sealed
her fate. Once he picked a victim, he claimed that victim.

“
You will learn to embrace
the pain. Who knows, you might impress me enough to let you
go.”

God he hoped she would last the two days.
That is how long he needed to fill his desire. He loved giving
pain, loved watching it etched on his victim’s face. He took what
he wanted. He didn’t care about her. All he cared about was his
need.

He ran the knife over her thigh cutting it
wide open. Her muffled screams filled the air. He watched the blood
ooze out of the cut. The beauty of the crimson blood cascading over
her ivory flesh was intoxicating. He ran the knife over her other
thigh and watched the blood trickling over her flesh. Her muffled
screams were being drowned out by the music.

“
Now, now, that wasn’t that
bad.” He sat on the bed beside her. He gently wiped the tears away.
“I chose you out of all the women in that bar, I chose you. You
want to know why?”

She didn’t say anything.

“
You have a kind heart.
Those whores you came into the bar with paled in comparison to you.
You shined like a beacon, almost begging me to extinguish your
flame. There is no hope, no prayer, no miracle that will save you
now. Just give in to the beauty of this moment.”

He stabbed her in her bicep and watched the
sheer agony of it dance across her face.

God, he hoped she will last the full two
days.

***

Michael was euphoric as he walked into his
office. He should be exhausted, but he wasn’t. He was on a high.
His victim was waiting for him. She lasted all night and today he
would continue her sweet torment until he saw the light fade from
her eyes.

“
Mr. Lyons, you are
certainly in a good mood today,” the young office assistant said as
she brought him a cup of coffee.

“
It is a beautiful day
out.”

“
It certainly is. Your new
paralegal is coming in shortly. You want me to keep her
waiting?”

“
No, Emily, just send her
in. I might as well get her started.”

“
Yes, Sir.” Emily left his
office.

Michael swiveled his chair around and looked
out over the city. He just wanted to make any excuse to get out of
here and get back to his guilty pleasure.

***

Nicole felt like her stomach was in knots.
She shouldn’t be this nervous, hell she knew what she was doing.
She graduated the top of her class. Yet, her underlying insecurity
always crept in.

She went up to the receptionist’s desk. She
tried to picture what Mr. Lyons must look like. She pictured a
middle-aged man, with maybe a bit of a beer belly, balding, but had
a look of confidence about him.

“
Hello, I’m Nicole Fisher,
I’m Mr. Lyons’ new paralegal.”

“
Hello Nicole, I’m Emily,
Mr. Lyons is expecting you. Please follow me.” Emily led Nicole
down the hall. “This will be your office.” She gestured to the room
off to the side. She headed to the room down the hall. She knocked
once then entered.

“
Mr. Lyons, Nicole Fisher,
your new paralegal is here.”

“
Thank you,
Emily.”

Nicole was almost speechless when the chair
turned around and the most gorgeous man she had ever seen was
sitting there. He was nothing like she pictured. He had to be in
his mid-thirties, his dark eyes were mesmerizing. His dark hair
emphasized those dark eyes. When he stood, she noticed he certainly
filled out a suit well.

“
Is it Mrs. or Ms.
Fisher?”

“
Ms. Fisher, but you can
call me Nicole.”

He smiled warmly at her. Almost taking her
breath away.

“
Well then, you can call
me, Michael. I was very impressed by your academic record. And you
certainly impressed our human resource gal. So welcome aboard. I
will give you your first case to begin researching for me. It’s a
pretty easy case. The murder weapon was found in his possession,
etc. What I want to try to do is lessen this asshole’s
sentence.”

“
Excuse me…”

“
Not everyone who comes
through these doors is innocent, but they have paid good money for
me to take the sting out of their punishment. I would prefer that
all of them were innocent, but being a defense lawyer you can’t
always be doing the righteous thing. I hope this isn’t a problem
for you, Nicole.”

“
Of course not, Sir.
Everyone is entitled to a fair trial.”

“
Exactly. I wanted to start
you off with something a little easy at first. Let you get your
feet wet. Here let me show you to your office.”

She followed Michael to her office. Damn,
this man smelt wonderful. She quickly pulled herself together when
they entered her office. She had to be professional and not act
like some love sick teenager.

She had to admit that her office was pretty
nice. It, of course, was nowhere as nice as his, nor did she expect
it to be.

“
I had Emily put the case
file on your desk. We have an extensive legal file database in the
computer. If you need help with any of that Emily will be happy to
show you. I have to leave for an important meeting, but I will be
happy to see what you come up with tomorrow. Like I said, this case
is pretty cut and dry. It was nice meeting you, Nicole. I hope we
work well together.”

“
I’m sure we will,
Sir.”

***

Michael let himself into Adam’s apartment.
The music was still playing just loud enough to drown out the
woman’s muffled cry, but not so loud it could be heard by the
neighbors.

He walked into the bedroom. The smell of
blood, urine and vomit filled the air. The woman was barely making
any noise now.

“
I have to give you credit,
you lasted longer than the last one I brought here.”

He grabbed the knife. The blood was dried on
the blade. He admired this for a moment then leaned over so he
could look her in the eyes.

“
You want to die
now?”

The fight was gone from her eyes. She was
resigned to her fate. That was a shame. The game was over.

“
You have no idea how
pleasurable this was for me. Thank you.” He gently stroked her
hair. He slowly ran the blade over her throat. He kept his eyes
locked with hers waiting for the moment he craved. The gargling
noise lessened and soon the light faded from her eyes. This moment
seeing life flee from someone was better than any orgasm he could
ever have. He relished this feeling.

When the initial feeling ended a calmness
filled him.

He wrapped her body up in the plastic wrap
then grabbed the large suitcase. He was grateful that this victim
was rather petite. She would fit into the suitcase without having
to dismember her body. He shoved her into the suitcase. She was
worthless to him now. A broken toy for him to discard.

Chapter Three

Nicole woke up and headed to the kitchen.
Monica was reading the newspaper as she nibbled on a piece of
toast.

“
Good morning, Roomie,”
Monica said cheerfully.

“
Good morning.” Nicole
poured herself a cup of coffee and sat at the table.

“
You look tired,” Monica
said as she flipped through the newspaper.

“
I have been going above
and beyond on this first case Mr. Lyons gave me to work on. I
wanted to go over some notes with him yesterday, but he didn’t show
up to work. Emily said he was in court that day. To be honest I was
a bit disappointed that he didn’t take me with him. I would have
loved to see him work.”

“
Oh, I bet you would,”
Monica said in a teasing tone.

“
What do you mean by
that?”

“
You said he was freaking
hot, well that was the gist of it anyways.”

“
I said he was
attractive.”

“
Yeah, but you said that
with a faraway look in your eyes, which translated, the dude is
smoking hot.”

“
Could we drop
this?”

Monica flipped the paper.

“
Why are you reading the
paper backwards?” Nicole asked.

“
I always start from the
back and work my way forward. You start your day with good news and
you can’t usually do that if you start from the front.”

Nicole just smiled then went to make herself
some toast. She has been working for Michael for three days now and
pretty much got through this first case. She really hoped that he
will be in his office today. She wanted to let him know she could
handle more.

“
Oh my God, and this is why
I don’t start with the first page of this freaking paper,” Monica
said.

Nicole headed back to the table. Monica
handed Nicole the paper.

“
That poor girl. Who could
do that to someone? The poor guy that found that woman’s body on
Leone Beach. Could you imagine finding a body like
that?”

Nicole read the article. A woman’s body was
found on Leone Beach. The victim appeared to have been tortured
then had her neck slashed. There was no evidence that the body
washed up on shore it appeared to have been placed there.

“
That is horrible,” Nicole
said as she sat the paper down.

“
This is not the first body
that has been found like that.”

“
What?”

“
I read about another one
about a month or so ago, then there was at least two more before
that. There might have been more but I try not to remember these
horrible things if I can help it. Those damn cops need to step up
their game. Come on, Leona Beach isn’t exactly an isolated
location. Obviously, whoever did that wanted the poor girl to be
found. And since it is so close to how those others were killed it
has to be the same person. There are some freaky people in this
town. You need to be careful, girl.”

“
So do you.”

“
I shouldn’t have read the
first page of the newspaper, now I’m going to have that horrible
story in my head all day. I better get ready for work.”

“
Me too.”

Nicole got ready then just walked to work.
Michael’s office wasn’t that far from her apartment. Though, today
after reading about what happened to that poor girl she was tempted
to take her car.

***

Michael smiled reading about his victim. He
was glad that she was found so quickly. It took some time to place
her like that. He had to be certain no one had seen him. Leaving
his victims out to be easily found was a new thrill for him. He had
always been so careful with the others, too much so, that by time
the bodies were discovered there was little left of them. He wanted
everyone to see his handy work, it was part of the thrill for
him.

Michael was a damn good defense lawyer. He
knew the ends and outs of the criminal system. More importantly he
knew how the police worked. Their forensic teams were meticulous
with gathering evidence, so he had to do the same to make sure they
didn’t find any.