ROMANCE: Badass Boss (Billionaire Alpha Bad Boy Romance) (Western Mail Order Bride Calendar Contemporary) (37 page)

It took a while. Vince was trying to think of a good way to broach the subject of heading back when they stumbled upon it.

“Here,” said Lori, bending down to pick something up. She showed it to Vince. A piece of stretchy cord. “It’s just up there.”

“Shouldn’t we leave that for the police?” Vince asked, indicating the cord she was carrying with her as she marched forward, up a slight incline. He was ignored. With a deep sigh, he hurried after her.

“This is it,” said Lori.

There wasn’t much to see. Vince wasn’t sure how Lori could tell this place from literally any other spot in the woods.

“That’s where we were tied up,” she said, pointing to a large tree. She pointed to some adjacent trees next. “And that’s where he was standing.”

“Didn’t the police already search this place?”

“Apparently, they didn’t do a very good job.” Lori waved the bungee cord at him and continued on.

“This is a terrible idea,” said Vince, mostly to himself. He considered going back, but there really was no going back at this point. He followed her.

Lori was on her knees, going through dead leaves and other assorted underbrush. She had her flashlight in her mouth and wore a determined look on her face.

“What are you hoping to find?” Vince asked, watching her.

“Somfin’” she said, voice muffled around her flashlight. “A clue.”

“This isn’t Scooby Do, you know?” Vince started at her a few moments longer. Finally, he went down to his knees as well. He started moving things around and searching, if only for appearances. He didn’t think they would find anything, but maybe it would make her feel better if they tried.

They didn’t find anything else. They’d looked for what had to have been two hours when Lori finally sat back on her heels and dropped the flashlight to one side. “Damn it,” she said, sounding miserable.

“Hey, we still found that,” Vince said, indicating the bungee cord. “We can show that to the police. Maybe it’ll help them.”

“It won’t.” Lori flopped onto her back in the dirt. Her red hair fanned out behind her. She looked wild then, like some kind of unhappy forest spirit. She was beautiful. Vince hadn’t given it much thought what with the circumstances that had brought them together, but she was. “They won’t find anything. The case will go cold. Whoever killed my sister will get away with murder.”

“You don’t know that,” Vince offered, though it sounded entirely likely to him - needlessly pessimistic, but probable.

“I’m pretty sure that’s what’s going to happen though,” Lori said, staring up at the starry sky beyond the tree canopy.

Vince studied her, really studied her for a moment. “I take it the police have let you down before?”

Lori gave a barely perceptible nod. “My parents died when I was fifteen,” she said.

“They were murdered?” asked Vince.

Lori shrugged. “The police didn’t think so.”

“But you know different…”

“There was a house fire,” said Lori. “My sister started it. I know because I saw her.”

“Jesus.” Vince flopped down beside Lori. He turned his head to watch her. “You told them that?”

“Of course I told them! They just didn’t believe me.” She closed her eyes. “There was no evidence, and my sister was so upset with me for accusing her. Everyone acted like I was crazy. Honestly, I started doubting myself for a while there… But I know what I saw. I know she started that fire.”

“Why did she do it?”

“They grounded her,” said Lori. “I don’t even remember what they grounded her for. I think there was always something wrong with my sister. There was something off about her. She was horrible, but I don’t think it was her fault.”

“Sounds like she was a psychopath.”

“Like I said, I don’t think it was her fault… But yeah… She was pretty much a psychopath.” Lori threw an arm over her face and groaned into it. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Let’s go back,” suggested Vince.

“I’d rather just stay here for a while,” Lori said, sounding miserable. “You can go back if you want to. I won’t think any less of you for it. You’ve done more than enough, considering you seem like the kind of person who’s an asshole most of the time.” She turned her head, peeking out from beneath her arm to flash him a weary, half smile in the darkness. “Seriously, though. Thanks.”

“I’ll wait a little longer,” said Vince. And that was how he ended up spending the night on the forest floor with a woman he’d only just met.

Chapter 8

The Host and The Guest

When Lori woke Vince, the sun was coming up. He hadn’t slept particularly well. He was cold. His back ached. There were all manner of things stuck in his hair and in his clothes. Lori’s own hair was a red, tangled cloud filled with leaves and pine needles.

No one said much of anything. They trudged back to the car. Miraculously, Vince still remembered the direction it was in. They drove back to the cabin and trudged inside. Vince went straight for the bed and so did Lori. She wasn’t the most polite guest, and he wasn’t the most considerate host. No one volunteered to take the sofa. They both crashed to the mattress. It shouldn’t have been much softer than the ground. Vince hadn’t thought very highly of it his first night at the cabin. Right now, though, it was heavenly.

It was well past noon when they both finally woke again. Lori had been up for a while now, it seemed, but hadn’t left bed. She was lying beside him, staring at the ceiling. She glanced over when he looked at her. “I called into work,” she said.

Vince raised an eyebrow. “I’m not sure that was necessary. I think it was sort of a given that you were going to be off today… How did you get signal?”

Lori shrugged. “You get a couple of bars near the night stand.” Lori held up her phone. She extended her arm toward the table and brought it forward and back, forward and back. “See? Two bars, no bars, two bars, no bars.”

“That’s good to know.”

Lori nodded. “I got a message from the police. I need to be there in a few hours. Want to come with?”

“No.”

“I don’t have a ride otherwise. The police dropped me off here yesterday.”

“Then I guess, I have no choice, huh?”

“You do.” Lori raised her eyebrows, being earnest. “I could call a cab or something. A coworker would probably drive me.”

“I’ll take you,” Vince said, prompting a smile from Lori.

“Thank you,” she said, then she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. She hesitated a moment then, her face growing thoughtful. She reached and turned his head slightly, then kissed him on the mouth.

Vince kissed her back. He wasn’t sure what else to do. It was awkward, as far as kisses went. He still wasn’t sure how he felt about it after she had pulled away. They looked at each other for a few seconds. It seemed neither of them quite knew how to react.

“Yes?” Lori asked, finally. “No?”

“I’m not sure how I feel about it,” Vince admitted. “You’re hot, but… emotionally compromised?”

“That’s very insightful and surprisingly noble of you to notice,” said Lori. “It kind of turns me on.”

“I’m glad the bare minimum of basic human decency delights you.”

“It says a lot about my childhood I think.” Lori waved her hand dismissively. “If we’re being honest, though, I kind of have a thing for jerks with a heart of gold.”

“I have no such thing.”

“You’re cute… I wish we’d met under different circumstances,” said Lori, wistfully. “Not that this hasn’t been exciting. And now my sister can’t steal you away… Wow, that’s an awful thing to think.”

“You really have a complex over that.” Vince propped himself up in bed. “Seriously, though, there’s no right way to feel about these sorts of things. We don’t always love our family, and that’s all right. I mean… I think it is, anyway. When my brother OD’d, my family wanted me to feel bad about it. I should have been there more, I should have given him money, I should have this, I should have that. But my brother made his own choices, just like your sister made hers.”

“Yeah,” Lori grumbled. “As much as someone can choose to be a psychopathic bitch- That’s it!” Lori jumped out of bed. “We have to go back into town!”

“Why?” Vince almost didn’t want to ask. It felt a lot like Lori had solved a mystery. Vince didn’t want to go around solving mysteries. He wanted to stay in bed.

“I know who killed my sister!”

“Damn it, Lori.”

Chapter 9

The Real Murderer

The building Lori worked in was a fairly boring, unassuming one. She had Vince park and was nearly through the front door by the time he’d even gotten out of the car. She was on a mission, it seemed. There was no convincing her to call the police. Vince wished she would. He would have himself, but he had a feeling she wouldn’t forgive him for it. For some reason, he found himself wanting to stay on her good side - and not just because there was, evidently, some residual psychosis in her genes.

Vince caught up with Lori amidst a maze of cubicles. Coworkers were standing up left and right as they saw her.

“Lori!” they called. “Hey, are you alright?” “What are you doing here?” “Oh my God, Lori. I’m so, so, sorry about your sister.”

Lori ignored the sympathies of her coworkers and the audible whispers suggesting all around nastier things. She seemed to have a good idea of where she was going. Vince could only follow.

Lori stopped at a cubicle that looked much like all of the others. There was a light haired yuppie type sitting in a swivel chair.

“Chet!” Lori yelled at him.

He swiveled around when he heard his name.

“You killed my sister!”

All the whispering, office chatter, typing, all of it ceased. There was complete silence in the office as Lori confronted a very dumbfounded looking young man.

“You left me for her, but you were nothing to her. You heard the rumors, the ones about your performance in bed. You couldn’t be sure whether it was her or me, so you decided to take us both out of the picture.” Lori hefted the bungee cord. “You were overseeing the ropes course during the retreat. That’s where you got this.”

Chet stared at her, mouth slightly agape. There was some murmuring from behind them.

Vince leaned in closer to Lori. “Is that all you’ve got?”

“What?” asked Lori.

“That’s not exactly murder motive material.”

“But it had to be him!” Lori snapped, but she didn’t sound certain of that. “I mean… I don’t… God I don’t even-”

“It was me.”

Vince and Lori both turned to the voice that had spoken up behind them. It was a bespectacled, pudgy man with curly hair.

The murmuring intensified.

Lori merely stared for what had to be a full minute. “What?” she finally asked.

“I killed your sister.” The man looked at the floor. “I’m sorry…” he added, meekly.

“You…” Lori trailed off, still staring. “Who are you?”

“My name’s Jeff,” said the man. “I work in IT. Your sister was a mean person. I’ve, uh… I’ve been killing mean people.”

“People?” Lori repeated, her voice going shrill in disbelief.

“Yeah,” sighed Jeff. “Phyllis is accounting and Ted the supervisor and my neighbor and this woman who cut me off at the supermarket once…”

“And me?!” Lori asked, no doubt remembering how close she had come to being on that list.

Jeff shook his head quickly, but it gradually turned to a shrug. “I thought you were like your sister. You two are always together, and some of the stuff I’ve heard about you… But, ah, when I saw the two of you together, I realized there was a pretty good chance most of the stuff I heard was rumors. You’d never been mean to me. Sorry, I shouldn’t have kidnapped you… I probably wouldn’t have murdered you.”

Vince couldn’t stand it anymore. He had to ask. “Why are you telling us all this?”

Jeff looked at him. “I’ve killed a lot of people. I’d never planned on killing this many people. I figured the police would have caught me by now. When they didn’t, I just sort of… kept going. She seems so upset, though.” He indicated Lori. “More upset than anyone ever was about the other people. This is clearly driving her crazy. If I didn’t come forward then, well, I’d be the asshole, wouldn’t I?”

“Can I call the cops now?” asked Vince.

Lori didn’t even look at him. She just nodded.

Chapter 10

The Guest

A lot of time was spent with the police after that. When Vince finally returned to the cabin, it wasn’t with Lori. She, understandably, had a lot to do and think about. Presumably, she even had her own place to sleep at night. Vince didn’t even hear from her for a couple of days.

He tried to busy himself with walking the camp grounds, making contact with some contractors, making notes, and considering his business options. His heart just wasn’t in it, though.

A few times, he went to the place next to the nightstand and checked his messages. Nothing from her. He tried calling her, but he’d never thought to get her number. It seemed stupid that he’d never asked. A few times, he considered contacting her work for some contact information. That felt inappropriate, though. Better to give her some space and time. After all, she did know where he was staying.

It was nearly a week before a knock came on his door. Vince was settling in for a sad dinner of more canned soup when he heard it. He nearly tripped over his own feet going to answer it. There was only one person he could imagine it would be, and there she was.

“I never got your number,” said Lori. “Isn’t that weird?”

“Are you alright?” It was the first thing Vince thought to ask, and he thought he knew the answer before she said it.

“Yeah, actually. Sorry, I haven’t been touch, but I just wanted to get it all over with.” Lori went a little red. It was the first time Vince had ever seen her blush. It was rather cute. “I was sort of keeping you in mind as a reward… If that wasn’t too presumptuous of me.”

“Oh?”

“Just shut up and kiss me.” Lori tackled him then, and they did significantly more than kiss.

They wrestled each other’s clothes off as they hurried to the bedroom. Lori yanked his shirt over his head. Vince unbuttoned her blouse. She unbuttoned his pants. He unhooked her bra.

“I don’t have a condom,” he admitted as she shoved him backward onto the mattress. He normally carried one, but it pained him to admit he hadn’t exactly planned for this eventuality when heading out to the boonies.

“I brought one.” Lori reached into her back pants pocket and pulled out several. She fanned them out like playing cards. “Pick your size.” She grinned when he grabbed the largest.

They didn’t get to the main event immediately. Vince had to take her pants off first. Once he had done that much, it was only too tempting to yank her legs up over his shoulders. Lori giggled then gasped as he probed her with his tongue. He traced slow circles around her clit and felt her lithe body arch in his hands. She kneaded her own breasts, moving her hips slowly against his mouth.

Without stopping, Vince tore open the condom wrapper. He put it on in one fluid, practiced motion. Lori must have noticed, because she slid her hips away from him. She straddled Vince from the front and lowered herself, slowly, onto his lap. There was nothing shy about Lori.

She took his entire length in one go, keeping her eyes locked with his the entire time. Her lips were slightly parted, quirked in a sly sort of smile. Vince wouldn’t say it out loud, but he knew in that moment that this was the kind of girl he could see himself falling in love with.

Lori started to bounce. She gripped his shoulders, pulling herself up and then dropping down again. Up, down, up, down. Vince gripped her waist to assist her. He moved his hips in time with hers. Together they found a rhythm that was wild and desperate and just a little violent.

Lori kissed him as they fucked, tangling her fingers in his hair. She moved from his lips to the side of his mouth, to his ear, to his neck. She bit him, and he grabbed her waist more fiercely.

Sweat was dripping down both their bodies by the time they came. Vince collapsed backward onto the bed, and Lori collapsed onto him. They simply laid there panting for a while.

“That was good,” Lori gasped, when she had caught her breath. “Definitely worth the wait. Thanks for that.”

Vince couldn’t help but laugh. “I didn’t really do much, you know? This whole week, I mean. I’m pretty sure you would have done fine without me. Even if I hadn’t nearly hit you with my car on my way up here, you probably would have been just fine.”

Lori watched him. There was a certain fondness about the look she was giving him. “Do you think so?” she asked. “I don’t know. I’m not sure things would have gone quite this well.”

Vince raised his eyebrows at that. “Things went well?”

“Would it sound awful if I said they did?” asked Lori. “Because they did.”

“So…” Vince pushed a strand of red hair behind Lori’s ear. “What do we do now?”

“That’s a very good question. I, honestly, hadn’t given things much thought beyond this specific encounter,” she admitted.

Vince chuckled. “That’s further than I’d thought things through, then. I would have settled for just running into you at the supermarket in town and maybe catching up,” he said. “This was… this was, ah, significantly better than what I had in mind.”

“I’m glad.” Lori climbed out of bed.

Vince propped himself up on his elbows and watched her follow the trail of clothing back into the den. “Where are you going?”

“Looking for your phone.” Lori glanced back at him as she picked up his pants and rifled through his pockets. “At the very least, you’re going to need my number.”