Serial Volume Three (5 page)

Ronnie

“Jude, baby. Would you hand me the remote control? I hate this movie and want to watch something else.”

Twisting his strong and lean body over to reach the remote on the table, Jude was silent as he moved to comply with my request. He’d been anxious lately; a little too rough when fucking me and a little too distant when his dick wasn’t in my body.

“Here.” He dropped the remote on my stomach, the tone of the one word he’d spoken cold and unapologetic. My legs were draped over his and our bodies were languid in my bed. He’d removed all my clothes when he came in the room tonight, telling me he liked the look of my skin. I’d expected sex, but his mind was somewhere else.

I was a possession to him. The feeling of being owned growing progressively worse as the days went on. Some nights, he was on fire, fucking me in every position possible and showing me things about myself that I’d never thought were possible. Most times, I couldn’t believe that I enjoyed the pain he gave me, especially after enduring the abuse from Billy. But it was a different kind of pain, the type that told me I was cherished and that I was the type of woman that men liked to hurt.

Jude hurt me, but I enjoyed the hurt, and for that I could be thankful.

The television blared, the rerun I was watching of some mafia series that barely interested me. People screamed as the main character rushed in to settle a debt.

“What is this garbage you’re watching?” Jude complained in a sleepy tone. “Turn it off. The relentless screaming is giving me a headache.”

“The show is alright. It’s about a mafia king who runs a crime network, but doesn’t send out his cronies to do his dirty work. Any person who owes him money and doesn’t pay up is killed off.”

Jude blinked and shook his head in disgust. “First off, Pet, you have your terminology incorrect. There is no such thing as a Mafia
King
. There are mob
Bosses
, sometimes even referred to as the Godfather. But never a King. The mafia is not a monarchy. And what kind of asinine screenwriter would have the boss doing his own dirty work? Plus, killing everybody who owes you money? How will he ever get paid? None of it makes sense. Turn this shit off.”

I hit the button on the remote and sighed.

“What’s on your mind tonight, Jude? You seem distant.”

“Just tired from work.”

“Is that why you got home late?”

He was silent, and I wasn’t surprised. He was always quiet about where he went late at night, about what it was about his job that was so distressing.

Over the weeks I’d lived with him, he’d told me about his family and especially about his parents. I was terrified to meet them this weekend, but fascinated.

The stories he told me made me feel things too. Things I hadn’t felt since I was young and would accompany my mom at her work. It had been a long time since I was in the house of a wealthy person, but the bits and pieces I did remember from my youth came springing back every time he told me about his life.

“I don’t want to do this tonight, Pet.”

His words startled me and I twisted around to look at him. “Do what?”

“This!” His hands spread out as he motioned around the room. “I’m not the type of man to play house. I don’t want to come home and tell you about my day. I don’t want to cook dinner together every night and then come back here to watch television. My life is more important than that.”

A normal woman would have cringed at that moment, upset by his tone of voice and the cruelty of his words. But what he’d said had been a walk in the park compared to what Billy used to say to me. I was thick skinned when it came to words. It was fists that were the hardest to handle.

“Fine. I’m sorry I asked.”

When he looked at me, there was an odd expression on his face. Anger flashed in his eyes and the color of his cheeks was stained red.

His hand slid up my body, over my breasts until his palm rested against my throat. His finger and thumb squeezed, pushing into the muscle and applying slight pressure to my trachea. I wasn’t scared. He liked to choke me when he was turned on and I always noticed how he found ways to touch my neck. What was it about that part of my body that attracted his attention? I wasn’t sure and I brushed it off as one of those weird kinks that every person has.

“What did you just say to me? Was that defiance? After everything I’ve done for you?”

I couldn’t help the way I was feeling. Maybe, I’d grown stronger since Billy. But whatever it was, it was enough to allow me to speak back to him, to defend myself in small ways. “I didn’t ask you to bring me here, Jude. You wanted me. You still want me and that much is obvious by the fact that your cock is tenting in your pants.”

He glanced down at his crotch and looked back at me with a wicked sparkle in his eye. His mouth crooked at the corner, just how I liked it. Mischief and the threat of pain were written into his expression, my body readying itself for his use.

“You’re mouthy tonight, aren’t you?”

“Maybe.”

Before I could finish the second syllable, he shoved his thumb and forefinger up higher on my neck. They pressed beneath my jaw painfully as his palm applied more pressure to my throat. I coughed because I was caught off guard by how quickly he’d moved.

“You have no idea who the fuck your talking to, Ronnie. No clue about who the fuck you are.”

My lips scraped across my teeth with how forcefully he kissed me. Moans erupted from my chest, my orgasm already starting to build in response to the excitement between us. I wasn’t scared of him. Wasn’t worried that he’d hurt me for any other reason but to get me off.

I trusted him.

It was probably a stupid move on my part, but I couldn’t help the way I felt. There was something about him. Something dark and hiding in shadow. It was similar to something in me. I didn’t know why we connected the way we did; I just knew that whatever the reason was, it wasn’t normal.

“Get in the bathroom, Pet. Turn the water on to cold and stand beneath the spray.”

He moved off of me, completely confident in the fact that I would do as he said.

He wasn’t wrong. I loved it when he took me…loved it when he was rough.

Standing up from the bed, I strode quickly into the bathroom, stepping into the large glass shower and bracing myself against the freezing cold water. My body stiffened when the spray hit my skin, thousands of tiny razors scratching against me.

Jude stepped in only seconds after I become soaked, air hissing out from between his lips and his eyelids shut tight beneath the water. Once adjusted to the temperature, he grabbed my hands without warning. The light click of a cuff sounded as he raised my arms above my head. Securing me to the showerhead, he chuckled when air sucked through my lips, the razor edged cold water painful against my skin.

There were no words spoken between us. It was simply defiance on my end and his desire to break me.

I was spun around, my hips jerked back in presentation to his body. His hand slammed against the cheek of my ass, the sting so fucking good. My skin was heated by the slap, cooled instantly by the cold water.

“It’s about time someone taught you some manners, Pet.”

His cock was inside me, one hand holding my hip in place and the other gripping my hair. The angle of my neck hurt. It was bent backwards so far that my eyes could only see my hands where they were bound and the ceiling above me.

His flesh slapped against me, every inch of my body teeming with bits of glorious pain. The water against my skin, the way my taut hair pulled at my scalp…the fullness of his dick inside me; it was all so much, too much almost. I peaked quickly, my body unable to chase away the intensity of the orgasm he forced through me.

I couldn’t think or hear anything over the moans that flooded out. My body moved against him, desperate and greedy.

The minute he came was obvious. His body tensed, his cock swelled impossibly wider before he thrust in so deep, I swore I could feel it against the wall of my abdomen. No he wasn’t so big that he actually pushed inside my body, but the force of him was enough to make it feel that way.

His head spun to the side just then and when I groaned in complaint, he gripped my hair harder. “Shut the fuck up, Pet.”

Stiffening in reaction to something, he let me go and turned off the water. Within seconds I heard what had caught his attention. There was a slight banging sound coming from the house. Just for the fact that we could hear it in here, I knew that whatever or whoever was making that sound was angry.

“Stay here.”

He was gone before I could stop him and I was left alone in the fucking shower. My hands were still attached to the O-ring he’d had installed in the wall above the showerhead.

The banging stopped eventually, followed by the sound of men screaming. The faint sound of glass breaking in the distance scared me and I instantly startled while trying to tug my hands free of the cuffs. It was no use, I was stuck in place in the shower and until Jude returned, I wasn’t going anywhere.

Minutes passed, the tension building in me so thick that my heart beat a painful rhythm against my chest.

“FBI! Is somebody in here?”

It was a deep voice, one full of authority and strength. I cowered where I stood, unable to curl into a ball in hopes that he wouldn’t find me. Refusing to make a sound, I didn’t move for fear that the links of my cuff would bang against the ring.

In the end, it didn’t matter. The heavy sound of boots against a floor approached the bathroom, a man coming into view dressed in a black suit and tie.

“Patricia Wilson?”

He asked the question, but his voice grew silent when I turned to look at him from over my shoulder. Fire burned behind his eyes, the same darkness that was so recognizable in Jude.

“Veronica Lapierre.”

I nodded, not knowing who the man was or why they were in Jude’s house. “Where’s Jude.”

His eyes trailed over my body, slowing down in their perusal over my ass and hips. His tongue flicked out, wetting his bottom lip for half a second before being pulled back into his mouth. “Are you hurt, Ms. Lapierre.”

“No! Where’s Jude?” I demanded.

“Are you being held against your will?”

Screaming finally, I answered, “No! Jude is my boyfriend. Where is he?”

The corner of his lip twitched, heat building even more behind his eyes. “I’m sorry to tell you this, Ms. Lapierre, but your boyfriend is going to jail for a very long time. It seems he has a taste for cutting up pretty women.”

Jude

I heard the banging on my front door before Pet did. I slammed her against the wall of my shower and told her to shut the fuck up. She would never just shut the fuck up.

I’d tried fucking her into silence, but it hadn’t seemed to work. She was so aroused by the shower that she’d ended up babbling at the end of my cock, declaring her love for me and her undying devotion.

I’d been thinking about Patty when I heard them. Voices from somewhere in my building, then that banging.

I pulled a towel around my waist and went to the front of the apartment, checking the door of my study first to make sure it was still locked. It was.

As I was about to open the door, it burst open and men spilled in. Swat team types, full riot gear, and their weapons drawn. Fucking insane. The dogs of war in my foyer.

“FBI. Get your hands up!” One in the front yelled through his visor.

I obeyed, stood there in my towel, still wet, still smelling of Pet, as the rest of the group swarmed in. One agent strolled through at the end, the arrogant piece of shit. Donovan Blake, the one from the papers, the TV, the press.

The one who had dubbed me CK, and the one who claimed he was thiiiis close to an arrest in the case of the Cascades Killer.

I laughed when I saw him and said, “What’s this about?”

He moved to stand directly in front of me, almost matching my height. He looked me in the eye, but I didn’t back down. He blinked and I won. He waited a moment longer and said, “Jude Hollister, you’re under arrest for the abduction and murder of Noreen Hamilton. You have the right to remain silent…”

My mind wandered as he read me my Miranda Rights, I held out my hands and let him cuff me. Just as he was about to snap them shut, I pulled back and said, “Can I at least put on my pants?”

He sneered and looked me up and down and replied, “What you’re wearing is fine enough. More dignity than you’ve afforded any of your victims.”

“Victims?” I asked and raised my brow. “I believe you just arrested me for one victim, who are the rest?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, Mr. Hollister,” he said, “I know you’re CK and I know you’re a fucking animal.”

“CK?” I asked, “What on earth is a CK and how do you think I am linked to it?”

He glared at me, his eyes dark and deep with rage. In any other circumstance, maybe a few thousand years ago, he and I would have met on the battlefield and fought to the death.

Sometimes civilization could be such a fucking bore. I’d get immense satisfaction sinking a sword into his belly and fucking his wife in front of him.

I should have been born a barbarian. For all my refined ways, I really was born into the wrong life.

“Agent Chase, assist him in finding his pants,” he barked and an attractive young female agent came rushing to his side. The way she looked up at him with those soulful puppy dog eyes revealed everything I needed to know.

They were obviously fucking, she was obviously in love, and he was obviously and deliberately ignoring it.

“Yes sir,” she said in a clipped, professional tone. She looked at me and said, “Where can I find them?”

“Master bedroom, end of the hall, walk in closet, second drawer on your left. Sweat pants and a shirt if you can manage, sweetheart,” I said and smiled. The effect was not lost on her; she smiled back, then glanced at Donovan with a guilty look on her face.

She was gone a couple minutes, rushed back in and said, “There’s somebody in the bathroom.”

She handed me a bundle of clothes and Donovan took off down the hall.

“You want to watch?” I asked and dropped my towel; my cock was hard as I pulled on the sweats. She watched. She then watched as I wiggled into the tee shirt. I could tell she was aroused as she pulled my hands behind my back and cuffed me. “You’re rather good at this,” I said, “you might be a fun lady to hang out with.”

“Shut the fuck up, you sick bastard,” she spat and jerked my hands up.

“I need to call my lawyer,” I said and resisted her attempt to pull my hands any higher. I wasn’t in the mood for a dislocated shoulder. She finally gave up and stepped around me, ignoring the watchful eye of the men on her team. It’s like we all knew what was up between her and Agent Blake, Donovan, but nobody wanted to mention it out loud.

“You’ll get your chance,” she said and looked down the hallway to where Donovan had probably discovered a very wet and naked Pet.

“He’s most likely otherwise…engaged,” I said, “there’s an incredibly beautiful, naked woman down there. Don’t be surprised if he takes a while.”

She whipped her head back to face me and said, “Seriously, shut the fuck up.”

I’d unsettled her though, she turned to a man beside her and said, “Watch this sick son of a bitch, I’m going to see what’s happening.”

He smirked and nodded, she left and I observed. The dynamic among the group was fascinating and I was just finding out now if there was anything I could exploit later on.

I sighed and tried to look bored, hide my anxiety as I went through every possible scenario in my head regarding Noreen’s death.

Where had I fucked up? What did they have on me? I’d been so careful, I’d known I was sloppier than most with her death being accidental, but I had cleaned the body carefully before disposing it in the park.

Perhaps that had been my fatal flaw, disposing of the body so close by.

It didn’t matter, my father had the best lawyers money could possibly buy, I’d be back eating dinner and fucking Pet by tomorrow.

If only Patty could hang in there, I didn’t want to lose another one.

***

“Where were you? Answer the question,” Donovan demanded and slammed photos of Noreen’s body down on the table in front of me.

“I’ve already answered you,” I told him, glancing at the images and feeling secretly smug about my work. It wasn’t my best, obviously, but I could still feel pride at how beautiful she looked in death.

“Yes, I heard you, you want your lawyer,” he said and sat back down, “and I’ve told you this is an FBI investigation, you will get your lawyer when I damn well let it happen. We follow our own procedure around here; we’re not the PD. Now where were you the morning Noreen Hamilton went missing?”

“How long have you been fucking Agent Chase?” I asked and stared directly into his eyes, keeping my face impassive. “She’s a nice little piece of ass, I can’t say I blame you, but doesn’t the FBI at least follow procedure for something like that?”

The slightest eye twitch gave him away, a small movement at the outer left eyelid and I knew what I’d detected was in fact the truth.

“Where were you the morning Noreen Hamilton was abducted?” he repeated, “If you make this easy on us, we can make it easy on you. We’ll plead you down if you tell us where the others are.”

“I’ve told you before, Donovan,” I said coolly, he hated it when I used his first name, “I want to speak with my lawyer before I discuss anything with you. Not that there’s anything to discuss. You are, as they say, barking up the wrong tree.”

He leaned in really close, inches away from my face and snarled, “I will fucking pin you to the wall. I have everything I need to put you away for a very long time, and I am going to make this extremely hard on you, do you understand?”

I stared back at him, enjoying this game far more than I probably should have and said, “Lawyer. Now. And if you wouldn’t mind, a little more ice in my glass this time?” I rattled the empty water glass he’d given me when we’d gotten into the interrogation room of their field office. We’d been here a couple hours already. “You might want to swab it for DNA now though, before bringing me a refill.”

He glared at me, took the glass and left the room.

I sighed and looked into the one-way glass, wondering who was behind it and watching me. Most likely Agent Chase, the hot little piece of ass Donovan was banging. I would have to find out more about her, maybe cross paths with her once I got out of here.

I looked at the wall clock and closed my eyes. In just a few short hours, things had been turned upside-down.

I reveled in the chaos though, still not knowing how much they had on me and how much we’d have to fight. Still not knowing how long I’d be in here, if Patty were alive or dead, if Pet would squeal and give it all up the moment they started questioning her.

I knew she wouldn’t though. As much as Pet loved to talk, I knew she wouldn’t talk to the FBI.

I don’t know how I knew, but I supposed when you had a love as deep as ours, one just knew these things.

I bided my time like that, relaxed, calm, almost meditative. I knew it would drive them mad on the other side of the glass as they watched me. I’m sure they were expecting me to panic, to be sweaty and nervous, scared of being caught.

But how could I be afraid of something I knew would never happen?