Vicious Carousel (22 page)

About the time Kenny’s cock exploded, Nolan let out a long, low groan of his own as his cock spasmed in Kenny’s hand. His cum went everywhere, all over Nolan, all over Kenny. Kenny smiled, gently milking a few last drops from him.

“Ahh,” Kenny said.

Nolan’s eyes had fallen shut. His partner smiled, but it looked sad and worn.

Much the way Kenny’s heart currently felt.

“Love you,” Kenny said.

Nolan leaned in and kissed him. “Love you, too. Now I guess we need a shower.”

“That would be a yes.”

Betsy was wrong. She’d thought the most terrifying life of her night had been the Saturday she’d freed herself and escaped from the apartment.

But facing Jack in open court…

Tilly squeezed her right hand, while Nolan held her left. Behind her, Kenny stood with his hands resting on her shoulders. Ed would have to be the one to stay with her, because both Nolan and Kenny were witnesses to what Jack had done to her.

A bailiff started to lead her away when she sat up with a loud, gasping croak that woke up both men lying in bed with her.

As the nightmare faded, she tried breathing, tried to focus, to use all the tricks and tips June had taught her.

Kenny and Nolan put their arms around her. “More nightmares?” Kenny asked.

She nodded, inhaling the scent of him, of Nolan.

“Less than two weeks, and it’ll be over,” Nolan said.

“I’ll feel better when it’s over.”

So far, Jack had spent the last several months steadfastly refusing a plea deal. Lately, Kenny and Nolan had spent nearly every night with her at the apartment as her nightmares grew worse.

It’d been three months since she’d moved out of the men’s house, but she felt closer to them than ever. She knew she loved them, and she even caught herself thinking and talking about future plans with them as if being together was a certainty.

This close to the trial date, all she wanted to do was get past it and then she could focus on her men and her life.

No denying it, her men were her life. In all the best possible ways. They hadn’t once begged or pleaded or ordered her to make up her mind. They focused on current plans, focused on her.

She just…

She needed that last bit of closure.

As she laid back down to try to go to sleep, she knew that even if the trial was delayed, that was still when she would tell her guys she wanted to move back in with them.

This time, for good.

If she couldn’t tell they were the right men for her in three months, she never would.

And as far as she was concerned, they were the only ones she wanted.

* * * *

The next Saturday morning, June arrived promptly at five a.m. to pick up Betsy. Last night, the night before, the men had stayed until ten, when she’d finally, gently sent them home. June had made a point of asking her to spend this day with her, and Betsy didn’t want to tell her friend no when she suspected there was a deeper plan.

“You realize I wouldn’t be doing this for anyone but you, right?” Betsy asked after she locked the front door and got in the passenger side of June’s car.

“Not even Tilly?”

“Well, okay, maybe Tilly. And Eliza. And you know what I mean. It’s Saturday.” She’d brought a travel mug of coffee with her and sipped at it. “Where are we going?”

“You’ll see.”

“This better be good.”

“It will be.”

June had told her to dress appropriately yoga-ish, whatever that meant. That they would be outdoors.

As they headed south, Betsy started to get an inkling of where they were heading. When June turned onto Manasota Beach Road, Betsy knew.

“We’re going to Blind Pass Beach, aren’t we?”

“Sunrise tai chi. Then we’re taking a nature walk down at Stump Pass Beach park.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s there.”

“Why this early? We’re on Florida’s Gulf coast. How about sunset tai chi? There’s a great idea.”

“No bitching. You’re stalling. It’s been three months now since you moved out, and you’re terrified to make a decision.”

“Ah, Tilly sicced you on me.”

“Duh. Look, the trial is in a little over a week. Then, you’re free.”

“If he’s convicted. Everyone said he’d cop a plea by now.”

“And he still might. What’s the latest from Ed?”

“He gets back from vacation late tomorrow. He’d planned it before all this shit hit.”

“Your guys deserve an answer.”

Yes, they did. They usually spent at least two nights a week together overnight, and saw each other at least four or five nights a week. Sometimes more.

It wasn’t much different than living together, except on the nights they didn’t stay she sometimes rolled over into a cold, empty, lonely stretch of bed that would have felt much better had there been a Kenny- or Nolan-shaped mass laying there.

Except for the nightmares. Because of them, except for last night, they’d spent most every night with her over the past couple of weeks.

She always slept better with them than without them.

“I’m going to talk to them next week.”

“What if the trial gets delayed?”

Betsy shrugged. “No, next week. If I can’t tell that those two guys are the loves of my life and nothing like Jack in three months, I’ll never get it through my thick skull.”

“Hallelujah! Tilly will be so happy.” She pulled into the county park’s parking lot. They locked their purses in the trunk of the car, grabbed their yoga mats, and in the grey, pre-dawn twilight headed across the road with a few others toward the beach.

* * * *

Kenny had been having a dream that Betsy had finally moved back in and the three of them were celebrating when some godawful, annoying alarm rousted him from what had been turning into a perfectly good wet dream.

“Answer your fuckin’ phone,” Nolan griped.

Oh, yeah, that was his phone ringer. He finally fumbled around and grabbed it. “Hello?”

“Kenny? Is that you?” He didn’t immediately recognize the man’s voice.

“Who the hell is this?”

“It’s Ed Payne. Where’s Betsy? Is she with you?”

Cobwebs blasted out of his brain, between Ed’s tone of voice and the mention of Betsy’s name. “What’s going on? Do you know what time it is?”

“What’s going on?” Nolan mumbled. Kenny shoved him to shut him up and switched on the lamp on his side of the bed.

“I know it’s fucking goddamned dark thirty here in motherfucking Mexico,” Ed said. “But I haven’t been near Wi-fucking-Fi to get a motherfucking signal to check my voice mails in a couple of days until now. We just arrived at our fucking hotel here from our trip out to the fucking ruins last week. We’re here until tomorrow morning. I’m sweaty, I need a fucking shower, I’m exhausted, and now I’m royally fucking pissed off after getting this news. Now where. The fuck. Is Betsy?”

That the attorney had just used more f-bombs in the past several seconds than Kenny had ever heard him use in the all the years he’d known him scared him shitless. “She’s at Kel’s apartment.”

“And you’re
not
there?”

“No, we’re home. What’s going on?”

“Fuck me, get her on the phone, right now, and get your asses moving over there. He’s out on fucking bail.”

“
What
?”

Nolan sat up. “What?”

As Ed talked, Kenny stood and rounded the bed, grabbed Nolan’s phone from the bedside table, punched Betsy’s number in, and shoved the phone at him after he hit connect.

“The state attorney’s office didn’t call me on my sat phone like I told them to if there was a development,” Ed said. “They couldn’t stop him from making bail.”

“When did this happen? What about the bond reduction being denied? He goes on trial next week!”

“No
shit
, Sherlock. Apparently one of his relatives died and there was some money, and someone was dumb enough to post the original bail amount for him. He’s been out since late Wednesday your time.”

“Shit!” He looked at Nolan, who held up his phone and shook his head. Kenny circled a finger at him, indicating for him to try again. “Fucking
Wednesday
?”

“Yeah. As soon as you have eyes on her, call me at this number. Write it down, it’s my sat phone.” Kenny ran out into the kitchen and grabbed the notepad from the counter to write it down. He repeated it back.

“Good. As soon as you are with her. I’ll be waiting.”

Nolan had followed him down the hall. “What’s going on? He made bail?”

“No time. Get dressed.” It was almost six thirty. “We have to go over there.”

“She won’t be there,” Nolan said. “June was picking her up early this morning for a girl’s day, remember?”

“Call June. If you can’t get her, call Scrye, wake his ass up. We still need to get over to the apartment.”

Fear had completely blown what little remnants of sleep had remained totally out of his system. He ran back to the bedroom and pulled on clothes as Nolan trailed behind him.

“June’s voice mail picks up.”

“Leave her a message. Call Betsy’s phone back, leave her one, too. Let’s get moving.”

* * * *

Kenny didn’t know if he should feel relieved or even more worried when they arrived at the apartment and found no sign of either woman there. June’s car was gone, and Betsy’s sat parked in her usual spot. There were no signs of anything being amiss, except the coffee in the pot was still warm even though the machine had been shut off.

They’d gotten Scrye on the phone, who said he’d try them, but he didn’t know where they’d went, other than morning tai chi on the beach, and then a planned nature walk.

Fuck, as if there weren’t hundreds of miles of Florida Gulf beaches stretching in either direction.

Scrye was going to look through June’s calendar and laptop browser history to see if there were any clues. He suggested they call around to some of the other women to see if they knew where the pair had gone.

Unfortunately, three calls later, and they still didn’t know. Plus they’d discovered from Loren, call number three, that Tilly was back out in LA.

“Call Tilly,” Loren said. “She’ll know if anyone will. I don’t know anything other than what Scrye told you.”

“How can you guys
not
know where they went?” Kenny practically screeched.

Loren sounded more awake now. “Look, I know you’re scared, but that’s not helping. We’re friends. We’re not each other’s mommies. I couldn’t tell you where the place is Eliza takes her for the self-defense classes, either. Or the name of the gun range Laura and Gabe took her. There’s something else, call Bill and Gabe. They’re law enforcement.”

He hated to do it, but while Nolan called Bill and Gabe, he called Tilly.

She answered on the third ring, her voice thick with sleep. “God
dammit
, Cris, I told you, I’m still in fucking LA until Tuesday. If you’ve called me from New York and woken me up
again
, I’m going to beat you mysel—”

“Tilly, it’s Kenny.”

There was a pause. Then, it sounded like a totally different woman was speaking to him. A wide-awake and wary woman. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

“Where did June take Betsy this morning?”

“What? What the
hell
is going on?”

“Tilly, it’s important.
Please
, do you know where June and Betsy went?”

“Some beach thing. Why?”

He nearly burst into tears of frustration as he told her what had happened. When he finished, it sounded like Tilly was up and moving.

And she was now definitely awake. “Motherfucking goddamned dickcheese asshole fucking
fuckwads
!” She took a deep breath and let it out. “Okay, let me think. Hold on.” It sounded like she was tapping on a computer keyboard. “Bets sent me some pics once, of a beach. Said it was the first place June had taken her, and she liked to go there.”

“Which one—”

“I’m
working
on it!” More tapping. “I don’t remember off-hand, sorry. They’ve got to be in my e-mail. Hold on.”

He looked over at Nolan, who shook his head from where he was talking to someone.

No luck there.

Finally, Tilly said, “Okay, got ’em. Let me look at them.”

More waiting.

“There’s no ID on them,” Tilly said. It’s definitely not Siesta Key or Longboat Key, though. I can tell you that. If I had to guess, it’s Venice, maybe? No, wait, the public beach there doesn’t look like that.”

An epiphany struck. “Manasota Key?” Kenny asked. He remembered Betsy mentioning something about it.

“Fuck. Hold on.” More tapping. “I can’t find an exact match of the pic, but yeah, it could be. Either the north or middle parks. I don’t think it’s the southern one. My money’s on the middle park. I can’t remember what it’s called.”

He would have to remember to give her a hug and kiss of gratitude next time he saw her. “Thank you!”

“Hey! You find her, you call me
before
you fucking call Ed, got it?”

“Deal.” He hung up on her and grabbed Nolan. “Talk in the car. Tell Bill I think they’re on Manasota Key.”

* * * *

“Why do we bring yoga mats if we’re not doing yoga?” Betsy asked June as they trudged back to the car.

“In case we want to sit. They don’t blow around like towels do. Do you need your purse?” She opened the trunk and tossed her rolled mat in.

“No.” Betsy added hers to it. “We’re just getting back out again in a few minutes, right?”

“Yep.” It was after seven, and a gorgeous morning. With the windows down and the radio cranked, they drove south, the tangy salt breeze filling the car and lifting Betsy’s spirits. Earlier, she’d felt an odd sensation she couldn’t shake. June had teasingly assured her it was Betsy’s aversion to early mornings.

But now…now she felt alive, awake. She held her hand out the window and surfed the wind with it, flowing up and down, smiling.