After the Evil – A Jake Roberts Novel (Book 1) (29 page)

In the midst of her preparation, she felt his hand
touch her from behind. It slid down along her arm to her hand. She
wasn’t sure if Nick had seen what she had done. She tensed. His
other hand started to knead her behind. Abruptly, he spun her
around and took her in his arms.

“I want you, you make me hard,” he said.

He started to kiss her neck and shoulders. She
wanted to smash the bottle into the side of his head, but fought
the strong urge instead.

“Hey, mister, what about the champagne?” she
said.

“How am I supposed to get in the mood without some
champagne?”

He manhandled her, groping from top to bottom. He
put both hands on her hips and started grinding into her.

“I don’t need champagne.”

Nick was on fire.

“I’m already aroused, and I want you right this
second.”

Stop him mommy. Stop him.

“Nick, Nick,” she said.

She tried to slow him down.

“We’ve got all night and what I have planned for you
can’t be rushed.”

“Let’s get started right now. You make me so hot I
can’t wait,” he said.

He tugged at her blouse. Holding her hands together
over her head with one hand, he pulled her skirt up with the other.
He fell on top of her on the bed knocking the wind out of her
lungs.

Oh my God! He did this to Megan.

She gasped for air and struggled with Parker trying
to persuade him to stop, but he was relentless. He tore her panties
while pulling them down. She wanted to scream, but knew she had to
hold back. Then she felt him pushing violently against her thighs.
Nick Parker forced himself inside of her. Her breathing became deep
and irregular just as Nick liked it.

Kill him, mommy, kill him.

Lori tried to regulate her breathing so that she
would not pass out. She found herself counting every thrust until
he made his last. Nick stopped moving and stayed on top of her
until he recovered. He rolled over face up on the bed with his
manhood exposed.

“I’ll have that drink now.”

She wanted to crush his skull with the bedside lamp,
or to sear his exposed flesh with a flame. She wanted to stab him
with the knife in her purse. Most of all she wanted to cry. In
order for her to finish him, she knew she would have to play the
game a little longer as repulsive as that thought was. As she
raised herself off the bed, she exclaimed.

“Nick that was incredible. The whole fantasy rape
thing was such a turn on. My God, Nicky, it was so exciting.”

Did she really think I was pretending?

He opened his eyes as she carried on. Her response
confused him.

“You liked it?”

She stood up and straightened her clothes. He sat up
on the edge of the bed. He wasn’t sure what to do next. This was
normally the time where he threatened the victim with their job,
but she was into it.

“I can’t wait for round two,” she said.

She quickly reached for his glass. She held it out
for him. Parker didn’t know what to say. He took the glass and
slugged it down. Lori watched until he held the glass out for her
to refill.

“Are you going to be able to sustain that energy
level again?” she said.

“Well, I guess you’re going to find out, it’s still
early,” he said.

“Aren’t you glad we didn’t make our reservation
time?”

His eyes rolled. A deep yawn followed, and he was
surprised by it. He looked at her with an apologetic look.

“Must have been a longer day than I thought it
was.”

He yawned again then another time. He couldn’t stop
and decided that he better splash some water in his face, and take
a Viagra. He knew he was going to need one if she expected more. He
got up and staggered into the bathroom closing the door behind him.
Lori didn’t want him in there. She wanted him to pass out on the
bed. It would be difficult for her to carry him to the bed if he
fell in there. She knew that the sedative worked quickly. Her
anxiety level rising, she prayed he would come out.

I told you not to do this. Now look what
happened.

Lori hated the voice. She hated being scolded and
preferred only to hear her Emily. Lori heard a glass fall into the
sink and break. She started to panic until the bathroom door
opened, and Parker shuffled out. He kept shaking his head as if he
were trying to clear it. He held on to the walls, as he got closer
to her.

“I don’t, I don’t know what’s wrong,” he said.

Lori quickly reached out to support him.

“Nick, what’s wrong? You don’t look well. Here, get
over to the bed and lie down.”

A complying patient, he did as he was told. He
finally blacked out after falling back onto the mattress. Lori
quickly removed the bindings from her purse and secured his hands
and feet to the bed. She removed the glimmering, stainless steel
knife from her purse.

“Pay to play, Captain Nicholas Parker.”

* * *

There is no answer. I knock again and lean to look
inside, but the house is dark. Lori isn’t home. All I can do is
retreat and discuss our next move with Mika and Harmon. The
officers, who are strategically hidden throughout the neighborhood,
stand down on command and wait. Mika’s cell phone rings.

“Scott.”

She listens while looking at me.

“Thanks.”

“Chick’s flown the coop. Headquarters called her
supervisor who called their crew scheduling department. They said
she accepted a flight to Boston to cover for some other crew
member.”

Harmon looks around until he sees the person he is
searching for running down the street toward us.

“Here it is, Chief,” Melissa says.

She hands him the search warrant and Harmon
proofreads it.

He turns and signals.

“Take it down.”

Two large male uniformed officers approach the front
door and kick it in. With weapons drawn, they secure the interior
and within minutes, they are outside.

“CLEAR.”

The three of us go inside and search for anything to
support my theory. My gut says I’m right. Now I have to prove it. I
know the interior, so I head to the back rooms. Inside her bedroom,
I feel strange. The last time I was inside the house, I intended to
sleep with her. There is nothing there now, so I walk back to
Mika.

Harmon is in the kitchen and grasps a small, brown
prescription bottle on the counter-top that had the name of a
strong sedative on it. The pills are gone. He rejoins us in the
living room. Mika’s cell phone rings again.

“Scott.”

She glances around the room. At the stereo, she
drags the CD case from the stack, opens the lid, and sees that the
disc is gone. She holds it open to show me.

“Anything else? Have the plane ready to go when I
get there.”

Harmon displays the empty prescription bottle. Mika
relays what she has learned.

“She’s probably going to do it again. They’ve found
out what hotel she’s in. My people are fueling the plane, and we’ll
be in the air in thirty minutes. You two are invited to go
along.”

“Let’s go,” Harmon says.

Outside he places Osborne in command and then forces
his way into the driver’s side.

“I’m driving.”

Mika looks hard at him.

“You really need to get over that.”

It’s funny, stupid actually, but with all that is
going on, all I can think about is how much I hate to fly, fancy
F-B-I jet, or not.

As I fall into the back seat, Harmon speeds off.

Lori Powers, what are you doing?

* * *

The mind is truly a remarkable creation, the way it
operates. What goes on routinely inside of it is nothing less than
miraculous. It can add and subtract, multiply and divide, all of
what life throws at us. It is responsible for basic functions of
the human body and can contemplate abstract concepts. It’s a
fascinating thing, the human mind.

Inside Lori’s mind was a ticking clock counting
down. Although there was no reason for her to believe we were on
her trail, she sensed it. If there was one thing done wrong, it was
that we severely underestimated the intellect and talents of the
breathtakingly beautiful Lori Powers.

Standing at the foot of the bed, she stared at
Parker. He was a pig, a wild animal that needed to be destroyed.
There was no doubt in her mind and she didn’t even know all of the
atrocious things he had done during his lifetime. All she really
knew about Nick Parker was that he had hurt Megan, and he had just
raped her.

Don’t let him hurt me again, mommy, please.

The other voice pushed Lori.

You’ve gone this far. You might as well finish
it.

With the concurrence of the voices, she didn’t waste
another second. The ritual began. The third song on the CD played
on the stereo beneath the television in the room. She kept the
volume low enough so no one could hear. Lori walked to the side of
the bed, the gleaming knife in hand. Parker laid spread-eagled,
tied and still out from the powerful sedative. She was disappointed
she wasn’t going to be able to taunt him before he received his
final punishment. She couldn’t afford to let him scream like the
others.

She stabbed him in his cold, black heart. The blood
shot up in spurts. She dragged the blade across his throat severing
the carotid artery. In an instant, Captain Nick Parker was dead.
After watching him take his last breath, Lori reached for his
manhood that had just violated her, and held it firmly with her
free hand. Slowly and purposefully with an almost artistic stroke,
she severed it and dropped it on his chest, just as she had done
with all of the others. She thrust the blood-soaked blade into his
heart one last time, and left it protruding there.

Now he won’t hurt me again, mommy.

Lori placed the chair from the desk at the foot of
the bed and sat down. Seconds passed and she reached into her torn
panties and started to massage her private place. She quickened the
pace and fell into her dream.

“
Daddy, did I do it right? Was that what you
wanted, daddy? Faster daddy, and don’t be angry, Faster daddy, I
want...you...to...love me.”

Just like all of the times before, Lori awoke from
the dream and felt nothing, no sensation at all. She slowly
retracted her hand and stood. She straightened her blouse and
adjusted her skirt.

Lori returned from the bathroom with a white
washcloth in her hand. She mounted the bed, dabbed the cloth into
the puddle of freshly spilled blood, and wrote one word on the
wall. Unlike all of the other times, she didn’t wipe the room
clean, or take away any incriminating evidence.

Someone knocked on Parker’s door and startled Lori.
She froze. The last thing she could afford to do now was panic. She
moved slowly toward the door to peek out through the security hole.
It was Megan.

What was she doing here?

Megan had come to face Parker. She wanted to hurt
him and tell him that she wasn’t going to live her life in fear of
him any longer. No one answered while she stood in the hallway,
arms folded.

Lori wondered if Megan would ever leave. Maybe she
was having second thoughts and wanted Nick. Maybe Megan was a sick
puppy playing games. Fast as that thought entered her mind, it was
wiped clean. Megan was in real pain, and Lori had no doubt of that.
Taking another peek out through the security hole, she didn’t see
Megan. She heard sobbing and then the elevator doors open and
close.

Before leaving, Lori thought about Jake and what
might have been. With a smile on her face, she looked both ways
before slipping out of Parker’s room.

* * *

The powerful Gulfstream corporate jet owned and paid
for by me, and the rest of the taxpayers, blasts off into the night
sky. The sudden acceleration forces push me back into my seat. The
FBI pilot pulls the nose up, and we seem to be climbing straight up
into space. Then the hotshot banks as if we were in some kind of
Top Gun dogfight. Mika smiles as she watches how uncomfortable I
am. I hate to fly. Harmon isn’t happy about it either. I see his
massive fingers on both hands dig into the leather-covered
armrests.

I’m not sure of too many things anymore. But I’m
certain I can never be a pilot. There has to be something wrong
with them. If the Creator wants us to leave the confines of
gravity, He would provide us a means to do so, like wings. He gave
us feet, end of discussion.

As we level off at some angelic altitude, I start to
acclimatize. Landing of course will give me another reason to
panic. I sit close to the defibrillators stored onboard. The
aircraft has its own flight attendant. I can only wonder what she
is costing me. Noting the grimace on my face, Mika smirks.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, better...sure.”

It is only the second time I have ever been in a
plane.

“You’re probably enjoying this, watching me lose my
mind at thirty thousand feet.”

“Safest way to travel,” she says.

“So, when we get there...”

Harmon leans closer to hear.

“One of the agency’s Suburbans will meet us and take
us to the hotel. We’ll check the crew’s rooms and track anyone who
may have gone out.”

“Do you think she’ll be there?” Harmon says.

“I hope so.”

“Can you get some agents to the hotel before we get
there?”

“Good idea, hand me that phone over there
please.”

After she completes the call, and sets things in
motion, we all sit back and take some quiet time. I keep thinking
about Lori and the times we had spent together. It all had such
promise. The truth is still hard to swallow, and I still can’t
believe it has gone this way. Mika interrupts my plane of
thought.

“What are you thinking about?”

“One minute I get it, and the next I’m totally
confused. I guess she really did me a favor.”

I hope things work out for us. I hope she leaves the
FBI and comes back home, and we can get out of this life. I don’t
know how anyone can walk away from this. Just jetting around like
this is enough for someone to suck it up.