Damon (17 page)

“No, not a fight.
Not then at any rate. I was watching the set when something I sa
w made me a little pissed off
. Y
our
tim
ing couldn’t be more perfect,”
Anthony said as he pulled his belt out of his pants loops.

“My timing? How do you figure—”

The first slap of the belt caught
the fat fuck across the face.
His cheek opened immediately and blood spilled out. The second he hit the floor, Anthony drew back the belt and hit him four more times—his face, arms
, and fat gut again and again.
The buckle was huge and it made perfect marks
on any fatty place it touched.
When the young man rolled to his back, Anth
ony actually laughed out loud.
Each time Anthony’s arm went up and then down, the young man moaned until
he didn’t make any more noise.
Anthony continued, on and on until he c
ouldn’t raise his arm anymore.

Staggering over to the bed, Anthony dropped down onto it and then f
ell back against the mattress.
He laid there with a smile on his face, his cock
harder than it had ever been.
Opening his pants, he pulled out his aching cock and began to jerk hard on it, the way made smoother, slick
er with the blood on his hand.
When his climax hit him, his cum shot into the air and dropped back down
onto his body, hot and thick.
When he was sated, he closed his ey
es and fell into a deep sleep.

Two hours later, rested and relaxed, Anthony stretc
hed out and sat up on his bed.
Looking down at the man now dead on the floor,
he smiled again at the memory.
When he stood up and stripped off his clothes, he stepped over to the body and kissed Tim on the forehead
before heading to the shower.
After he was cleaned up with fresh clothes on, he looked at the mess Tim had made.

Calling the front desk, he had them call the glass co
mpany and put a new window in.
He told them that he and Tim had come to an agreement and he was going to fix the window a
nd nothing else would be said.
“Bad day,” he’d e
xplained, and left it at that.

It took him three hours to get the room cleaned back up, leaving the body of the clerk in
the bathtub to be found later.
Dressed once again in his blond wig and ball cap, Anthony used one of the credit cards he’d
kept from one of his failures.
It was the least they could do after all the work he’d put into them
only to be disappointed again.
Allison James paid for it all.
T
hank you very much, Ally dear.
Anthony was nearly to his next stop when the body was discov
ered and all hell broke loose.

Anthony needed to find out who the
people his Charlotte was with.
But most importantly who she had let kiss he
r when she was engaged to him.
Her list was getting longer by the day and when he found her…well, it seemed his po
or Charlotte had gone too far.
She, like the others, had
cheated on him once too often.
Pulling into the little hotel along the highway, he got a room as far away fr
om the front desk as possible.
This time, his room was being paid for
compliments of his Charlotte.

He’d been making the minimum payment on her cards
since she’d moved in with him.
He never knew when he would need to make a purchase on something nice and since he was making the payment, he felt it was his right
to use the card as he saw fit.
He knew that she thought the cards were cancelled. T
hat’s what made it so perfect. And he was doing her a favor.
Her credit rating was good and they had increased her credit line to three ti
mes what she’d had before him.
Having his mail delivered to a post office box kept her from knowing that he had several other credit cards with d
ifferent names on all of them.
Most of the cards were women he’d asked to marry him and they had failed him in some way. Others were just cards he’d come a
cross in his line of business.

By eight o’clock on Friday night, Anthony was sitting in a nice hotel room having just eaten a huge steak at a local res
taurant called Muddy Misers.
Anthony had porn on the television and he had jerked off three times just thinking about the fat fuck he’d killed across to
wn
. Y
ep, life was good.

~~~

“Have I
told you how lovely you look?
You do, you know. Sexy too. I would love to find a place to take you so that I can personall
y show you how sexy you look.”

They
were dancing, he and Charlie.
He’d been pleasantly surprised to know that even Connor could slow dance. He’d asked Meggie to dance when Da
mon and Charlie had gotten up.
Connor looked handsome in his tux and seeme
d to really enjoy wearing it.
His mother had fussed at him several times about getting dirty before Damon pointed out that he’d bought the tux and
dry cleaning was fairly cheap.

Damon loved having Charlie in his arms whether she was naked or clothed, though he preferred naked. He pulled her closer to him so that she could tell how much he thought of her being sexy. Her flush at feeling his
erection made him smile again.
Damn but she was beautiful
when she pinked up like that.

“Will you behave?
I swear, you’re wor
st than Connor with a new toy.
We just had
sex before we left your house. Three times, I might add.
I had to redo my hair twice and I swear that every one of your brothers knew why we were late getting here.”

“I’m sure they do.
Though I guess they must have their timing better tha
n me. I’ll have to work on it
. Y
ou do know that each one of them had
sex before they got here too?
I’ll have to
work on my timing, that’s all.
And as for you being my toy…I t
hink I like the sound of that.
I could get you all wound up
then play with you for hours. Oh yeah, I like that idea.
When can I play with you again, Charlie?”

She was doi
ng that flustered thing again.
He thought that was perhaps the cutest thi
ng she did when she was upset.
Her face got pink and she chewed on h
er lower lip while she glared.
Then she would try and say something that usual
ly turned out to be gibberish.

He had laughed at her when she’d
done it a couple of days ago.
He certainly wouldn
’t do that again anytime soon.
At least not where she could hear him at any rate. Then there was the thing she did
when he knew he’d screwed up.
He’d seen his mother do it once or twice when they’d been kids, but seeing Cha
rlie do it just made him hard.
Her hands went to her hips and she’d tap tap tap her foot. He didn’t know if it was watching her breasts bounce in time to the tapping
or the way she glared at him.
Either way, he wanted to piss
her off just to see her do it.

Connor had pointed out a couple more things she did when sh
e was upset.
He promised himself that he’d aggravate her tomorrow to see if he could get her to do the one where she didn’t say anything but kept tsking and
throwing her hands in the air.
Connor had told him that when she got to that point, he’d better be car
eful; she was on the war path
. Y
es, living with these two was going to be a lot of fun.

“I wanted to tell
you about a job offer I have. I’m going to take it.
Dane has asked me to com
e work for her as her spotter.
I know that’s not what it’s called really, but when she goes into a trance, she wants m
e there to keep an eye on her.
I haven’t told her yes yet, but I think I’m going to take it.”

Damon had thought Charlie would come work for him, but as soon as he’d thought it, he realized what a bad id
ea that would be.
They could barely keep their hands off each other around the house. He’d never see a patient if s
he was there with him all day.
Christ, but that sounded really good one m
inute and really bad the next.
He looked down at her when he realized
she was waiting for something.
He tried to remember what, if anything, she’d asked him.

“I’ve seen her in those tranc
es and they can be very scary.
I’m glad sh
e’s asked you to help her out.
I was hoping that I coul
d depend on you sometimes too.
Come in and sub for one of the n
urses when they need time off.
We should also talk abo
ut getting Connor into school.
I mentioned it to him the other day
and I think he growled at me.
He said you’ve been home schooling him for about two years.”

“Yes.
Anthony wouldn’t l
et him go to school very much.
I think he was afraid he’d say the w
rong thing to the right people.
Then after a while, it was jus
t easier to teach him at home.
He’s really smart, but I don’t know what I can afford school-wise around here. Do you know anything about the schools around your house?”

She’d been referring to the ho
use as his house for two days.
He wanted her to think of it as their house and was just about to point out to her that she could afford to send Connor anywhere she wanted when Cait walked up to them.

“I have to go.
There’s been an incident over
at the hotel on Fifth Avenue.
Will you p
lease give Spencer a ride home?
I have to take the car.”

“Of course.
W
hat happened, do you know yet?
I mean, I know things like this happen, bu
t that’s a really nice hotel.”
Damon was leading Charlie and Cait back to the table as he spoke to her.

“Not much.
The owner’s son was beaten
to death and left in the room.
There had been a disturbance an
d he’d gone up to check on it.
They figure he’s be
en dead less than three hours.
I’ll
call you if I need anything.”

Cait kissed them all on th
e cheeks and was out the door. They had to stay.
The auction was the biggest fund ra
iser and event of the evening.
The mood around the table had dropped, but each of them knew that if anyone woul
d solve the murder, Cait would.

Three hours later and very near the end of the event, Cait called and sp
oke to Dane and then to Jamie.
It seemed they wanted to bring Dane in to see if she could get any
thing from the room.
Jamie didn’t want his very pregnant wife to go and asked if Da
mon would please go with them.

“Cait said for me to take Charlie and Connor home with me,” Jamie said after he hand
ed the phone back to his wife.
“She said that she didn
’t want her to be alone.”

Damon looked over at Charlie who was talking to his mother. “Something’s happened at the crime sc
ene, or is it the crime scene?
Tel
l me, Jamie, what’s going on.”
Terror like he’d never felt moved through him and he suddenly wanted to grab up Charlie and Connor and run to the nearest cave and hide them.

“I honestly don’t know.
If
I did, you know I’d tell you.
Go with Dane. I know she’ll be fine, but Cait s
aid to have you come with her.
Damon, I really like Charlie and Connor
.
I’ll take good care of them.”

“I know you will, Jamie. But…but I’m in love with her.
I can’t stand the fact that there’s someone out
there who wants to hurt them. We have to get this guy.
We have to get him so that we can get on with our lives.”

Damon drove
them over to the crime scene.
It was only five blocks from wh
ere they had all been tonight.
He wasn’t a hundred percent sure that this had anything to do with Charlie, but deep i
n his gut, he knew that it did.
He reached over, took Dane’s hand and squeezed it.