Daniel (8 page)

“He’s calling her? You think…. Oh gosh,
he was the one who was in the gate that day. She said it was a glitch, but I
told her someone stole the remote thingy. Now he can…she changed it. That’s why
she puts it on fry all the time. To keep him out.”

Benny was suddenly terrified for his
aunt. He started down the stairs, thinking he could probably walk to the
hospital; it couldn’t really be that far. When the man was blocking the door,
Benny thought maybe he’d hit him and leave, but he was handing him his coat.

“Come on. We’ll go and keep an eye on
her together. I have a few friends and family to call in to keep her safe when
I can’t be at two places at once. You okay with going to the hospital with me?”

Daniel made a lot of calls on the way
over to the hospital. And this time they rode in a big SUV.

Chapter
8

Humberto Carver twirled his knife on its
tip round and round as he thought about what the man in front of him had said. He
couldn’t get past the gates again. Berto, as he was called by those brave
enough to consider him their friend, looked at the pictures that had
accompanied the man. The dead man, it now seemed.

“I took him over there and had him try
out the fence, like you told me to. He was right. It was fired up, all right.” The
other man, Micky Lynch, laughed at his own joke. “I don’t think anybody is
going to figure out what it was that hit the fence, much less who it was.”

“So there isn’t an opening?”

Micky said, “No.”

“How am I supposed to get what this
sister has of mine if she doesn’t come out of her cave and there is a hotwire
around the place all the time?” He didn’t expect an answer, and wasn’t
surprised when none was forthcoming.

“There aren’t even any cleaning services
or nothing coming in either. I tried to find out if they had a cook or
something, but there ain’t nobody. I’m thinking they’s a lot more domestic than
her big sister ever was.”

That was true. Meagen couldn’t boil
water without making a mess and using every pot in the kitchen. And she was
worse at cleaning up said mess. No, they were nothing alike when it came to
that. He laid his knife down, steepled his fingers in front of his face, and
tried to remember if Meagen had ever mentioned she had a sister.

Meagen had been his main woman in his
harem of fifty-plus bitches. She’d keep them in line and high enough that they
never cared about how badly he hurt them when he fucked them. Berto liked it
rough, and not only that, he liked to fuck women until they were dead. It was a
turn-on for him.

Then she’d disappeared. He’d thought
about letting her go with just her death but…well, he didn’t like it when
someone decided
they
were through. That was his decision. He’d found her
coming out of a clinic less than a year later. A clinic that was known for its
abortion practices.

She’d admitted that she’d waited nearly
too long to have the abortion and now was paying the price. She’d been bleeding
badly when he brought her back, and it had taken her nearly two months to get
over it. Then when she had, he’d nearly killed her for leaving him. After that,
she’d been helpful to him, but no longer held the same sexual appeal she had before.
He let her have her own place to keep her sad-looking face from being around
him. Then the books and money had come up missing.

He knew it had been her. He’d had a
camera on the vault since he’d had it set up. How she’d gotten in and out
without setting off alarms had taken him nearly a month to figure out. Then
when he had, she’d been stupid enough to die before she’d been able to tell him
where his stuff was. And now he realized how much more she’d taken than just a
few cooked-up books and some money, but she’d taken his list.

“I want all you can find on the sister. I
could care less about the old man. Who does she date? Where she buys her
tampons? I want it all. And there’d better not be a single surprise, either,
when I catch up with our little potter’s wife.” He picked up the knife again
and put it into the drawer and pulled out a thick envelope. “There’s enough in there
to bribe the tightest lipped person you find. Get it for me.”

“All right, boss. You want I should
snatch her if I get the chance? Might be easier to ask her some things if she
ain’t behind that gate of hers.”

“No. I want to be able to walk up to her
and put a bullet in her head if I find she’s been spending my money like it was
hers.” He waited until Micky was out of the room before he continued. “And if they’ve
made a deal with the Feds, there won’t be a place she can hide that I won’t
find her and make her pay.”

Berto pulled out the little file in the
bottom of his desk. Some of the pictures in there made him smile. He’d been glad
when he’d thought of taking pictures of Meagen when they’d finished with her. Dropping
her off at the emergency room had been a mistake, he knew that now. But who
would have thought that she’d live as long as she had? The doctor knew nothing,
and the cop who’d been called in less than that. He glanced at the picture of
the two men when he’d gotten all he could out of them. And neither of them had
mentioned a sister. Even though she’d been there to talk to his Meagen.

Of course, his anger had been out of control.
He’d killed the cop before he’d had the thought to ask if anyone had come to
see her. He’d gone on and on about how she’d been out of her head when he’d
talked to her. The doctor had lasted a bit longer. And he’d mentioned someone
had come to speak to her, but she’d not been there long enough to say much; the
woman, Meagen he’d called her, had died only a minute or two after the younger
woman had come to the bed. That he calling her Meagen was what had pissed Berto
off enough to kill him faster than he’d meant to. But he still managed to have
some fun with him. Murder his way was such a blast.

And now that he’d figured out who this
O’Reilly Harlequin was and that he had the one person who might have the
information he needed, he couldn’t get to either of them. He looked up when
someone knocked on his door and was surprised to see his newest acquisition.

Jeannie Whitney was as beautiful as she
was smart. And her ingeniousness in bed sometimes outdid even him. He’d never tell
her, of course, but he smiled when she came to him and knelt before him. Christ,
if she took him in her mouth now, he’d come immediately. He had a feeling she
knew it, too. But before he’d let her see him as a weaker man, he pushed her
away from him and growled low.

“When I want a blow job, I’ll call you.
Right now I’m not in the mood.” She glanced at his hard cock but said nothing.
“I want you to get someone to go to Ohio. There has to be someone there you can
recruit for me.”

“Sex or favors? And do you want a female
this time, or will a male do?” He looked away, trying to concentrate on her
words and not the way her dress rode up her thighs and her bare legs were open
to him.

“Female and favors with the possibility
of sex. I need her to see if she can seduce an old man into coming out of
hiding. There’s a woman I want in that compound, and she is what I want.”

Jeannie nodded and opened her legs
wider. “When?” she asked as she moved her hand down her body. “Do I go now
or…later?”

He wanted her to go now, before he gave
into her. And she knew it.

“Come here,” he growled. She moved up to
her knees, and then moved like a slick cat up his body to his groin. He could
see that she was aroused; her juices had been teasing him for five minutes. “Suck
me off and make it good.”

Without a word, she unzipped his pants. When
she reached into his trousers and pulled him free, she licked him from root to
tip. She was going to make him come, and he wasn’t going to be happy if he did
it on her face and not her throat. He scooted down in the chair and watched as
she took him into her mouth.

“Christ.” He grabbed a handful of her
hair and pulled her down over him hard. She swallowed him, and the tightening
around his cock nearly sent him over the edge. His balls tightened up, and he
could feel his climax start to tingle there. Before he could tell her to slow
down, she grabbed his balls and twisted.

He was shooting his load down her gullet
before he could think. More, he needed more. Jerking her up by her hair, he
slammed her head on his desk as he jerked her skirt up over her hips. When she
opened her legs for him, he opened her ass up and buried himself in her tight
hole. Her scream made him see stars, and before he knew it, he was coming
again. Christ, he’d never had this much fun with a woman before.

Spent, he sat down in his chair after
adjusting his clothes. Jeannie got up off his desk and left the room. She would
do as he told her to and not complain a minute about it; much like she did when
he fucked her without giving her release. He was also pretty sure she would get
it elsewhere, and didn’t ask. He normally didn’t share, but he feared she’d
kill him if he had to have sex with her as often as she liked. The woman was
insatiable.

~~~

Reilly woke slowly. She felt as if she was
coming up from a great fog and it wasn’t dissipating as quickly as she thought
it should. The voices sounded familiar, but nothing she could place. Opening
one eye, she quickly closed it again thinking she was dreaming.

“Wake up and have something to eat. The
doctor said as soon as you eat a good meal I can take you home with me.” She
peered at Mr. Hunter and groaned his name. “And stop calling me that. I’ve had
you wrapped around me and your tongue down my throat. I think that qualifies us
for first name basis.”

“Where is Benny? You said….” She had to
swallow twice and was startled when a spoonful of ice was shoved in her mouth. “Stop
that. What are you doing here?”

“I’m right here. Daniel and I have been
watching over you.” Daniel? What was Mr. Hunter doing there still? She tried to
sit up, but the pain in her back stilled her. “The doctor said you’d hurt for a
bit but you’d be okay soon.”

She tried her best to bring him into
focus, but all she could see were hazy shapes. She had to close her eyes or be
sick. It wasn’t until Mr. Hunter spoke again that she opened them all the way.

“Open up. Come on, take in some more
ice. The nurse said it would feel good on your throat.” She opened her mouth to
yell at him to go away. But all she got for her effort was a mouth full of cold
water. “I have to speak to you and I don’t have a lot of time before Benny
comes back.”

“You said you’d watch over him.” She had
to swallow again as he shoved another spoon of liquid into her. “You do that
again and I’m going to shove that spoon so far up your ass you’re never going
to find it.”

He leaned down and took her lower lip
into his mouth and nipped. She looked at him wide-eyed when he stood up. Then,
just as quickly, he leaned back to her and took her entire mouth.

The man could kiss. She felt the burn of
his mouth all the way to her toes. When his tongue brushed over her lips, she
opened for him and moaned when he danced his tongue along hers.

“You make it difficult to think when you
moan like that. Well, thinking isn’t so hard, it’s the thoughts that I’m
thinking that make me hard.” He stood slowly again and she watched as he
adjusted his hard cock. “I’ve been thinking about doing that for hours. Just
wanting to take a nibble out of you.”

“You wanted to tell me something,” she
reminded him. Thinking about his body and his mouth was making her dizzy. She
tried to blame it on the pain, but to be honest, she never felt it while he was
kissing her.

“Your son…Christ, I want you.” He took a
step back, and then another before he sat in the chair. “Benny knows now that
you’ve been threatened. And before you get your panties in a twist, he figured
it out. I didn’t tell him. He seems to think someone stole your remote to the
gates. Did they?”

“I simply misplaced it.” He glared and
she turned her face from his. “I know how to take care of us. You and your
family are the most annoying people I’ve met. Did you know that they have it in
their heads that you’re…let me see, what did she call it? Oh yeah, ‘sweet on me.’
Who says that?”

“That would be my sister-in-law Kylie. She
is sort of old fashioned, and her dad…this has nothing to do with anything. And
they think if I get married or whatever they can rub my face in it and tell me
they told me so.” He took a deep breath. “Back to your issue. Humberto Carver,
have you ever heard of him?” Yes, her mind screamed, but she said nothing to
him. He continued. “He’s been linked to your sister in a few things that the
Feds are looking into. And a couple of them think…they wonder if you and him
hooked up, and that’s where Benny came from.”

She looked at him, then away. It took
her several months to figure it out and he had it in less than a week. Maybe if
she refused to answer him he’d get mad and leave. Reilly glanced at him, then
back at the television set. No, he’d not leave. He was worse than a dog with a
bone.

The door opened and Benny came in, his
arms loaded with bags. She watched as Mrs. Hunter came in with the other three
Hunter women. She held Benny’s hand as she glared at the people in her room.

“I appreciate you watching my son for me,
but I’m going to go home now, and I’ll be taking him with me. Thank you so much
for your—”

“Bullshit.” They all looked over at the
older woman. “Yes, I said it, and you all know it. This is no longer a matter
for you to try and take on yourself, young lady. The Hunters take care of their
own. Now hush up and tell us—”

“You leave my aunt alone.” The room
tensed when Benny spoke. “She’s been taking care of me better’n anyone ever did
before. I have to do my homework now, and I have a house, not a crappy hole to
live in. If she tells you she’s got this, then you’d better bet she does. She’s
the best in the whole wide world.”

Before she could tell Benny to apologize
to them all, Daniel clapped his hands. Then Curtis and the women joined them. Benny
moved to her bed and held her hand tighter. She started to get up and was
pressed back to the bed by Daniel. He moved his face to her ear and whispered
low to her.