Guilty Pleasure (20 page)

“
Why the fuck do you care
about her?”

“
No one should die for
loving someone.”

Michael cut Tim’s throat then climbed off of
him. He watched as the light faded from his eyes.

He grabbed Tim’s pistol and went to the
idling truck. He banged on the door.

“
What the fuck do you
want?” the truck driver said sleepily.

“
Open the fucking door and
get out.” Michael lifted the pistol up.

“
The hell I
will.”

Michael shot the window out and unlocked the
door. He dragged the man out of the truck and threw him to the
ground.

“
What do you want?” the man
said as his body trembled.

“
You were in the wrong
place at the wrong time.” Michael shot the driver then he went back
over to Tim. He wiped the gun of his finger prints then placed the
gun in Tim’s hand and fired it a couple of times. He grabbed his
pocket knife, wiped it down then ran it back over the wound on
Tim’s neck, making sure not to get his finger prints on it. He
staged the truck driver’s body to make it look like he got shot
running away from Tim. He checked the other truck to make sure that
it was empty. He made sure to grab that little notebook Tim was
looking at then he got in his car and drove off.

Chapter
Sixteen

Nicole arrived at work. She started looking
through the case load and saw there wasn’t really anything there,
and soon released that Michael was late. She walked up to Emily’s
desk. “Did Mr. Lyons say when he was going to come into the
office?”

“
Oh shit, he left a message
for you. I’m sorry I don’t know where my head is at today.” Emily
looked over the mess on her desk. “Ah, here it is. He said to tell
you to go be with your friends today. He had to check on something.
He said you would know what he was talking about.”

“
Don’t we have cases to
work?”

“
You know surprisingly Mr.
Lyons’ case load is really light. Whatever he had been working on
here lately seems to be taking all of his time.”

“
Are you going to go home
too?”

“
Nah, I just help out Mr.
Smith’s assistant when I don’t have much to do.”

Nicole went back to her office and grabbed
her purse. She headed out. She felt bad that Michael was working so
hard to help Adam. There has to be something she could do to help.
She took a taxi down to the police station. She went up to the
front desk. She really hoped that she had the right precinct.

“
Can I help you?” the young
man at the desk asked.

“
Yeah, I would like to
speak with detective Tim Dane.”

“
I’m sorry but that won’t
be possible.”

“
Why not? If he is busy I
can wait.”

“
Miss, detective Dane is
dead.”

“
What? How?”

“
I’m sorry but I can’t give
you any more information. Would you like to talk with any of our
other officers?”

“
No, this can wait.” Nicole
left the police station utterly stunned. She just talked with Mr.
Dane last night now he is dead. She took a cab back to her
apartment.

“
Hey, what’s wrong, little
Nicole?” Adam said as he turned off the vacuum.

“
Detective Dane is dead.”
Nicole sat at the kitchen table.

Adam hurried over to her. “How do you know
that?” He slowly sat on the chair next to her.

“
I went to talk to him to
see if he had any news about your landlord’s murder and to see if I
could help. I was worried about Michael taking so much on by
himself. And the guy at the desk told me Mr. Dane was
dead.”

“
Did he say how he
died?”

“
No.”

Monica came into the room. Adam told her
what happened.

“
He is dead. He comes here
and talks to you, Adam, and tries to talk to Michael and now he is
dead,” Monica said.

“
What are you getting at?”
Adam asked.

“
You were with Nicole and
me all night. Where the fuck was Michael?”

“
Are you implying Michael
killed him?” Nicole said stunned.

“
Of course not. I’m just
shocked.”

“
I have to find Michael and
let him know what is going on. I will be back later,” Nicole
said.

“
Nicole, stay here with
us,” Monica said. “You won’t know where Michael is.”

Nicole took out her phone and called
Michael.

Monica watched Nicole talking on the phone.
She silently prayed he would tell her to stay here. But when she
saw that smile on Nicole’s face she knew that wasn’t going to
happen.

“
I’m going to go to
Michael’s apartment. He just got back home. I will talk to you guys
later.”

Adam watched her leave he was startled when
Monica grabbed his hand.

“
What is wrong with you?
You are acting like a frightened child here lately,” Adam
said.

“
Adam…I’m
scared.”

“
Hey, it will be alright.”
Adam squeezed her hand firmly.

“
I’m scared for Nicole. I…”
Monica didn’t know what to do. If she told Adam her theory and he
didn’t believe her it might hurt their friendship. If he went and
told Michael, God knows what would happen. But if she was right…oh
God she didn’t want to think about if she was right.

“
Talk to me,
Monica.”

“
I think Michael killed
Detective Dane. I think he killed your landlord as well. And I
think he might have killed Linda Bennett.”

“
Why would he do
that?”

“
Think about it. If you
went and talked to your landlord you would have found out that he
gave Michael a key to your apartment.”

“
Why would he kill some
woman in my apartment?”

“
I don’t know, but he
scares me. You didn’t see the way he looked at me the other day.
Like I was some sort of prey. I have never had someone look at me
like that.”

“
Monica, I think all of
this is getting to you.”

“
He might have even killed
Mindy.”

“
Okay, now you are just…why
not say that I killed all those people. I have the motive to do so.
I don’t see where Michael would benefit from any of
this.”

“
What if he is trying to
set you up for all of this?”

“
Okay, now you are being
ridiculous. I’ll tell you what, if you find a key to my apartment
in Michael’s possession then I will entertain your theory.
Otherwise, you are blaming a man, who if I might remind you has
helped me out quite a lot, who has done nothing wrong. You are only
going to hurt your friendship with Nicole if you keep thinking like
this.”

“
I’m sure he is not going
to keep your key on him.”

“
Look, Nicole is moving in
with him. I’m sure she will forget something and I will go to
Michael’s apartment and give it to her. She will invite me in for a
visit and I will look around his apartment.”

“
You won’t find anything.
I’m sure he would have hidden it.”

Adam sighed.

Monica could see the strain on his face. He
has been through so much he really didn’t need this. She would have
to find proof then bring this up again. She was sure Michael wasn’t
who he was pretending to be, she could feel it in her bones. But
Nicole and Adam weren’t going to listen without proof. They were
her family here and no one hurts her family. She had to make sure
that Michael wasn’t who she thought he was. If something happened
to either Adam or Nicole, she couldn’t forgive herself.

“
You’re right, I sound
silly. I just…we seemed to be surrounded by death and it’s starting
to freak me out.”

“
Me too.”

***

Nicole arrived at Michael’s apartment. He
was sitting on the sofa reading the newspaper. She wanted to rush
over and throw herself into his arms. She still couldn’t believe
that Mr. Dane was dead. Instead she walked calmly over to him.

“
What’s wrong, Nicole,”
Michael said as he folded up the newspaper and set it on the coffee
table.

“
Detective Dane is
dead.”

“
I know, I just read it in
the paper. How did you know?”

“
I went down to the police
station…”

“
You did what?” Michael’s
voice bellowed through the room. He quickly stood.

“
I wanted to help
you…”

“
What the fuck were you
thinking?” He grabbed a hold of her. He was already stressed out by
what he read in Tim’s little notebook. If that idiot could make all
those connections by going through Michael’s past how long before
someone else does the same thing.

“
Ouch, you are hurting me,”
Nicole said.

“
I told you I would take
care of this. Why the fuck didn’t you just listen to me?” Michael
pushed her onto the sofa. His inner demon was bubbling up to the
surface, he couldn’t control his rage. He went and grabbed the
floor lamp. He yanked the cord out of the socket and gripped the
lamp firmly with both hands. His inner demons were screaming for
blood. He looked over at Nicole she was curdled up in a ball trying
to cover her face.

Michael yelled then used the floor lamp to
smash the coffee table.

“
God damn it, I’m trying to
protect you. I’m trying to protect all of you and you all just keep
getting in the way.” He smashed the piece of artwork that he and
Nicole bought earlier. He walked over to the kitchen and swung the
table lamp down onto the counter breaking the lamp in
two.

“
Why the fuck doesn’t
anyone listen to me?!” he screamed. He stood there breathing heavy
when he felt her trembling hands on his arm. He had to pull his
shit together or just kill her and be done with it. The walls were
closing in. It was time to setup Adam for the murders then move
from this city. Hell, it would be best to move overseas for a
while.

“
I’m sorry,” she said
quietly.

He should just kill her. Strangle her with
the cord of that damn lamp…but…he didn’t want to do it. This
thought confused him. She was nothing but a liability. She would
end up getting him caught. Every fiber in his being told him to
kill her. But he just couldn’t.

“
God damn it!” he yelled,
then he came down to a squatting position.

He felt her hand timidly touch his back then
shortly afterward she hugged him from behind.

“
I’m sorry,” she
repeated.

“
Adam is going to get
killed. Do you people not see that? Whoever got into his apartment
is stalking him.” Michael sat on the floor. “They killed Mindy, and
the landlord, hell they probably killed Detective Dane. If they get
spooked they will kill Adam. I’m trying to save him,
Nicole.”

“
Let me help.”

“
I can’t, because what if…I
don’t even want to entertain the thought.”

“
Tell me, let me help
you.”

“
What if Adam killed those
people?”

“
I can’t see him doing
something like that.”

“
Just like you couldn’t see
Johnny being a killer either. I don’t know what to do, Nicole. I
don’t want you or your friend being around him if he is the killer,
yet if he isn’t the killer he will be a sitting duck if he is
alone. What do I do?”

“
Innocent until proven
guilty. If you get proof that Adam is the killer you have to turn
him into the police. But until then I won’t believe Adam capable of
doing those awful things.”

“
You have to promise me
that you will do as I say. If something happened to
you…”

“
I promise.”

Michael turned around and grabbed her. He
gently laid her on the marble floor. He quickly pulled his jeans
off then lifted her skirt. He positioned himself between her legs
and thrust forward, burying his cock to the hilt inside her. He
slowly thrust as he looked her in the eyes. The way she looked at
him with such love in her eyes…he lowered down and kissed her as he
continued to slowly thrust. One thought kept trying to evade his
mind as he made love to her…he should kill her.

Chapter
Seventeen

“
I’m sorry about yesterday.
I will understand if you want to leave me. After what Nathan had
done to you I don’t want you to think I will do the same,” Michael
said as he gently stroke Nicole’s hair. They both were snuggled up
in bed.

“
You were really stressed
out. You were keeping all of that to yourself it must have been
hard. I really was just trying to help you when I went to the
police station.”

“
I know. Nicole, I have
been mulling over everything and the more I think about things…did
you know Linda Bennett worked in a small restaurant that was across
the street from the bar Adam’s band plays at?”

“
No, I didn’t know
that.”

“
I found that out
yesterday. Then I come home and read that Detective Dane was
murdered. All the evidence is starting to point to
Adam.”