Jameson Hotel - the Dark Suite Series: Parts One, Two & Three (10 page)

“The suite’s as big
as a house.”

“We’ve been in there
for weeks and the boys are like savages. Sophia’s been giving them new video
games to play every two days, but she ran out a week ago. Now they’re climbing
the walls and it’s been nearly impossible to keep them quiet.”

“You ever hear of a
thing called books? Why the hell didn’t you bring a Kindle along?”

“They’re ten. They
refuse to read.”

“That’s your fault,”
I mumble. “Trust me, you made the right decision coming here. The bodyguard
from your bar back in St. Louis couldn’t protect you twenty-four seven.
Besides, this is a family issue.”

“My guy back home
is
family which is why I wouldn’t have
put such a burden on him, not since he’s got another kid on the way and a
toddler in the house.”

“Oh, I get it. I’m
not family?” I laugh.

“Knock it off, Mark.
We’re here only because Sophia insisted you could fix the problem quickly. You
know I’ll do whatever the fuck she wants, especially if it means keeping
Daxton
and Xavier safe. But, I would’ve been fine taking
care of my family on my own, without hiding out like a coward.”

“Yeah, and I’d be
perfectly fine letting you handle this on your own... in my dreams... or I
guess that would be a nightmare,” I say sarcastically while opening my suite.

“So what’s going on?
How’d you take him down?”

“
Shh
.
I’ve got company upstairs.”

“What kind of
company?” he whispers.

I give him my best
you dumbass
look as I open the door to
the stairwell and we head to my garage.

“Cove,” I stop part
way down and turn to him, “you know I love you, right?”

He puts up a hand so
I stay back. “Is this another one of your fucked up pranks? Is
Dayne
here or not?”

I let out a
disappointing sigh and look into his brown worrisome eyes, wanting to blow the
dark wavy piece of hair from his forehead. He’s pale, probably from being in
the suite for so long, and skittish, but that’s normal. All I ever think about
when I see him is the abuse he endured as my father’s number one star in the
porn industry. That’s what my dad called him. His
Star
. I want to comfort the guy, yet at the same time I’d love to
kick his ass and tell him to grow a pair.

“Mark,” he whispers.
“What’s going on?”

“He’s here, but we
need to...”

“You didn’t really
do anything drastic, right?
Soph
said you mentioned
killing him earlier. What the fuck is that all about? Can we pay him to
disappear from our lives?” He speaks nervously. “He likes money. Everyone does.
How much does he want? I’ll give him anything, you know that, anything to keep
Soph
and the kids safe.”

This time I
exaggerate my sigh and continue the two flights down the stairwell. He’s always
been a submissive dainty boy and a bit gullible when it comes to things like
this.

We’re the same
height and share the same muscular build, but our other characteristics are
like night and day, in a very bizarre sort of way. On the outside, I’m the
blonde palomino horse and he’s the black stallion. Both exquisitely striking,
stately, broad chested, and well hung. But on the inside, he’s a Dandelion
Puffball and I’m Deadly Nightshade, the toxic Belladonna.

“I need help
lifting...”

“Jesus Christ!” Cove
shouts as we enter the garage. “What the
fuck
happened?” He bends over and places his hands on his knees then stands and
begins to pace. “Fuck, what the fuck!”

“Chill and keep your
voice down.”

“No. What did you
do! Damn it! Did you stab him with something? Why is he covered in blood? What
the hell happened?”

“When a
dickwad
like
Dayne
has me on the
ground and says he’s
gonna
cut me up, I’m
gonna
do something about it. What the fuck did you think
was going to happen? It was
him or me
. And if he won
you would’ve been next, then Sophia. Get real and fucking
help
me out. It’s the least you can do.”

“No, this is too
gruesome.”

“What the fuck?
Where are you going?” I clutch his arm as he takes off for the stairs.

“I thought I was
prepared to handle something like this, considering everything I’ve been
through, but fuck no. Just, fuck no.”

“What would you have
done? Look at my head, Cove. I can feel the blood dripping. And you know he
took a shot at me earlier,” I raise my voice and pull him over to
Dayne
. “Get his legs and help me lift him onto the bed of
my truck.”

“I’m not placing a
finger on him!”

“Fine, I’ll pay your
kids a hundred bucks a piece and they’ll do it,” I say sharply.

“This isn’t a joke,”
he snaps back.

“I wasn’t joking.
Don’t force me to dismember him. It’s too messy, now grab his goddamn legs.”

“What?” He starts to
panic. “You’re fucking insane! What are we
gonna
do with
the body?”

“Good, you said
we
. And it’s not a body. He’s not dead
yet.” I place my foot on
Dayne’s
shoulder and he
comes alive with a groan.

“No,” Cove whispers
and steps back. “No, we’re not... I’m not... damn it, Mark. How the hell can
you ask me to do this?”

“You’re an
asswipe
,”
Dayne
moans. “Both of
you...
asswipes
.”

“Fuck.” Cove paces
and runs his hand through his hair. This is his usual routine when he freaks
out, and he’s only going to get worse.

“Why don’t you go
back to your suite and send Sophia down.”

“Screw you,” he
seethes. “You bastard. We didn’t discuss this. I don’t want to be in a room
with a dying man.”

“I just said I had
no choice in how things played out. We’re dealing with a demented mammoth who
wanted a lot of people dead.”

“Are you talking
about
Dayne
or referring to yourself?”

“Real nice,
dickhead. I thought you’d be more appreciative to the fact that I saved your
ass... twice.”

He places his hands
in the air and turns away. “I don’t even want to know what
that
means. Jesus! I knew you were a fucking monster!”

I close my eyes,
exhale, and shake my bowed head in disappointment. This is exactly why I’ve
always taken care of shit on my own. “Go back to your family,” I whisper. “I’ll
figure out a way to make him disappear without your help.”

“He’s not dead,
Mark.”

“Neither is my
sister, or you, or my nephews, and I’m surprised you’re not focusing on that
fact instead of the rodent on the floor. And I’m not dead either, in case you
haven’t noticed.”

“I knew she was
here,”
Dayne
mumbles. “I knew the whole asinine
family was here.”

I take a roll of
duct tape from my toolbox, open my blade and slice a piece for his mouth. “Any
last words?” I ask, leaning over him.

“I hope you assholes
sleep well... knowing I was going to force feed the meat on your bones to your
offspring dipshit children.” He struggles to breathe. “Sleep well... knowing
someone else... will finish this for me.”

I cover his mouth
and he mumbles under the tape.

“Lift his legs,” I
demand while pulling him up by his armpits. Cove doesn’t move an inch, still
hanging on
Dayne’s
last words. I start dragging the
beast toward the truck, knowing I might be able to get him in the back by
myself, but getting him from my truck, down a set of stairs, along a long dock,
and into my boat is a whole other story.

I lay him face down
then follow the trail of blood across the garage until my eyes land on Cove’s
distressed face.

“At one time I
thought you had grown a backbone.” Now I’m fucking irritated with him. “This is
what it’s come down to and you can’t deny that you would’ve done the same thing
if he had gotten to you first.”

“I wouldn’t have
tortured him with multiple wounds and kept him suffering for all this time.”

“Why? My feeling is
you should treat people the way they treat others.”

“You moron, it’s
treat people the way you want to be...”

“Cove,” I walk over
and place my hands on his shoulders, “you and I have been beaten, called scum,
and have had our asses ripped in two by men who purchased us for an hour of pleasure.
My dad made a fortune selling our bodies.
I
did it because I fell in love with the money and I had the crackbrained idea
that it would please my dad, and maybe, just maybe he’d start to like me, but I
know
you
didn’t have a choice.” I
turn back to
Dayne
. “That sleaze by the truck, my
dad’s heavy, he made sure you never left or got out of line. I overheard him
and my father laughing one night about nearly drowning you... they said you
shit your pants, and at that time, you were like nineteen or twenty. How many
times did they torture and nearly kill you before that?”

“Shut up, Mark.”

“
Dayne
used to stand outside the sex rooms in my dad’s mansion with a mile wide grin
on his face, listening to you getting your...”

“Enough!” he fumes.

“He drugged my sister,
your
wife, sat on top of her and gave
her a Jameson Industries tat...”

“Alright!”

“...
then
he kept her locked away so he and my dad could do the
same shit to her that they did to us.”

“Shut the hell up!”
He walks over to
Dayne
and grabs his legs. “Let’s
make this quick.”

“I plan on it.” I
smile as we lift the moaning buffoon onto the truck bed, cover him with a tarp,
and pull out of the garage.

Cove doesn’t speak
the entire way to the lake and when I park in front of the path to the dock, he
drops his head and sighs.

“Seriously? I
thought you’d leave him in the woods to bleed out,” he whispers. “You’re
gonna
pull a Paul Jameson tonight, after you just went off
on what a dick he was. Let’s think of a better way then dumping him in the
lake.”

“
Dayne’s
probably already dead and I’m not leaving any trace of him for the cops to come
across. He’s got too much of a connection to you and Sophia.”

He rubs his face
then laughs at the irony of the situation and steps out of the truck. He spent
a good part of his life worrying that my dad was going to do this same shit to
him.

“This area better be
safe.”

I nod as we secure
the tarp around
Dayne
. “No one will be around this
time of the night, not to mention this time of the year. It’s a private area. I
rent two of the six slips at this dock and the other four are rented by local
hot shots. It’s safe.”

We’re careful blood
doesn’t drip from the tarp when we carry him to my Cobalt. It’s a good size
boat with a step platform on the back - something that’s helpful when rolling a
body into the water. Once on board, I take a bucket of water to my truck and
dump it in the bed to wash out any evidence of blood, just in case a cop
happens to show up with a waving flashlight once again.

Cove’s a mess when I
return; his face is resting in his palms, his foot’s tapping, and his entire
body’s twitchy. This will be good for him.

“Buck up, buddy,” I
say, starting the boat.

He shows his sickly
face as we pull away from the dock.

“You had the boat
uncovered and ready to go before we even arrived. This was planned, Mark. What
the fuck?”

“And? So what?” I
knew this is where
Dayne
was going to sink into the
depths of Hell. I prepped the boat before my morning
appointment
with Roland.

Keeping a low speed,
I head a mile out and turn off the motor. At this distance he’ll sink about a
thousand feet.

“Cove, open your
eyes,” I demand while removing the tarp from
Dayne
.
“I’ve got two cement blocks in the back compartment with some rope. Tie one to
his legs, make sure it’s secure, and I’ll get the other around his neck.”

He moves hesitantly,
but for once follows my instructions. I’m surprised he hasn’t... yep, that’s
what I was waiting for. My brother-in-law’s famous for vomiting under stress.

“Sophia make you and
the kids
SpaghettiOs
for dinner?” I laugh and finish
tying the knot. “Smells yummy.”

“You need to be put
away.” He shakes his head and wipes the puke from his lips, unquestionably
upset.

“What? Like my
mother? I’m saner than her and all the rest of you. I’m not living in some fantasy
world.”

“Tell me he’s dead.
I’ll never sleep again if you roll him in while he’s breathing.”