Pole Dance (35 page)

Caitlin eyes held his for a few seconds, softening, as she tried to put her feelings aside and convert 'Jake-speak' into something she could understand, could wrap her head around.

"I think I get what you're saying, baby, but it still sounds disgusting," she murmured against his lips.

"Let's see if I can make you smell good for me, yeah?" Jake whispered as his hands moved beneath the t-shirt she had on and started to work their magic against Caitlin's bare skin.

Chapter Fifteen

"What've you got for me, boys?" Ram entered the bullpen at the station the next morning refreshed after the few hours of sleep he'd managed. Funny how some shut eye, good food and a shower can revive a man. Especially if the man had dreams of creamy flesh captured in light blue lace with promises of keeping his secrets whispered in his ear.

"Got a fingerprint off one of the pages we'd found in Pam's throat. Sent it off and think we got a hit." Tim mumbled around the huge bite of doughnut he was trying to chew. He reached for his coffee to help move it along.

"You're shittin' me," Ram said coming to a full stop. Were they finally getting a break in this? He wandered over to Tim's desk to see what was on his computer monitor.

"Anyone ever heard of an Ezekiel Matthias?" Ram asked the room at large. At the blank looks, he continued reading. "Seems the fingerprint belongs to him. Son of James Matthias who's a big-wig preacher over in Gallup. Uh-oh, seems this Ezekiel was a very naughty boy. Was caught doing stuff to some of the younger girls in the congregation when he was over eighteen and the girls weren't. Was charged as an adult and spent a couple years in one of New Mexico's correctional facilities. We got a picture of this guy?"

Tim reached for the keyboard and accessed a copy of Ezekiel's driver's license circa 2004.

"Holy shit," Ram whispered staring at the screen. The small group of detectives as well as a few of the policemen that were still at the station began to make their way over to Tim's desk. There was a jostling for position so everyone could see the face tied to the fingerprint that had been lifted from one of the only the tissue-paper, thin pages that hadn't degraded but that they'd found in the throat of every victim. They'd spent a lot of time trying to find a connection between what passages were on the single sheets that had been folded again and again until each was about a half-inch square. Hours had been spent pouring over their King James Bibles to see if the killer was giving them a clue, a reason why or a lead forward. Up until now they had nothing.

Now, they had something.

Something big.

Because unless Hank Davidson had a twin, it appears Ezekiel had changed his both his name and his hair style in the last eight years.

"Let's go get 'em, boys," Ram said, his voice almost a shout.

*.*.*.*.*

I was trying to get the tape to stick so I could hang the "For Rent" sign on fence around the porch. I wanted it there so people could see it from the street.

"Maybe using thumbtacks would be better," I heard from behind me. I turned and saw a beautiful, exotic woman standing on the walkway, her head tilted to the side causing her long, black rippling hair to spill further from her knitted hat down her parka.

"You might be right," I agreed straightening. "Can I help you?"

"Saw you putting up the sign and I've been looking for a place," she said. Coming up the stairs, she pulled off her glove and offered me her hand. "I'm Sara."

"Caitlin," I grabbed her hand just now noticing how cold my fingers were in comparison to the warmth of hers. We both giggled as I shoved my hand in my pockets. "You're interested?"

"Well, I'd like to see it first, if you don't mind?" Sara said still smiling, her teeth shining brightly against the warm café au lait of her skin.

"It hasn't been cleaned or repainted yet but I can show it to you so you have some idea of its space."

"Sounds good."

I led her upstairs to Three and left her to wander around as I went back downstairs to find my hammer and some thumbtacks, leaving the door to my apartment open. I had just found three small nails in my junk drawer I thought I could probably use instead, when I heard a knock on my open door.

"Hey, baby," I said happy to see Jake unexpectedly in the middle of the day.

"Darlin'," I heard him rumble as he removed his coat and draped it over my small sofa. "Brought lunch if you're interested."

"When have I ever not been interested in food?" I gave up my foray through my junk drawer and made my way to him instead. 'Doing a foray on Jake, now there's an idea,' I thought to myself as I pressed myself against the long length of him, looping my hands around his back.

"That's a fact. Never saw a girl eat so much and stay in such great shape." Jake slid his hands around my waist to cup my ass in emphasis as I giggled and tried to move away.

"Not so fast, Lover boy. We still have to…" I began.

"Hello? Caitlin?" Sara was standing just outside my door and I hope she didn't overhear or see what Jake and I had been doing.

I stepped up to the door and felt Jake loop a hand around my waist from behind.

"Jake, this is Sara. She wanted to see Three. Sara, this is my boyfriend…"

"I know Jake, Caitlin. How're you doing, Jake?" I watched as Sara's face close down, no longer the smiling girl I had met on the porch.

"Good, Sara. You?"

"Well enough, I guess." I watched her cross her arms and look everywhere but at me or Jake.

"Heard your mom died. Was sorry to hear it."

"Yeah. Thanks, Jake." There were a couple of beats of silence before she spoke again.

"I'll think about the apartment, Caitlin. Thanks for letting me see it."

"Sure, no problem. It was nice to meet you."

"You, too. See ya, Jake."

"Sara."

I closed the door and moved back to the kitchen as I heard Jake begin to rummage around in the bags he'd brought. I was trying not to think about the vibe that had risen when Sara and Jake saw each other but it was kind of hard to ignore.

"Roast Beef with cheese and tomato or Tuna on white with lettuce?" Jake announced from the depths of the deli bag.

"What just happened?" I asked softly rolling the nails I'd found between my palms, catching the points intermittently as they moved.

"What, Darlin'?" he asked as he held up two different varieties of chips, shaking them to get my attention.

"That. At the door. With Sara."

Jake sighed dropping the chip bags to the countertop before he came around the small bar into the kitchen and stood next to me. Not touching, but still quite close. "What do you want to know, Cait?"

"Why did it get so weird when you recognized each other?" I had my tummy against the counter by the sink and Jake was leaning back against it, his hands on the counter edge down around his hips. I could see in my peripheral vision that his head was down, almost like he was talking to his boots.

"Sara was Dale's girl for a few years. His family hated her, said she wasn't good enough for him. His father kept pressuring her, shoving money her way to get her to leave Dale alone. One day, she was gone. Took Dale's heart with her when she left. Heard she was back in town. Didn't think I'd see her so soon."

"She broke Dale's heart?"

"Yeah, Darlin', she did." Jake was still standing next to me, each of us in our own space, our voices quiet.

"So why the bad vibe today?" I could feel my head tilt in confusion 'cause I
still
didn't understand.

He was quiet for a while before leaning towards me to rest his forehead against mine.

"Maybe because she knows that Dale and I are still tight."

'Right.
Maybe
,' I thought as I moved to snag the Tuna and plain chips. "You get anything to drink?"

They decided to stay at Caitlin's that night since she had, what she hoped, one of the last few shifts cleaning one of the Mahmood's convenience stores the next day. The one she cleaned Tuesday was closer to her place than his, so it made sense for them to use Cait's place on Monday nights.

Jake let himself in, trying to be as quiet as possible as he moved about the tiny apartment doing his nighttime routine before stripping off his clothes and sliding into her bed to pull her close against him.

"Mmm…you're back," Jake heard her mumble.

"Shhh, Babe, go back to sleep."

He felt her body relax against his arm and he tried to find his own sleep but he couldn't get seeing Sara and his Cait together today out of his mind. He remembered the vow he had made the first time she was in his bed, that his past would never blow back on her. But, if today was any example, his promise was for shit when he came face-to-face with his past.

Jake had been a real bastard to the girls in high school and in college flirting, coercing and coaxing until he got what he wanted, then never having anything to do with them again. Every girl thought they were gonna be the one to change him, chain him, until they realized they were just another notch in his proverbial bedpost, even though most of the time the deed was done in the back of his brother's beat up Camry. He was immune to their pleas, their crying faces as a few of the bolder ones confronted him with his actions. He had even had more than his fair share of fights with the girl's brothers, cousins and sometimes friends that felt the need to defend the girl's honor after the fact. But Jake never stopped trying to nail any of those that met his fancy though none of them ever caught his interest afterwards.

His behavior got even worse as he got older recognizing that he never had to date, woo or even spend a significant amount of time with a woman before she was in his bed and accepting his cock. Christ, sometimes he didn't even need to kiss them in order to get them underneath him. But, without fail, he could have them hustling for the door with a well-timed slap on the ass and a mumbled, "Time for you to go, Babe." As soon as he had finished locking the door, he headed for the shower to wash the stink of them off his skin and out of his mind.

It was Frank, though, that gave it to him straight on his last visit before he bought it in that lonely third-world on the other side of the globe.

They were working on the back patio of Jake's house, just getting the last of the planking of the deck in place when Frank spoke up.

"Been hearing some crazy shit, bro'," Frank said wiping the sweat from his forehead with an overused bandana. Just looking at them you could tell they were brothers due to their height and coloring. Though Frank was a bit stockier now after being in the military and had the standard buzz cut, he shared Jake's smile and eye color.

"Yeah?" Jake was bent down using the nail gun in a running line to secure the plank to the frame underneath, concentrating on keeping the nails evenly spaced.

"Seems my little brother has become quite the man-ho' around these parts."

Jake didn't even raise his eyes as he offered up his indifferent, "So?". He completed the line and ran his fingers lightly over it to make sure all the nails were fully flush with the wood. "You become a member of the pussy police when I wasn't lookin'?"

"Christ, you got a mouth on you."

"Learned from the best, man. Got an older brother that taught me everything I know." Jake could feel the air between them change as he spoke and he cut his glance to Frank to see his eyes, so much like his own, heavy on him.