The Executioner: A Love Story (19 page)

Ari fell forward and kissed Jordan with such force and such emotion the orgasm continued for several moments. Finally she laid her head against his chest, and he shuddered as he felt like every ounce of his being was poured into her.

Vince quickly pulled out of her. He knew she would scream again when he did, so he tried to make it fast. When he was on his back again her breathing slowed, and she snuggled against Jordan.

“That was the most incredible thing I’ve ever felt in my life,” Vince admitted as he glanced over at the two younger ones drifting into sleep around each other. Jordan was still inside Ari, and Vince was jealous for a moment. Until he grabbed the covers and tucked them around the trio, and he curled around them with his right arm slung over Ari’s back. He had to be the luckiest man in the world, he thought. He kissed first Ari’s shoulder, then boldly kissed Jordan’s. He didn’t think he’d ever been happier in his life.

They enjoyed over an hour of deep sleep when Vince heard the loud knock on the door. “This is the FBI. We have a warrant for Arianna Becker.” Then there was a short pause. Vince shook Ari’s shoulder to wake her. Her eyes popped open as she heard the second knock. “Arianna Becker, come out with your hands up or we’ll be forced to break the door down.”

She sat up and pulled the blanket around her bare breasts. Then they heard something slam against the door, and on the next try it flung open. Flashlights illuminated the room, and finally rested on the three in the bed.

Arianna shielded her eyes and tried to keep the blanket up at the same time. Vince jumped out of the bed and searched for his pants. Then he remembered his arm was in a sling and there was no way he was getting dressed quickly.

Guns were pulled, and they heard someone yell out. “Stop what you’re doing and put your hands over your head.”

“I’m naked, and so are they. We just want to put our clothes on and she’ll be out.” Vince sounded truly angry, and he would have intimidated most of the men in the room from that alone. “I’m Special Agent Vincenzo Argento, and that is Special Agent Jordan Stewart, and we are ordering you to stand down so we can get dressed.”

The men one by one turned off their flashlights and stepped out of the room. Except for one. And then they heard Agent Wolf’s voice as he said. “She’s being arrested for capital murder Vince. Get her dressed and say good-bye. She’s coming with us.” Then his flashlight went dark as well. “You have ten minutes,” he said as he closed the door behind him.

Chapter Seventeen

Arianna was dressed, and sat silently as Jordan helped Vince with his jeans. “You’ll be okay. We’ll get you a lawyer immediately. Don’t say a word to them, Ari.” As soon as he was dressed he knelt down in front of her. Jordan sat beside her on the bed and wrapped his arm around her. “You’ll be fine. Just stay quiet until we get you a lawyer.”

They heard a knock on the door, and Vince stood when Ari did. “Ari, we’ll take care of it. They have no evidence against you. Don’t implicate yourself. Don’t talk to them. You’ll be fine. We love you.” He talked the whole time he walked her toward the door. Jordan was silent. He kissed her quickly, then Jordan did, and the door was opened. Vince and Jordan stood at the door and watched as Wolf put the cuffs on Ari.

She remembered when she handcuffed him to the bed and knocked him out. He must too, because he made the cuffs as tight as possible. Vince shut the door and pulled the chain across it to keep it closed.

“What the hell do we do now?” Jordan stammered, and his hands went to his mouth. Vince could see he bit at his fingernails. He took Jordan’s hand and led him to the bed. It was his turn to be comforted. Jordan cried as Vince held him tight against his chest.

Vince racked his brain for any defense attorneys he knew who weren’t total slime-balls, but could still win at trial. And he could only think of one, and he hated the guy. He was Mr. Goody-two-shoes-never-did-anything-wrong Sam Clark. Sam Clark was the guy everyone liked. And Vince couldn’t stand guys like that. The best thing about Sam, he was a hard ass and a stickler in the courtroom as well. He would call him in the morning.

“How did I not see them coming?” Jordan wondered. “I’m supposed to know everything.” Jordan jumped up and grabbed his tablet, and searched the news sites. “The Secretary was arrested at 2:45 pm. She’s being held without bail.”

“So they’ll probably try to hold Arianna without bail, to coerce her to talk.” Vince didn’t want to stand over Jordan’s shoulder and watch him as he worked, so he busied himself with gathering Ari’s things. He found two duffle bags full of cash. One of them contained Ari’s guns and knives as well.

He pulled the knives out of the bags and stared at them. They looked like thigh holsters for guns, but much too small. Did she wear them on her calves, he wondered, and held them against his legs.

“She wears them on her forearms,” Jordan stated without really looking.

“How?” He held them against his forearms, but still didn’t get it. “How do you know?”

“It’s the only possible solution,” Jordan stated, and snapped them on. Then he put on his jacket. He demonstrated by sliding his hands into the arms, then pulling out the knives.

“Ingenious,” Vince stated as he watched Jordan stash the knives back into their holders. Vince checked her guns to make sure they were stored properly. She kept them clean and loaded; he knew she was a smart girl. Jordan threw the knives back into the bag, and Vince zipped it up. He gazed at the bed longingly. Why couldn’t things be okay for them?

Vince and Jordan gathered all the bags and carried them down to the cars. Vince drove Arianna’s even with his bad arm. They drove back to Jordan’s apartment. They would need each other to get through this.

Arianna sat in the back of a black SUV, handcuffed. Wolf didn’t drive her back to DC. She couldn’t imagine spending that long in the car with a man she’d knocked out. The thought crossed her mind that she should have just killed him. More than once.

She wasn’t nervous, at all. She’d been expecting this for years. She knew what she did was illegal, even if she didn’t think it was wrong. She was worried about Vince and Jordan. They both must be losing their minds. Before she just had to worry about herself; and if she went to jail for what she did she would do it with pride. But how would Jordan and Vince cope without her?

Vince would go back to meaningless sex with strangers. Jordan would go back to being a hermit. She wondered if they would even stay in contact once she was behind bars. They had absolutely nothing in common. She closed her eyes and tried to sleep. She was sure tomorrow would be a grueling day.

Vince lay on the couch and listened to Jordan. He’d left his bedroom door open, and it was killing Vince. There would be moments of silence, followed by sobs that he tried to keep silent, then minutes of tapping on his tablet. That should be quiet, Vince thought, except for the light came on every time he did it and he pushed at the screen like he wanted to kill it.

Finally Vince had enough. He stood up to close the door, but he looked in and saw the terror on Jordan’s face. He wanted to close the door and walk back to the couch, but that’s not what he did. He climbed into Jordan’s bed, on the far side. Jordan didn’t tell him not to.

“You know, Arianna being in jail will be nothing at all like what you experienced. Arianna is going to be a hero when the other women find out what she’s done. They are going to put her on a pedestal. Wait and see.” He tried to keep his voice as low and soothing as possible.

“What about me? What will my life be like without her? If she goes away, I might as well die.” He rolled over to face Vince. “I know that’s not the Christian way to think, but without Ari… Listen, I’m not going back to that. I didn’t realize how alone I was. Now that I know…”

Vince put his hand on Jordan’s shoulder, and squeezed. “Jordan, you’ll never have to be alone again if you don’t want to be. Trust me I don’t want to go back to my old life any more than you do.” Jordan scooted a little closer. “I am always going to be here for you. With or without Arianna, I am always going to love you.”

Jordan didn’t know how to feel about it all. He wasn’t gay, he’d never been gay. But something about Vince made him want… Want what? Vince left his hand on Jordan’s shoulder. Why wasn’t it weird? It was comforting. He felt safe with Vince, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally. He felt like he could be himself, open up, and not be called weird. Why weren’t the jocks he went to high school with all like Vince? They were all friends in middle school, what changed in high school?

Hormones, girls, and sex happened; all those things that affected each boy differently. Why did it turn some of them into complete jerks? Why didn’t Vince turn out like that? What made him so special? He empathized. He knew first hand, maybe more than anyone else, what Jordan felt. He had an amazing body, he was so strong. “Did you bulk up… because…”

“Because I was molested? You can say it. It’s not a secret anymore.” Vince thought about it. “Probably, yea. I was determined that no one was ever going to touch me that way again.”

“Can you show me how,” Jordan wondered.

“Of course, when my arm heals I’ll show you how.” Jordan’s hand went out to cover Vince’s. It felt good to touch him.

Jordan woke up before his alarm went off. Vince lay on his back, and Jordan lay facing him with his arm around Vince’s waist and his cheek on his bicep. He was reminded of that first night they all slept together. This was how Ari slept on Vince. And then he remembered what happened after that. He asked Vince to kiss Ari, and it led to the beginning of the most intricate and beautiful relationship.

He wondered what Vince would do if he kissed him. And then he wondered why he would wonder that. He crawled out of bed quietly, and made his way to the shower.

He had breakfast ready when Vince woke up at 6 am. He smiled shyly when Vince walked in the room and said, “Good morning.”

“So far,” Vince said with a grin. “We have a lot to do today. Let’s start with calling the lawyer.”

“That might need to wait about two and a half hours. They probably won’t be in the office this early.” Vince took a seat and Jordan brought him a plate full of eggs and cheese.

“Do you ever break down and eat bacon,” Vince wondered.

“No,” Jordan answered when he joined him. They ate in silence, but Jordan had his tablet in front of him the entire time.

“Have you found anything out today,” Vince wondered. Jordan nodded his head. “Ari has a bond hearing at ten. Do you think we’ll have enough time to find a lawyer?”

“With the amount of money we have laying around, that shouldn’t be a problem,” Vince chuckled. “How would you like to go into the office with me?”

“Can I? I mean…” Jordan was trained in all aspects of field work, but he’d never done it. “Can I just walk into the field office?”

“You have the highest security clearance possible. You can walk into any office in the US government.” Vince sighed deeply. “Why didn’t I meet you years ago? All the trouble we could have gotten into.” He said it with a devilish grin.

“I intend to cause a lot of trouble,” Jordan stated seriously.

“Bring it back a notch,” Vince warned. “You can’t go against the US government guns blazing.” Then Vince thought of something. “Who is the prosecutor on Margo Tremblay’s case? I’m sure they will have Arianna’s also. They will try their hardest to link the cases together.”

“It’s someone named Selena Davies,” Jordan said after he pushed the screen on his tablet a few times.

“Fuck,” Vince cried out, and scooted his chair away from the table.

“I take it you know her?”

“What time is it,” Vince asked as he stood up. He wore sweats and a t-shirt, and he searched around in his bag and found a hooded sweatshirt and a pair of tennis shoes. “Can you help me with these?”

It was so cute to see someone so big and strong so helpless. Jordan sat Indian style on the floor and tied Vince’s shoes as he struggled into the hoodie. Jordan held it while Vince shoved his right arm into it, then he zipped it up over his injured arm. Vince loved having Jordan around. He hoped to hell he never thought about leaving.

“So where are we going,” Jordan wondered as they walked toward the car.

“To find Selena Davies,” Vince stated as if it should be obvious. “She jogs at the mall every morning.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I used to do it with her when I spent the night at her apartment,” Vince said without emotion. Jordan frowned as he started the car.

They sat on a park bench near the mall. Vince kept an eye on his watch, and Jordan remained attached to his tablet and his phone. Vince stiffened beside him, and nudged him in his ribs. Jordan glanced up to see a strikingly beautiful blonde jogging toward them.

Her hair was in a perfect ponytail framed by cute bangs. Her body was as perfect as she could get it; what nature didn’t give her she augmented with surgery. She wore neon green shorts that barely covered her rear, a white tank top over a neon sports bra, and the same neon green running shoes and sweat jacket. She came from money, that was obvious. She had been taught from a young age that the rules didn’t apply to her, and her mother had made sure that she knew the world really could revolve around her if she believed and worked hard.

She was the kind of woman who had everything; looks, brains, and money. She had no need for a man, except for in the bedroom. And she had a lot of need for that. Vince knew from experience. She was the kinkiest little slut he’d ever met, and he liked that about her.

Vince approached her and stood right in her path. She noticed him as soon as he stood up, and she removed the earbuds from her ears. “Well, well… What do we have here?” Even her voice was the perfect balance between brainiac Ivy League law school graduate and lonely barfly. He remembered exactly how she sounded when she screamed for more while getting fucked by three men at the same time. “If it isn’t Vincenzo Argento.” The way she said his name used to make him melt. She used to be a brunette, back when they had sex. She’d died her naturally blonde hair dark brown to be taken seriously in the courtroom, but it impeded her sex life so she changed it back. She got laid much more as a blonde.