Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 114820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 574(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 574(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
Lucinda came out of the bathroom from cleaning up after sex wearing a beige satin bra and what looked like a matching loose pair of short shorts.
She just kept getting better.
He knew she intended to sleep in this awesome getup.
He also knew the next morning he was going to fuck her in it.
Though, those sexy shorts would have to go, obviously, but maybe he’d just drag them down to her thighs and do her on her knees.
“It’ll catch on fire if you keep staring at it like that,” she interrupted Rus making mental plans as she put a knee in the bed.
He reached and dragged her the rest of the way, mostly so she’d end up on top of him.
“Madden comes home tomorrow,” he noted.
She smiled huge. “Yes.”
“She doing good at her dad’s?”
“He’s concerned about what’s going on here, but she’s doing okay.”
Rus wasn’t surprised about this. He’d be concerned too.
“He the kind of guy who’ll go carefully since she lost someone?”
Her face got soft, she trailed a finger down his hairline, and she nodded.
“Ready to sleep?” he asked.
“Yes.”
As a demand, or she could consider it an invitation, Rus touched his mouth with a finger.
Whatever way she took it was the right one.
She kissed him.
They turned out the lights, snuggled under the covers, only Rus making the pillows the perfect fit, because he was acting as hers.
He was not a man who had trouble getting to sleep, he was a man who had trouble staying asleep.
Night two, he was out in a way he wasn’t going to wake up.
Until his phone rang.
THIRTY-NINE
Terrific
“It’s funny.”
“It isn’t funny, Jess.”
“Wrong,” Jace stated. “It’s seriously fucking funny.”
Rus was sitting at Moran’s conference table, his legs stretched out in front of him, crossed at his ankles, his fingers linked behind his neck, and he was grinning at his chest.
Because it was totally fucked up.
But it was still funny.
“Okay, so we hauled in Ellen and Wendy and Dean and Lana, and none of them jumped Michael Mitchell, rang his bell, forced benzodiazepines down his throat, stripped him, trussed him, ball-gagged him and shoved a dildo up his ass, leaving him in front of the high school,” Moran said. “Now, my guess, we have about a thousand other citizens with a myriad of reasons why they might be moved to do this to Michael. What are my chances it’s a citizen taking justice in their own hands, and not the Crystal Killer frustrated with not finding Ezra, acting erratically?”
“Your chances are zero,” Bohannan answered. “He didn’t like doing that. He’s not gay. That’s why it was quick, clean, efficient, and he didn’t take it to climax. But somehow, we missed him, or he’s listening, and he heard about it. Ellen’s performance at the town council meeting. Rus’s reaction to it. And with Ezra holed up wherever he’s holed up with no one able to find him, he’s fidgety, wants to do something, and decided to clean up some local messes as presents for Rus.”
“Do I need to take Austin and Dylan into protective custody?” Moran asked.
“I wouldn’t,” Jess said.
“Jess,” Bohannan warned.
Jess and Jace exchanged identical smirks.
Bohannan was much like Rus, sitting in his chair at the table. Jace was in a chair in front of Moran’s desk, Moran was behind it, and Jess was leaning against a wall.
And in that “much like Rus” scenario, Bohannan’s tone might have held warning, but he was amused.
The amusement left the room when Moran asked irately, “How is this guy walking around my fucking town? We’ve been everywhere asking about him, he’s fucking watching Rus, and no one has seen him?”
“He’s very good at disguising himself,” Rus reminded him. “Not a single witness at any of his scenes had the same descriptions for the guy. He was shorter. He was taller. He was blond. He was bald. Heavyset. He had a lisp.”
“Could it be more than one guy?”
Rus shook his head but looked at Bohannan.
Bohannan shook his head too.
“So we got another victim, at least this one’s not dead, and otherwise nothing,” Moran groused.
“First, he might have come prepared for Molnar, but he didn’t come prepared for Michael,” Rus remarked. “You have a sex shop just out of town, we need to go talk to them and see if they have internal cameras. He bought Michael’s gear here. He might have taken the trip to Seattle so we couldn’t track him local, but that’s five hours in a car alone, much less finding somewhere to go and make his purchase. He’s got his ear to the ground and shit’s happening fast. My guess, he’s not wasting time driving.”
“I’ll send Dickerson out,” Moran decided.
Good.
“Next, Ezra is keeping tabs on news in town,” Rus said. “I know your deputies hit his friends for interviews, I want you and me to go back personally and lean on them in case he’s got someone he’s conned into thinking he’s still a decent guy. Someone who might be hiding him. Or bringing him supplies wherever he is. And when he does, keeping him in the loop about what’s happening.”