revelation_22-20

The grave was shallow and fresh, poorly dug at that.
“Kern, I told you a billion times to keep away from the swamp.”
“But Daddy!” Kern protested, her lower lip starting to tremble, “Why can’t I?”
“Because I don’t like the thought of you getting stuck out there and me not being able to find you, honey.” I said to the small, fair-haired child.
“Darling, don’t scare her like that.” My wife chided softly, “It’s only until you get older Kern, then daddy will take you out there with him.” She looked to me, “Won’t you?”
“We’ll see,” I said softly, knowing that I would never let my child go into that swamp, and I’d be damned to be the one to take her into there. Okay I know it sounds cliché, the whole anti-swamp thing, but I won’t go near that swamp.
Maggie and I have been married for five years now and Kern is our only child, unless you count the stillborn last year. The word still gives me that feeling I get when I’m going to puke. That helpless feeling, knowing you can’t stop it but knowing it’s coming anyway. Kern looks like her father and Maggie, mostly like Maggie though. You notice that I said her father, as in I am not her father. I’m not.
Anyway back to the grave I found. Okay I will admit it, I didn’t do the logical thing: get my wife and three-year-old the hell away from this marshy resting place. Nope, I - like the brainac I am stayed and acted like the burial chamber hadn’t been there, that the grave was just a bump in the mud. Not only did I not mention the grave-plot, I failed to mention that I saw a spirit loitering on the rocks.
Don’t think I am crazy or that seeing this stuff would be good in any way, shape, or form. Believe you me, it’s not; I can barely lead a normal life as a preacher in a small town. Okay I hear you now ‘a preacher isn’t a normal person, they talk to God and stuff’. Boy do I have news for you: anybody can talk to God if they want. Then comes the hard part: having faith that He’ll do something about it. I’ll tell you now, I’ll tell you only what I know and how I feel but I won’t preach to you.
I lost my faith a long time ago. People around here don’t know that, hell my wife doesn’t know that. They still see me as the godly man around here. They also don’t know I don’t trust my wife, that I have more than a feeling that she’s cheating on me. I don’t know maybe it’s the fact that she’s pregnant again and I’m sterile. I never figured I was quite that dumb.
“Luc!” Maggie said, elbowing me. For the second time this day it hit me: I loved this cheating, lying, fair-haired, green-eyed female.
“Hmmm?”
“You just missed a call on your cell phone, all because you were daydreaming.” I chuckled and stood. I bent and brushed my mouth to hers and once more felt the jolt of guilt. I shrugged it off once more and jogged to the house. I took my cell phone out of my jeans pocket and flipped it open as I entered the kitchen. I grabbed a glass from the cabinet and ran the water until it ran cold. I filled the glass as I looked at the screen. I turned off the tap and took a long gulp of the icy water.
My brother Gabriel had called. I pulled my long hair from my face and settled down on a wooden stool. The cell phone rang in my hand, and I answered it.
“Luc?”
“Hey Gabe,” I replied.
“Are you okay?”
“Why?”
“This is the third time this week that you haven’t answered the phone that I’ve called.”
“Sorry mummy, I was thinking. You do know that it’s eight in the morning, right?”
“Oh thinking now? That’s news,”
“Funny. Gabe are you alone?”
“Oh Lord, what now?”
“Are you?”
“Lacy is asleep on the bed but otherwise yah, why?”
“We really need to talk, but I can’t now, Maggie and Kern are coming into the house. Meet me at our café in Calvin as soon as you can.”
“I have a friend I want you to meet, could she...” I cut my brother off.
“Yes, bye kiddo, see you soon.”
“Luc, who was it?” Maggie asked suspiciously.
“Sorry, sweetie I can’t talk now I need to meet someone in Stets in half an hour.”
“Lucifer, we need to talk.” My wife said sharply as soon as our daughter was out of the room.
“I’ve got to go.” I rushed upstairs and threw together an overnight bag and came back downstairs.
“Luc, I’m leaving you.” Margaret said. I stopped dead in my tracks.
“How does it make you feel that you feel that you must be the one to break it off? I mean I should have left you a long time ago, but I believe in forgiveness and second chances, so I gave you one and another every time you did something stupid to deserve one more chance. But I draw the line here Margaret, I will not take you back after this.”
“Once more you think this stuff is about you, it’s not, it’s about me. I am in love with…”
“Yeah Jimmy O’Hara, I know and I know he’s the father of that child you carry now.” Her jaw dropped and I walked out to my Jeep. I climbed in and tossed my bag to the passenger side. I backed out of the driveway and once I was one the highway I called my lawyer and banker.
“Cummings,”
“Roger, I need divorce filed for A.S.A.P, and a copy of the pre-nuptial agreement faxed to me.”
“Why, what’s going on?”
“Margaret and I are separating,”
“I am sorry to hear that, have you tried counseling?”
“Roger, I am not in the mood to discuss my marriage’s problems with my attorney, please fax me that information soon as you can.”
“Sorry, Luc. How are you handling it?”
“I’m fine Roger, thanks.” We said our goodbyes then I called my banker. I closed off both of Maggie and my joint accounts on my way up to Calvin. Two hours and twenty minutes later I pulled into Riley’s café’s parking lot. I noticed my brother’s truck not far from where I now stood. I closed my door and locked the Jeep. I walked up, then onto the sidewalk, then into the café.
I subtlety scouted the practically empty café for my brother and his ‘friend’. I spotted Gabriel and walked over to the table where he and his friend sat. Gabe was my older brother, and usually my best friend. His dark blonde hair was past his ears, and his dark eyes gave him the ‘loner’ look, even though he is a major people person. Gabriel’s friend has long coppery hair, green eyes.
“Gee, Gabe this looks like a date,” I said. His friend looked my way. Gabe followed her gaze to me; he chuckled and motioned for me to have a seat next to him, I sat next to him.
“Luc meet Jeremy, Jeremy meet my brother Lucifer.” I shot her a look across the table.
“I wonder how you lived that down in junior high,” Jeremy taunted.
“Well, I could say the same thing about you. I mean, roughly how many times where you teased about having a masculine name?”
“Once, and he didn’t have much else to say afterwards though.” Gabe chuckled and looked at me.
“As I recall, he was found beaten in a back alley,”
“Whoops,” Jeremy mouthed sarcastically.
“Now that we have covered the taunting banter of strangers, would you cut to the point?” I asked.
“Touchy isn’t he?”
“Yeah, he’s as to the point as you are violent,”
“I’m not even gonna ask if Lacy and her have met.” I said, watching my brother and Jeremy I could easily tell that they were very comfortable with each other.
“She’d think I was cheating,” Gabriel said picking up his coffee cup.
“I think that’s rather nice: you’ve known her since grade school, and she still thinks you capable of cheating,” I said wryly, Gabe smirked over his coffee cup.
“Oh I am capable, it’s just that’d it hurt me more than it would her…” setting his cup down after taking a gulp, “so how is the wife?”
“Maggie?” I smirked, “Now there’s something really interesting. She’s leaving me,”
“For Jimmy?” Gabe guessed. As I shrugged my indifference I saw Jeremy’s eyebrow shoot up.
“Like the hell I know or care,”
“Tsk, tsk such language and for a preacher.” Gabe chuckled.
“I’m sensing some subtle apathy towards the cheating spouse,” Jeremy commented, “Is that even healthy?”
“Probably not, but what can I do about it?” Then I added, “You tell me to see a shrink and I’ll probably smack you,”
“I take it you are following through with your plan,”
“My plan…actually I finished it as I drove down here.” I said quietly.
“Your plan? Men plan now? Where was I?” Jeremy mocked.
“Mockery Jeremy, honestly I thought you might’ve grown up from this stage,” Gabe returned.
“Why should I have grown up, you two obviously haven’t,” Jeremy asked.
“Okay, if you must mock me, do it silently.” I said watching the pair.
“But then it’s not as fun,”
“Yeah, yeah, I know but I can’t hear it and therefore don’t have to act on my exceedingly strong urge to knock your heads together,” I said thoughtfully.
“I see your point. Anyway, as I was saying until I was so rudely interrupted,” she shot a mock meaningful look Gabe’s way, “what was, is your plan?”
“Still much mocking going on. To cut off my wife’s bank accounts and take her out of my will,” I said watching Jeremy’s face.
“Now there’s a sure way to give your family a reason to read your will,” Jeremy said softly, watching me from over her coffee cup. I glanced over at my brother; he seemed totally unaware of the unity of Jeremy’s and my gaze.
“Luc, you said we had to talk…what about?” Gabe asked after finishing off his coffee.
“Oh…nothing much other than I’m giving up the whole preaching thing, since I lost my faith anyhow, I’m selling the swamp and cabin, and moving to L.A., and…” I paused in my list in light of the fact that Gabe had coughed up his gulp of coffee, and half came up his nose. “Uh Gabe?”
“Yeah?”
“How was the sugar and creamer coming back up?” I mocked, trying to hold back a chuckle. Jeremy’s blue eyes danced as she chuckled and attempted to cover it up with a cough.
“Okay, what was that again?” Gabe asked after shooting Jeremy a serve look. “Cause I think you lost me with the ‘giving up”,”
“I am not going to be a preacher any longer, you with me?”
“Um…yeah,”
“Then how come your eyes are as big as saucers and your coffee smells like it’s gonna revisit your cup?” Jeremy asked dryly, barely restraining a laugh.
“Roark, bite me,” my brother shot back.
“How ‘bout not and just for the record, I’ve had better offers,” Jeremy replied with a grin.
“I’m sure you have,” I muttered. The door swung open and a man in a leather coat came in. He looked at what seemed directly at me and quietly took a seat in the far corner of the café, not far from our table. Jeremy kicked me under the table as Gabe chuckled and I became more wary of my curious position.
As the waitress took the man in the leather coat’s order and left his table my body began to react, just as it had at the swamp when I discovered the grave. I felt my body’s temperature go down slowly.
“Luc?” Jeremy questioned softly. I glanced at where my brother had been, he was gone; but where? “Bathroom,” Jeremy informed at the same volume. “Are you okay? You look like you’re about to puke,”
“Physically I’m fine,” I said as I glanced over at the man in the leather coat, he was gone. “Damn,” I muttered.
“And mentally?”
“I might be losing it,”
“Might?”
“I think I’m beginning to be paranoid,” I said softly as my heart began to pound and the hair on my neck stood up.
“Personally I think if I was being stalked by a two-hundred pound man I’d be paranoid too,” Jeremy said quietly. I watched her face for a trace of mockery or deceit. I found none; her face was totally open and honest. So either she was a very good liar or she was telling me the truth.
“Stalked?”
“Stalked, you know followed, pursued, hunted… whatever you want to call it, the meaning is still the same here: that man is following you,” I glanced up in time to see Gabe walking back up to the table. “I’ll talk to you later though, don’t bring it up to him,” Gabriel came up to the table and slide back into his seat next to me.
“So is zombie-boy back among the living?”
“Not really,” I muttered, looking back to the table of the guy in the leather, he was back to his table. I covered the side of my mouth that my brother could see and mouthed, “Damn that was convenient,” to Jeremy.
“So are you two on speaking-terms or will me asking you to take her home be a death zone?”
“We’ll be fine, but if not, you know that I’m a survivor; I’ll make it one way or another,” Jeremy said shooting an impish grin my way.
“Oh dear god, I hope that’s the last I see of that,”
“Of what?” I asked innocently. Gabe shot me a look of profound disgust. We stood with grins on our faces as Jeremy and I went out to Gabe’s truck. Meanwhile, Gabe paid the bill and came out to his truck. He unlocked the passenger door and handed Jeremy a small bag and a Glock. Gabriel straightened and looked at Jeremy and I.
“Behave you two,” Gabe said with a grin.
“Gabe, if my wife gives you a call and wants to know where I am, tell her that last you heard I don’t know,” he chuckled and nodded. I turned on my heel and walked over to my Jeep. I turned in time to see my brother kiss Jeremy softly on the lips and the guy in the leather coat come out of the café.
She walked easily over to the passenger side of the Jeep, Jeremy got in as I did. I started the Jeep and watched my brother’s truck pull out of the parking lot.
“Luc?” Jeremy questioned as I backed out of the parking spot. I thought about my reply as I drove out of the parking lot.
“Hmm?”
“Alright already, ask the damn question before it kills you, Luc,”
“Maybe I don’t want to know,” I replied.
“You do, and don’t even deny it.”
“Perhaps you think that I want to ask you something but perhaps I don’t and perhaps I do want to ask you something quite the opposite of what you think I want to ask you about,”
“Okay, if you’re going to be so difficult about saying what’s on your mind we might had a problem or two getting along at all,” Jeremy said in a mocking tone.
“Don’t even start this, I know where that little talk is going,”
“Do you?”
“Where?”
“Where this talk is going or where are we going?”
“The latter,”
“Charlottesville,” the name struck a chord in my brain that I’d rather it hadn’t. My first love was originally from Charlottesville.
“Are you originally from there?”
“Yeah, you know someone from there?”
“Kind of,”
“Hmm…I think I like you better after I’ve pissed you off a bit, you’re not as sarcastic and more open.”
“If I wasn’t driving I’d have to smack you,”
“You’re a charmer,” Jeremy said dryly.
“I try,” a beat of silence followed. A flash of silver caught my eye, the Glock. “Could you put that in the glove box?”
“The gun?” Jeremy asked smirking.
“Yeah…so…”I said as Jeremy opened the glove box and placed the Glock inside and closed it softly.
“Who?” Jeremy asked.
“Who did I know from Charlottesville?” I replied. Jeremy nodded, so I said, “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I dated… she’s an ex…”
“Hmm…you loved her…” Jeremy guessed. I glanced at her.
“I guess,”
“Did you love your wife?” Jeremy questioned.
“…Yeah I loved Maggie,” I said with out conviction.
“You paused there. Okay what I meant was were you in love with her,”
“No, I wasn’t in love with her,” I replied calmly. “What about you, do you have anyone you ever loved?”
“All though a lot of people think I am not capable of love, yeah I loved an ex of mine. But that was a long time ago,” Jeremy said.
(more to come if it is wished for)

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Paige

I really like this story and most definitely want to read more. At the end, the conversation is confusing and I'm not sure who is saying what. Can you add names please? lol.

revelation_22-20

Thanks Paige...

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Shawn

It sucks... but that may be just because I hate you.

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"Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone?"

revelation_22-20

Shawn, you are just a thorn in my side that I must bear. But we still love you.

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revelation_22-20

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revelation_22-20

“Knives?”
“Throwing knives?”
“What are you a mercenary?”
“Worse: a male that had way too much time on his hands, a cheating spouse, and a best friend who’s slightly out of it.” I dialed my best friend’s number. After two rings the phone was picked up.
“Hello?”
“Diamante there?”
“Hold on,” I heard the phone being handed.
“Diamante,”
“How soon do you think you can be at Stevenson?”
“Give me a couple, Luc, why?”
“I have a problem,”
“Okay, you need help?”
“You know me, I need the cases and pronto,”
“Clothes?”
“Dark,”
“Just you?”
“And a female,”
“Okay,”
“Call Lobo, Águila, and Dragón,”
“Will do,” with that we hung up.
“Wolf, Eagle, and Dragon?”
“You’ll find out soon enough,”
“You trust these people?”
“With my life and now yours,” I said sliding my cell phone back into my pocket. I glanced at my watch then I glanced at Jeremy.
“How much longer do you think it’ll be until we hit Stevenson?”
“Half hour, forty-five minutes,” I said as I silently drummed my fingers on the armrest.
“You want to turn off on the next exit and walk a bit, maybe get a bite to eat?” Jeremy asked softly.
“Sure,” I replied. At the next exit I turned off and we stopped at a mall. I turned off the Jeep and turned to her.
As we walked to the entrance of a department store I noted the black Mercedes that had been following us. Jeremy glanced over at me as I slid an arm around her waist, then my hand down to her back pocket.
“We’ll make it short,” I murmured as we entered the department store, and her hand followed suit.
“I’m with that, this is getting creepier by the second,” Jeremy muttered back as we walked. She directed and I followed, grateful to be out of the driver’s seat for any short amount of time.
“Wait, is he really after me or is he after you,”
“You wait and I’ll ask,” Jeremy replied dryly.
“Okay, that’s it, we are back to twenty questions.”
“Oh god.”
“About the twenty questions or something else,”
“Something else,” Jeremy murmured, pulling me along with her as she dashed to a far wall, she glanced over the short aisle of shoes.
“Would you care to elaborate?”
“Not really,” she said softly, moving down the aisle slowly.
“Do so anyhow,”
“Umm…”
“You say boyfriend I might have to kill you,”
“Worse: homicidal brother…” Jeremy said watching the direction she had seen… whomever.
“Are you serious?”
“Homicidal is the wrong word here,” a male said, moving around the aisle in front of us.
“Then define the term here,” I muttered tensing, watching the sandy-blonde haired man. The tight, dark blue shirt gave off the impression of what he did all day when not following his sister into the mall: and he goes to the gym. And then it hit me… it not him, mind you.
“Brother murders sister’s boyfriend for sarcastic reasons,”
“Wait are you killing the boyfriend because you are sarcastic or you are killing him in a sarcastic manner,”
“Or he is too sarcastic and I should shoot him for his own good,” the man ended.
“Get a grip would you?” Jeremy said sharply.
“Is there seriously a brother-sister relationship going on here?”
“Unfortunately,” the man replied.
“Hey, as I recall you’re the one who likes harming my male companions,”
“As I you’re the one who likes running off with the wrong guy,”
“By your standards,”
“Okay I hate to get in the middle of the heated argument but we have places to be and a somebody to kill, now Wolf and Jeremy…grow up and get out of date-ville,”
“This is Lobo?”
“It’s el Lobo to you,”
“Okay, then both of you chill.”
“I will as soon as Luke gets out of my face about this boyfriend deal,”
“Okay here I’ll end this now…no I won’t actually. Lobo, we still need to meet, soon. But here is not of the safe and if you two would like to continue to bicker we will find out right quick some of the characteristics of our trouble.” I said softly watching the man from the café drift closer.
“Hint taken,” he looked to his sister, “we will continue this later when I am not endangering the three of us,” he started away after shooting me a glance.
After lunch at a fast-food place we traded places and Jeremy drove and I rode along.
“You know we bought the snacks but didn’t eat them?” Jeremy said, breaking the ten-minute long silence. I chuckled as she shot me a look.
“So you’re friends with my brother…that is so creepy.”
“How so?”
“I don’t know, I just met you and you’ve been friends with my brother for how long?”
“Since we were kids,” I said shooting her a look. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention we were back to the handholding in the Jeep.
“Huh, then I probably met you before,”
“Possibly,” I said watching her face. “You don’t have a sister do you?”
“No, and if I did we probably be fighting at all times,” Jeremy said chuckling.
“Yeah well, family’s family. Blood. They’ll always be there to fall back on,”
“As long as I don’t have a boyfriend,”
“Brothers do that,”
“So what about you how’s your relationship with the fam?”
“On a scale of one to ten? About a nine, you?”
“Parents are about a four, but with my brothers -even though they vow that I will never marry, or have any sane relationship of any kind- are about a nine and a half.” Jeremy said softly.
“Well, now you can say that you were stalked in a department store,”
“Yay for me,”
“Hmm…I hear you,”
“Do you?”
“Yep, so are you seeing anyone?” Popped out my mouth without checking with my brain first. She shot me a conceited smirk and watched the road. I mentally beat myself up one wall and down the other. I watched her face soften and then she gave me an almost soulful look, and then it was gone, replaced by a gentle smile.
“Maybe,” she said, once more rubbing her thumb over my over my knuckle.
“Did that hurt?” I asked.
“What?”
“Smiling,”
“Bite me,”
“I would but I think if your brother caught me he might kill me,”
“I doubt it, he seems to respect you or is afraid of you or something.”
“The man spends his life at the gym, like he has something to fear from me,”
“Like you don’t? And you do know muscle can’t save you from a bullet…or a knife.”
“Are you accusing me of something? He knows me well enough I stay away from weapons as much as possible.”
“Do you? I find them quite handy.”
“Yeah I do and I’ve noticed you find them quite helpful.” I said glancing at the glove box.
“Why?”
“Why do I stay away from weapons? Because I think the worth of the opponent should be shown in his will to survive and or kill the opponent,”
“For a preacher you’re pretty evil,”
“What can I say, my life is an oxymoron,” I said glancing back to see a person in the passenger’s seat of the black Mercedes.
“Is it just me or does our friend have a friend?”
“It’s not just you,” I replied as we entered the Stevenson city-limits.
“Good, I’m glad to know I won’t be the only one on the trip to the funny farm.”
“You know they make the best Spaghetti O’s?”
“You’ve been there?”
“I’ve heard tell of the place, white walls, white padded, plastic bubbles, white floors, white orderlies, great Spaghetti O’s. The only problem is that an male orderly will disappear and then they’ll have Spaghetti O’s with little franks cut up in it, it raises kinky questions,”
“You have problems,”
“Just way too much time,” Jeremy chuckled as we entered the urbanized area of Stevenson.
“Okay, what time do you have?”
“Two and some change.” She shook her head and grinned as she drove into the parking lot of a middle-class hotel. She pulled into a parking space and turned off the engine.
“Gone, babe,” I said opening my door. Before the idea totally registered to my common sense, I leaned over and brushed my mouth to hers and naturally got of the Jeep, closed my door and walked over to the hotel office.

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revelation_22-20

As I came back to the Jeep I remembered: I had kissed Jeremy. Quickly I pondered her possible reactions. I got into the Jeep.
“You could warn a girl before you do that,” Jeremy chided lightly as I closed my door.
“I could warn myself before I do that,” I muttered, then in a normal voice I said, “R263,” she started the Jeep and glanced at me. We drove in silence as she turned and moved the Jeep into a parking space before R258, at the end of the row.
“He’s next door.”
“The next hotel over?”
“Yeppers,”
“You sure?”
“Positive,”
“Damn, now I have to check the lines,” I muttered as we both exited the Jeep, after she grabbed the Glock, I grabbed my cell phone charger, and my overnight bag. She locked the Jeep.
“Sixty-three?” She asked, I headed for the stairs, and she followed.
“Yeah,”
“There,” I unlocked the door and she followed me in.
“If I were you I’d lock the door,” I muttered.
“Or you could stand guard while I check the bathroom for visitors,”
“You truly are paranoid,” I said.
“Yeah well you’ll have that when a freaky man stalks you for three hours.”
“Huh…he’s not that freaky, it’s his friend I’m worried about,” Jeremy entered the bathroom and rummaged around a bit. Something large and metal hit the tile floor. I tossed my overnight bag and cell phone charger on the bed.
“What the hell was that Jeremy?” I asked as I locked the door quietly, then I moved toward the bathroom silently. The door had been conveniently shut. I opened it noiselessly and beheld a hilarious sight.
Jeremy had tripped and fell in the shower stall. Okay stall is the wrong word, cubicle maybe. Sliding doors, only problem was that when she had fell she had broke the sliding shower wall off its hinges. She was sitting in the shower with this shell-shocked look on her face. I moved in front of her. I squatted before her with a grin.
“Jeremy?” I asked barely choking back laughter. Jeremy sputtered and started laughing with me.
Finally we calmed down a bit. I looked at her quietly, her still with a smile lighting up her face and had to grin to myself, this might be so bad after all.
“Are you okay?” I asked, more concerned then I’d like to be.
“I think…you think I broke the shower?” Jeremy asked looking up at the sliding door that had fell off its hinges in her fall.
“You able to stand or no?” I teased, watching her. Jeremy got up, shortly after scowling at me. She moved from the shower, and crossed her arms over her chest then moved to one of the far corners of the room and watched me. I stepped into the shower. I looked at the track that the doors slide on then I examined the door that had got knocked off. It wasn’t broke, thank God, but with little difficulty I put the door back on the track. I moved it slowly back and forth: it worked. I turned back to the shower-damager, “It’ll work, but we’ll have to be gentle with it,” Jeremy nodded and as I got out of the shower she moved closer.
“Did you check the phone line?”
“Not yet, but I’m sure if the hit man is any good at what he does the phone line will be bugged.” I said watching her.
“Then?”
“You could barrow my cell phone for a couple,”
“The sacrifices you’re willing to make, they just astound me,” Jeremy said dryly.
“I mean it is a life or death situation,” I said as we left the bathroom and went back into the main room. Jeremy sat on the bed as I moved to the window. I looked out and across the railed walk to each of the rooms, across the motel office building to the busy oncoming and ongoing, four-lane roads. Then I watched the business on the other side of the eight rows of traffic. I absently removed my cell phone from my pocket, flipped it open, then punched in my code. I set it on the bedside table between the window and the bed. Jeremy got up from her place on the bed and moved to me, as I turned down the air-conditioning.
“Luc?”
“Hmm?”
“You okay?”
“Just as a general rule pastors don’t get hit men to come after them, nor take home strangers that they know almost nothing about,”
“Okay but what’s eating at you?”
“Nothing,” I lied.
“Bullshit, ever since the guy showed up at the café you’ve been displaying more characteristics that you obviously notice and don’t like what you see. Somehow I don’t think it’s just me, ” Jeremy said standing by my side. She slid her arm around my waist, then closed the physical distance between us. “What is it?” She asked softly, her blue eyes slowly turned green. I turned and faced her, fully aware of the closeness of our bodies.
“I might tell after you call your friends and we get this show on the road,”
“If you’re thinking you may be able to get out of telling me, you have another think coming Luc,” Jeremy said quietly, as she moved from me and grabbed my cell phone. She flipped it open as she flopped on the bed. Jeremy noted the displayed wallpaper and grinned, she shot me a look. “You don’t look like the doting uncle to me,”
“When he opened his gift from me two Christmases ago, Gabe about killed me. Luckily I was in another country doing missionary work,”
“What’d you give him?”
“A rifle,” I said simply.
“He was how old?”
“13,”
“Nice one Luc. And the next year?”
“A case of knives,”
“Birthday?”
“Taught him how to throw the knives,”
“And this year?”
“A handgun,”
“Birthday?”
“Taught him how to shoot,”
“And who taught you, James Bond?”
“Stevie Wonder,”
“Oh man,” she muttered dialing. After three short coded calls she closed the cell phone and put it back on the bedside table.
“We’re meeting a friend of mine for a late dinner at eight,”
“Does this friend have a name?”
“Lost Gin,”
“I’m hoping that’s not a play on words,”
“It’s not,”
“Male, or female?”
“Male,”
“Where?”
“I hope you like seafood,”
“Down on the corner of Hill and Crest?”
“Smart boy,”
“It’s the only seafood place for about three miles.” I said taking my cell phone from the bedside table.
“Who now?”
“Friend of mine,” I said dialing, calling my best friend back. After one ring the phone was answered.
“Diamante here,”
“Where are you?”
“Stevenson, looking for a hotel,”
“Look for a hotel on Forest and North Lance,”
“Lancton Hotel?”
“Yeppers, I’ll meet you in twenty minutes by the pool. You do have everything?”
“Uh-huh, the boys are around here somewhere,”
“Somehow that’s not reassuring, they’re freaks, and now they’re on the loose. Nice one Diamante.”
“You’re welcome.”
“How’s your girlfriend taking this?”
“It’s strictly hands-off and that includes you, my pet.”
“Damn,”
“You know me, she’s under my skin a bit,”
“And you’re alone in a hotel room with her?”
“Uh-huh, oh and she’s not your type anyway. Too paranoid, and,” I shot a look at Jeremy, “Too clumsy,” Jeremy smacked me, “And violent,”
“So too like a certain male I am going to smack to be of any interest of mine,”
“Did I say that?”
“Yep, you said clumsy, violent, and paranoid.”
“Clumsy? Me?”
“Broken bathtub, ring any bells?”
“Hey she asked for it, then I tripped,”
“Sending my ex-girlfriend and my best friend –about three hundred pounds worth of friend- into my porcelain bathtub. Through the side mind you, not in it.”
“You should have told her that I don’t do well with pissy little females,”
“I’ll see you in twenty,”
“Can you say ten?”
“Bye butthead,” I chuckled and hung up.
“Who now?”
“In a couple there will be a meeting of two pains,”
“Me and?”
“My best friend,”
“Who is called?”
“Mud,”
“That is a pun,”
“Nah, actually her name is Cobra Diamante,”
“Her?”
“Yeppers,”
“Cobra?”
“Don’t ask, her dad named her.”
“I take it he wanted a male child?”
“Yeah, what her father didn’t teach her I did,”
“Oh really?”
“Get your mind out of the gutter.”
“I’m trying.” Jeremy muttered as I looked at my watch: 4:00 p.m. on the dot.
“We have four hours, Jeremy,”
“Yay, and what do you purpose we do until eight?”
“Believe me you’ve got to stop asking that ‘cause you say it anyway near Cobra and she’ll come up with something to do, most of it kinky or illegal,”
“Nice friends you have,”
“I know, but they get the job done,”
“What type of ‘job’?”
“I think I should keep you out of the loop,” I teased, looking through my pictures on my cell phone.
“Really?”
“Before you jump my case, what does Luke do for a living?”
“God only knows,”
“Welcome to my world, we don’t know, we don’t ask, life is a lot safer that way.”
“What does Cobra do?”
“Karate instructor, however she quit four weeks ago when her boss hit on her.”
“Straightforward anyhow,” Jeremy murmured.
“You think? The guy was a friend of mine, I wanted to figure something out.”
“Like?”
“Cobra has a twin, that has a thing for me. Thing is Serpent liked her sister’s boss, and Cobra was acting way out there for about a week and to find out which was which I had him hit on her,”
“The people you associate with, really how long ago did you lose this faith of yours?”
“Forever and a day,” I said as someone knocked on the door. I moved to the door, after I looked down the path from the far end of the window. I unlocked the door and opened it.
“Alright, I’ll bite the bait, how’d you find me?” I said.
“I asked if they had seen a couple, and then the girl said something to the effect of ‘I think I know the pair you’re talking about, they came in about an hour ago, so I put them up in the empty hall,’ then she winked at me and I figured.”
“Shut the door,” I muttered as I turned and walked to the little sink between the bathroom and the main room. Then I turned and paced back to the bed and sat on the edge away from Jeremy. Cobra looked at Jeremy and licked her lower lip and I suppressed a groan: licking her lower lip over anything only meant me trouble.
“Cobra meet Jeremy, Jeremy meet Cobra,”
“How are you surviving with the pain?” Cobra asked sweetly, as she sat in the chair by the window and door.
“Did you lock it?” I shot in.
“Yeah.”
“No comment.” Jeremy said. I watched my best friend watch Jeremy. I took in the outfit she was wearing and about smacked her. Of all things she owned she had worn skintight jeans, and a skimpy top.

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