Dirty Power (6 page)

“Come the fuck on.” Reese’s hips jerked. A sad attempt to make me keep going. I started again, but slower this time. Building up movement until my tongue was vibrating against her. “God, yeah. Like that.” I let her set the rhythm, let her fuck my mouth the way she wanted to. She shivered and came. I didn’t. She let my head drop.

“Seriously?” I asked.

Reese didn’t move. Just slumped a little. Her fingers were still hard against my clit. But not moving. The bitch wasn’t going to let me come.

My arms were over her legs. Held up by her thighs. Just at the wrong angle. But I tried to reach for myself anyway. Reese grabbed my hand and put it between her legs.

“Again.”

“But I want to—”

“Fuck me,” she said.

We both knew I was going to. So I slid inside her. She was still soaking. As I filled her, she sobbed and gasped and groaned. I pulled her clit between my lips again. Grabbed her ass, squeezed rhythmically. She started calling out to God, then me. She had the order wrong. I was God.

Reese tightened around my fingers. I pushed deeper. Sucked harder. I couldn’t understand what she was saying anymore. My head was filled with the rush of her blood and the pounding of my own abused heart. Her thighs pressed closer. I slid out and in, harder this time. Twitched my fingers inside her. Faster. Worked my tongue in time to my hands.

And then she came again. In a sobbing mass of groans. In a collapse of her impeccable control. Came and came again. I didn’t stop fucking her. Didn’t stop until she weakly pushed my head away and fell onto the bed.

I stayed still for a minute. Carefully, pulled out of her. Let my shaking hands fall to the sheets. Reese was twitching beside me. Damn, the girl was still coming. And she didn’t seem to notice or care that I hadn’t stopped throbbing.

When I lifted my hand to touch myself, Reese grabbed me.

“No.”

“Please. I gotta come.”

“Just shut the fuck up for a sec,” she said.

I did. For longer than a second. I thought she fell asleep. I wasn’t going to try jacking off again. I wasn’t stupid.

“Reese?” I whispered.

“Just be quiet.”

And then she climbed on top of me. Pushed her thigh between mine. Braced one arm next to my head. Started twisting my nipple with her other hand. Just the sensation of her bare skin pressed to mine would have been enough to make me come. And I did. I arched up against the pressure of her thigh, groaned into the mouth that was suddenly, violently against mine, and came. Reese thrust her leg against me rhythmically. Sucked my tongue in time to her thrusts. I came again. And again. When I collapsed back, spent and shivering, she pulled the blanket over us and held me as I drifted to sleep.

*

The afternoon light was waning when I woke. Reese’s legs and arms were tangled with mine. She was warm and soft and totally naked. I wanted to always wake up like that. And I was terrified I might never do so again.

I decided to just stay there. Not move or say anything. The longer she slept the more I would get. Minutes, hours maybe, passed. The sun went down. Reese slept. It wasn’t until there was a gentle rap on the door that she woke up.

“Shit,” Reese said.

“Huh?”

“That’s probably Ryan.”

“Probably.” And like that, the dream was over.

“Fuck it. You’ll tell him anyway.” Reese rolled off me. She found my boxers and pulled them on. Followed by my T-shirt. “You might want to cover up.”

I sat up and wrapped the blanket around myself.

“You guys in there?” Ryan called through the door.

“Just a sec.” Reese crossed to the door and opened it.

“Hey.” Ryan looked at her, looked at me. “Oh, hey.” And started grinning so big I thought he might break something. “How’s it going? I was gonna ask if you wanted dinner, but no big. It’s cool. I’ll just come back later. Or not at all. We still have that other room. Yeah, I’ll just go there. Okay, bye.” He started to turn away, but Reese grabbed his shirt and hauled him into the room.

“Calm down,” she told him.

“Yeah, sure. I’m calm. Like, whatever. Totally.”

“Serious, Ryan. Shut up,” I said. I didn’t know what was going on, but clearly, Reese wasn’t going to make a big deal about it. So neither was I.

“Okay.” He sat on the other bed. “So you guys want dinner? I mean, Christopher and Breno went to get food, but we don’t have to eat with them. Or I can just go to their room to eat. Whatever.”

“I’m showering,” Reese said. Then she looked at me. I was hopeful for a second. But then she said, “Make him smoke or something. Otherwise, he’ll be really annoying at dinner.”

“Okay.” What else was I going to do? Ask to shower with her and get denied? Ask if this meant we were back together and get denied? Ask her to marry me and get denied? Bad ideas. Might as well get stoned.

The bathroom door closed. Loudly.

“Dude. Oh my God. Like, dude,” Ryan said.

“For real.”

He tackled me. “I knew she wanted you.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself. I think she just wanted to get laid,” I said.

“Dude.” He was scolding now. “She’s my sister.”

“Sorry.”

“Let’s smoke,” he said.

“All right. Hand me some clothes.”

He did. We got stoned. Reese got out of the shower and I got in. Showers are awesome when you’re high. Then we went to join their dads for dinner.

*

Dinner was awkward. Ryan was all giddy, but none of us wanted to explain why. I was spaced, but we didn’t want to explain that either. And Reese was just quiet. So we all sat in Breno and Christopher’s room and ate our takeout and tried to act normal.

“My friend will have the sculptures ready and shipped within a month,” Christopher said into the silence.

“Cool.” Me.

“Neat.” Reese.

“Totally.” Ryan.

“So we need to have somewhere to ship them,” Breno said.

“Okay,” I said. The twins nodded.

“Where would you like to go?” Christopher asked.

They were trying to keep this conversation going. It was sweet.

“I dunno,” Ryan said. I shrugged.

“Not the US,” Reese said.

“For real,” I said.

“All right. Let’s narrow it down,” Christopher said.

But we didn’t have any more contributions.

“Are you kids doing all right?” Breno asked. “You seem…tired.” What a nice way of saying it.

“Yep.”

“Fine.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Did something happen?” Christopher wanted to know.

“Nope.”

“Uh-uh.”

“Just tired.”

“Are you sure? Because all of you are acting oddly,” Breno said.

“What about Europe?” I asked. Better to talk about locations than feelings.

“Somewhere warm,” Ryan said.

“Yeah, Italy. Or Spain,” Reese said.

“Somewhere they speak English,” I amended.

“Coop is shit at languages,” Reese told them.

“You will be fine,” Breno assured me.

Reese laughed. Ryan tried not to.

“I’m really bad at not English,” I said.

“We will figure it out,” Christopher said.

“So do we like need to have a house or something?” Ryan asked.

“That would be best. Some place large enough that a shipment of sculptures won’t be odd,” Christopher said.

“How do you know this guy will come through?” I realized right then that we had blindly handed fifteen million to some dude we didn’t know in the hope that he would do as we nicely asked.

“We are paying him handsomely,” Breno said.

“I’m guessing it’s still less than fifteen million,” I said.

“Yeah, what’s with that?” Ryan asked.

“I trust him,” Christopher said. Breno laughed.

“What? What didn’t you guys tell us?” Reese looked pissed.

“Nothing. He is an old friend. He won’t rip us off,” Christopher said.

“That is true.” Breno was still smiling.

“Spill,” I demanded.

“We have evidence of his cocaine smuggling,” Breno said.

“Shut the fuck up.” Me.

“Seriously?” Reese.

“Not cool.” Ryan.

“Don’t worry about it,” Christopher said.

“You hired a dude who smuggles drugs?” Reese looked livid. “And you’re trusting him with all of our money? What if he is arrested in the next month? What if someone kills him? What if someone rips him off? Did you think of any of that?”

“Damn it, Reese. Yes, I did think it through. I’m not an idiot,” Christopher yelled.

Ryan laughed. “Sure.”

“He’s been running his operation for years. Very low level. Other people do his dirty work. So he is unlikely to be arrested or killed in the next thirty days. You’re just going to have to trust me on this.” Christopher was pleading now. Not a good move. Reese didn’t appreciate weakness.

“Oh, good. The fact that it’s unlikely makes me feel so much better.” She crossed her arms, leaned back, and glared.

“Do you have any ideas about transferring fifteen million in gold bars into a bank account without anyone noticing?”

Reese didn’t have an answer for that.

“He is right,” Breno said quietly. “This will work. You just need to trust us.”

“I don’t know you and I don’t trust you.” Reese stood. “But we don’t have much of a choice now, do we? I’ll be ready to leave for Florida in an hour.” With that, she turned and left.

Ryan and I stood. I may have liked Breno and Christopher, but I wasn’t going to risk Reese for them.

“Sorry. She’ll chill,” Ryan said.

It was the only platitude we could offer.

“I am so fucking bored,” Ryan said.

“For real.”

“How long do we have left on our shift?” he asked.

“Three hours,” I said.

“Three hours? Three hours!” He slumped back against the door of the car, closed his eyes, and stuck his tongue out. “That’s it. I’m dead. See? Dead.” He stuck out his tongue again, farther this time.

“I told you stakeouts are boring.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t tell me I couldn’t smoke. And it’s hot.”

“We’re in Miami. What did you expect?” I asked.

“It’s January.”

“It’s not even eighty.”

“Liar. It’s totally hotter than that,” he said.

“No, it isn’t.”

“Yeah huh.”

“Nuh-uh.”

“I’m hungry.”

“You ate an hour ago,” I said. “And you’re only doing half a shift. I still have seven hours left.”

“You should be careful. You might die of starvation.”

“Reese will bring me food when she takes over for you.”

“You guys will probably just make out for three hours. And I’ll still be bored. I’ll just be bored in a hotel room.”

“You could go be bored on the beach,” I said.

“Whatever.”

“Dude.”

“What?” Ryan asked.

“Dude. There.” I nodded at the house we were watching.

“Shit.”

We watched the garage door open. There was movement inside, but we couldn’t see much. A car backed out onto the street. White-gold Lexus. I let it drive past us. A woman was driving. There was a kid in the backseat.

“She’s not even hot,” Ryan said.

“Shut up. She’s good-looking. Not hot like Reese, but still.”

“I can’t believe you threw my sister away for a chick who isn’t even hot.” He sounded disgusted.

“I was in pain. She was nice,” I said.

“Asshole.”

“Tool.”

“Should we follow her?” Ryan asked.

“Yeah.” I waited until the car was up the street, then pulled out and started following it. “Call Christopher. Give him a heads up that we might need help with a tail.”

“On it.”

Ryan got out his phone and dialed Christopher. I gave him street names as we turned through city streets. We didn’t go far before the Lexus pulled into a small parking lot. I drove past.

“You see where she’s going?” I asked.

“Yeah. Grocery store.”

“Tell Christopher.”

He did. I pulled over a couple blocks away. Ryan hung up.

“Christopher is outside the store. He says there’s only one entrance.”

“Where’s Breno?”

“Finding somewhere else to watch.”

I looked in my mirrors. “I think there’s a coffee shop across the street.”

“I’ll text him.”

We waited some more. It was boring.

“Christopher took off.” Ryan read his texts. “Breno will tell us when she leaves.”

“We tailed her already. Christopher should follow her this time.”

“Okay.” Ryan started typing.

“I’m heading back to the hotel. We can switch cars and go back to the house.”

“Cool.”

We had rented three cars, a van, and three bikes for our surveillance. It might have been overkill. But it had taken Breno three months to find this bitch. We weren’t letting Joan get away this time.

“Have Reese meet us with the keys.”

“Already texted her. She’ll be in the parking lot,” Ryan said.

Five minutes later, we pulled into our hotel’s parking lot. Reese was waiting next to a silver Toyota SUV.

“Hey,” Reese greeted us. “She went to the store? Sounds exciting.”

“Very James Bond,” I said.

“The tail was totally James Bond,” Ryan said.

“Yeah. All one mile of it.” I rolled my eyes.

“Neat.” Reese took the keys to the Jetta. I took the keys to the Highlander. “So I’ll see you in a couple hours.”

“Yep.”

“Don’t get caught,” she said.

“Never, buttercup.”

Twenty minutes later, we were parked in front of the beach house, farther down the street this time. Ten minutes after that, we were bored. Ryan was annoying. Another five and Christopher texted us.

“She’s on the move,” Ryan said.

“Where is she going?”

“Christopher is following her.” More waiting. “Yep. She’s coming home.”

“Did he get a look at the kid?” I asked.

Ryan typed and waited. “Yeah. Little girl. Practically a baby.”

“Shit.”

“For real. That’s gonna make this hard.”

I nodded. But I was already forming a plan.

They weren’t going to like my plan very much.

*

“Turkey burger.” Reese handed me a takeout box.

“Fries?”

“Of course there are fries.” I was going to ask about a drink, but then Reese pulled out a bottle. “And Mountain Dew.”

“You rock.”

“I know. How long have you been parked here?” she asked.

“The whole time.”

“We should move or something.”

“It’s almost dark. I doubt anyone can see us.”

“Backseat then?”

“Sure.” I handed my food back to her and climbed through the seats. She gave me the food back and followed me.

“So what’s the bitch doing?”

I shrugged and bit into my burger. It hadn’t occurred to me before that this was going to be a bad idea. But having Reese do surveillance of the chick I’d cheated on her with was definitely a bad call.

We sat there while I ate. Some lights went on in the house. Others went off. At one point, Joan walked past a window. Reese went still. Like a predator about to make a kill still. I didn’t blame her.

“This blows,” I said. We were two hours into our shift. Two hours to go.

“Yep. She’s old.”

“Totally.” I wasn’t dumb enough to disagree.

“And ugly.” Petty didn’t look cute on Reese.

“Yep.”

“You’re an asshole.”

“Yeah.”

Great. As if this stakeout wasn’t dragging enough, add some awkward tension.

With an hour to go, Reese spoke again. “This is boring.”

“You lasted longer than Ryan.”

“No shit.”

“Wanna make out?” I asked. I didn’t think she’d go for it.

“No. Tool.” Ten minutes passed. “Yeah, okay.”

“What?” I asked.

In response, Reese grabbed my shirt, pulled me close, and kissed me. I wasn’t stupid. I kissed her back.

She tasted like strawberry lip gloss and honey. She must have gotten new lip gloss. Weird thought. When she stuck her tongue in my mouth, I stopped thinking. Just pulled until she was on top of me. One of her feet curled around my leg and pulled me closer.

One of us moaned. It might have been me.

“Wait. Wait.” Reese pushed against my chest.

“What?”

“This might be a bad idea.” Duh. “What if something happens and we miss it?”

“Nothing’s gonna happen. She has a kid so she’s probably in for the night,” I said.

“You’re right. She isn’t going any—shit.”

“What?” I tried to sit up, but Reese was still half on top of me.

“Someone is going up the walkway.”

“Shit.”

Reese moved so I could sit up. The figure going up to the door was carrying a bag. It looked like a dude. Slender. And judging by the height of his jeans, probably young.

“Did he walk or drive?” Reese asked.

“I don’t see a car.”

“Bike. By the fence.” Reese pointed.

The door opened. Light from inside spilled onto the dim porch. He handed her the bag.

“What’s he giving her? What’s in the bag?” I asked.

“I don’t know, but it looks like she’s paying him.”

“Sketchy,” I said.

“Totally.”

The guy took whatever she was giving him and turned away. The door closed. He got on his bike and started to ride.

“He’s gonna go right past us,” I said.

Reese and I slid down in our seats as he went by.

“Shut the fuck up,” Reese said.

“What?” I sat up a little so I could see.

“The bike has a crate on the back.”

“So?”

“The crate has a sign,” she said.

“What’s it say?”

“She ordered takeout. He’s the delivery boy.”

“Shut up,” I said.

“Nope. We are crazy paranoid.”

I started to laugh. “For real.”

“Your girlfriend really knows how to spend a Saturday night.”

“She’s not…never mind.”

There wasn’t much to say after that.

I officially hated street surveillance.

*

“This feels skeevy,” I said.

“You’re tellin’ me,” Christopher said. “Honey,” he added as an afterthought.

“Seriously skeevy.”

“I’m not asking you to put suntan oil on me. Be happy.”

“That’s because science has revealed that suntan oil is bad for you,” I told him.

“Fine. I’m not asking you to put sunscreen on me. Be happy.”

We were stretched out on a big beach towel. Christopher was stretched out on his back looking at the water. We were playing the part of a couple. Gay, not straight. And I was figuring out that drag is hard in summer clothing.

“Why didn’t Ryan just play the part of your boyfriend?”

“He’s sleeping. You know he was on the night shift,” Christopher said.

“Then why can’t you play straight for a day? You did it for twenty years.”

“Shut up and read your magazine.”

“I’m just saying.” The Ace bandage across my chest was itchy and hot. And I was wearing a shirt that was just a little too tight. I might have been cranky.

“It was Breno’s idea. I think he wanted an excuse to spend time with Reese,” Christopher said.

“Whatever.” I went back to the magazine I was reading. Or pretending to read. I was lying on my stomach looking up at Joan’s house. With sunglasses on, it looked like I was reading. I was trying to get an idea of the layout of the house. It wasn’t working.

“Cooper?”

“What?”

“Why aren’t your legs shaved?” he asked.

“Fuck you.”

“Sorry, I was only curious.”

“I’m lazy.” I don’t know why I decided to answer.

“Oh. It works well for the disguise.”

“Yeah, I used my magical ability to look into the future and predict that Breno would suggest that I dress in drag and pretend to be your young, hot lover on the beach.”

“You’re an ass,” he said.

“A great ass.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’ve got a great ass,” I said. “That was also part of the disguise. I wanted to literally be a hot piece of ass. So I predicted the need to work my glutes.”

“Do you think about the shit that comes out of your mouth, or do you just speak?” Christopher asked.

“I don’t even know what we are talking about anymore.” It was honest, at least.

“Can you see anything?”

“No. The angle is all wrong so I can only see the upper floors. And there’s a couple staring at us.”

“What do you mean?”

“Two dudes. Checking us out.” I was trying to play it cool, but they had been cruising us for the last five minutes. And now they were walking toward us.

“Damn.” Christopher must have caught sight of them.

“Wanna hold hands?” I asked sarcastically.

“As abhorrent as I find the idea, yes. It might keep them from coming to talk to us.” He reached a hand over.

“Fuck.” I shifted my magazine so I could hold it with one hand. Then I reached over and slid my palm against his. “This is weird.”

“You have no idea.”

In horror, I watched the two guys saunter closer. They were cruising me. Nope, only one was cruising me. The other was checking Christopher out.

“Here they come. If you flirt I’ll fuckin’ kill you,” I muttered.

“Yes, honey.”

“Nope. I don’t know what I want to do for dinner,” I said loudly.

“There’s that Cuban place you wanted to try,” Christopher suggested.

“That sounds nice.”

“Mmm hmm.”

The two guys stopped a few feet from our towel. “Hi there,” the taller one said.

Christopher tilted his head back. “Hi.” He grinned. That grin was going to be our downfall. Why did he have to be good-looking?

“How you guys doing?” The shorter one this time. He was shirtless and muscley. I wondered if that was Christopher’s type. Or maybe if the taller one was. He was more of a pretty boy. The short one was more rugged-looking with cultivated stubble. Christopher had the same kind of facial hair thing going on.

“All right. Enjoying the sun,” Christopher said.

“Mmm hmm.” I didn’t want to speak too much. The voice would probably give me away.

“Vacation?” pretty boy asked.

“Honeymoon,” Christopher said.

The rugged one’s smile dropped for a second.

Pretty boy covered better. “Oh, congratulations.”

“Thanks,” I said.

“Yeah, thanks.” Another Christopher smile. “Five years and now we’re legal. It’s pretty exciting.”

I smiled at them. I was going for love struck. It didn’t work. I leaned over and whispered in Christopher’s ear. “Hurry this up.”

Christopher laughed. Deep and hearty and far more genuine than I expected. He was good at faking. Not surprising, really. He’d done it for half his life.

“Now if we only knew where to eat tonight. Any recommendations?” Christopher asked.

“Where are you staying?” rugged one asked.

Christopher named a hotel. Not the one we were staying at. They suggested a couple places that were presumably nearby.

“Great, thank you,” Christopher said.

I nodded. “Yeah, awesome.”

“All right. Congratulations again.” They sketched a simultaneous wave and started to stroll away.

“Are they gone?” Christopher asked after a minute.

“Yes.” I watched their retreating backs. “That was painful.”

“The taller one was gorgeous.”

“Keep it in your pants, darlin’.” I threw as much disdain into darlin’ as I could.

“I’m going to kill Breno.”

“Agreed. Epically bad idea. I think we can stop holding hands now.” I let go of his hand.

“We are going to have to figure out a better way to watch the back of the house. This isn’t working.”

“Want to get out of here?” I asked.

“Please.”

“Thank God.”

*