Willow (11 page)

Shawn was walking in his front door to his house when he realized that it was only noon. Not that he did much more than he absolutely need to, but still, he probably shouldn’t have left. Shrugging, he made his way to the kitchen. He was hungry again and thought about the pie he’d seen in the fridge two days ago and decided that would make a great snack.

The pie was gone and the only person in the kitchen to take it out on was the little laundry girl. She was cowering in the corner from him when Mason, the family butler, walked in and caught him. Not that the bastard could do anything. He was the master’s son after all, but Shawn didn’t like to leave witnesses to his work. When Mason pulled him away from the girl on the floor, Shawn started forward again. No one touched him unless he said so.

But Mason was quicker and bigger. Shawn tried to move from the fist that came at him, but he hadn’t been eating well and he’d been a little dizzy lately. Yeah, that was it, he’d been dizzy. Staggering to the sink, Shawn reasoned his way to him being the victim and Mason being the bully. He turned to the door when it opened and groaned when his father walked in.

“
What’s going on here?” Shawn Sr. asked when he came all the way in the room. “Oh my God. Mason, what’s he done to her?”

His dad would always believe the worst of him, he realized just then, and Shawn was about to point that out to his father when he slapped him. Twice in ten minutes was more than he could take and he pulled out his gun and pointed it at him.

They all backed up quickly. The stupid cunt on the floor had stopped moving a while ago, but Shawn didn’t care. “I didn’t do anything. She fell and that’s all I want to hear out of her mouth. You, Mason, get over here. You’re going to open the door for me and then you’re all going to stay right where you are until I’m gone.” Shawn started toward the door and looked back at his father. “You try changing the locks on me again and you’ll end up in the dirt like my dear old mom.”

Shawn drove around for hours before he calmed down enough to try and get a hotel room. He was glad he’d taken the money from his dad’s stash. He looked down at the money on his seat next to him and smiled. Stupid bastard probably didn’t even know that he knew about it either. His dad was too stupid to live most days and Shawn decided that maybe it was time for him to be retired. Laughing, he pulled up in front of his favorite hotel and went inside. He was still laughing at his own joke when he slipped into the suite and his phone rang.

“
It’s your dime. Speak to me.” Shawn sat down at the little table and pulled out the menu when he realized no one was speaking. “Hello?”

“
Where’s my merchandise, asshole? You were supposed to deliver yesterday and it is now…two in the afternoon and I still have nothing to sell.”

Shawn felt his heart start to pound and his ass start to pucker. He knew that voice and every time he heard it, he hated himself for days afterward. Sweat beaded on his forehead and he could feel it dripping down his back.

“
I’m picking them up tonight. There was a problem and I—”

“
Do you think I give a shit about your problems, dick weed? No, I do not. You were to bring me my stuff and if I don’t have it by midnight tonight, then you will cease to breathe. Do you think I’ll have a problem with making that happen, Talbor?”

Shawn closed his eyes. He knew that the man on the other end had no problems in that area at all. Shawn never wanted to be on the receiving end of anything that man had to dish out, ever. Seeing him in action once was one too many times.

“
I’ll have it. I’ll…I’m going to go and get your drugs now—”

The snarl at the other end terrified Shawn. He tried to think what he’d said to piss the man off and realized he’d said the “D” word. No one said drugs over the phone, especially with a cell phone. Shawn didn’t say a word. Sometimes less was more, as his mother used to say, and right now, he’d take less of anything.

Shawn pulled the phone from his ear a few minutes later, having not heard anything for a long time, and realized the phone was dead. He hoped that the man at the other end had hung up and Shawn hadn’t accidentally hung up on him.

Soaking wet from sweating, Shawn took off his flannel shirt and his pants and walked around the suite in his boxers while he tried to think. He’d never been very good at pressure thinking, but now was not the time for mistakes. He had to get the dru…the merchandise tonight. He was going to have to leave the bitch for some other time and get in and get out before he got another call. Walking to the bathroom, he turned on the cold taps and stepped in after taking off his underwear. It wasn’t until he was drying off that he realized he didn’t have a change of clothes.

He simply called down at the front desk and had them send him some up from his favorite shop. Shawn then ordered a huge meal and sat down to wait. Pulling out some of the stash from his wallet, he snorted a hit of coke and laid back to wait.

Shawn knew he’d been a bad boy. Even as a kid he’d been into things he shouldn’t have. His mother had always found out and every time she had to go to the school or wherever and pick him up, she always tried to make it sound like it was his fault. Well, it hadn’t been. Not always anyway. Sometimes he did it on a dare and no one shied away from a dare, not ever.

When he’d been about eight, his mother had slapped him. It hadn’t hurt, not really, and she had cried afterwards. But he remembered the humiliation of her hitting him in front of everyone in the kitchen. He vowed that day it would never happen again.

Killing her had been easy. A lot easier than he thought it would be, and he’d gotten away with it. All he’d done was start putting the poison he’d found in the garage into her tea every day. It wasn’t his fault that she died; someone shouldn’t have left the rat poison out where he could find it. If anyone was to blame, it was the gardener.

He’d thought at the end someone would have noticed that she was getting sicker. He remembered thinking that she was taking too long to die and had doubled the amount he was giving her. Stupid people thought she had died of a lonely heart or a broken one, but he knew. And in the end, she did too. Shawn smiled when he thought about the look on her face when he’d told her what he’d done.

“
You shouldn’t have slapped me. I don’t think you should slap your onlyest child, Mother. That was a bad, bad thing to do.”

She was lying in her bed all propped up and staring at him. Shawn smiled at her when she tried to get away from him, even as sick as she was. He lay down next to her as he told her what he’d done.

“
So you see, you had to die. But I don’t want you to think I didn’t learn anything. I did, a lot. I know that killing you was fun, but like Daddy says, all fun must come to an end. But I’ll get more practice now that I know how easy it was. And by the time I get old like you, I’ll be perfect at it. I will be studied for my methods and when I finally die of old age, they’ll find my diary and read how I, a little kid, was able to do the perfect murder.” He kissed her on the cheek and laughed when she whimpered. “Goodbye, Mother.”

He left the room and went to his own. His mother had lingered for seven more days and in that time, Shawn never once worried about her telling anyone what he’d done. But finally, in the end, he’d given her the straight dose and killed her by putting it under her tongue while she slept.

Shawn looked over at his backpack. In it was another diary and he had several more stashed at his father’s house. He’d been keeping notes on the people he killed and really had perfected his craft. His mother had only been the first of many over the years and he had kept track of each and every one of them. Someday, he promised himself; someday, he was going to be famous.

~o0o~

Willow got home just as Jared was pulling up in front of her house. She didn’t even want to think about how he figured out where she lived. She just wanted him gone so she could think. Her head hurt from avoiding him all day and now she wanted to take a hot bath, eat some dinner, and go to bed. Her bed. Alone.

He got out of a nice little sports car and then went to the trunk and pulled out three big grocery bags. She didn’t care about what he might be doing with those. But when he pulled out an overnight bag, she stormed over to him.

“
Good,” he said as he shoved a bag in her arms. “You take that one and I can carry the wine. I hope you’re hungry.”

“
I am. But you’re not staying. And you certainly don’t need a… Hey! Get back here.” He simply walked by her as she was speaking to him and she had no choice but to follow.

Marta was coming out and he simply went into the house when she opened the door to leave. He was taking things out of one of the bags when she came inside. He stuffed an olive in her mouth when she opened it to yell at him. Marta laughed as she put her things back on the counter.

She loved stuffed olives and this one was delicious. Chewing fast so that he didn’t get too settled before she got him out, he was putting things into her refrigerator with Marta’s help when she finally swallowed. Willow began stuffing things back into the bags when he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her away from the counter.

“
You aren’t staying. Just pack up your shit and get out. Or better yet, let me pay you for it and then you can leave quicker. I’ve had a really—”

The kiss shut her up. She didn’t even see him move and suddenly, she was backed against her counter and being kissed senseless by him. As much as she’d told herself she was not going to respond to him again, her body wouldn’t listen to reason. He was making her crazy.

When he stopped, it was everything she could do not to beg him to do it again. Something was seriously wrong with her if she couldn’t even get one man, a man who worked for her, out of her house. She thought about calling the police, but knowing him, a woman would come and he’d charm her like he was doing to her housekeeper and Willow would end up in jail.

She was still standing there against the counter feeling out of sorts when he handed her a glass of tea. Marta was sitting at the table having a glass of wine and Jared was…what was he doing? Stepping closer to the butcher block, she saw that he was chopping up something green.

“
What is that?” Despite her being mad at him and wanting him gone, she was impressed with the way the knife zipped though that thingy with ease. He turned and kissed her on the nose before he answered her.

“
This is an artichoke. I’m going to cook us some artichoke and mussel bisque. And by the way, I love this kitchen. Who designed it? I need to find them and have them do a kitchen for me.”

“
I did it and I’m so not fixing your house for you. I think you should make your soup stuff and go home. I think I have something you can carry it home in somewhere.”

She started opening cabinets and then went to the pantry. She knew that here were things to pack crap in; she used them in her lunch when she used to pack it. Coming out of the pantry, she saw that he had moved on to a long green thing and was cutting it up now. Then entire kitchen smelled delicious. And Marta was gone.

She reached around him and took the green thing he was getting ready to chop, or mince, or dice, or whatever the hell he was planning to do with it. He turned to stare at her. “You aren’t welcome here. I want you to leave, now, before I call the police.” She backed up when he stepped toward her. She didn’t like the gleam in his eye. “I mean it, Jared, you should leave here—” The counter stopped her and she watched as he started unbuttoning his shirt.

“
I’ve thought about you all day, you know. I thought about making love with you. I couldn’t stop thinking about how you would feel beneath me again.” The shirt hit the floor as he stood only a few inches from her.

“
You need to…to put your shirt back…Jared…” When his belt came off and ended up on the floor, Willow knew she was in deep trouble.

“
Take off your shirt, Willow. I want to taste your skin again.” She was shaking her head even as her fingers toyed with the hem of her shirt. “I want to feel your body on mine, under mine.”

Both her flannel and the t-shirt she wore under it were suddenly gone. Jared hadn’t moved, but her clothing was piled on the top of his. She tried to get him to leave again. He had to be gone soon, before it was too late.

“
Jared…Robert, you need to leave my house. I don’t allow my employees to come to my home. It’s a good…it’s a good…” She didn’t know how she was supposed to think when he was touching her, and she tried to move away. But somehow, she ended up on the counter with her legs wrapped around him.

“
I’ve thought of you like this. Just like this, Willow.” he undid the snap and zipper on her jeans and stepped back to remove them. “Christ, but you are much better in the flesh.”

She sat on the counter in her bra and panties. She felt sexy and stupid at the same time. Jared was looking at her with such lust that she couldn’t help but feel beautiful. She looked down at what she had on and groaned. Damn it all to hell.

Willow loved sexy under things. When she was feeling particularly down, like she had been this morning, she would pull on her best pair and wear them. No one knew what she had on, well, not normally, but they did give her a nice feeling.

These were a dark blood red. She loved them because they were such a contrast to her skin tone that she felt they made her look like she could be a runway model. When in reality, she was a tall woman who had more muscles than sense.