Killer in Him Page 2

  Night had fallen, and she hadn’t been able to get free from the belt. Her wrists hurt from the chafing of the leather. When he left with Joanne’s body, she really hoped he wouldn’t come back, but he did.

  Ben pulled the tape back, and she screamed out at the pain. “We’re going to take a drive. Are you going to be a good girl, or do I need to use this?” he asked, pressing the barrel of the gun to her head.

  “I’ll be good.” She licked her lips, feeling the sores from the tape.

  “Good.” He put the gun away, and unhooked the belt. Ben tutted as he looked at the strap. “Tut tut, if you hadn’t have given up, you could have made a run for it.”

  If she had only tugged one more time, she’d have been free, but would she have been dead? Ben wasn’t going to take her running away all the time. Joy didn’t want to die. She wanted to live, and the only way to live was to follow instructions.

  He dragged her out of the house toward the waiting car. “Get in, and strap in now.”

  Gritting her teeth, Joy forced herself to climb into the car as he slammed the door closed. The temptation to pull on the handle was strong, but she refrained. Her wrists were still bound.

  All she had to do was try to survive.

  ****

  Glancing over at the woman beside him, Ben gritted his teeth. Joy wasn’t supposed to go to her fucking neighbor’s, and it just pissed him off that she ended up there. All of his planning, and it was going to go to shit for this woman. Damn, no witnesses, and he was just going to leave in a month’s time with no one the wiser that he was a contracted killer.

  Now, he had a woman to deal with, a woman he couldn’t just kill. If Joanne went missing, they would search, but wouldn’t really go hunting as that would draw attention from the Debusa family. If two women went missing, then he would be found out. His perfect cover had just become his worst nightmare. So he had to find a way of keeping Joy quiet without raising suspicion.

  He ran a finger over his lip, trying to think of what to do with her.

  This was not part of his plan. Driving out of the street, he relished the silence. He needed to think, and right now he was finding it hard to do so. Joy had not only taken him by surprise with her presence but she’d taken him by surprise because of her attack on him. That had really shocked him, and then when he grew aroused between her thighs, it had blown him away. It wasn’t the first time he’d been aroused by Joy before. She was a beautiful woman, and with Joy he’d broken all the fucking rules because he’d been intrigued by her from just watching her. He’d found some reason to get to know her. He should have been there for a job, and that was it. Sure, he’d been nice to her, but that was what people did, they were nice to each other. He’d gone out of his way to make her smile.

  Yeah, you liked to see her fucking smile.

  Cutting that shit off, he stared at the road ahead. The best chance he had was taking Joanne’s body to the incinerator, who had instructions already to dispose of the body. Once that was done, the call would be put through, and his bank account would look a lot better. He didn’t want or need this shit with Joy. Yes, he could just kill her but … fuck, he didn’t want to. He wasn’t going to get paid for ending her life. If he took her back, shit would come back to him, and he wasn’t going to prison. He’d done his time in prison, and there was no way he was going back, not that anyone would ever find out that he’d been in prison. Ben had that shit wiped when he got his act together, and finally delved into what he did best, killing people. If he’d not made himself known as her fucking rent-a-room buddy, he wouldn’t have this problem right now.

  “Let me go.”

  “Will you shut up with that shit? I’m not letting you go. It’s not going to happen. Deal with it.”

  Seconds passed, and he thumped his wheel, pissed off that he’d not seen the fucking note for the box. He knew Joanne and Joy had a weird friendship, and he’d have planned for that shit to happen. One mistake, and this was why he never made mistakes.

  You made one mistake.

  The one mistake he’d made was getting close to the neighbors. Usually, he watched, looking like a tourist, or he blended into the background so no one knew he was there. This time, he’d been unlucky. Ben loved to change it up, to have a little something different happening in his life. He wouldn’t let that happen again.

  What was it about Joy?

  He’d seen her walking down the street, and she had bent down to pet a dog and talk to the elderly owner. For some strange reason he’d been drawn to her. It was the single act of kindness he’d found intriguing. In his world, he was used to the violence, the rage, and the love of causing someone to hurt. Most of the time he saw Joy, she always had a smile on her face, and he found it hard to look away from her. From one moment of watching, observing her, it had turned into two, then three, and before he knew what was happening, he’d already made the call that had sealed the fate of this moment.

  There had been some attraction between them, but neither of them had acted on it. She was a fuller woman, but he never judged a woman on her curves. He was happy to fuck whatever bitch he wanted, fat, thin, blonde, red, he didn’t care. Providing they had a warm cunt and was willing to swallow, he didn’t care. Joy was different. He didn’t feel the overriding need to use her.

  When it came to Joy, he found he just liked to watch her. She was refreshing to a guy like him.

  “Are you going to kill me?” she asked.

  He sighed. “Not tonight.”

  “Is your name Ben?”

  He stayed silent.

  “Would you have just left?”

  “The more information I give you, the less chance you have of going back to your perfectly ordered life, with your shitty ass cooking. Do you want that? Do you want me to kill you now?”

  She shook her head and turned away.

  Unable to help himself, he glanced over at her. She wore a pair of jeans and a ratty old shirt. The way she was twisted, he got a good look at her body, and it was looking fine.

  “Why weren’t you at work?”

  “I’m not saying a word to you. I want to get home.”

  He laughed. There was no chance of her ever getting home. He’d just been saying that to shut her up.

  “There’s no chance of you getting home, Joy. You may as well accept that.”

  “But you just said—”

  “I know what I said.”

  “If I’m not at work or at home, people are going to know about you.”

  “It’s good for me that I can make you call work, and organize it so you’re taking an extended vacation. You’ve not had one of those in years, have you, Joy? It’s time you enjoyed life, lived a little.”

  “I hate you.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “Ugh! Why did I give that room to you?”

  “You thought I was hot.”

  He felt the daggers she was throwing at him. Looking over at her, he saw she was indeed glaring. It was so cute.

  “I did not.”

  “Yeah, you did, and like I said before, I paid you more than needed for the room, which is why I got it.”

  “You’re an asshole.”

  “I’ve heard that plenty of times.”

  She remained silent for several minutes, and Ben waited to see what she would say and do next. Glancing at the time, he saw he only had twenty minutes before the incinerator would close up shop. “The incinerator” was the name they gave to the guy who took the bodies and burned them. The guy got a nice little sum. Ben didn’t know anything about him. All he had to do was take the body, dump it, make the call, and leave.

  Putting his foot to the gas, he tapped the steering wheel, and made his way toward the guy. Joy continued to sit in silence, and he was more than happy with that. He didn’t want to listen to her bitch.

  The more he thought about it, the harder it was for him to straight out kill her. He had been seen staying at her apartment, and Joy was so nice. She made friends easily. Everyon
e in the neighborhood always stopped him to say how nice she was, even Joanne when she wasn’t trying to get his dick inside her.

  He was on the street for the incinerator, and he pulled up several feet away.

  “What is it? Why are we stopping?”

  “Now she speaks.” He didn’t turn off the engine. “Do you want to live?”

  “You mean you’re giving me a choice?”

  “Where I’m about to go, you have two choices. Choice one, you get out screaming, and I kill you anyway, and deal with the consequences of you going missing, and I’ll play the part.” He just wanted to be gone. The job was done, and it was time for him to move on. “Or, you can be good, stay here, and be quiet. What’s it going to be?”

  She bit her lip, looking around her.

  “Death or life?”

  “Life,” she said.

  “Good.” He leaned over, tugging her hair, and giving it some life.

  “Hey, what are you doing?” she asked.

  He grabbed his knife and made a slit in the shirt, pushing her tits up to show them off a little. When that was done, he sank his hands in her hair, tilted her head to the side, and claimed her lips. At first, she fought him, which he more than expected. He didn’t give up though. Deepening the kiss, he plunged his tongue into her mouth, moaning as she met him halfway. Damn, she was a hot kisser. He wondered if she was hiding a little whore beneath her good girl image. Every man wanted a whore in the bedroom, or at least, he did.

  Pulling away, he assessed his work, and was satisfied. “You’ll do.”

  Driving the last few feet, he climbed out of the car, and rounded to the back. The incinerator came out, and he was covered in a baker’s gown. No words were necessary as they moved the body. Once everyone was done, all evidence gone, he stood by as the incinerator got to work, and he made the call.

  “Job done.”

  “Excellent. Funds have been transferred.”

  Closing his cell phone, he threw it into the fire as well. Ben never kept contacts from a previous job.

  “What about that bitch in your car?” the incinerator asked.

  “She’s my prize for the night.”

  “Really? Tied up? Looks like a loose end.”

  “Believe me, she wants to be tied up right now.” Ben slapped him on the back and walked away.

  When he got into the car, he looked toward Joy to see tears streaming down her face. Pulling out onto the street, Ben didn’t like it. “Why the fuck are you crying?”

  “Shut up,” she said, whispering the words.

  “What?”

  “I don’t, I can’t—you just carried my friend in there.”

  “She lied to you. Joanne was not the woman you thought she was. She was a greedy addict, who had it coming, and her name was Lindsay. Remember that.”

  “No, you don’t understand. I don’t care about what she did. She will always be Joanne to me, and you killed her.”

  “Yeah, I wonder if you’ll value your friendship when the time comes for me to deal with you.”

  That shut her up.

  Ben didn’t like it. He’d never cared about anyone else before, and he didn’t want to start now. It wasn’t his fault that she had walked in. He hadn’t invited her.

  Fuck!

  He hated it when shit went wrong.

  Putting the radio on, he listened to music as he drove to the first available hotel. It didn’t look all that great, but he didn’t care. There was a lot of shit he’d lived without in this world long before now. Comforts he experienced very rarely.

  He parked the car and went to grab a room for the two of them. After he had the key, he jumped back into the car, and drove to the furthest space in the lot. He grabbed his stuff, and unhooked her, taking her into the hotel room. Locking the door, he slid the curtain across.

  Joy lowered herself on the end of the bed.

  Kneeling in front of her, he removed the belt from around her wrists. “If you make a move, I’ll kill you. Don’t try to make this any harder than it has to be.”

  She rubbed at her wrists, not saying a word.

  He saw she was starting to realize the predicament that she was in.

  “Here, use this,” he said, grabbing a leather-bound notebook from his bag.

  Joy took it, staring down at the book. “Why?”

  “I remember you used to write everything down that was bothering you. You didn’t do it in a notebook, though. You did it on your little laptop.” He’d read it all. Her passwords had been so damn easy to crack, and when she was at work, he read what she would write. It wasn’t much. She would write about the disasters in the kitchen, her time with Joanne, and even her simple days out. Every now and again, he would stumble on the juicy bits, the fantasies and the desires.

  “You’d let me write stuff down?”

  “Yeah, consider it a compromise.”

  Chapter Two

  Night One

  Well, I’m still alive, and right now I’m sitting in a hotel bed waiting for Ben to get dinner. I could try and escape, but the truth is, I don’t want to die. Is that horrible? I should want to die, right? My friend was killed, and I’m still alive. I’m in danger. Do I want it to end?

  Damn that kiss. You see? My head is all over the place, and he knows that I write about my days. He knows, and how the hell am I supposed to get over that? He knows! Did he read everything? I don’t know. It was just the way he was always talking, and I’m like, completely confused.

  Ugh, I’ve never been kissed like that before. Sure, I’ve been kissed but never like that. He’s a killer. He killed my friend, and now I can’t stop thinking about him or at least the way his lips felt on mine. Something is way wrong with me right now.

  Joy looked up as the door to the hotel room opened. Ben walked in carrying a large bag of Chinese food. He locked the door behind him and placed the food on the bed. “I got your favorite.”

  She opened the bag and started taking out the different cartons of food. The scent teased her, and her stomach started to growl. The pork lo mein she’d eaten earlier and subsequently thrown up wasn’t going to cut it.

  Ben took a seat opposite her and grabbed a carton. This reminded her of all the times they had sat together in their place, eating. How had she not known that he was a killer? The concept was entirely foreign to her. She didn’t understand it, not one bit. There was no way it could have happened.

  Opening up the carton, she took some chopsticks and started to eat.

  The silence felt awkward.

  “What are you going to do with me?” she asked.

  “I can’t leave you behind. Tomorrow I’ll call your work place, and let them know you’ve gone on an extended vacation with your boyfriend.”

  “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

  “As far as anyone is ever going to know, I’m your boyfriend. The guy who has been your housemate for the past few weeks.”

  She stared down at her carton, and any appetite she had disappeared.

  “Everything that happened? Was that a lie or the truth?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The meals we shared, watching movies, the little stuff that doesn’t register with everyone—was that all a lie?”

  Ben stared at her.

  Joy felt like she’d been kicked in the stomach. Those moments they shared together, she had come to love. They were insignificant moments in life that just meant everything to her. “It doesn’t matter.”

  She put the carton of food back with the rest. “Can I go and shower?”

  “Eat.”

  “I don’t want to eat.”

  “You threw up earlier, and it has been some time since you last ate.”

  “I don’t care. I don’t want any food. Can I use the shower?”

  He sighed, getting up from the bed, and going into the bathroom. She climbed off the bed, and followed, looking around the bathroom to see what he could find. “You’re good to go.”

  Once he left, she made to
close the door, but he stuck his foot in and made her stop. “Keep the door open.”

  “I’m not going to get naked in front of you.”

  “I’m not going to look. Do as I tell you.”

  She tried pushing on the door and growled. “Fine!” Stepping back, she tugged her shirt up over her head, and threw it to the floor. Joy didn’t know where the bravado came from. She wasn’t feeling it, far from it in fact. She expected him to walk away, but Ben didn’t, even as she wriggled out of her jeans.

  Staring at the door, she refused to look him in the eye. She couldn’t look at him. Most of the time she got naked, she did it with the lights turned off. She wasn’t a virgin. The men she’d been with had loved her personality, enjoyed being around her, but they would always find her weight as a failing.

  When she was standing in her bra and panties, she put her hands on her hips. “There, are you happy?”

  Finally, she forced herself to stare into his eyes, and she froze. There was no disgust on his face. He looked aroused, turned on, which startled her. She never expected that kind of reaction.

  “No. I’m not happy.” He stepped into the room. “You’ve still got some clothes on.” She stepped back, and Ben followed her. When her back was to the wall, he reached out and fingered her bra, dragging it down her arm until it fell away from her body. He wasn’t done there. He reached behind her flicking the catch with ease, letting her know that he had a lot of practice. No words were spoken as he bent down, and dragged her panties down her thighs until they pooled at her feet. Unable to stop herself, she stepped out of them, kicking them to one side.

  I’m naked. I’m completely naked.

  “Now, Joy, now I’m happy.”

  “What?”

  “You see, Joy, you think I’ve not seen you naked before?” The tips of his fingers skimmed up her thighs, going across her stomach, and further up as he caressed her breasts. “There were many times when you sang in the shower that I would watch you through the glass. Even before then, I’d catch glimpses of you. Men who have known you don’t have a clue what they’re missing out on.” He pressed closer to her so that his entire body was flush against hers, leaving her with no mistake that he wanted to be near her. “You didn’t know?”