AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Right, yeah. Good idea.” Sam fumbled with getting his phone. “I can text you if I think of anything dealing with Jesse.”
“Definitely.” I looked at him, my head still tilted down to my phone. “Or text me for whatever, if you want.”
We exchanged numbers. I led him back through my home, deciding that I didn’t need to put my clothes back on right away, walking in just my black Armani briefs. I don’t think Sam minded. Especially since I had caught him checking me out in a couple of different reflections we passed as he walked slightly behind me.
“So, you’ve got any other plans for tonight?” Sam asked, in a way that suggested he might want to spend more time with me. If I didn’t have an important interview scheduled an hour from now, I very well may have asked him to stay.
“I’ve got someone I want to sit down and talk with. A friend of Jesse’s who answered a Facebook message I sent him. She said she might have some information for me.”
Sam’s eyebrows jumped up. “Oh shoot. Okay. Damn, already?”
“I don’t like wasting time.”
His eyebrows dropped back down. He must have picked up on my tone, because his lips curled up into a smile.
“All right, well… thanks. Again. For everything.” We stopped at my front door. The sun was setting outside, sending a ray of sunlight dashing in through the floor-to-ceiling window, lighting up the captivating brown eyes that held an entire world of stories I wanted to read.
I couldn’t help it. I had to kiss him. This time I didn’t ask. And he didn’t seem to mind, his body already melting into mine as if we’d been doing this for years, knowing exactly how we fit together like a lock and key.
The kiss broke as my cock grew stiff, ready to slip free from the leg of my briefs. He must have felt it. His gaze looked hungry, but there was also apprehension there. I certainly wasn’t going to push anything. Not with Sam.
“Bye, Rocky.” He licked his lips, as if savoring my taste.
He left me standing there, in only my black briefs, a growing bulge between my legs throbbing to be taken care of.
* * *
“Thanks for meeting with me,” I said.
I was currently sitting in a crusty twenty-four seven diner, the mustard-yellow table stained with various substances that told me no one cleaned up the front of the diner, so I could only imagine the nightmares that were being brought to life in the kitchen. Across from me was a woman with a short-cut head of light brown hair and a worried look in her eyes. She was one of the ones frequently pictured with Jesse. I’d had a chance to chat with Hazel, and she told me that Kristen and Julie were girlfriends who seemed to be way more level-headed than Jesse ever was.
“Jesse was a good friend of mine. I want to help.”
“And how’d you meet Jesse?”
“We worked together. We were barbacks down at Blizzards. I got promoted to a bartender after a few months, but Jesse never really moved up. One day, a couple months ago, he came in and just quit. We still stayed friends, obviously.”
“How long have you been friends?”
“Like, five years now.”
A waitress came by to take our orders. Kristen ordered herself an entire meal, but I stuck with the water. “Do you know why he left Blizzards?”
She nodded. “His parents came into some money. Promised to support him if he got his act together.”
“Do you know how much money?”
“A lot.” She gave a “whoo” through her crooked teeth. “Life-changing money.”
“Did he tell a lot of people about this money?”
“Pfft, he’d talk about it every chance he could get. He’d blab on about him being a multimillionaire, and how he’d buy everyone new cars and shit. I never saw a dime of it. I don’t think he did either.”
Money. A universal motive for murder.
“Do you know if he told anyone specifically. Someone maybe he shouldn’t have?”
Kristen chewed her lip in thought. I took a sip of the water, ice clinking together as I set the plastic cup back down onto the table. The fluorescent lights inside this crummy diner weren’t doing anyone any favors, highlighting the forehead wrinkles that multiplied as Kristen continued to think.
Finally, she said, “No.”
“And why didn’t he ever get the money?”
“Him and his parents got in a huge fight. I’m pretty sure it had to do with that scumbag Nick that he keeps hanging out with. Once he joined the picture, me and Julie started seeing changes. We stopped hanging out with them about a month ago. It was just too much.”
“How so?”
“Nick was a terrible influence. Jesse got into drugs, and then started selling them. Not to mention, that guy was a huge homophobe. He would openly talk shit about Julie and me. Jesse stood up for us at first, but soon even that stopped. It made the both of us pretty pissed off. How could Jesse just turn his back on us like that? It was bullshit.”
