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“Do it.” He leaned to her, his mouth shifting under his lips. When Mercy commanded again for him to do it, Joel sank his teeth hard into her shoulder. “Yes.”
The bones beneath his mouth seemed to crack and break. He could hear it, actually, the way her bones gave under his powerful bite. And when she screamed again, he knew it wasn’t from the pain of the bite, but a climax that took him over the edge with her.
Joel tried to stand upright but his body just wasn’t ready yet. And when Mercy giggled, he asked her, from his position at her back, what the hell she thought was so funny. He had to laugh too when her giggling turned to laughter.
“Us. I wasn’t going to do this. Not have sex with you right away. But the moment that door closed, it was like a switch had been turned on and I was wet with need.” He cursed low and fluently. “Yes, well, that’s about the way I feel too.”
Standing, staggering only a little he was glad to see, Joel turned Mercy around and held her. He was glad to see that she wasn’t in any better shape than he was. Still, he had a lot to talk to her about. Then he realized what he really wanted to say to her.
“Marry me, Mercy. I’d get down on my knees and do this, but I know that I’d never get back up. But I would like for you to become my wife. Have more children with me in addition to this one.” She kissed him lightly on the mouth and nodded. “Please, say it. I want you to say you will marry me while we’re both buck naked and sated.”
“Yes, I will marry you while we’re both buck naked and sated.” It took him a moment to realize that she’d made a joke. Laughing, she was dressed and moving toward the door while he was still hanging on to the desk for dear life. “You’d better hurry and recover. We’re about to have some company.”
Joel didn’t want to have company. He wanted to go upstairs and take a long nap. For about a month. Then he wanted to rest up so that he could make it to the shower. Standing upright, he felt better, but his knees still felt like they were made of rubber. But the longer he stood there, the better he began to feel.
The company, as she called it, was his brother. Saul hadn’t been around for fifteen or so years. Joel and he had never been friends, and the only reason that they had gotten together recently was when their father had been killed. Then few months later, their mom. As soon as he introduced him to Mercy, as his wife, he asked him what he wanted.
“Why is that the first thing out of your mouth every time you see me? You’d think that I was some sort of bum or something.” Saul looked at Mercy, and she didn’t take Saul’s hand when he offered it to her. “I guess my brother has told you all about me. Well, not all of it is true. And some of that might even be a lie.”
“No, I had no idea that you existed until just this moment. And you’re not staying, so don’t get yourself too comfortable.” Saul looked at him, shocked. “What is it you want, Saul?”
“Wow, who shit in your oatmeal? Can’t a man come and see his brother and his new family once without everyone being shitty to him?” Joel didn’t say anything, and Mercy left them to see to Miley. “You sure made out for yourself, Joel. Nice house. A beautiful wife. No wonder you moved up from New Mexico. That’s where I was looking for you. You didn’t mention to anyone that you were moving out.”
“Perhaps there was a reason for it. Again, what is it you want, Saul? I don’t have time for your schemes. I’m not going to give you money, nor am I going to go on any trip with you. The last time we did that, I was seventeen and you left me in another country without any money or my passport. Mom and Dad had to work hard at getting me home.” Saul just waved his hand at him. “You have someplace to stay?”
“Well, I thought that I’d stay here for a few weeks. Just until I get up on my feet. You’ll let me do that, won’t you, little brother?” Joel told him no. Then he looked over his shoulder and he knew that Saul saw Miley. “Well well, who is this pretty little thing? I didn’t think you’d marry anyone with a kid, Joel. I guess you get good benefits for taking on someone else’s—”
“She’s my daughter. Mercy and I are going to have a second child soon, too.” Joel could see his brother’s mind working. Would it be handicapped too? How did she get hurt? “Whatever you wanted, you’re not getting it. So, I would suggest that you get out before you say something stupid and I’ll have to break your neck.”
“Aw, come on, Joel. This isn’t like you.” Saul laughed. “Oh, I see. You’re acting up for the ladies. Well, that’s fine. Just spot me come cash and I’ll find a nice hotel. Just don’t be too stingy with it, little bro. I have to eat too, and I’m low on gas.”
Mercy went to the door and held it open. Joel went to stand beside her and was worried when Saul made his way to Miley and put out his hand, Miley slapped it away and smiled at him.
“I’d take heed on what my parents say, Mr. Oliver. Get out of our home, and don’t come back.” Saul told her she shouldn’t talk to her elders that way. “Yes, well, I give as good as I get. Mom and Dad told you to leave, and I’d do it.”
Saul went to the door and stopped to stare at the two of them. Then he looked at him. Joel could see his anger. Saul had always had a short fuse that wouldn’t burn out for a long time. When he lunged at him Joel stood his ground, and Mercy slammed the door in Saul’s face when he turned to speak again.
Chapter 5
Mercy looked over the computer printout that Jude had given her. Saul Oliver was an evil man, and the only reason that he was out walking around instead of in prison was that he was lucky. But Mercy decided that his luck was about to run out.
“I think he killed our parents.” Mercy looked at Joel when he spoke to her from the chair. “I never thought about it until later, after we buried Mom, that he might have had something to do with their deaths.”
“How so? Not that I don’t believe you, but how do you think he might have killed them?” Mercy thought that he might have too. Saul had been into a lot of things, and none of them were on the right side of the law. “So you know, for the last year Saul has been in prison. Armed robbery. He’s only been out about a month, likely looking for you.”
“I had nothing for him to steal before, but I have a feeling that he’ll be back here, and not necessarily when we’re home. I think he murdered Dad with his axe. There isn’t any way that he could have fallen on it and split his head open the way that he they said he had. And Mom was so depressed after Dad died that I think he played on that and helped her along with it. She didn’t kill herself—I know that she didn’t, but proving it was nearly impossible without the funds to hire someone to look into it.” Mercy asked him if he really thought that Saul would get into the house. “He always has a way. Then he’ll blame it on me, like I’d left glass in the window for him to bust out to gain entrance.”
“I see. Well, I’d not worry so much about him trying to get in as much as where to bury his body if he comes here again.” She was serious, but she didn’t think that Joel thought she was. “By the wa
y, I’ve set up a time, three days a week, for Miley to have physical therapy at the hospital. She will also be safe from the time she leaves here until she returns. I don’t think that Saul will stoop to taking her, but I don’t want to take the chance of him trying.”
“He will if he thinks it will get him a few bucks. You said something about a house that you wanted me to look at. I don’t have to be at work until tomorrow. I was hoping that I could talk you into have a nice dinner out with Miley and myself. I know we’re doing this sort of backwards, but I only just realized this morning when I got up that we’ve never had a date.”
Miley was out with Blaze this afternoon. Blaze was trying to open up a larger client base to sell to and wanted Miley’s opinion on some of the pieces that she was working on. Mostly it was things to give to Grandma and Mom if a kid had a few bucks, but it was something that she’d been playing around with for some time.
“Why was he in prison?” Mercy looked at Joel, slightly confused for a moment. “Saul. Why was he in prison? I’m sure you know.”
“I do. He and two other men tried to stick up a library. I kid you not, Joel, a library. Who in their right mind tries to rob a place that only lends out books? Anyway, he and one of them came out only to find that they’d parked in two spaces, and some of the patrons were pissy about it and blocked them in.” Joel asked about the other man. “Oh, he was checking out a book. For Christ’s sake, if I didn’t know he was stupid before, this sure does show it.”
