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“Hello,” she said, smiling over her shoulder at him.
“Hi,” he whispered back and ran the tip of his nose along the outside edge of her ear.
Then, with a slow gentle push of his hips, they were together. As relaxed as she was, the pleasure sent through her body was met with no resistance. She delighted in the way he made her feel, how safe she felt in his arms. Almost on cue with the thought, he wrapped his arms around the front of her, holding her in an embrace as he made love to her. She leaned her head back against him, moving her hips along with his. She reached her climax first, the tension in her body squeezing against him, bringing on his own.
After coming down and catching their breath, they fell asleep for an afternoon nap in one another’s arms. It was the first time they’d slept peacefully together since all of this started, and Saundra let herself believe everything was going to be okay.
Miles sat at the bar, waiting for Boss to arrive to start the night’s work. The last three weeks had been good. Really good. He and Saundra found themselves again and got out from under their debt hole. He hadn’t been up front with how much he’d been making because he wanted to handle some things first. He also never went into more detail about what he was doing for the money.
She only ever gently probed him about it, and when he changed the subject, she let him. He knew she was letting him. Saundra wasn’t an idiot, and he was a terrible liar, but she wanted things to be okay just as much as he did. Thing was, things weren’t okay. Boss was having him do worse and worse things as time went on, and Miles wasn’t liking the person he saw in the mirror every day. It was one thing to let his anger out, but to bring it to the place that he did, to do the things that he’d been doing to those people, it sat in his stomach like a brick.
Miles took a drink of his beer and went over in his mind again what he was going to say to Boss when he showed up. This had to end. He had enough saved up to help pay for things while he found another job. The prospect of working at a pizza joint or even Saundra’s dad was sounding better and better after every night out with Boss. The money was good, no doubt, but it just wasn’t worth the price of his soul.
“Hey there, champ,” Boss said, taking a seat beside Miles. Boss held up to fingers to the bartender then looked back to Miles. “Ready to get busy tonight? I’ve got a to-do list the size of my arm.”
“I can’t do this anymore.” Miles hissed and grit his teeth together. That wasn’t what he meant to say.
“What?” Boss turned in his seat, a bemused smile on his face.
“Sorry, I meant to lead up to that, but it’s out, so screw it. Yeah, I just… Look, I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, but I can’t do this anymore. I have to quit, okay?”
Boss laughed. The bartender brought him his beers, and Boss smiled and gave the guy a nod.
“No, that’s not going to happen,” he said as he sipped from his first beer.
Miles took a breath. He didn’t imagine this was going to be easy, but he spent the last three weeks beating people half to death. If that’s what it took to make Boss leave him alone, so be it. He expected nothing less. Mike looked to Boss, ready to smash his beer into the man’s head if it came to that.
“Yes, it is. I’m done.”
Boss, still smiling, pulled his cell phone from his pocket. As he punched a few buttons with his thumb he said, “Do you think you’re the only person under my employ?”
“Excuse me?”
Boss turned his phone to show Miles. It was a picture of Miles’ apartment, a clear shot of Saundra through the window. In the pic she wore the clothes she was wearing when he’d left that day. That was a fresh picture.
“For example, I hire a man, big guy too, to stand outside your place just in case you get uppity.”
“You son of a—“
“Ah, ah, ah,” Boss said warningly. One word from me, and your girlfriend is tragically killed in a home invasion accident.” He quirked his mouth, took a swig of beer, and said, “Or maybe not. I can do worse than murder. Maybe just take her captive and send you pieces.”
Miles could feel the tension in his hand growing and knew if he didn’t loosen his grip, the beer bottle was going to shatter in his hand. “You lay one finger on her…”
“And you’ll do nothing. Which is exactly what you’re going to do right now: nothing. You’re my dog. You do what I say. I don’t pay you to think. Thinking will get your girlfriend killed. Not you, though. You I’ll leave alive. Maybe cut off your hands just to make sure you don’t get any funny ideas, but I’ll leave you handless and alone to simmer in the knowledge that you killed your girlfriend.”
Then his eyes went wide and he gasped. “Maybe I’ll frame you for her murder! Wouldn’t that be delicious? Rotting in prison for the death of your girlfriend. And handless. Ya know, that means you’ll only have one way to keep yourself alive in prison.”
Boss turned his mouth into an “O” and fellated the beer bottle for a moment before taking a swig.
“All right,” Miles said, holding up a hand to block the view. “All right! You win. Just don’t hurt her. Please. I’ll do whatever you want, just leave her alone. She doesn’t have anything to do with this.”
Boss laughed and clapped Miles on the back. “There’s my man. I knew you had it in you.” Standing from his stool, he downed his two beers in two great gulps. “Bring your beer. We’ve got work to do.”
Saundra woke up in the middle of the night needing to go to the bathroom. When she rolled over, Miles wasn’t there. For the first time since they’d made up, he wasn’t home. She checked her clock and saw it was three in the morning. He was always home by then, even when he was out drinking. She went to the bathroom, but couldn’t fall back to sleep. Where could he be? Was he okay?
Anxiety gripped her with fearfully strong fingers. She knew something was wrong. She let herself believe everything was okay, but it wasn’t. He was dead in a ditch somewhere, or got into an accident because he’d been drinking. Her mind raced with possibilities every minute until she heard his keys in the lock. She was out of bed and halfway down the hall by the time he had the door shut.
“Where have you been? Are you okay?”
