“Okay. I was just trying to be useful.”
“Let’s call it a day.”
She stared back at me defiantly. “Fine. Whatever you say.”
“Have a good night, sis,” I said.
She walked over to the door. “Same time tomorrow?” she asked.
I shrugged. “Whatever you want.”
She gave me one last look, a look that I couldn’t read, and then opened the door and was gone.
She was pissed, but I didn’t care. I let out a breath and tore opened the drawer again, rooting through it. The file wasn’t in there, thankfully. She hadn’t seen it.
I opened the other drawer and found it, the file on Lester Seeds, and pulled it out. I dropped it on the desk and sat down in my chair, staring at it.
Memories came swirling back to me in fragments. Hours spent pouring over evidence. The girl, her fingers cut off, her body lifeless. Lester laughing. The phone call.
Mitch and the wound across his throat.
I tossed the file back into another drawer and walked into the back room. I poured myself a whisky and dropped down onto the couch, turning the television on loud. I wanted it to drown out the memories as I drank.
One last memory came to me: Lester’s voice saying, Come now, Easton, aren’t you some kind of professional?
I slugged back my whisky and poured another.
It felt like the buzzing was drilling through my skull directly into my brain.
I rolled over on the couch. My mouth tasted like whisky. The TV was still on.
And the doorbell was ringing like crazy.
I climbed off the couch, steading myself for a minute as my hangover washed over me. I’d drunk too much the night before, as usual. Ever since I’d come back to Mishawaka, the dreams had been awful, gut-wrenching and destructive nightmares, and the only way to outrun the memories was by drowning them in alcohol.
I stood up slowly, glancing at the clock. It was a little bit past ten in the morning.
I’m going to kill that girl, I thought as I pulled on a pair of pants, not bothering with the shirt. I stumbled into the main room and pulled open the door.
Laney stood there, smiling at me sweetly.
“Morning, Easton,” she said. “You look like shit.”
“Go away,” I grunted, and tried to close the door.
Laney shoved her foot out, catching it before it shut, and pushed it open. She hustled past me, and I was too hungover to stop her.
She was carrying a drink tray with two large coffees on it and had a brown paper bag in the other hand.
“I figured you’d be like this,” she said.
“Why?” I grunted at her.
“Based on yesterday.” She paused and stared at me for a second as I walked closer to her. I could tell there was something going on in that cute little brain of hers, but I couldn’t tell what. I was way too hungover to read her.
She quickly gathered herself. “Anyway, bagels and coffee.” She gestured at the bag.
I grabbed my cup. “Thanks.”
“Get dressed.” She sat down at the desk, dropping her bag on the floor. She slipped a laptop from it and opened it up on the desk. “Do you have Wi-Fi?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Router’s over there.” I sipped the scalding hot coffee.
“Good. Did you know that you don’t have a website?”
“Hadn’t occurred to me.”
“You need one.”
“Why?”
“So that people can find you online.”
I stared at her for a second. “I don’t want to be found.”
“You want work, don’t you?”
“Sure.” More or less.
“Then you need a website. How do you not know this?”
“Ever consider that I don’t want to announce this gig to every person in the world?”
“Nope.” She was tapping away happily.
“No website,” I said as I moved toward the back room.
“You’re getting a website.”
I grunted something but didn’t have the strength to fight.
I was surprised she had shown up again. I’d expected her to run away and never look back, especially after yesterday’s shit show. It hadn’t exactly gone down the way I had planned, even though I had gotten what I needed.
Instead, she appeared with her laptop and started talking about getting me a website. Maybe the girl was going to be more trouble than I had realized.
Plus, there was the matter of her work attire. Her blouse was sheer, and underneath it she wore a low-cut tank top. I couldn’t quite see her breasts, but their hint was right there, practically pressing up to the surface. Her jeans were tight and fitted, and her ass looked impeccable.
The blood rushed right from my head as soon as she walked into the room. Or maybe it was just the hangover still playing its tricks.
I stripped off my pants and grabbed a towel, wrapping it around my waist. I picked up my little shower caddy and walked back out into the main room.
“That’s the opposite of getting dressed,” Laney said, staring over her computer.
“Need a shower.”
“Don’t you ever go home?”
I laughed and grinned at her. “Sis, this is home.”
I pushed open the door and left before she could respond.
The communal bathroom was just down the hall. Inside and toward the back was a small shower, probably meant for people that commuted to work or wanted to work out during their break. I turned the water on and waited for it to heat up.
Finally, I let the warm water slide down my face. I took a few deep breaths, and between the shower and the coffee, I was beginning to feel a bit more human.
I knew Laney was right about the website. Part of me knew that I was doing everything I could to fuck my life up even further, but I couldn’t quite grasp why.
It probably had something to do with the fact that my two closest relationships from the past few years were both dead, both because of me.
I shook my head, banishing the thought. Maybe it was better that Laney was around. Sure, she was my stepsister, but when did that mean anything to me? She was fucking gorgeous, and she was the first woman in a long time that even remotely got me hard.
Which I was, I noticed. My cock was standing fully at attention as my mind ranged over the fantastic possibilities of Laney stripped down naked in front of me. She acted so coy and innocent, but I’d already got a glimpse of the real person hiding beneath all of that. She was smart and crafty, and maybe even a little ruthless.
I couldn’t help but imagine what I could do to her in that little office of mine. I’d bend her over my desk and spank her perky ass, again and again, until she begged for me to fuck her. I’d sink my cock deep between her legs, slide in and out, feel the slick heat of her tight pussy.
I’d kiss her neck, her tits, pull her hair, whisper in her ears. I’d make her beg me to keep fucking her, to make her come like the dirty girl she was.
I came then, thinking about Laney’s lips wrapped around the tip of my cock, swallowing every fat ounce of my cum.
I cleaned up and finished showering. I felt better as I toweled off and walked back down the hall, my head buzzing a bit from the orgasm. I pushed open the door and Laney glanced up at me.
I didn’t miss the look. She bit her lower lip slightly as she looked at my wet body, barely concealed by the towel I had slung low around my hips.