Alexander (16 page)

Attached you’ll find a list of all the accounts that he plans to hit. I’m not as slick as you are, but I can work my way through a computer given enough time. He doesn’t know I have it. At least I hope not. He has this idea that the money can be moved from the accounts without anyone being the wiser and we (yes, he said he would take Amy and me with him) would be long gone before anyone was the wiser. Fat chance, right?

I know you’re a smart guy. You got the brains and as I’m sure you know, I got the looks. Help me make my death worth something. And I’m begging you to please watch out for him.

Amy will need you. I’m asking you as my best friend to make sure she’s okay. I love her so very much and wish that I could have more time with her. If you ever get the chance to find that special someone in your life, grab on with gusto. You never know when everything will be taken from you in a heartbeat.

I love you, buddy, not in the “I wanna sleep with you” kind of way, but you are my best bud. Live long and prosper.

B.

Alex looked at the accounts. There were ten of them and as of nine days ago, the total amount in the accounts was just under one hundred million dollars. Along with the account numbers and names was another number. Brick thought it was a Swiss bank account routing number.

Mik was going to come for him, Alex was sure of this. He’d had no doubt whatsoever. He would have to figure that either Brick had talked to him or that he would have left him something. Alex felt he’d watched enough shows on television to know this much. Now he had to figure out what to do and who to get help from.

His dad had friends everywhere so that would be his first guess in getting help. Alex reached for his phone only to stop before touching it. Bugs. Pulling out his cell phone, he started to call him that way when he thought again about someone recording him, so he opened his phone and texted him.

Within minutes he and his dad arranged to go Christmas shopping at the mall in the morning. Alex didn’t even ask for his dad not to tell his mom. His parents had always told each other everything and he didn’t doubt this would be any different. When the knock came to his door, Alex nearly snapped for whoever it was to go away. But he yelled for whoever it was to come in.

“
Hi, Mr. Alex. I was wondering if I could ask you a question, please?” Jack didn’t move away from the doorway. “I promise I won’t take up much of your time.”

Alex waved him in then watched as Jack turned and closed the door.
Must be serious
, Alex thought, and wondered if this was something he should refer to his mom. As Jack settled in one of the chairs across from him, Alex wondered how to broach the subject when Jack spoke.

“
I’ve been working for Mr. Conley and Mr. Stone on Saturdays. My mom gave me permission,” he hurriedly said. “They said it was pocket money. I had to look that up at school.”

Alex leaned back in the chair, thinking this he could handle. “They’re good men, some of the best I’ve ever known. Are you hoping for a raise already, Jack?”

Alex watched the boy’s face change from pleasure to fear in an instant. “No, sir. I swear. I just wanted to buy my mom something for Christmas.”

Wondering if he would ever feel more like shit than he did right now, Alex sat up in the chair. First, he manhandles the boy’s mother then treats her like a cheap date. Then let’s not forget that he treats a kid he genuinely likes as if he…Alex took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Jack. I was only teasing you. Let’s start again, shall we? What did you have in mind to get her?”

Jack didn’t say anything for several minutes, but continued to look down at his hands. Alex got up and went around the desk. When he was seated in the other chair, Jack turned to look at him.

“
We lost everything in the fire. But Mom said we should be grateful we got out.” Alex nodded. “But she worked so hard on it and now it’s all burned up. It’s not fair, don’t you think, Mr. Alex?”

“
Anything you work really hard for and lose because of something you had no control over is hard. What is it she lost?” Alex thought if it was something small or even something Jack had given her, Alex decided that he’d get it for him and see that she got it. Then he realized that Jack had said that she had
earned
it.

“
Her diploma. She had it on the fridge. We would hang our papers there when we’d do well. I hung it there for her when she wouldn’t. But she didn’t take it down.”

“
Her diploma?” Alex remembered his mom hanging art and good grades on theirs as well. He wondered what sort of diploma Heather had gotten.

“
Yes, sir. She couldn’t finish high school because of me see so she went to one of those courses by mail. We made sure it was accredited and all. Mom wants to go to college. She said she didn’t want me to be ashamed of her. Not that I would, she’s wonderful and very smart.”

“
Yes, she is,” Alex answered absently. High school diploma. “What is it you hand in mind then?”

Jack stood up, dug out a neatly folded sheet of paper from his pocket, and handed it to him. “I have the name of the school and the dates it had on it. I wanted to see if they can print another one for her. Then I want to get it framed. She told me that she wanted to do that when we got a house of our own.”

Alex looked at the paper. From the dates, it looked like she must have been at it a long while. He looked up at Jack when he started talking again.

“
She worked really hard. Sometimes I’d help her with her math homework, but she would keep at it until she understood it. It was hard with her working three jobs all the time. But she refused for us to be on welfare. She told me if a person is able-minded and body sound that there is no reason for them to be taking a handout when so many others could use it.”

Alex nodded. This wasn’t the picture he had painted of her. Her mother made her sound selfish and cold. She told him she was a horrible mother and even went so far as to hint that she may sell herself or her child for drugs. Alex could see from looking at him that Jack was a well-adjusted and healthy kid. And he didn’t think he’d ever seen or heard a more polite young man.

“
Your grandmother, do you ever see her?” Alex tried to remember her name. “Shelly, I think her name is.”

“
Vickie. And no, she hates me. A lot,” Jack said with a bite in his voice.

“
I doubt that she hates you. She might be upset about—”

“
She told my mom if she got rid of me then she would help with our bills and stuff. She made my mom cry when she said it. Grandpa Tom said she wasn’t any daughter of his anymore. That made Mom cry harder.” Jack brushed at a tear. “Grandpa Tom told me they didn’t raise her to be like that, Vickie, I mean. He said he and Grandma Colleen are good people and she should be glad her mom wasn’t alive or Grandma Colleen would bust her bottom but good.”

~~~

Heather was just empting the dishwasher when she heard someone come into the room. Thinking it was Jack, she had a smile already in place. It faded to a frown when she saw Mr. James.

“
Well that’s very telling.”

She frowned harder, not understanding him.

“
I’d like to speak to you, please. Privately.”

“
Grandda has already gone to bed and Jack in is the room you assigned him. He knows to go to bed at nine-thirty. So you can say what you want. Oh.” She walked to her bag on the floor and picked it up, taking out an envelope. “The Red Cross gave this to me today. They said it was for room and board and to get us back on our feet. It’s five hundred dollars.”

She handed it toward him only to have him back up. She didn’t have the energy to fight with him so she laid it on the table. She picked up a dish cloth and starting wiping down the already clean counter.

“
I don’t want your money, Heather. Keep it. Use it to get some of your Christmas done.” She glanced up to see if he was serious. “I won’t take money from you.”

She didn’t say anything, but she hurt. He’d rather humiliate her with sex than take her money. Well, she’d already decided that’s all he’d get was just sex. She was going into this with her eyes wide open. She just hoped her heart would stay closed.

“
I’ve made myself a budget. I’m thinking we should be out just after mid-January. It might have been sooner, but the landlord said I’m not entitled to my deposit back. It wasn’t much, but it would have helped us. Grandda is trying to pick up more hours what with the—”

“
Sit down please.”

His clipped order made her stop speaking. She also stopped moving, not realizing that she’d been pacing. She sat in the chair at the table and put her hands in her lap so that he wouldn’t see them tremble. “There’s no need for you to talk to me like that. I’m sorry you don’t want us here, but I did offer for us to return to the shelter.”

She heard him swear and nearly smiled. He could string them together as well as her grandda could. When he went to the refrigerator, she looked up then back down when she saw him bent over peering inside. The man was something to look at when he did that. She felt her face heat up and her body tighten thinking about him being deep inside of her. How he’d tasted her. She shifted on the chair, suddenly uncomfortable.

“
Is this tea sweet?”

It took her mind several seconds to realize he’d asked her a question about something. But for the life of her she couldn’t make her mind work out what he’d said for the lust running through her body. “I’m sorry,” she said, licking her suddenly dry lips. “What did you say?” He stared at her as she was staring at him and with another oath, he slammed the fridge door closed and yanked her to him. His mouth was on hers before she could take a breath. Then she didn’t want to.

Like before when he’d kissed her, she marveled at his taste. Warmth and hunger, need and tenderness exploded in her mouth. When his hands cupped her and brought her flush with him and his erection, she felt her pussy swell, need coil, and a hunger of her own spiral out of control.

His mouth pulled from hers and she whimpered. But he was no less busy with it. He nipped at her neck and her shoulder; his tongue slid over her pulse that she could feel hammering at her throat. When he picked her up, she felt weightless and needed. With his mouth over hers again, she didn’t even realize that they’d climbed the stairs and entered his room. The mattress at her back was a startling realization.

He stripped off his shirt then his shoes. She watched, memorized, as he unbuckled his belt, and her mouth watered for what he was going to reveal to her, for her. His groan had her looking up at his face. She flushed as his knowing grin.

“
Unless you want me to rip those clothes to shreds, I would suggest that you take them off.” She didn’t move, her body seemingly frozen at his words. “Now, Heather.”

She stood, pulled her t-shirt over her head, and dropped it on the floor. She didn’t have any shoes on so she unbuttoned her pants and shimmied them off with her socks all at once. She stood before him in her bra and panties, suddenly unsure.

He was naked, beautifully so. His cock was hard and straining from his dark curls at his groin. She wanted to touch him, see if he was as hard as he looked. Without thinking about what he’d do to her, she reached out and wrapped her hand around him.

Smooth, was her first thought, then hard. Incredibly so. When she ventured her hand up and down him, she jerked her hand back when he hissed at her.

“
I’m so sorry. I…I didn’t—”

“
Don’t stop. Touch me, Heather.” He took her hand and rubbed her knuckles up and down his cock then turned her hand over to show her how to touch him. “Your hand is so cool against me. So different than when I’m inside of you where you’re hot and so wet.”

She stepped closer to him and felt his heat. When he unclasped her bra and peeled if from her shoulders, his mouth followed the straps down. When her panties joined her bra and other clothes, he stepped back and stared at her so much so that she reached up to cover herself. But he stopped her.

“
No. Don’t. Let me look. The last time was so quick that I…Christ, you’re beautiful.”

She felt that way too. When he told her to lie down, she did without any hesitation. When he stretched out beside her, she felt her body respond—her nipples tightened and her pussy seeped so much so that she pressed her thighs together.

He stopped her with his hand. “I want to feel you wrapped around me. Feel your tight pussy when you come. Would you like that, love, to feel my cock buried deep inside of you?”

“
Yes. Oh yes, please.” He took her nipple into his mouth as he moved between her legs. She cried out when he bit her. Her body surged up to take him into her, but he was too far away. “Please,” she begged again.

“
Condom,” he growled. “Christ, I want…I have to hurry now.” The condom slipped from his fingers twice and when he finally got it open, he had to roll it over the tip twice as he was so wet. Heather ran her thumb over his tip and took the pearl of cum into her mouth. Alex froze above her.

His eyes were black, sweat beaded above his lip and brow like he was working very hard. The pulse at his throat was pounding. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen a more beautiful sight than him at that moment. She gasped when he slammed into her. Her legs wrapped around him and she surged up with his next move. The pressure, the building, was close, so close she could almost touch it. When her climax took her, took her to heights she’d never seen, never dreamt of, she screamed out his name. Clawing at his back, she felt him stiffen then felt him come. His body pounded into hers even as she felt hers slide into a state of satiation.