Aaron's Kiss Series Boxed Set (Books 1 - 7) (98 page)

Chapter Eleven

“City morgue, you stab ‘em, we slab ‘em.” The voice at the other end of the phone was decidedly female, but slurred. Aaron wasn’t sure if he had the right number or not and checked again to be sure. Yes, it was the correct one.

“Yes. Yes, I would like to speak to a Madison Harm please. Do you think that you could find her for me?” Surely she wouldn’t have given them the number to the morgue as a joke.

“Yeah, I think. Hang on. Is the Mad Hatter here? Hey,” he shouted nearly bursting Aaron’s ear drum. “Anyone seen the Mad Hatter today? Hang on buddy, if she’s here, somebody will get her for you.” The phone was set down on something metal, more than likely the top of the pay phone was Aaron’s guess. 

The
Mad Hatter
, huh? Aaron wondered at that. The ‘mad’ part he got, from Madison no doubt, and then with the way the phone had been answered, he figured out the rest from the madness of the people in the building.

Aaron waited three minutes before she came on the line. While waiting for her he over heard a profusion of conversations as people walked by the open line. They ranged from a drug deal going down to someone who needed to let her ‘hang-buddy’ know she was late again.

“This is Madison Harm. May I help you?” 

To Aaron she sounded resigned, beaten. He thought he liked her better fighting and spitting.

“Ms Harm, its Aaron MacManus. I called to see if you could come by the estate tonight. We have a great deal to discuss, one of which will be your living arrangement. That place isn’t safe for a young woman as I’m sure you are aware. And bring a few changes of clothing, as it will be late when we finish and it will take a few days I believe to get things settled to my satisfaction.” 

Aaron was used to getting his own way and didn’t think anything of setting up the arrangements for her to suit himself. Besides, he had her best interest at heart and he really wanted to piss her off again.

“I see. I can’t come over this evening, I have a prior commitment. And as for your arrangements, let me say first of all, I won’t be spending the night or any night, but thanks for asking. Secondly, my living arrangements are none of your business and lastly, we’ll settle things to both of our satisfactions or not at all. I’m not a pushover Mr. MacManus, and the sooner you figure that out the better things will go for all of us.” Maddy’s voice had picked up with her temper he thought, and she sounded less broken as well.

He burst out laughing. She had fire and spirit, he’d give her that. And he liked a good fight as well as the next man. But he knew he’d win.

“Ah, Ms Harm, I think we are going to suit well working together, very well indeed. I’ll see you tomorrow night then.”

~~~

“I need six draft, three 7&7 and a Harvey. I’m so glad you’re here through the week now Mad.” Shelly told her. 

Shelly Jones, wife to the bars owner, worked and was co owner, at the bar,
Puss n’ Boots
three nights a week and all day on Saturday when a game was playing. Maddy usually only worked Friday nights to help out as an extra bartender and could according to Shelly serve up drinks faster than anyone she’d ever seen. Maddy thought it was because Tina, the usual bartender was slower than molasses.

“Thanks Shell. I’m just glad Paul could use me. I don’t know what I would have done without his help and the extra hours right now. I should be thanking you guys.” 

Maddy worked on the mixed drinks first, and poured the bourbon chaser for the Harvey at the same time. Fisting three mugs at a time she began building the drafts, it took someone a lot of time to get the proportions of a draft right, too much head wasn’t right and too little would get you thrown out of this bar.

Puss n’ Boots
wasn’t a bar families came into. It was more a bar you went to get drunk and have a fist fight in the parking lot you might have just puked your guts up into. Then there were the strippers. Maddy had been working part-time there since the week she’d turn twenty one. Paul, Shelly’s husband owned the bar and had hired Maddy not because he thought she was a great bartender, but because she was ‘drop dead gorgeous and built like a brick shit house’, whatever that meant. Maddy was just happy for the work.

At first she’d been a little uncomfortable working there at nights alone, but Paul had lent her his Equalizer, his Glock forty and showed her how to use it, and since then she’d felt much better. And after the third time she had to pull it and the second time she’d used it, the patrons knew that though she was a pretty little thing, don’t fuck with her. She never concealed it, but carried it right on her left hip were there was no doubt that she was armed. There was also three Louisville sluggers at different intervals under the bar if things got a little too close for comfort.

It was nearly four-thirty in the morning when she went out to her car to leave. Her feet ached and her lower back was killing her. But she’d made a hundred and sixty-four dollars in tips plus Jake had made her a burger and fries for dinner. A couple more nights like this and she’d be able to get four used tires instead of two, plus be able to catch up on her rent. She thanked Jake, the cook for walking her to her car and drove home. 

She’d been purposely not thinking about the interview at the MacManus place tomorrow…no, well tonight now. But now that she wasn’t busy anymore and just laying in her single bed it came crashing in again. Vampires. Werewolves too. She wasn’t sure what to think about it, so she tried not to. She didn’t want to have to be there after sunset, and she knew that she needed to avoid Master Kyle as much as possible. She wasn’t sure what her job would entail, but she was reasonably sure it would need to be done during the daylight hours, so that took care of the sunset deadline. Also by the same logic, working with the sun out would keep her away from Kyle. She figured she had a win-win situation. She hoped.

The sun was well into the sky by the time she fell asleep, and almost two o’clock in the afternoon when the nightmare started.

“Hello my dear, what’sss taken you ssso long to visssit me?”
The voice was deep, and sounded hissed rather than spoken. The sound of it, low and full of anger making the hair on the back of her neck stand up and stiffen.

“Who are you? Where am I?” Maddy looked around the…area. It wasn’t a room, she was sure of that, but a void. There was no color here, just white and the air felt, not heavy really but old. It was like a room shut up for a very long time, allowing no air exchange.

“Why, you’ve come to me, to your home. I’ve been waiting, yesss, yesss I have. You ssshould not have gone. No, no not gone from me. I have plansss for you. Plansss for you and me. We will be together for all timesss. You musst come to me. ” 

He or it sounded as though it was male. She didn’t know why she thought that but it felt right.

“I asked you a question. Where am I? What do you mean I’m home? I make my own plans, my life belongs to me and no one else, Understand me? This isn’t my home, I don’t know who you are and I demand that—”

She felt its anger hit her less than a second later. It scorched over her skin like a live flame, burning her flesh and hurting to the point of her wanting to scream.

“You will demand nothing. I will make demands. I will be obeyed. I am lord and master. You are mine and the sooner you remember that the better things will go for you. You’re an ungrateful bitch.” 

It screamed through her head even as she woke up. The sound felt as though it was tearing its way into her memory, into her brain. The scream was just dying on her lips when she realized that someone was pounding on her door and yelling at her to open up. 

Heart still pounding and head hurting, Maddy stumbled her way to her door. Taking off the two chains and thumbing the deadbolt took some work because she just couldn’t get her mind to work around making her body work. When it finally opened Marcie from down the hall tumbled in.

“Oh god girlfriend, are you ok? I mean that was some wicket screaming you was a piping out there. Scared the shits right outta me and Frank, and we was right in the middle of doing the nasty. Oh girl you look like a dead cat, maybe you should, I don’t know take a couple of pills and chill awhile. I gots me some downer’s I can share witch ya. No charge, you know what I mean? You my homey.” Sometimes, like right now, Maddy felt as if she needed a translator when talking with Marcie.

She was an odd girl to begin with, but seeing her made her oddity seem normal for her. Marcie’s hair was bright, bright green with varying strips of neon colors throughout it. Her clothes, when she was wearing any, thank goodness now was one of those times, were a mishmash of dots and stripes, plaids and patch. She tended to carry an extra thirty pounds of munchies weight and did more coke than any three people Maddy knew.

“No thanks, but I do think I’ll go take a shower. Tell Frank I said I was sorry for interr…for umm, well tell Frank I’m sorry.”

Maddy felt her face heat up. It’s not that she meant to, but a sudden picture of Frank and Marcie doing the nasty filtered through her head at that moment and she felt embarrassed and slightly sick.

Maddy gathered up her cleaning supplies, toiletries and clothes and shuffled down to the shower. She always cleaned the shower stall before she entered it, sharing a bathroom with ten other people wasn’t the most sanitary place on earth. Then she stripped down and stepped under the hot spray. When she reached her hands up over her head to wash then rinse her hair she felt a tightening in her left shoulder. She thought she must have pulled something moving that keg to the back, she thought.

“Stupid girl, whatcha thinking moving something that weighs that much without help, you trying to kill you?’ She smiled. She hadn’t spoken to herself in a couple of days and was beginning to believe she might be sane, “can’t have that now can we?”

By the time she was dressed and had cleaned up her bed, nightmares had a messy aftermath on sheets it seemed, and ate it was nearly six o’clock in the evening. She decided to go by a fast food restaurant and treat herself to a quick but satisfying dinner before going to…she wasn’t sure what this was, but meeting sufficed for now. At seven forty-seven she was pulling into the MacManus driveway. And she’d only had to look at her map twice and only got lost once.

“You go girl,” she congratulated herself. Pushing the buzzer with a bright smile, she looked up into the security camera and waved when she hear the mike picked up at the other end.

“Hey Mr. Duncan, it’s Madison Harm, I have an appointment at eight o’clock.” She was beaming at the camera.

“It’s Kyle, Madison, Dunc is busy, but come on up.” Her mood went from buoyant to crappy just like that.

“I don’t know why he’s friggin here, stupid arrogant jerk. Just what I need, another vampire in the mix. Stupid bloodsuckers.” She was in a fine snit as she circled the drive in front of the garage.

By the time she was out of her car and had gathered up her things, she had just about convinced herself that her entire bad luck lately was solely his fault. Her vocabulary had improved, exponentially.

“Thank you very much Master Kyle. And you’d better watch your step if you know what’s good for you.” This might have been delivered a tad too late to herself as she was pretty sure the man in question had heard it.

“I’m sure you’ll get a chance to try it out on me throughout the night Miss Madison. You do seem to bring out the best in me.” The man was insufferable and a pig and was thinking that someone needed to take him down a peg or two. Well she was just going to ignore him.

She was surprised when he leaned in, it was as if he couldn’t help himself; he needed a fix of her, a deep breath of her scent. Leaning in, he nuzzled her neck and inhaled deeply and licked her throat. He pulled back from her with a frown.

“What have you been doing today? Burning dinner?”

What a thing to ask, did he not have one lick of manners.

“You keep your nose to yourself and…and everything else too, and no I haven’t been burning dinner. I don’t even know how to cook. Burning dinner indeed. What are you doing here anyway, you’re leaving soon I hope.”

When he had put his face into her shoulder it was everything she could do not to pull his head in tighter. And his tongue, it had taken nearly ounce of her willpower not to let her eyes cross it had felt that good. Wow but the man had sexy down to an art. She turned away from him and headed in the direction he had pointed.

Chapter Twelve

Kyle decided that she was only there to drive him mad. And the sooner she had her meeting the better it would be on his peace of mind. 

He could smell her arousal now, it was deep and heady. If he didn’t keep her pissed off at him for the rest of the night, there wasn’t going to be a meeting, at least not between the five of them, but her and him meeting the silk sheets on his bed he thought. 

Kyle had been in a semi erect state since he’d met her, especially after the other night in his bed when she’d gotten up and had walked around his room naked. It was all he could do to make it two hours without having to go and jerk off just thinking about that luscious body of hers, those full breasts, tasty nipples and that ass. Christ, an ass a man could get lost in for hours. And he wanted to, he wanted to bury himself deep in her heat and lose himself. He was hurting, his cock was hard and hurting, and there was no time to take care of it. He wasn’t going to make it, with his hard-on and her scent; he just wasn’t going to make it. His best defense tonight was to piss her off and piss her off royally.

“Kyle, are you bringing her in here, or should we give you two a few minutes
?” Great just what he needed, Aaron tapping into him and his dilemma, and thinking it was funny too.

“Fuck you, you obnoxious prick,”
he snapped back.
“She’s aroused. What am I suppose to do, throw her against the wall and have at it? I would like to think I have better manners than that.” H
e would hope so too, but now that he’d thought about it, slamming her against the nearest wall did sound good.

“Hummm, I believe Sara and I might have used the pew there in the entrance hall once or twice. You might want to be on the top though; it’s not quite wide enough for you. Unless of course she’s riding you, then all sorts of possibilities can arise.” A
aron was enjoying himself, Kyle could tell. He wanted Kyle to mate with Maddy and soon he’d told him just before she’d gotten there. He’d told him he didn’t know why but felt that it was imperative that Kyle did so.

“Jesus, that’s an image I could have done without. Your old, naked body writhing around with that delicious piece of fine flesh like my Sara…it must have been a pity fuck.”

Maddy, unaware of the sexual banter between Aaron and Kyle walked into the salon just ahead of Kyle. And just as he’d said, there were Colin and Bradley with Mr. MacManus.

“Have a seat Maddy, we’re about to become very wealthy.”

~~~

“The four of us, Bradley, Kyle, Colin and myself are going into business together and you are going to be our lawyer. We each are going to invest a predetermined dollar amount then buy the buildings and convert them into what we need. It will be a four way split, equal shares equal investments.”

The men had been going over plans since they arose and Bradley showed up. Aaron had made notes and was referring to them now as he gave Maddy the barest of bones of what they had discussed.

“Whoa there cowboy. Don’t put the horse before the cart. What buildings? The one’s on Merchant Way?” Aaron nodded, impressed with her ability to work it out so quickly. “I suppose you could get them cheap enough, provided that no one gets wind of what you’re doing. Once word gets out that a group of businessmen are buying up properties in an area, the price could sky rocket. Or worse yet a couple of wanna be entrepreneurs go in and buy one or two and fuck you royal when you need that particular site to finish a project. How many building are you thinking?”

He looked down at his sheet of notes. “How many are there?”

“There are nineteen warehouses and six store fronts. There are also a couple of strip malls, but they need to be torn down. They’re all too small and very out of date. Along the outer edge of the area is an apartment building. I think some homeless people have taken over that building. That will need to come down as well, bad investment in the long run trying to get them to move out.” Aaron was impressed again by her. She knew not only which buildings were viable to them and which needed to be rehabbed.

“All of them then. We want to keep control of the area and be able to decide what goes in and what doesn’t. Is that possible, buying them all I mean?”

Aaron like Bradley thought the purchase of all of the buildings was risky, but smart in the long run and had helped him convince the other two. Now they just needed to bring Maddy on board.

“All…shit all of them!! That’ll be twenty to thirty buildings and property. Let’s see,” Maddy pulled out her lap top and began making notes on a sticky note that was stuck under the key board. “With taxes and asking price alone, you’re talking seventy three million. If we could keep this quite until the end, you could probably get them for about forty, fifty million tops. Then the rework on them, which could cost as much if not more…What is it you’re planning if you don’t mind my asking?”

“You’ll need to know,” Colin said with a smile. “We’ll need permits to open and liquor licenses. We want to open a vampire/were bar.” 

Colin leaned back in his seat. Now is when Aaron had figured she’d shoot them down. They all had their notes; each one ready with a counter argument to meet with what they were sure would be all in the vein of talking them out of this venture, or at least he hoped they did.

“And the other buildings, they’d be what?” She was stalling, Aaron could tell, she wasn’t sure what or even if there was a precedent for this kind of business, but she needed to think before she spoke. Always a good idea as an attorney he figured and liked her even more for not saying the first thing on her mind.

“Several of the warehouses would be converted into apartments, or lairs depending on the needs. The malls, as you said will be demolished. The apartment building we hadn’t considered the need to tear it down as well, but I can see your point in that.” Aaron made a note on his paper before he continued. “We also thought to add health care facilities, such as medical and long term stay. While our kind heals quickly, the need to recuperate over time is sometimes needed. Also a teaching facility, it’s a problem for some of us to blend readily into the human world and a way for us to work with some of the slang and terms would be beneficial.” Aaron was thinking of Duncan and his constant misuse of the slang, although it made him seem more human somehow.

“Are you talking total segregation? I don’t see how that will work unless you plan to put up a bubble around the area. You’ll need to go very main stream if this is what you really want. People, humans as you call us will want to be a part of it just because you didn’t want them to. Blood will need to be made readily available, as will medical supplies whatever those might be. No offense, but if you’re talking werewolves you’d need to hire a vet, right?”

“No, we are animals but we have specialized doctors as well,” Bradley told her with a smile. “And none taken, you’re doing very well for someone whose know about us for what, about twenty-four hours. You haven’t freaked out once.” 

Aaron liked that she didn’t pull back when she spoke; she was as natural as they came.

“If you stay non-fury, I’ll be fine. By the way, the other day at the office, what did you do to Schaller?” They could all hear her nervousness now. “I’m assuming now that you must have scared him somehow, what was it, did you swish your tail or something? I had thought about that in one of my random walks through the whole ‘vampire, werewolf, necromancer, oh my’ journey’s, sung to the tune of that Disney song, you know the one.”

“Would you like to see, I’ve been dying to show you the real me.” At her nod, Bradley dropped a little of his humanity. His eyes changed to a deep golden color from the beautiful baby blues and his canines dropped, his jaw elongating slightly. It all took less than two seconds.

“Fuck! Okay, don’t do that again. But now that I see it, I can see why he looked like he wanted to shit himself. I should have had you around when the paperboy tried to get frisky, sorry fresh.”

“What paperboy? Who is he?” Kyle went from semi comatose looking to jealous rage in less time than it took Bradley to change.

“Back off buck-o, I took care of him. Eventually. All right he’s still a bother, but he’s only fourteen and I think he’ll get over me as soon as the girl next door gets her boobs. Mine will be too passé by then.” She tried to sound flippant, but it came off annoyed sounding.

“There is nothing passé about your breasts, they are perfect. I like them very much.” Kyle hadn’t meant to say anything Aaron thought and rolled his eyes at his friend. The words slipping out before his brain could think about who was in the room with them apparently.

The room grew perfect silent, the tension always there on the surface between them, bloomed to a palatable tangible thing. Aaron was amazed at the amount of sexual tension between the two of them.

“Madison, I’m s…” He started to apologize to her and then stopped suddenly. The look she was giving him made Aaron think she was seriously contemplating taking a silver knife to his throat or better yet to his dick. Aaron was hard pressed not to burst out laughing.

“What do you think, can we pull it off?” Changing the subject and the atmosphere was needed and lame as it was, if this was the best that Colin could come up and do the trick, Aaron would have to remember to thank him later.

“I’ll need to get started soon. Hummm…let’s see.” She rubbed her forehead. “I guess we should talk time frame and such, but I’ve got to tell you I’m whipped. I can get you some information and drop it off here sometime tomorrow afternoon. Then we can set up another time if my notes warrant it. Or if you decide that I’ve given you enough information to start, I can make some contacts. I have a good reputation and not above exploiting it.” Maddy was making more notes as she spoke.

“Why don’t we just set up tomorrow night and meet then? I’m sure we will all have questions, I know I probably will.” Colin said again.

“No, I have another job. I can’t miss too much work. As it is I’ve only just started working there full time and I don’t want to screw it up for me. I need the money.” She stood to go, gathering her things she didn’t notice the look shared between the four men.

“No, you’re working enough now. Just working for us and Schaller firm should take up enough of your time as it is. If you need money, I’ll give it to you. In fact, I’ll pay your rent as well; tell me who to see about setting it up.” Kyle was poised to take notes and do just what he’d proposed. Aaron thought about helping him but decided the only way some people were to learn was to have it beaten into their heads.

“Fuck Kyle, do you have a fucking death warrant?” Though Bradley had said it low, Maddy still heard him.

“Yeah Kyle, do you?” She advanced on him, like a steam roller Aaron thought, a beautiful mad steamroller. “What makes you think you have any rights whatsoever to tell me what I can and cannot do? And pay my rent, my rent? I’ll have you know that I’ve been taking care of my own bills for quite some time now, and I don’t need some big man to take care of me. Why all the nerve, I should…I should…grrr, I should just kick your nuts up to around your eyeballs and be done with it.” She had him backed against the wall and was poking her finger in his chest with each word.

Aaron glanced around the room and noticed that they all but him had abandoned ship, leaving poor Kyle to sink or swim on his own.

When Kyle lifted his hand and gently caressed his finger down her cheek, Aaron wanted to applaud for him. Aaron heard her breath caught. Kyle slowly slid his hand and cupped the back of her head and drew her to him, to his body and his mouth. Aaron was just standing to leave when he heard Kyle say something he was sure was going to get him staked yet.

“Madison, I’ve dreamed of this, of tasting you. I want you, I want you so bad. This is what gives me the right, love; this is why I’ll do this.”

He watched Kyle stiffen. Then the man simply fell to the floor, holding his nuts like they were a lifeline. Aaron didn’t move, he wasn’t stupid. A pissed off woman sometimes didn’t care who was in her way when she wanted to leave and he didn’t want to ‘poke the bear’ as he’d heard said before.

When she stormed past him without a word, he remained there until he heard the front door close with a bang. Walking over to Kyle he looked down at the man.

“Will you ever learn? I’m beginning to think you won’t.” Aaron leaned over and picked his friend up. “Come on old boy. Let me get you to bed before sunrise fires you.”

“Aaron,” Kyle groaned. “I fucking hate you.”

Aaron laughed all the way to the sub levels where he dropped Kyle on his bed and laughed all the way to his own room that he shared with his lovely Sara. Yes, Aaron thought, this was going to be a great deal of fun.