The Common Thread (15 page)

Katie offered an understanding smile of support along with a gentle squeeze of the knee. “So, this is why you don’t drink, huh?”

“This is why I don’t drink.”

“And how do you feel about what happened? How do you deal with it?”

Jet scratched her forehead and then quoted Katie. “I don’t think about it.”

Katie scooted over and rested her head against Jet’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, Jet. That’s a terrible burden to have to carry.”

“I think about it all the time.”

“Would it help if I tell you to forgive yourself? You were young, and stupid, and you made a mistake.”

Jet tilted her head so she could meet Katie’s eyes. “Would it help if I told you those things?”

Swallowing, Katie shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t know. But I suppose I could try. Could you?”

“I want to find his parents. To apologize. He was drunk, but so was I. And if I’d been sober, maybe I could have prevented the accident. Or perhaps it wouldn’t have been so severe.”

“If you need to do that, Jet, you should.”

“I’m too scared.”

“That you’ll go to jail?”

“No, just to face them. I basically lied back then.”

“Well, telling the truth can be healing. Maybe your wounds need a dose of that kind of medicine.”

“Do you think I’m a jerk?”

Katie shook her head and turned the corners of her mouth up in a soft smile. “You were a kid, Jet.”

“So were you, Katie. We both made mistakes. But if you can forgive me my past, I’ll forgive yours.”

“I can forgive you, Jet. I’m still trying to find a way to forgive myself.”

“Yeah, me, too.” Jet kissed her softly on the forehead, and Katie leaned into her, secure in the comfort of Jet’s arms, her heart aching over the sins they’d confessed. They stayed that way, for a long time, silent, and clung to each other.

Finally, Jet said, “Do you think you’re ready for bed, now? This trip down memory lane has exhausted me.”

“That, and it’s two a.m.” Katie had been drifting off, like she knew Jet had.

Jet pulled back, once again finding Katie’s gaze. “There’s that, too.” She pushed Katie from her lap, and then Katie reached down and pulled Jet to her full height. Jet looked down, the playful look replaced by a somber one. “In the morning, Katie, we’re calling the police.”

Katie looked up to meet her eyes. “We’ll see.”

Simon wasn’t sure what his next move was, but he
was
sure of something else—he had to go home. His wife had not been pleased at his decision to “work” tonight, and he’d been able to pacify her only with the promise that he’d conclude his business this evening at a reasonable hour. They’d been with her family at the beach for the weekend and gotten back so late on Sunday that he’d hardly had time to check on his various enterprises.

He feared losing the handle on his slippery, shadowy world. His employees were hardly trustworthy. Understanding his need to monitor things, she’d cut him some slack. He was, after all, a successful business owner, and if sacrificing time with him was the price she paid for the life of opulent luxury they shared, that seemed a reasonable request. For a few hours, anyway.

He’d planned to be home before midnight. Of course, that was before he’d gone to the bar and met Billy. That was before he’d killed him. That was before his trip to the hospital to kill Billy’s girlfriend and kidnap their children. He’d planned to make the rounds, check in with a few of his distributors, then stop to see Angelica for a couple of hours of passion. None of it had gone his way, though, and he was feeling each tick of the clock like a needle in his spine. His wife would note the hour he arrived at home and find some trivial way to make him pay.

Marriage had seemed like a grand idea at the time he’d proposed it to Heather. It was an opportunity, an intelligent business move to breathe life into the plans that were then still distant dreams. It hadn’t occurred to him there would be consequences—a woman who demanded explanations and children who demanded
everything
. With no model of comparison, having never known his own father and raised by a single mother, he’d had no idea the quagmire it would be, sucking from him the energy and time he wished to spend pursuing his own desires.

Yet his wife’s money had enabled his lifestyle, at least in the beginning, when he’d married her. His father-in-law was so impressed with Simon’s intelligence and abilities that he had, soon after the marriage, turned over total control of his enterprises to Simon, who hadn’t disappointed him. His business had grown tenfold under Simon’s hand, and they were all quite wealthy as a result—his father-in-law, who still owned half of the shares, and he and his wife, who controlled the other half.

His success allowed him the big house, the trips, the cars, the massages at the spa. He dined often at expensive restaurants, and had access to the best tickets to sporting events and concerts, too. He was living the dream, and it was almost as he’d always imagined. In his dreams he didn’t have to answer to the woman who shared his name, or to the three children who ran noisily around their house, stealing from him any chance of the peace and quiet a man could hope for in his home. In his fantasies, the woman beside him was Angelica and there were no children, for she shared his idea that children were far more enjoyable as nieces and nephews than sons and daughters.

Lately he’d grown restless, tired of the charade of dinner parties with his wife and weekends at the beach with his in-laws. He was eager to sever the ties to his family and stay with his lover on a permanent basis. Perhaps that was partly why he’d brazenly shot Billy and fired at Katie without first carefully planning the attacks. Perhaps that was why he hadn’t figured out that Billy was a snitch. Was his fatigue causing him to grow complacent and lose his edge? If that happened, he’d be a dead man. Better to get out now, while he still could.

He’d stashed away several million dollars, but he worried it wasn’t enough. They planned to live in the islands, and houses there were expensive. They’d need a boat. They had to eat, and buy clothing, and pay a staff. It would require a fortune to maintain the lifestyle he wanted—and Angelica expected.

Navigating the streets of the neighborhood where he was raised, he came to a complete stop when indicated and used his turn signals as well. He had no drugs in his car and legitimate reasons to be out and about, but he still worried. Generally he tried to avoid the law, but tonight, after what had happened at Katie’s apartment and at the hospital, he was even more concerned. He didn’t want anyone to suspect that he’d been anywhere near the Northeast on this night.

Katie had outsmarted him at the hospital, and Simon was disappointed in himself for allowing it. Angelica was right, of course, that Katie would go to her children. His own wife would have done the same. But he had underestimated both her haste to reach them and her own aversion to the authorities. Of course she’d have wanted to keep them out of foster care. He suspected she’d had experiences of her own in the system, and she’d chosen the streets as a better option. And of course she wouldn’t talk to the police. She had a record, and a man she was sleeping with was murdered in her house. She’d be the first one questioned. Had he thought about it more clearly, the drama of the evening would have had a much different ending.

She’d won this round, because of his haste and poor judgment. He wouldn’t make those same mistakes again.

Simon pulled his Ford into the well-lit underground garage at his office, found a place next to a big Lexus sedan, and parked. After locking the Ford, he placed the key on the front bumper. No one would steal his car here. Opening the door of the Lexus, he bent his tall frame into the vehicle and turned it on with the fob he’d left in the cup holder. He then backed up and exited the garage the same way he’d entered it.

After a few more blocks, he signaled another turn and maneuvered the powerful vehicle onto the entrance ramp, picking up speed in preparation to merge into the fast-moving traffic on Interstate 95. Even at this hour, all three lanes were busy, and he was careful to keep control of the car, which naturally tended to drive itself much faster than the law allowed.

In thirty minutes, he’d be safely parked in the six-car garage sitting beside the 10,000-square-foot home on his estate in Bucks County. Once in his den, he’d pour himself a drink and try to forget the evening. Then, he’d try to rest. Fortunately, he required very little sleep, and he’d spend a few requisite hours in his own bed before heading back to Angelica’s in the morning. He had no doubt he’d sort this mess out. He had no other choice.

Katie was exhausted, yet not a bit sleepy. The couch had been made up, and it would have been wise and appropriate for one of them to sleep on it, yet here they were, beside each other in Jet’s bed. They’d been in this position before, a few times, in fact, but that was different. Because then, Katie could have pretended she was just getting to know her friend. She could claim it was all innocent.

Now, she knew better. They’d declared words of love, she’d thoroughly explored her feelings, and they’d made a sort of commitment when they confessed their sins on Jet’s couch. They’d opened a door, and now all she had to do was walk through it. It didn’t have to be tonight, but she couldn’t sleep with the possibility lingering in the air.

She silently studied the room, cast in shadows by the bulb in the bathroom a dozen feet down the hall, trying to distract herself from the arousal that coursed through her. She lay on her side, with Jet behind her, enveloping her, igniting her with body heat, and suddenly the shirt that fit more like a dress seemed like too much clothing, for she was on fire.

Wiggling her toes to freedom, she escaped the sheet that covered her and kicked it aside. The cool air against her lower body did little to comfort her, though. The flow of Jet’s breath across her neck was like a breath of life, awakening every cell. Her pulse pounded in her ears, in her chest, between her legs. Her mouth grew dry as her pussy grew very, very wet. Giving voice to her feelings earlier had freed them, and now they wouldn’t go back into their box, where the tight lid of control had held them captive for months.

She should have been tired from nearly twenty-four hours without sleep, sad about the death of her children’s father, frightened that a killer had her in his crosshairs. Yet she was none of those things. She was simply, completely, overwhelmingly aroused.

Unable to harness the restless energy any longer, Katie quietly eased her legs off the bed and stood. No destination beckoned her; she only knew that she needed to do something, to move away from Jet, because the desire to roll over and pull her into her arms seemed more reasonable as the minutes of this early morning ticked by.

Before she could take a step away from source of her unrest, Jet called to her softly. “It’s going to be okay.”

Perhaps she was referring to Simon’s bullets, or to a life without Billy, or to a life with her. Or perhaps it was all of those things.

Katie turned and looked at her. Though the distant light was faded, Katie could still see her dark hair askew, the dark eyes fixed on her, the corners of her mouth turned up. As she dared to look further, Katie gasped to see the sight of Jet’s breasts nearly spilling over the top of the shirt that had twisted around her as she slept.

For a moment, as she chose her future, Katie grew completely still. Then, finally making her decision—or accepting the one she’d already made in the past weeks—she let go of the control she’d kept for so long and, reaching over, turned on the lamp that sat dark on the nightstand. Its warm glow illuminated Jet’s face, and Katie could see confusion there, replaced by delight as Katie crossed the room and locked the door.

Reaching for her hand, Jet pulled her back into bed, beside her. They lay facing each other, their noses an inch apart on the pillow as Katie stared into the darkness of Jet’s eyes, slowly tracing the length of her nose with a finger, finally reaching her smiling mouth. They barely touched, yet Katie gasped, sucking in air like a weight had been lifted, and in a way it had. She could truly breathe for the first time in a very long time.

Her senses were spinning yet she somehow heard Jet breathing just as heavily as she was, sucking in precious oxygen from the heavy air. As that same wayward finger slid across Jet’s lower lip, she kissed it, sucking it gently into her mouth. That invitation was all Katie needed, and she pulled the finger back, replacing it with her lips. This wasn’t a chaste, tender kiss, but a hungry one, and Katie set the pace.

She’d never wanted someone before and so had never taken the lead. Now, though, she couldn’t wait as she claimed Jet for her own.

Katie had never experienced the wonder of loving a woman. She hadn’t witnessed two women together on television or read about it in a book. Guided only by her own wild imaginings, she slid her cheek across the softness of Jet’s, dragged her lips along her neck, finding every touch electrifying and accompanied by murmurs of delight from the woman beneath her.

Pulling back, she paused to breathe and stared at Jet’s beautiful face, flushed now with the heat of the passion Katie knew she’d ignited. It was an erotic transformation, and she wondered if she looked the same—eyes hooded, pupils dilated, nostrils flared. She certainly felt as excited as Jet appeared to be, and suddenly it seemed important to Katie that she let Jet know it.

“I love you,” she said.

A smile exploded on Jet’s face before she answered with a voice dripping with desire. “I love you, too.”

“I’ve never felt this way before, Jet. I’ve never loved someone. I’ve never wanted someone.”

Jet’s smile grew. “It’s okay to want me. It may even be legal soon.”

Katie chuckled. The topic of gay marriage had been all over the news with the pending Supreme Court cases drawing national attention. They’d discussed it on more than one occasion, and it had been a hot topic at the clinic, where the fervor of one pious religious fanatic serving as both judge and jury had incited everyone to voice an opinion.