Emily Kimelman - Sydney Rye 03 - Insatiable (17 page)

Jimmy’s house was not what I expected. His storm shutters were thrown open to reveal screened windows. We climbed out of the Jeep and Jimmy asked to have his hands untied. I refused. His door was unlocked and I walked into a breezy open room. The front wall was all screen doors that lead out to a balcony with a stunning view of the ocean.

A small, galley style kitchen to my right was tidy and clean. It was separated from the living room by a counter with enough room for two to eat. To my left a hallway led to two bedrooms. One with a queen bed unmade, but the room was clean besides that. The next room was an office. Jimmy had a computer, two guitars, and a pull-out couch. Posters of boxers covered the walls.

“Jimmy, this place is nice,” I said.

“Yeah,” Dan said. “I like it.”

“Nice view,” Easy said from the porch.

“Thanks,” Jimmy said, trying to hide a smile.

“All right,” I said, turning to my people. “Dan, I want you to send an email to whoever hired Jimmy saying that he caught me and wants to arrange a meet. Also, if you can break into the account so we can see what we will see.”

Dan nodded. “I’ll set up in the office,” he said.

“Great, Ana Maria, I need you to call Izel and give her the number here. Find out what Blane is doing.”

Ana Maria went to a phone hanging on Jimmy’s wall and started dialing.

“What can I do?” Easy asked.

“Go lie down,” I said. She started to protest but I shook my head. “Easy, you got knocked out today. Take it easy, please, for me.”

She smiled. “Fine.”

“Thank you. Take Jimmy’s bedroom.”

Ana Maria motioned for me to come to the phone. “Izel wants to talk to you.”

I crossed the room and took the receiver. “Yes?”

“I followed Blane to the airport. He boarded a flight for Miami.”

I bit my lip thinking, he must be on his way to the Caribbean. “What kind of luggage did he have?” I asked.

There was a pause on the other end of the line. “I think just a briefcase. I do not think he checked any luggage.”

“OK, thanks. Good work. Take the rest of the night off. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

I hung up and then turning back to the room saw that the sun was setting. A gorgeous orange glow filled the room. Jimmy was looking at it with a peaceful smile on his face. Strange guy, I thought.

DISRUPT, CORRUPT, OR INTERRUPT

That night I couldn’t sleep. And it wasn’t just because I was sleeping on the couch in Jimmy’s living room. I couldn’t slow down my mind. It felt like a live electric wire ran along my spine. I got up, threw my blanket to the floor, and scrounged around in the kitchen until I found a bottle of whiskey. I filled a glass and headed out to the balcony.

A huge moon lit up the water with a bright, white stripe. I sipped at the whiskey, enjoying the sting with the sweet. The door creaked behind me and Dan stepped to my side. “Couldn’t sleep?” he asked.

“Restless, I guess. You?”

He shrugged. “I’m a night owl.”

“Whiskey?” I asked, offering my glass.

He took it and sipped then handed the drink back. A breeze blew rustling the palm trees and raising goosebumps on my flesh. “You cold?” Dan asked. He moved closer to me so that our hips touched. Placing his arm around me, he squeezed. Dan leaned over and kissed the top of my head. I rested against his chest and listened to his heartbeat. It picked up pace when I slipped my arm around his waist.

“What is it about you and balconies?” he asked. I looked up at him. Dan’s eyes glowed in the harsh moonlight. “That makes you so damn irresistible.”

He ran his thumb against my cheek, smiling down at me. I blushed and felt his touch like a burning coal against my skin, rough and hot. Dan leaned down and kissed me on the lips, gently, almost chastely. He moved down to my neck, opening his mouth and kissing me deeply. I looked out at the ocean’s vastness and felt grounded by the kisses Dan was laying on me.

His hands ran up and down my back, using their strength to pull me closer to him. My dress strap slipped off my shoulder exposing my breast. Dan took the whiskey glass out of my hand and finished it looking at me in the moonlight. I felt my nipples hardening under his gaze. Dan placed the empty glass on the balcony railing then leaned over and kissed my breast, softly, slowly. I shuddered with pleasure. Dropping to his knees, Dan took my dress with him. It fell to the balcony floor without protest.

I ran my fingers through his hair and then pulled him back to his feet. I fumbled at his T-shirt and pulled it over his head. Dan’s skin felt soft and silky against mine. His chest was lean and sculpted.

Dan unbuttoned his jeans and they dropped to the balcony floor next to my dress. Urgent now, Dan kissed me like if we stopped something disastrous would happen. I wrapped a leg around him and he followed my cue picking me up off the ground. Both my legs wrapped around him, Dan turned and leaned me against the building.

He caught my eyes as he breathed heavily, our noses almost touching, his fingers hooked into the waistband of my panties. He tried to say something but I stopped him, pressing my lips against his. Dan didn’t try to ask for permission again.

I woke in the morning feeling rested for the first time in a long time. I blinked and looked around Jimmy’s office, light filtered through dark curtains casting a slate grey onto the room. The posters of the boxers in their ring-day finery, gloves up, eyes mean, seemed to be watching me.

Rolling over I found my dress laid over a chair. Dan must have brought it in, I thought, a smile pulling at my lips. I heard the clinking of cups and then the scent of coffee reached me. Slipping the dress on, I headed out to the living room.

Easy looked up from a cup of coffee she was pouring and smiled at me. “Want one?” she asked.

“Thanks,” I said.

Dan was at the stove and he looked over his shoulder at me. His eyes searched my face and when I smiled at him, he grinned back. “Eggs?” he asked.

“Sounds great.” I took the cup Easy offered me and sat on one of the stools at the bar. Moments later, Dan spooned scrambled eggs onto a plate for me and Easy dropped a piece of toast next to it. “You guys are awesome,” I said, before digging in.

Ana Maria emerged from the room she’d shared with Easy while we were doing dishes. Dan offered to recreate our breakfast for her and she happily agreed. “Make enough for Jimmy, too,” I told him.

“Have you checked on him yet?” Ana Maria asked.

“No,” I said. “I’ll go get him now. I’m sure Blue needs a break.”

I headed to Jimmy’s garage, which he kept as neat as his house. Shelves lined with labeled boxes covered two walls. Against the third was an old couch, which Jimmy slept on, snoring up a storm. Blue looked over at me from where he lay on a jumble of towels.

“Good boy,” I said. Blue’s tail wagged as he came over to me, his head low and ears flat. I knelt down and pet his face, rubbing his ears. “What a very good boy.”

Jimmy stirred and blinked his eyes open. “Good morning,” I said. “Would you like some breakfast?”

He looked up at me with puffy, sleep filled eyes and nodded. After he’d eaten and enjoyed some coffee I sat down on one of the couches in the living room and sat Jimmy in a chair across from me.

“Jimmy, I need a gun.”

He looked up at me. “I don’t have a gun,” he said.

“I figured as much, hence the piece of wood.”

“That’s right.”

“But Jimmy, I’m guessing you know where I could get a gun.”

“I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head.

“I’ve read the paper. This island’s got quite a gun violence problem I can’t believe a guy who does bounty work wouldn’t know where to get a gun.”

“I don’t do so much bounty work. I just needed to make a little extra because my niece is getting married and I wanted to do something nice for her.”

“Jimmy, do you know how crazy that sounds?”

He pouted his lips and sat back in the chair. “I don’t care how it sounds. I don’t know nothin’ about guns.”

“All right.” I stood up. “Blue,” at the mention of Blue’s name, Jimmy sat up straighter. “Take his toes off.” Then I whistled one short burst.

“What!” Jimmy yelled. Blue does not have a command for taking people’s toes however, a single whistle tells him to act aggressively toward the person I’m talking with. Which he did. Jimmy started sweating and stood up. Easy came in off the porch and Dan looked at the scene from where he stood in the kitchen drinking a glass of water.

“Now Jimmy, if you just find me a gun or two I can stop him, but once he starts it becomes difficult.” Blue barked. Jimmy backed away from us. He knocked over a standing lamp, and turning back to look at it, he tripped. While he fell, he screamed. From the floor he started yelling, “I’ll do it, I’ll do it.”

“Great. Where’s your phone?” Blue stopped growling and went back to sniffing the house. Checking every crevice for evil, or a snack.

Jimmy was shaking as I helped him up. “That dog is scary.”

“I know, Jimmy, I know. Now listen,” he was still looking over at Blue so I held his chin and moved his face so he was looking at me. “I’m going to untie you so that you can make phone calls. Don’t do anything stupid.”

“OK.” Dan brought me a knife from the kitchen and I cut Jimmy loose. He rubbed at his wrists. They were red and for a second I felt bad about tying him so tight for so long. It only took one look at Easy to remember that this guy was not my friend. He might be stupid, he might have a nice house, but he was my enemy.

I watched as he dialed a number from a little black book he kept next to his phone. He put the book down and in the silence of the room I could hear the ringing on the other end of the line. It sounded like it was traveling through a tin can. I had a funny image of Jimmy in a tree house as a boy, but still with the mashed face, talking in a tin can with a string attached to it.

A voice broke into the middle of the fourth ring and Jimmy reacted. He sat up straight and went through the pleasantries that any phone conversation begins with. Then he asked about guns. Not in some special code or anything he just said. “Do you have any guns… yeah, I’ll need a couple.”

For some reason I was surprised. I’d thought that the illegal gun trade would be more along the lines of buying marijuana where you tell the dealer you’re looking for trees or a green dress or something totally stupid like that but Jimmy was just asking for guns.

“It’s for a friend,” he told the guy at the other end. “Yeah, I’ll bring her.” Then Jimmy laughed and said, “Not like that.” He hung up the phone and told me, “We’re all set.”

“You drive,” I said. He shrugged.

Jimmy pulled out of his drive way and headed back up the hill to the top of the island. We passed by the Home Depot again, the cows were gone. He didn’t take the turn off to town and soon we were in a neighborhood that made me glad I was carrying a straight razor and was riding with Blue.

Small houses lined the roads. Their wood sides chipped gray paint. Some of the roofs were blue tarps. “From the Hurricane,” Jimmy said. “It’s been ten years but the damage is still around. You see it all over the island.” Children pointed at Blue from the side of the road. He rode with his head poking out the side of the jeep, his ears flapping in the wind and his nose sniffing at the air.

We pulled off the road, through a ditch, and onto the muddy lawn of a shack that didn’t look much different than any of the others. A woman hung laundry on a line that ran from the porch to a nearby coconut tree. She looked over us, not bothering to stop her eyes on anything in particular. Her hair and her skin were the color of pure cocoa powder. Her dress was clean but worn. She could have been anywhere from 35 to 55.

Jimmy led the way inside. It was cool in the shade of the house. A small TV sat in the corner muted. Maury Povich spoke to a woman who was very young and crying very hard. He said something that made her scream and then a man came out on stage waving his hands in the air as the crowd yelled and clapped.

Maury’s show cast a blue light in the otherwise dark room. To my left a small kitchen filled an alcove. Sunlight peeked through the closed slats of the storm shutters. A man wearing shorts and an old grey T-shirt smoked at a table that breached the line of the kitchen into the sitting room. He was watching Maury.

He nodded at Jimmy and as Maury went to commercial (that cute teddy bear who bounces on clean towels), he turned his eyes to me. A smile pulled his cheeks up toward his ears revealing a gold tooth a couple from the center. “You didn’t say she was so pretty, man,” he said to Jimmy.

“She’s not,” Jimmy said. He pulled out one of the empty chairs at the table and sat down. Then the man saw Blue silently seated next to me. He pushed himself up and out of the chair, his eyes glued to Blue’s form.

“What the fuck is that?” he asked.

“A dog,” I answered, moving toward the only remaining chair at the table. Blue stayed on my heel.

The man put up his hands and knocked his chair over trying to back up. “I don’t like dogs, and I don’t like that.”

I took my seat and Blue sat next to me. “He won’t hurt you.” The man reached behind him, opened a drawer and pulled out a hand gun, swinging it around to aim at Blue. His hand was shaking. I smiled at him. “It still surprises me that so many people are so afraid of dogs.”