Fury From Hell (11 page)

While some women liked to carry their Rabbits with them, on a big night out, Jennifer preferred to carry a weapon, or two.  Jennifer took out her gun case and looked over the selections.  She was about to pick up her Glock when the Fury put the image of the stolen gun in her mind.  Jennifer’s fingers immediately grasped instead the .38 squelching the feeling of dread.  She slid it into her holster and replaced her gun case and moved over to the safe.  After keying in her code she plucked out the right bullets and loaded the gun she knew she should throw away.

Feeling the thrill as always, Jennifer grinned as she looked at herself in the mirror.  The wide pant leg hid the holster completely.

Jennifer exited her bedroom and grabbed her lottery ticket, badge, ID and her keys along with some cash from her work bag.  She also plucked out her MetroCard.  She stuffed all of the items in her little black clutch.  She wasn’t sure how her phone would get in but she shoved until the bag snapped shut bulging rather unpleasantly.

She jogged back into the bedroom and took one last look at herself in the mirror.  She turned first to the left and then to the right.  Her slim physique actually suited the long flowing pants and the shimmering top that molded beautifully against her slight curves giving her the appearance being more voluptuous because it was so fitted.  She nodded.

This will have to do.

She went to the hall closed and pulled out some funky boots with a thick heel and a leather jacket with silver studs.  Jennifer refused to check out her finished look because she knew she had just blown the classy look she was going for.  All she needed now was a studded leather collar and her upscale Goth look would be complete.  With a snort, Jennifer shook her head and headed out the door.

However, the Fury smiled at the thought of a studded collar and memorized the image so it could influence the host to buy one in the coming days.  The Fury believed the studded collar would make a delightful addition to the host’s wardrobe especially for the upcoming dinner with the Chad male.

***

Friday, November 9
^th
, 10:30 P.M.

The dings, bells and electronic sounds of money falling into greedy sweaty hands greeted Jennifer as she walked onto the main floor of Resorts World Casino.  The short forty minute ride on the “A” train didn’t dampen her spirits in spite of the wino, and the three homeless people. She had to run through five train cars to find a car free from the cheesy moldy garbage-y stink funk that is the pervasive stamp of New York City homeless smell.  In fact, the ride gave her some much needed time to think about things other than the Barnes case which had very rarely strayed from her mind in the past few days.

She knew she was on to something with the other four look-alike murders; she just didn’t know how to go about digging into those investigations without ruffling feathers.  In her experience, cops were like divas — they didn’t want people rooting around behind the scenes.  She wondered if that was because all cops were worried about not having done everything to the letter, or if they were just territorial.

Sighing, Jennifer shook herself out of her reverie and turned on her cop instincts.  She checked the crowd while simultaneously scanning for all of the exits.  She noticed a man who did not want to be noticed.  Naturally, she focused on him and drifted in his general vicinity.  She noted that his dark shades hid his eyes but not his expression.  He was losing…badly.  His body language betrayed it.  She smirked.

Jennifer walked past him and noticed that his hair was slightly odd; it was a wig or hairpiece of some kind.  The dark jogging pants and matching zippered velour jacket were nondescript but screamed of money.  It was in the tailoring.  The seams were perfect and almost invisible in the deep emerald green fabric.  The soft looking velour flowed into the wide-ribbed cuffs around the man’s wrists and ankles.  Pinned through the velour cuffs were gold cufflinks that had a moon and star etched into the precious metal with diamonds embedded in each cufflink.

Who the hell wears diamond cufflinks on a velour jogging suit?
 
Nut job!

She was already on the other side of the room and looking elsewhere with her head and eyes but in her mind’s eye, she was reviewing her glimpse of Mr. Incognito Moneybags.  Jennifer wondered who he was but in a casino, anyone could be someone with a pull of a lever.  Moneybags could have just won it big and bought the expensive jogging suit in one of the casino shops.  She pursed her lips and enjoyed her little mental game of identifying Mr. Moneybags.

Just then, a woman came up to him and kissed him on the cheek.  He squeezed the striking brunette and smiled up at her.  Her clothes reeked of money even more than his did.  Her hair was in the latest layered bob and was perfectly trimmed.  The tiny mole above her lip on the left side seemed real from this distance but Jennifer couldn’t tell.

Focusing next on the huge rock on the brunette’s right hand, Jennifer was impressed not just by its size but also by its color.  It was the palest shade of yellow Jennifer had ever seen.  Jennifer wished she was more like Babs and could tell one designer nick-knack from another just by eyeballing them.  But she knew the rock was a diamond — only diamonds could shimmer and shine like that under the myriad of casino lights.  Jennifer wondered if the rock and the cufflinks came from the same place.  Mr. Moneybags withdrew his card from the machine and walked off with the pampered woman who looked as if she were purring up at him.  He lapped it up like a cat with fresh cream and they disappeared into the crowd.

Realizing she was there for a reason other than being a voyeur, she sought out what she came for.  She found it in the form of the cashier in the casino hall on the right side of the entrance.

The line was short; the winning lottery ticket was quickly converted into cash.  With the money tucked away in her now overfull clutch Jennifer roamed the large bustling beeping and dinging room seeking a video slot machine that would make her happy and spit out more money.  She didn’t notice him until he was right next to her.

“Casing the joint?  Or, just looking for me?”

Jennifer stiffened and the Fury came forward.  Neither one of them felt threatened by the man.

Jennifer didn’t turn around but answered with a slight drawl, “If I was looking for you, I’d have found you already.”

She walked off with her pants swaying in the climate-controlled cold air of the casino trying to ignore the dizzying carpet.  The swirling clownish colors did a number on her retinas but it didn’t seem to be offending anyone else; they were gambling blithely.

Knowing the man was following the host, Abatu infused Jennifer with a burst of sensuality.  The demon began working on the host’s long-dead libido to try and revive it before the night grew too old.

“Let me buy you a drink,” he said when she stopped at a promising looking machine.

Jennifer took her first glance at him, blinked and went coquettish.  He was a big blonde and
Matthew McConaughey
gorgeous. 

Two burly blondes in as many days?  What are the chances?

“If I let you, what will you let
me
do?”

A wide mischievous smile enlivened his already perfect heart-shaped face.

“Hmm…what would you like for me to do is the real question.”

Jennifer realized she was flirting and standing dangerously close to a complete and total stranger.  The panic crackled.

The demon went to work immediately and blocked the emotion’s path.  Abatu ignored its earlier decision to go slow and manipulated the host mercilessly because it wanted this man!

Almost as soon as Jennifer realized she was frightened, the emotion dissipated. All that was left was a rise in her body temperature, a wetness that she hadn’t felt in years and a great big lump in her throat.  Jennifer batted her eyes at him, pursed her lips and asked him to bring her a soft woman’s drink.

“A Lemon Gingerini will partially quench my thirst… I’ll be right here when you get back.”  She slid into the chair in front of her chosen video slot machine.  As delicately as she could, she wrestled a twenty out of her overfull clutch and slid it into the machine.  Looking up, she caught sight of him just as he disappeared hurrying through the crowd towards Bar 360
⁰
.  Jennifer felt like bolting for the door.  She had done what she came for and was now just wasting time — and money.  Being in the casino with all the money she had on her was making her hot and itchy.  She had two divergent urges.  The first one was to put all of the money in the nearest machine, which warred with the urge to put it all in the bank and allow it to accrue interest at a regular predictable rate.  This tidy sum would take her savings balance over $100,000.  The very thought made her giddy.  Each dollar brought her ever closer to permanent stability and the capacity to carry a mortgage by herself.  She shivered from the thrum of excitement that thought brought on.  But, she was still sitting in front of a slot machine and there was still $15 left…

Jennifer wanted the wanton desire for quick easy money to go away yet all the while it was being tempered by the frugal and austerity of a woman who only shopped when things had more than 2 gaping holes in them.  The war escalated but the beeping and dinging was too strong — she pulled the lever and watched the reels spin.

Trying not to breathe until the reels came to a stop she vaguely realized her ridiculous predicament.  Here she was dressed in her best finery, had a man on the hook yet she was still battling her addiction.  She was still looking for an escape into something that was no longer comforting, nor nourishing any longer.  Jennifer knew she should be happy.  At her age, Jennifer knew that never having had sex of her own free will was a major stumbling block one she refused to mention to Chad.

No sex?  Now that’s a deal-breaker.

She grimaced as the right reel stopped on a heart.  The left reel was slowing down and the middle reel was still spinning at a good clip.

Never having had a boyfriend was also a tad peculiar.  But now, having two manly prospects in two days?  Both of them made her think of doing the unthinkable and engaging in an act that she no longer had a name for.

The left reel stopped on a nine and the middle reel slowed down and stopped in between a heart and a deuce.

She bit her lip and wondered if she dared.  Taking a deep breath she pressed the maximum bet line and watched the video reels spin.

Would I dare to sleep with a man I just met?  What if he gives me some STD?  What if I get herpes and break out for the rest of my life when I stress?!

The Fury stepped in and sent the host a thought.

>>What if I just let go of the past, since it can’t hurt me anymore, and let in someone new?  What if now, I can protect myself — ward off anything bad?  What if the men coming into my life now want to make me…
happy?
<<

The foreign thought crept around Jennifer’s mind for many long moments.  She tried to pull it apart three ways from Sunday but the heavy truth of it wouldn’t leave her.  Jennifer knew it was time for the new.  Life didn’t have to be one big protective cocoon that enveloped her in a fake safe environment that she had to keep uninhabited and sterile.  One look around the casino showed Jennifer that there was more to life than scratch-off games, lottery systems and mind-numbing work.

Fury Abatu saw a chink in Jennifer’s armor and pressed some more.

>>Sure the money from the job keeps me alive and in a decent neighborhood but isn’t there more to life.<<

Jennifer glanced at the monitor.  The reels didn’t bring a win. She tapped the screen again watching the reels spin as her mind traveled to a new possibility.

>>
What would happen if I actually had a boyfriend and we — got married?<<

The stunning thought rocked Jennifer to the core.  Up until this moment, the idea of marriage was not an option.  If she wouldn’t share her body with a man why would a man want to share his life with her?

Shaking herself, she glanced up and saw that her Matthew McConaughey look alike was on his way back.

Abatu nudged Jennifer’s dulled pulse of excitement and pushed harder when it realized that Jennifer was getting ready to bolt.  The demon grunted with the effort of infusing an inordinate amount of excitement and sensuality into Jennifer.  When this seduction was all done, Abatu knew it was absolutely going to need every last drop of the big blonde’s blood.

“You look like you were about to leave,” he said, smiling.  “I’m glad you didn’t.  The line was long at the bar and I don’t think I could drink anything named
Gingerini
.” He handed her the drink with a slight grimace.

Jennifer took the highball glass and murmured her thanks.  She began to sip as she scanned the room, conscious of her ankle holster, all of a sudden but its proximity made her feel secure. She noticed Mr. Moneybags was leaving the casino with the stunning woman.  They were headed towards the main entrance.  She glanced at her watch.  Eleven-thirty.  It was still relatively early.  She wondered where he was going while noticing a shifty-eyed Goodfella following close behind the pair.  With a soft snort, she shook her head and wondered why she even cared.

She glanced back at the man who was patiently waiting for her to reply.  She had been looking around through her lashes so he hadn’t noticed she had been tracking the wealthy man.  He cleared his throat and she glanced up at him as she tapped the screen again and watched the reels spin.  She glanced back at Mr. Moneybags and caught only the woman elegantly stepping through the casino doors as she disappeared into the night.

“Hey, you won a thousand dollars!”

She glanced quickly back at the screen and saw the flashing amount.  It then clicked that the dinging bells were on
her
machine.  She smiled up at him and than focused back on the machine.