Forbidden Desire

“Where’s Steve?” Paul pointed over his shoulder back at the house before turning to lead me inside.

“He’s still listening, but I recorded everything for you to hear when you got here.”

I said a quick hello to his parents, who always look like something out of a Rockwell painting before making my way up the stairs to Paul’s room where he had all the spy shit I’d bought set up and already in use. There was an old fashioned recorder hooked up to a specialized computer along with various innocent-looking office supplies that were, in fact, high-grade listening devices and other spyware I’d bought in the last week or so.

Once I decided to go after Sherry, this is the route I’d decided to take. I didn’t only tap into her phone to read her past shit; I was now able to see everything in real-time. Because I didn’t trust her parents to do the right thing, my visit to her dad had been twofold. While threatening him and his daughter, I’d taken the time to add a little something under his desk that Paul was now using to record any conversation that took place in that room.

The frequency was so good, though, that it could pick up anything from a good three thousand square feet, which was just a little smaller range than their whole house. I couldn’t do this shit at home, too much traffic, plus Paul’s ass doesn’t have anything better to do. Add the fact he’s nosy as hell, and it’s a win-win.

Steve was sitting at one of the chairs behind the built-in desk that ran along one whole wall of Paul’s playroom; shit’s been the same since we were like twelve, blue walls, white built-in shelves that ran around three sides of the room and a desk that ran along one whole wall which was perfect for my setup.

“How did you know she was going to call Kevin?”

“Because these people all seem to read the same idiot playbook, let me hear what they talked about.” Paul rewound an earlier recording while Steve had headphones on listening to what was going on inside Sherry’s home at this every moment.

“Anything happening with that?” I inclined my head in Steve’s direction before putting on a pair of headphones of my own.

“He hasn’t said anything in a while, but we’re recording so you won’t miss anything.” I nodded and put on the headphones to listen.

I haven’t seen or heard anything from Kevin since I beat his ass, and I was hoping that he’d take his licks and move the hell on, but now I listened as Sherry tried to convince him that he needed to take revenge against Lora and I for fucking up his life. Yeah, because he didn’t do shit wrong to bring that shit on himself.

The fact that he was eating it up just solidified the fact that he’s a Grade-A fuckwad. I was already thinking of what I was going to do to him when Steve waved his hands to get my attention. I removed the headphones and looked at him as he was all but ready to jump out of his seat with excitement.

“Listen-listen.” He removed the headphones from the device, and voices filled the air. I recognized Roger’s voice right away, and then his wife’s followed by Sherry’s. “Don’t you understand, you’re already in enough trouble as it is. I can’t help you this time if you refuse to help yourself. What do you mean by getting in touch with that boy? You should be staying as far away from him as possible.”

“Why were you listening in to my conversation? That’s an invasion of my privacy.”

“Sherry, that’s not what’s important right now. Your dad and I are doing all we can to keep you out of jail or some kind of institution. It’s not like before…”

“Just pay them off the way you always do, you’ve got the money.”

“It’s not about that this time. These kids are from very well to do families, some of them more prominent than ours. There’s already a petition to have you expelled permanently from the school district and threats of having you arrested for intent. I checked the girl who’s leading the petition is not one to back down, and I’m pretty sure she can’t be bought, trust me, I looked.”

“Well, dad, you’d better come up with an idea unless you want your precious reputation in the business world to be tarnished?” There was no hint of remorse in her voice and from the conversation that followed between her parents soon after it was obvious that she’d left the room.

“What a piece of work.”

“What do you want to do first?”

“Get me a copy of the recording of her and Kevin.” I knew his dad was already over him and was looking for any excuse to kick him out of his house. This, colluding with someone else to attack the girl he’d almost violated, should be just the thing he needed to make that final call.