“Damn, Knox.” Jewell lay against his chest, breathing hard. “I missed you.”
Knox smiled, rolling her to his side. “You mean you missed my cock.” He lay on his side, pulling her to the curve of his body, grasping her breast and playing with her nipple.
“You want me to leave so you can get some sleep?” Jewell offered.
Jewell and Evie usually ended up sleeping most nights in either his or Rider’s bed.
“No, stay. I’m only going to take a cat nap. When I wake up, I plan to fuck you again.”
“Okay.” Knox dozed off with Jewel’s naked body close.
When he woke up, he would wake her for another round; this one more intense because he wouldn’t be tired. Jewel knew, which was why she hadn’t wanted to leave.
* * *
Diamond let herself into her apartment. Taking off her heels at the doorway, her feet sunk into the plush white carpet as she dropped her briefcase onto the table beside the door. Sighing, she went into her living room and plopped down onto her leather couch. The soft material felt good against her skin.
Thinking about Knox’s case, she put up her feet, relaxing as her mind played back the events that had led up to Samantha Bedford’s murder. Knox had said that she had driven by and seen his crashed bike. He was in a neighborhood that wasn’t well traveled, but it was used as a shortcut to a road that led out of town towards The Last Riders’ clubhouse. It explained why Knox was there, but why Sam?
Standing up to get her briefcase, she returned to the couch and began going through the information she had already gathered on Samantha.
That neighborhood had houses that were in the older part of town; cross-referencing her notes, she noticed Samantha’s grandmother, Mrs. Langley, lived not far from where Knox had crashed; her home was only a block away. Diamond got to her feet, fixing herself a quick meal which she ate while planning her next course of action. Making several phone calls, she sat up quite a few appointments for the next day.
Finally with her plans in motion, she went to her bedroom. Gathering her nightclothes she went into the bathroom, filled up her tub with hot water and then sank into the deep warmth, letting her remaining tension evaporate. This was the perfect ending to her long day. Diamond had no doubt in her mind how Knox would be celebrating his release, the only question was with who and how many.
Turning her thoughts away from him, she thought about stopping by her mother’s house in the next few days. It had been a while since she’d visited, and taking this case had caused her to think more and more about her family. Sex Piston would invariably show up at some time during the visit, though; no matter how hard Diamond tried to dodge her. It would always piss of Diamond because she was an irritant. She would consistently start an argument and her mother always took Sex Piston’s side, which never made for an easy visit.
Sex Piston thought Diamond was a stuck-up bitch, and Diamond thought Sex Piston was a slut. From the time they were children, they had always fought. They were the complete opposites; where Diamond hated the biker lifestyle they had been raised in, Sex Piston loved the freedom and don’t-give-a-shit attitude that was so much a part of the Destructors that their father had been President over until he had recently stepped down.
It disgusted Diamond that her sister took sex as casually as their father did. Sex Piston and her boyfriend, Ace, had continuously had an on-and-off relationship for years. They would break up when they had an itch to scratch with someone else then, when that lust-fest was over, they would end up back together. It was the same stunt their father would pull when they were growing up except he hadn’t broken up with their mother, he had simply cheated on her behind her back.
At one time Diamond had worshiped her father as much as Sex Piston, if not more. She had loved both of her parents and was close to her mother, but her father had been her hero. No one could beat him; he was a strong, silent man, but when he took action, everyone watched themselves. She would run to him when he would come home from work; Diamond still remembered him lifting her from her feet and tossing her up in the air to be caught. Laughing, she would hug his thick neck. “I love you, Daddy,” she would say.
That had come to an end the day she had been beaten up at school from someone mad at Sex Piston. Instead of walking the two blocks to her home as she was supposed to, she had run off before Sex Piston could appear and gone to her father’s clubhouse to cry on his shoulder.
It had taken over an hour to walk there. She still remembered how tired she had been and how sore she was from the other girl’s fists when she had reached the clubhouse. A new probate was outside watching the door and she had known he wouldn’t let her in to see her father. Not wanting to embarrass him by showing up in front of his friends with a black eye, she had sneaked around back and climbed in through a window that was broken. She had heard her father telling someone to get it fixed, thankfully they hadn’t and Diamond managed to wiggle through.
She had searched the house that had appeared mainly empty, but she had seen her father’s bike out front, therefore she knew he was there somewhere. Hearing sounds from the front room, Diamond went down the hallway and peeked around the corner. There she had found two other men in the room with her father as well as a woman lying on the pool table. One of the men was slamming his thing into her as another man sucked on her breasts. Her father had merely watched without touching the woman.
Diamond turned away, embarrassed, yet she hesitated as the man who was having sex with the woman groaned and pulled out of her. That was when Diamond had gotten her first glance at a man’s penis, watching as he pulled something off it and threw it into a trashcan. With her eyes on the startling first look, she had missed her father unzipping his own jeans and placing a condom on. Diamond’s attention was drawn back when the woman moaned.
“Can you handle another one?” The woman widened her legs as her father stepped between them. He plunged his penis into the withering woman who wrapped her legs around his waist and began moving with him.
“Fuck me.” The woman arched into the mouth of the man still sucking on her breast.
Diamond had sneaked back down the hallway and climbed back out the broken window and walked home.
That evening, when her father had arrived home she had not rushed down the steps to greet him nor had she gone down to dinner. Her mother had come in to check on her and had consoled her about the beating, however Diamond found a huge barrier now in place between her mother and herself. She had been unable to meet her mother’s eyes and tell her what she had witnessed.
Her father had come to her room as soon as her mother had told him about the fight at school. Diamond still remembered when he had reached out to touch her face. She had jerked away from this touch, stepping away. She had then pretended an interest in her homework until he had left.
Diamond had never told any of her family about what she had seen, and the disillusionment had created a wedge between her and her father. After that, she’d no longer gone to the biker get-togethers unless forced by her parents, emotionally withdrawing to spend more and more time alone in her room.
Sex Piston’s sexual antics brought out the revulsion she’d felt when she had found their dad with the other woman. It was a painful reminder and often made her act out towards her sister.
Diamond would have long ago broken off contact with her family if not for her mother. She alone was the reason Diamond didn’t cut the final tie to her family, yet it was becoming harder to maintain a relationship with her as her mother was determined that her daughters get along. Diamond knew it was never going to happen.
Getting out of the bathtub she dried herself off and dressed for bed. Diamond lay down on her bed, turning out her bedside lamp, then for some odd reason, missing her mother. Tomorrow, when she finished the interviews, she would stop by her mother’s house early enough that she should be able to avoid her father and Sex Piston.
Chapter Five
Early the next day, Mrs. Langley answ
ered her door when she heard Diamond’s knock.
“Mrs. Langley, I’m Diamond Richards. Thank you for seeing me.”
“Please come in. I’m anxious to be of any help I can.” The older woman’s face was grief-stricken. Samantha, Diamond had come to find out, was Mrs. Langley’s only relative. With her death, she no longer had any family left.
The woman showed her into a formal living room that was very well taken care of with several family photos and expensive knick-knacks placed around the room.
Sitting on the couch, she accepted the cup of coffee the woman had waiting for her.
Diamond didn’t want to upset the woman further, but she needed answers. “I am sorry for your loss, but do you mind me asking if Sam had stopped by the day of her death?”
Mrs. Langley nodded, placing her shaking cup back down on the ornate coffee table. “Yes, she came by for a few minutes then left. She didn’t stay thirty minutes.” Her voice cracked.
“Did she come by for any particular reason?” Samantha carefully probed.
“She needed some money.” Mrs. Langley answered, a tear running down her cheek.
“Did you give it to her?”
“Yes, but it wasn’t much. I’m not wealthy, but I have enough to live on. Sam wanted several thousand dollars. She was upset with me when I couldn’t give it to her.”
“So she left when you told her no?” Diamond asked gently.
“No, she asked me for some of my jewelry to sell.”
“Did you give it to her?” Diamond disliked the woman she was investigating. The more she learned, the more her dislike grew. Seeing the woman in front of her, Diamond wished Samantha was alive so she could kick her ass.
“Yes, I gave her two rings and a necklace. She took them and left. Do you think that the jewelry could have drawn the killer to her?” The thought had her hands shaking.
“No, I’m sure it didn’t, Mrs. Langley.” Diamond felt angry with herself because it could be a false assurance, however she couldn’t help wanting to make her feel better.
Diamond finished drinking her coffee and sat with the woman a few more minutes. She was about to leave, but then brought up a subject that she knew would further upset the woman. “I understand the sheriff is currently investigating the whereabouts of your great-grandchild?”
“Yes, Samantha had the baby in Jamestown. From there, they can’t find a trace of the child. She tried to claim that Gavin James was the father, but I put a stop to that.”
“Do you know who the father is?”
“No, I can’t help you there. Samantha always kept that part of her life secret from me. She knew I wouldn’t approve.”