Sheep's Clothing by Gary Lewis (dark books to read TXT) 📗

"Something set off my trap out back last night,” she said before sinking beneath the wave of disappointment that washed over her as she looked to the ground beside Terry's feet and continued. “But David brought Janice with him shortly after, so it could have been anything."

"Let's check it out," Terry said as he strolled around her, taking the lead into her unsightly backyard.

"If you insist." Sarah reluctantly followed.

"You know, if you need someone to mow the yard for you," Terry said with a glance over his shoulder. "We have a community service group through the church that will do it for a good price."

"I'm good," Sarah said as they continued toward the burnt wires.

She folded her arms as Terry kneeled beside the incinerated plant life. "So, I guess you heard," he said.

"Heard what?" Sarah asked, waiting impatiently for Terry's delayed reply. "If that bitch has something to say about me, she should have let it out last night, when I was... nice enough to not leave her outside!" Sarah held her hand out, pointing toward the front yard.

Terry rose his head with an open mouth to look Sarah in the eyes. "No. It's not that at all." He looked down as he slowly stood, pulling his phone from his pocket.

"Well, what the hell is it?" she asked. Her impatience spread into her sweeping hands. It begged her to yank the phone from him and see for herself, but her self-control won the battle this time.

"According to the group chat, Tony has been online." Terry's words threatened to crash into Sarah's perfect portrait of Janice sprouting fangs and claws.

"That doesn't mean anything." Sarah swung her open hand to her side. "Tony never locked anything. He trusted everyone. If Janice has his phone, all she'd have to-"

Terry's voice interrupted. "Sarah." Behind his eyeglasses, his eyes moved deeper into hers with a calming compassion that misted the red coals in her core. "Search yourself for a minute. Are you sure you're not letting your feelings cloud your judgement?" His hand gently grasped hers, but his calming mist became a sizzle against the embers that still glowed brightly in her soul.

Sarah smacked his hand away and folded her arms to stare him in the face. "Leave," she said, firmly planted in place.

"Sarah, I just want to make-"

"Leave!" she shouted, throwing her finger to point to the driveway.

Terry nodded as his shoulders slumped and he slowly walked away without another word.

As he left, the turmoil that raged within her guided Sarah's steps into the house where she promptly sat at the dining room table. She reached for the revolver that still rested where she left it. Lifting the weighty memento of Vance, she turned it over with her hand before laying it in her lap. "It won't be much longer now." Her bloodshot eyes filled heavy as they turned toward the open living room curtains. The window glared with an arid midday blaze that beckoned the call of darkness to consume it.

#David#

David's tires burned against the hot pavement to his soft music on his drive through town. In the passenger seat rested a large paper bag filled with two large fries and a grilled chicken sandwich, no tomato, just the way Janice liked it. Leaning over the bag, a plastic-wrapped rose was still fresh enough to scent the interior of his car. It was a spontaneous purchase on his way out of the gas station, but fit the moment perfectly. David exhaled a deep breath as he slowed his approach to hit the turn signal.

The minivan still sat exactly as it was the night before. David parked just behind it. He grabbed the bag of food with his left hand, rose with his right and hid it behind the bag as he walked to the front steps.

Before placing his first foot, the front door opened slowly. Janice stood in a thin, red gown that clung to her plump breasts before loosely hanging past her thin waist to meet her hips. Wide, long sleeves drooped open from her wrists with laced cuffs. The relaxed look on her face drew David's attention to her full lips that shimmered with her softened eyes.

David's chest filled with purpose as his shoulders fell back on his way to the door. He stepped inside the living room, never once breaking eye contact as he looked down into her face. He slowly handed her the bag of food, revealing the rose he held behind it. Her thick lips tightened into a smile as she took it from him and promptly set it along with the bag on the end table beside the couch.

Janice turned back to David as he reached back to close the door. David aimed his thumb behind him, beginning to speak. "I was just at the-" Her finger pressed against his mouth as her eyes gleamed up into his with a smile that hid behind her pressed lips, evident by her tightened cheeks.

"Mm-Mm" she shook her head in a no as her pressed smile slowly relaxed. Janice lowered her hand and David felt her fingertips sliding up his chest. They found their way to his shoulders as he squeezed his grip around her hips. He massaged his way around her thick round bottom before gently sliding his fingers up along the silky fabric of her nightgown and around her waist. While he watched her gaze into his eyes, her breasts leaned against him. Her mouth relaxed open and he placed his right hand behind her neck, holding her head firmly in place. David tilted his face to taste her lips, squeezing hers between his until their tongues rolled against one another.

David's mouth found its way down the skin of her neck as he continued squeezing it between his lips. He ran his hands up and down her sides, pressing into the contour of her back until Janice backed up with a huff. "Okay," she said with a deep breath.

David couldn't contain his smile as he spoke. "I