A Last Act of Charity (Killing Sisters Book 1) (39 page)

And quite suddenly and entirely unexpectedly she smiled. A radiant grin. Two teenagers with a shared secret. Stoner felt a reflection of her smile grow on his own lips as his cock sagged and leaked a little, strawberry and pearl jams mingling slowly; regret no doubt for its own lost moment. Charity had replaced her hair, was once again the conventionally beautiful blonde he had known before.

‘You should probably put that away now. Chills can be quite bad news, I do believe. And you’re leaking on your jeans.’

Silently, and with some reluctance, Stoner complied. The silence grew to maturity and bred a silent family of its own.

‘I’m the bluesman,’ Stoner announced, obliquely. ‘I should leave now.’

‘But this is your place, isn’t it?’

Stoner agreed this was so.

‘I should leave.’ Charity decided. ‘Leave you in whatever passes for peace in your world, Mr Stoner.’

Stoner nodded his agreement. Neither of them made a move. Neither wished to be the first to move.

‘If I walked backwards to the door I would fall over a table,’ Charity suggested, with a hint of humour, somewhere.

‘I’m hardly royalty,’ Stoner’s smile was as cautious as her own, ‘and I won’t shoot you in the back.’

‘Nor stab me there?’

‘That neither. At no point, in fact.’

‘I’m safe with you, then? Despite the business with Hartmann?’ Stoner paused for a beat, then nodded. ‘Yes. No beef with you. You did what I could not, I think. And if that was the last of the dead heads, then we really are clear. I’ll put that another way; if I’m not on your contract list, then we have no problems at all.’

‘So far as I know.’

‘Weasel words, those, Charity. Too many meanings. I’ve met your sister, remember.’

‘If your name’s on a list, I’ll let you know. That suit you?’

‘Yes.’

‘Then I guess I’ll be on my way.’

She turned, turned back again.

‘Should I stay?’

‘Probably not.’

‘Probably best that way. Last couple of guys I fucked died inside me.’

‘Tell me about it. Tell me about it some other time, hey?’

‘There’ll be another time?’

‘Reckon it’s likely, me. You?’

‘Yeah,’ she drawled her words through the strainer of her smile. ‘Do I get a parting song? A tune, Mr Bluesman?’

Stoner bounced up to the stage, picked up the Stratocaster and sat his stool in the spotlight. ‘A Beatles medley? A Beatles medley at midnight? The Beatles did songs for every occasion. “Nowhere Man”? “I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party”? “Day Tripper”? “Paperback Writer”? “Girl”? “Norwegian Wood”? That’s the one for now.’

‘It’s a book.’ Charity looked at him in an angular way. ‘And a movie of the book.’

‘Before it was a book, and even further before it was a movie, it was a song. Here you go . . .’

Thanks for reading right to the very end. We hope you enjoyed
A Last Act of Charity
. If you did, please take a few minutes to review it on Amazon or Goodreads. Your feedback would be very much appreciated.

If you’d like to stay in touch with Stoner, Shard and the Killing Sisters then you’ll find Frank Westworth and news about the next book in the series at
www.murdermayhemandmore.net