Desperate Enemies 3 by Adam Carpenter (latest ebook reader .txt) 📕

“Here she comes!” said Jack. “Now play nice,” he scolded Edgar, before opening the door.

As Jack rushed out to greet their guest, Edgar looked next door to see that Rich had returned from the hospital.

Great, he thought, just what the neighbors need to see.

What next?

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Part Three

“Where the Bodies Are Buried”

By Adam Carpenter

* * * *

“What the hell is going on in this neighborhood?”

It was a question he spoke aloud, but his voice sounded foreign to him as it bounced against quiet walls. He had not done much speaking lately, mostly because there was no one to converse with, no one with who to ask questions and receive back answers, no one to tell him he was loved.

But for the first time in more than a week, Paolo Bautista felt like talking to someone, but the trouble was he didn't know which of his neighbors he felt like approaching, whether he could trust them any longer. Certainly not Parker, the man of mixed motives and divided loyalties; Rich he felt conflicted about, given the way he'd tried to stop Aaron from pulling the trigger but had ended up atop him while the gun went off. And Marc. . . his friend who had seen him through Aaron's funeral, one of the worst days of his life. . . After his gallery opening had ended in disaster, there was no telling how he truly felt. As for Dane and Sawyer, they were once again AWOL, on a job or just drying their tears in some other location, considering Dane and Aaron had been brothers. So who did that leave? Jack and Edgar, Eldon Court's stalwarts, that's who. Until he saw what he saw. . . that woman coming to their home, the way they had invited her inside, that scene had left Paolo disturbed and further confused. Doubt had once again crept into his mind and wouldn't let go. Yes, Paolo had seen some odd things this past week on Eldon Court, and normally he'd have been be in the thick of the drama, questioning, judging. . . perhaps participating. Not so, now, Paolo was just a passive participant, peering out through his curtains, a guest on his own street.

It was Sunday, normally a day when the neighbors of Eldon Court would all get together and have a few drinks out by the pool, accompanied by some laughs and some harmless flirting, sometimes a bit more than that. Like the pool parties they had shared this past summer, the first when he'd allowed the bear-like Rich North to screw him hard down on the beach, others when he'd sucked Parker St. John's hot rock of a cock in the same location. Both of these encounters, tinged with temporary satisfaction and lingering regret, he wished he could now take back. Had those sexy trysts been worth it when now he was faced with a life without the one and only man he'd ever truly loved, Aaron Walters?

Paolo would forever miss the once-lighted-hearted Aaron, his smile, the way he took life one day at a time. Right now, after a time of solitude Paolo had forced upon himself, he had to figure out what the next stage of his life would bring, and whether Eldon Court, still under siege from Danvers Converse, was a part of it. Had his losses been worth it, challenging a man of such power and wealth and depravity, a man bent on revenge? Their Victorian home on Eldon Court was just that, a home, a building, replaceable. Aaron had been a man, once a vital, happy one, until Converse had threatened to ruin him. And succeeded.

But Paolo wasn't like Danvers Converse, revenge wasn't something he wished to exact. Truthfully, he was tired of all the intrigue and drama. So what then did he want? Unlike Aaron, Paolo always wondered what tomorrow would bring, and right now, on this picture-perfect day, he realized to get to tomorrow you had to embrace today. Taking the first step toward whatever the future held required Paolo to journey outdoors.

And so he did, opening up his black and white world, into one of vibrant, rich color, just like Dorothy had done after landing in Oz following a powerful storm that turned her life upside down. But that's where the comparisons ended; Paolo wasn't so sure about clicking his heels three times, home didn't seem like such a place he wanted to be.

* * * *

The bright sunshine nearly blinded him, and for a moment he felt like he was under attack. He could hear the loud squaw of a flock of seagulls as they flew through the sky, circling over the nearby beach and the crashing of waves from the Pacific; their sounds were deafening to him, so used to the quiet was he. But Paolo didn't retreat back inside, he took that next step, and that next, allowing Eldon Court to open up to him. He stole an apprehensive look back at his own house, watching as the door eased shut, almost as though someone was inside and pushing him beyond his limits. No, he was all alone, and, as he gazed forward, the overwhelming sense of loneliness pulled at him. There was no one around; the street was all quiet on this morning.

He sat down upon the edge of the wooden porch, his eyes squinting against the harsh rays of the sun, closing his eyes to let the warmth of the sun touch his natural dark skin tones. He was dressed in his usual shorts and T-shirt, and the sun felt like a kiss upon his toned arms and legs. He stretched out, almost like he was sun-bathing. Now this was life in all its glorious simplicity, it's what living in Wonderland was supposed to be all about. This town was not a place in which you came to die.

A sudden sound jolted him awake, almost