The Demon Pool Read Online Free Page A

to share it with. But not Bruce. She had this guy nailed down.
Tight. She picked up the other champagne glass and waited for Bruce to pour.
    “How was work?” Her voice almost a purr.
    Bruce shrugged.
    “Keeps me busy. The federal government has a lot
of property in Florida. Someone has to watch over it.”
    He filled Kat’s glass and put the champagne back
on ice. His smile grew as he lifted his glass toward Kat.
    “I got the car,” he said.
    Kat touched her glass to his.
    “Nice. Show it to me later?”
    Bruce’s eyes went wide and his grin wider.
Unmistakable pride brightened his face.
    “Sure.”
    Bruce finished off his drink while she sipped hers.
She had first seen Bruce in the club several months before. He always wore a
suit, sat alone sipping a beer or soda, and left before the club closed. Kat
never saw him pay for a lap dance. Never saw him sitting with one of the other
dancers. He seemed nice enough. One of the dozens of middle-aged guys who
floated in and out of the club on their way to an empty retirement and their
first heart attack. The dancers’ bread and butter.
    One evening, as she strolled the club on a slow,
off-payday weekend, she noticed the expensive TAG Heuer Kirium watch on his
wrist. She slid into the booth beside him and started talking. His face turned
red and he looked like he might experience cardiac arrest right then. She had
read once that a man’s watch made a statement about his station in life. A lot
of guys wore fake Rolexes. But nobody wore a fake TAG Heuer.
    It took effort, but Bruce soon started buying her
drinks. Not long after that, she got him to bump it up to the
two-hundred-dollar-a-bottle, third-rate champagne. She never promised Bruce
anything specific for his investment. She didn’t need to. She could say more
with a touch and a look than most women could with a thousand words.
    It seemed as if Bruce always had money. More than
she expected from a divorced, mid-level, government bureaucrat. Too shy for lap
dances, he simply slipped her a twenty-dollar bill four or five times during
the evening. Now that she had him hooked, Kat had to decide what she wanted to
do with him. The trick with these guys was to keep them coming back without
actually giving them what they ultimately wanted.
    The club’s DJ announced the next set and she let
her hand fall to Bruce’s thigh.
    “My turn to dance. Maybe you can stay around
tonight. Show me the new car when I get off?”
    “I have to go in early tomorrow.”
    “On a Saturday? I thought you worked for the
government?”
    Bruce looked conflicted.
    Kat slid out of the booth. She leaned over and
left another red mark on Bruce’s cheek.
    “I really want to see the car, Bruce. You’re not
the kind of guy who leaves a girl disappointed, are you?”
    She smiled a wicked little smile and walked off
toward the stage.
    ***
    Bruce watched Kat stroll away. She climbed the stairs
and stood next to the dancers’ pole. The DJ boomed Kat’s introduction.
    “Get those fives and tens ready cause Kat’s back
and the girl next door is worth a whole lot more.”
    Bruce glanced back at the bottle of champagne and
then looked at his watch. He had the car and she wanted to see it. He would
stay until her shift ended. He could always catch a nap in his office later. Maybe
tonight would be the night.
    He finished the champagne in his glass and
immediately refilled it. He found it funny the way he’d become used to the
taste of overpriced bubbles.

Chapter three
    The short drive down I-75, between Ft. Myers and
Naples, did not diminish the appearance of Jim’s uniform. He spent an entire
hour doing the whole spit-and-polish routine before leaving for tonight’s
special duty assignment. His Florida Highway Patrol black dress jacket added an
air of formality that reminded Jim of his Marine Corps Dress Blues.
    It didn’t seem to matter what uniform he wore.
When Jim showed up in a dress uniform, heads turned. He kind of liked it,
although it