Peter Decker 3-Book Thriller Collection: False Prophet, Grievous Sin, Sanctuary

Davida said, “Kelley might—”

“Oh, fuck you, Davida! You want a favor, don’t throw my past or my sister in my face.” He stood, slowly walking over to her. Man, she was a terror, but the bitch did have her good points. And he was about to exploit one of them right this f-ing minute. He slipped his arms around her waist. “You want my help?”

“You know I do.”

“Then beg me, Davida.”

“Michael—”

“Fucking beg me!”

There was a moment of silence.

Davida whispered, “Please, Michael.” She placed her hands on his chest and gently pushed him onto the divan. “Please help me.”

Ness felt his breathing quicken. “Show me how much you want my help.”

Davida let her kimono fall open as she dropped to her knees before him. “Please, please help me.” She wrapped her fingers around the waistband of his gym shorts and pulled the shorts down to his ankles. “You know I need you.”

Ness closed his eyes as she stroked his inner thigh.

“Say yes,” Davida whispered. “Say yes, you’ll help me.”

“Yes, I’ll help you.”

She parted his knees and lowered her mouth between his legs. Slowly, slowly, he gave way to her, running his hands through blue-black hair thickened stiff with spray. Irony of ironies, only with this old demonic bitch could he let himself go. It was all a sick game of domination—another role for Davida but one she played well. Sometimes she’d lead, today it was his turn. But they both knew who had whom by the proverbial balls.

He moaned. If you’re gonna be raped, lie back and enjoy it, man.

Goldin unwrapped a Nestlé’s Crunch bar.

“One of the few vestiges of my childhood. Slowly, I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m on the dark side of thirty. Things I did that I used to consider cute are now just plain pathetic.”

“You’re stalling, Mr. Goldin.”

“Perry.”

“You’re stalling, Perry.”

“Yes, I am.” He took a bite of his candy bar. “Okay. Here we go. Take a good look at me. I was—and still am—everything that Lilah’s family didn’t want. I’m opinionated, I’m left-wing, I’m not interested in making impressions, I don’t care about money, I don’t care how I look, I don’t do honest labor, and I won’t tolerate being patronized. And in that family, I was patronized constantly and dished it back. They didn’t take kindly to that.”

“Lilah was rebelling when she married you.”

“Obviously. Lilah’s upper-crust WASP, I’m a walking Jewish stereotype. And maybe I was rebelling when I married her. But there was a hell of a lot more to it than simple rebellion. I was crazy about her. Lilah was a knockout—still is, I imagine.”

He looked to Decker for confirmation. Decker nodded and Goldin took another bite of his candy bar.

“She was also great in bed. Absolutely sensational. It surprised me, because she was young when we started up.”

“How young?”

“She told me she was nineteen, but I found out later that she wasn’t even eighteen. I’m eight years older than she. But Lilah had prior experience from somewhere. Man, she bowled me over with her looks and her sexuality. I was so hot for her, I would have done anything to get her. I even volunteered to apply to medical school for her. She and her mother had this thing for doctors.”

“I’ve noticed.”

“Yeah, the old lady was always on some kind of drug regimen. She used her sons as candy men—legal meds of course. God forbid, I should cast aspersions on anyone’s medical ethics.”

“Did you go to medical school?”

“No, it wasn’t necessary.” He took another bite of chocolate. “Lilah took me as is. She told me I had passion, ideas, and ideals. Not to mention character and warmth.”

He laughed.

“Anybody would have seemed warm compared to those ice floes. Nobody but nobody in that family ever showed any affection or tenderness. Just anger and hysterics. I’ll tell you, my first marriage was an excellent training ground for a career in bridge. Nothing I’ve ever witnessed in twenty-five years of the most heated playing has ever come close to their tantrums.”

Decker said, “What pushed their buttons?”

“What didn’t? They’re flipped, especially the old lady. Every new moon, it was Davida enraged over treatment by a boyfriend—or a girlfriend. She’d jump anything with a heartbeat. Came on to me countless times. It was all real sick, but I put up with it, because I really wanted Lilah.

“Of course, when we announced our engagement, the old lady went off the deep end. I was great as hired help, but not marriage material, for goodness’ sake! But Davida wasn’t half as angry as Lilah’s brother. Talk about tantrums! Guy popped his seams, he was so mad.”

“Which brother?”

“King—oh, excuse me, Doctor Kingston Merritt, FACOG, s’il vous plaît.” Goldin leaned back in his seat. “Dr. Pomp and Circumstance. What an overbloated stuffed shirt. Good doc, though. Had more degrees than an isobar map. More than once I heard him talking to patients over the phone. Guy could be soothing when he wanted to be. Too bad he never showed that side to any of his family members.”

“Soothing?” Decker asked.

“Yeah, you know … ‘I’ll be right down, Mrs. So-and-so. You just keep breathing and everything will be just fine.’ Mr. Sincere.” Goldin shrugged. “Maybe his sincerity was genuine. But then he’d hang up the phone and breathe fire on me or his sister or his mother. A real Jekyll and Hyde.”

Decker wrote as he spoke. “What about the other brothers?”

“I never saw too much of John … he kept to himself. John was also a successful doc. Lived in this big house in Palos Verdes. You know, both he and King are OB-GYNs. You don’t have to be Freud to know why they both went into a profession where they could dominate women.”

“Davida?”

“The great Ms. Eversong herself. Woman has tremendous charisma … a real siren. She’d turn on the anger and have me quaking in my boots. And I wasn’t even a blood relative. As I look back, I think, why did I put up with it? My self-esteem wasn’t great, but it wasn’t ground level, either.” He sighed. “It was Lilah. She had such … power.”

Decker raised his brows. “Power?”

“Sexual power but also energy. She’d say these wacky things and I’d believe her because she radiated such force.”

“What kind of wacky things?”

“Predicting the future. That kind of rot.”

“Anything she say ever come true?”

“At the time I was married to her, it seemed like everything she said came true. Then one day when I was really ticked off at her, I did some mathematical computations showing her with numbers that her predictions weren’t any better than the law of averages would dictate. Man, she flew into a rage. After that, I kept my mouth shut about her powers.”