My Kind Of Bad

Chapter 5

Kurt hated going to the morgue. He had been there four times in the last year and that was four times too many. Pete insisted on bringing him over to identify the bodies of his lovers instead of their family. Kurt had told him specifically on the last visit that he didn’t want to go back there. He didn’t like the smell of death and it took forever for the visions of women he had been close to lying out on slab, cut up and beaten to the point that they very virtually mangled.

Evidently Pete had forgotten that conversation.

His brother was waiting just outside the side entrance when Kurt pulled up. Kurt locked up the car and hurried across the alley. Pete looked exhausted, with dark circles under his eyes and his face pale. Kurt slowed. He had a feeling that this was worse than the others.

“Where is she?”

“Through here.” Pete swallowed and opened the door. “The ME has given us a few minutes.”

They went through the maze of corridors and came into the cold room. Kurt had been there too many times to count and he still couldn’t get used to the blast of cold that hit him as the door was opened. He shuddered and focused on the body lying on the trolley in the middle of the room. A sheet was lying over it but an arm had fallen off, dangling over the side. It was streaked with blood and two fingernails were missing.

They had put up one hell of a fight.

Pete reached the body first and gently pulled the sheet down to reveal the head. Kurt stumbled and stared. The dead girl was a redhead and had once been very pretty. Now she had a swollen eye, her nose was broken and her jaw was distorted. The bas*ard had broken it in several places.

And Kurt recognized her.

“Rhiannon.”

“So you do know her?”

“Rhiannon Kuzmich. She’s a trainee architect who lived in Silver Lake. She was originally from Phoenix, Arizona.” Kurt gulped. “We had dated briefly just after Christmas.”

“Why did things end?”

“I was a bit of a rebound. She had dumped her long-term boyfriend on Christmas Eve and spent New Year with me for making things up with her ex a couple of weeks later.” Kurt shrugged. “I didn’t harbor any bad feelings except I lost a great lay.”

“I’m sure she’ll be happy to hear that.” Pete said sardonically.

“You know what I mean.” Kurt couldn’t look at her anymore. His stomach was churning. He turned away. “She was great in bed and a lovely person. We just didn’t click.”

He could remember her clearly. Rhiannon had been troubled over a messy breakup but she was fun, she was sweet and good fun to be around. Kurt had liked her and would have liked to stay in touch but Rhiannon had told him they couldn’t talk because her ex would get extremely jealous that she was still in touch with someone she had fu*ked on a break. Kurt hadn’t harbored any feelings over it. It happened all the time.

People thought he was a person who had lots of girlfriends but Kurt wasn’t that sort of person. He dated one girl at a time and often there was a big gap in between. He was focused on his work, being a bouncer at Billy’s nightclub and doing various odd jobs during the day for the rest of the MC group. His spare time was limited but Kurt didn’t mind; he preferred it that way. Being busy meant he didn’t have enough time to think about things like this.

Pete put the sheet back over Rhiannon’s head and led his brother out into the corridor. Kurt sagged into a chair and buried his face in his hands, trying to calm himself. Suddenly he was shaking. Pete crouched in front of him.

“You do realize this is the fifth girl you’ve dated from the last two years.” He said grimly. “How many more are going to go?”

“I don’t know, Pete. I don’t keep count and two years is a long time.” Kurt lowered his hands and tried to regain his composure. It wouldn’t do to see a biker going to pieces in a morgue. He was glad nobody he knew would see anything. “I couldn’t settle. Nobody could get me to commit.”

Until Neera. Something about Neera made Kurt want to commit to a relationship. A permanent one. And he hadn’t even got her into bed; she had done all that with her personality and her lovely smile.

That and she had a great ass.

Pete grunted and pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose.

“It’s a good thing we’ve already ruled you out or I’d be locking up my own brother and finding out from a shrink why you’re killing past lovers.”

“Well, I’m glad someone’s on my side.” Kurt sneered.

Pete ignored him. He shifted onto the seat next to Kurt with a grimace.

“Someone’s got it in for you, Kurt. Or for your dates. Are you sure you can’t think of anyone who could do this? Anyone you rejected?”

“There are a lot of them, Pete.” Kurt raised his head. “I don’t date everyone who throws themselves at me and I haven’t had a one-night stand since I was twenty.”

“And I’m sure you don’t know all their names.”

“The ones who wanted to fu*k me purely for fu*king a biker and I turned away? No, not all of them. It happens all the time.” Kurt sighed. “I’ll see what I can remember and let you know.”

“I suppose that’ll have to do.” Pete muttered. He stood and fished out his cell phone. “I’ll let the ME know we’re done and he can go ahead with the autopsy. In the meantime, don’t have any relationships with any women. We don’t want to add any more targets to the list.”

Kurt stood and gave his brother a sheepish look.

“That might be a problem.”

“How do you mean?” Kurt knew Pete had figured it out by the dawning realization on his face. He groaned. “Oh, no, Kurt, you haven’t. You knew that things are dangerous for you right now.”

“I know, I know. And I told her that.” Kurt ran his hand over his hair and paced the corridor. “But Billy wanted me to take this girl I met at the club to his barbecue today and she said that I should let her decide for herself if she should pursue a relationship.”

“And will she? Pursue it, I mean?”

“I’d like to, if I’m honest. And I think she does, too.”

Kurt really did. He liked Neera and wanted to see where things went. Even when everything was up in the air and his lifestyle wasn’t really what Neera would be used to but Kurt didn’t care.

For the first time in a long time, he really wanted someone.

Pete still didn’t look happy.

“I hope you know what you’re doing. She needs to know what’s going on.”