My Kind Of Bad

“I don’t want her running off, Pete. She’s a great girl.” Kurt paused, knowing this was a sudden revelation but his brother had to know he was serious. “I think this might be it for me.”

Pete paused. He looked somewhat sympathetic.

“I hope so. Or you’re going to be losing a great thing by putting her in the firing line.”

The thought of seeing Neera on a slab in the morgue made Kurt feel sick. He hoped that would never happen.

“I don’t.” His hands clenched at his sides. “That’s not going to happen.”

Nothing was going to happen to Neera if he could help it.

*****

It was turning out to be one heck of a day. Suddenly everyone needed things fixing or setting up. Kurt found himself running all over Topeka and the neighboring towns, helping out everyone in the group with various jobs. He never got a chance to sit down; he was lucky he got a bathroom break.

Normally he liked to work like that, keeping himself busy. But today Kurt was distracted. After seeing Rhiannon’s body in the morgue, he had spent a sleepless night tossing and turning, unable to get rid of the images of her lying there beaten to a pulp and bloody out of his head. People had commented on his detached behavior but Kurt wasn’t able to tell them. Nobody knew about the murders and he liked to keep it that way.

No point in getting everyone worked up and the wrong person got hurt.

It was mid-afternoon when Kurt arrived at Billy’s house, toolbox in hand. It was his toolbox that Kurt was currently using since his got swiped from the back of his car and while Billy was happy to lend his tools out, he insisted on having them back every day once Kurt was finished. Kurt was fine with that, although it did mean encountering Taylor.

There wasn’t really anything wrong with Taylor and Kurt liked her enough. But he knew that Taylor was a flirt. Both Billy and Taylor had cheated on each other and, as far as Kurt was aware, neither knew of the other’s indiscretions. Kurt only knew about them because he had spotted Billy with various women over the years but his loyalty stopped him from saying anything. He had thought it would break Taylor’s heart until he found out that Taylor was doing the same thing.

She had come on to him at the same New Year party where Kurt had hooked up with Rhiannon.

Then he had seen her leave with Demetrius and Kurt knew that this wasn’t anything to do with alcohol.

Their relationship, underneath the facade of being strong, was so flimsy a prod in the right place could have it falling apart.

Kurt let himself in to Billy’s backyard. He was putting the toolbox into the shed when the kitchen door opened and Taylor stepped out. She leaned against the wooden railing, dressed in very short shorts and a white halter top that had her nicely sized bre*sts straining to get out. Had she been anyone else Kurt might have considered something with her; Taylor DuJour was a beautiful woman and at thirty-eight she was well within his type. But the fact she was married to his boss put her out of bounds.

Kurt shut the shed door and gave her a nod.

“Afternoon, Taylor.”

“Hey, Kurt.” Taylor purred. She grinned and leaned forward so her cleavage was on display. “I was just thinking about you.”

“I’m sure.” Kurt muttered. He spoke aloud as he snapped the padlock back on. “Is Billy around? I wanted to let him know I’ve finished fixing the roof at Daly’s place.”

“He had to head out.” Taylor sighed. “Neo’s not been turning up at school again so he’s had to meet with the principal and beg for her not to be expelled.”

Kurt shook his head. Neo was going way off the tracks. She had always been a bit of a wild child but in the last year she had been getting worse. As far as Kurt knew, Neo had always turned up at school with good grades. Now they were slipping and Billy had confided that he was worried for her.

It had all happened since Neo became an adult and Kurt wondered if that was the reason for her sudden change in behavior; now she was a legal adult she could do what she wanted and unleashed a side nobody had seen before. It was something he had done when he was that age.

“Has she actually turned up to anything this year?”

“If she has we’ll find out.” Taylor sighed. Then she smiled brightly and pushed away from the railing. “Come on in.”

“I’m not stopping, Taylor. I’ve got some more errands to run.”

He didn’t really but Kurt didn’t want to be alone with Taylor. She was nice enough and they got along fine but with Neera in the picture Kurt didn’t want any stories to go around that he was doing something with the boss’ wife. He started to edge towards the gate.

“Nonsense, Kurt. You’ve got time, haven’t you?” Taylor beckoned him. “Come sit and talk to me in the kitchen. Have some coffee.”

Kurt knew that he shouldn’t. He didn’t completely trust Taylor’s motives when she was on her own. In a crowd he could handle it but not when it was just them. He knew something would happen that he would struggle to extract himself from. But it was just some coffee and Kurt hadn’t had anything to eat or drink all day. He shrugged.

“Sure. But just five minutes.”

Taylor grinned and went inside. Kurt followed and settled himself at the counter island as Taylor fixed up the coffee. She seemed to be doing things a bit more than she should, such as standing with her hip stuck out and her bre*sts thrust forward more than they should. The halter simply tied up at the back, showing off her toned back. She looked good but Kurt wasn’t going to say that out loud. He didn’t want to throw the dog a bone, so to speak.

“How are things with Neera?” Taylor fixed up two mugs and poured the coffee. “Have you seen each other since Sunday?”

Kurt smiled. Now this was a topic he could handle.

“Yes, we have. We’ve been to each other’s apartments to have dinner, watch a movie. Just hanging out, really.”

They were taking it nice and slow. Both didn’t want to rush into anything and in the five days since the barbecue they had spent every evening together. Most of it was just simply talking until the small hours when Neera said she had to get up early for work. Kurt knew a lot about her.

He knew that she liked to jog but she was often so tired that she couldn’t be bothered to put on her running shoes. He knew she liked watching boxset marathons, which he had been a victim of as well. Her library of DVDs was full of complete seasons, ranging from science fiction to crime. He also knew that Neera wanted to be an accountant and had gone to university studying accounting but the only job she had been able to get was as a receptionist for an architect company with a man who liked to chat up his female employees and get them in his office alone. A lot of her co-workers had fallen for this and had been dismissed when things got ugly after their office fling but Neera had steered clear, much to Kurt’s relief.