Garvey's Revenge

Chapter 18

It was 10:13 p.m. David lay in bed waiting for Danielle to come back upstairs with whip cream. They started their online show at 10:45. David and Danielle had been having sex and filming it for an online site for two years.

The 2008 crash had really hurt David's financial management business. They had struggled to pay their household bills. They had also got behind on the mortgage. They had tried to refinance, but their credit score was shot because of late payments on credit card minimums and other bills. David did accounting for the local church, but that didn't pay enough.

Out of desperation, Danielle had started looking for a job online. She came across a Craigslist ad that asked for couple's to have sex on camera. The site splits half the proceeds with the talent. The more live shows they did, the more they got paid. David hadn't wanted to do it. He had been afraid of the wrong people finding out, and then their reputations would be in the gutter. Danielle had told him that they didn't have the luxury of caring about what people thought. They were two steps away from losing their house. David had agreed to try it.

It wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. They had agreed to do it long enough to catch up on the bills. David smiled at the memory of the naïve plan. Their finances were better now than they were before the crash. His financial business had picked back up, but the economy was still a little slow. Even if it wasn't, they weren't going to stop doing live shows. It paid well and they discovered that it made the sex better knowing that they were being watched. When Bonnie had her dominatrix business, she would join them sometimes. They would role play when she had joined them. Their fans had loved it when Bonnie made a cameo. Unfortunately, she had refused to do it anymore since DA Jacobs professed his love for her and demanded she stop.

David stood up and looked at the laptop. There were 184 guests signed in to watch them. That wasn't bad for a Tuesday night. The numbers went up the closer they got to the weekend. They had 5,000 logins on average per week.

David looked down at the clock on the computer. He realized that Danielle had been gone for twenty minutes. "What the hell is keeping her? It's not like she had to go to the store and buy whip cream."

He opened the door to the bedroom and walked into the hall. "Danielle," he called. Dead silence. Maybe she was still in the kitchen. He descended the stairs. He stopped before he reached the last three steps. David swore he could hear heavy breathing.

The lamplight came on. David's eyes bulged at the sight that awaited him. A pale man dressed in all black stood behind Danielle. His hand was pressed against her mouth so hard that Danielle's back was pressed against her captor. He had the tip of a butcher knife to her jugular. The man had no eyebrows and he was bald. He had piercing blue eyes. Tears streamed down Danielle's round face.

A skinny guy with a smooth, square face emerged from the kitchen. He pointed a barrel of a python at David. He looked familiar. The sting of recognition hit his neck. "Paul?" David asked, shocked.

Paul Ernstein smiled, showing straight teeth. The last time David saw Paul, he wore glasses, had acne, and his teeth were crooked and pale yellow.

"He looks good, doesn't he?" a familiar voice said from the shadows in the corner of the living room.

David's heartbeat thudded in his chest as he feared who it might be. He didn't have to guess for long as the dreaded thought came to reality by stepping into the light.

"It's amazing what a couple of trips to an ophthalmologist, a dermatologist, and a dentist can do for a man," Marty Schaffer said as he stepped out of the corner. "Damn near didn't recognize Paul myself when I first saw him again."