Intimate Friends

By Karen Marie

Haley Martin has suffered a huge personal loss with the death of her father, and the surprise information he gave her. She does not cope with it all very well, and develops a strained relationship with her mother. She lives in LA and manages to fail her first job as a police officer due to her alcoholism, which served as a coping mechanism. To clear her head, Haley decides to take a vacation and travels to Louisiana.

While visiting Louisianas sites, she meets the love of her life, Theodore Stockley. She begins to remember how good it felt to laugh and starts to enjoy life again. Theo is a mysterious but wealthy and influential man in Louisiana. Louisiana and Theo seemed to be what she needs to jumpstart her life back into gear. Having found what she thought was true love, Haley feels inspired and opens up a detective agency, only to find out that Theo is unable to commit to one woman.

After experiencing the frustration and disappointment of her relationship, Haley returns to LA and dives into a trail of lovers while trying to keep her business afloat. Her detective agency opens up a new and different episode of her life and leads her to meet some unsavory characters with a new case that she acquires. The leads of the case are exciting, but this causes her to travel down some roads that she is not quite sure she should have followed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 24, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524652111

Book preview

Chapter 1

W hen I woke up I could see that it was still dark outside. My head was throbbing due to all of the drinking I had done the night before. It seems like I remember less and less every time I go out and drink like that. I was lying there trying to recap the activities of the night when I realized that I was not in the bed alone. I turned and looked to see who was lying next to me, and I didn’t know. I immediately got up and walked around to the other side of the bed so I could see his face. This man did not look familiar. He was a nice looking man, but I just didn’t recognize him. I looked around on the floor for his pants amidst the clothes that were there to see if I could find his wallet to get his name from some I.D. I looked through his wallet and found his driver’s license, Rafael Gardner—I don’t know who the hell this man is. I put his wallet back in his pocket and looked around the room.

Our clothes were all over the place. I could see a fifth of Tequila on the nightstand that was mostly gone and two glasses. From the way my head feels, I must have drunk a good majority of it. Condom wrappers are on the floor near the wastebasket, and low and behold used condoms in there as well. Well, that’s a relief. In my drunken stupor at least I had sense enough to have him use condoms. I went to the bathroom and when I looked in the mirror, I didn’t like what I saw. What is wrong with me? This has been happening way too often. A shower would feel really good right now, but I will hold off until he leaves. After trying to make myself look refreshed, and quickly washing up in the sink, I quietly came out of the bathroom. I didn’t know if I wanted to wake him up because I didn’t know what kind of person he was. I needed to think, so I let him sleep.

I headed to the kitchen, quietly picking up our clothes as I walked in that direction, to make some coffee. I was still trying to remember what I did last night. As I was standing at the kitchen sink, Mr. Gardner walked up behind me and kissed me on the neck. I really didn’t know how I was supposed to respond. Good morning gorgeous, how are you?

I turned around and looked at him, and sidestepped his embrace. He really was nice looking. I’m feeling a bit hung over from last night. I thought I would make us some coffee, but if you have to leave, I understand.

He stood there looking quite good in his boxer shorts, and chiseled abs. He had a look on his unshaven face as if I had hurt his feelings.

If you want me to leave Haley, I will. I was hoping that we could spend some more time together. Last night was great, but we really didn’t get to talk that much. I like you; I don’t want this to just be about sex.

Hmmm… A man who wants to talk, that’s something new. Well, I didn’t want you to feel compelled to stay. It wasn’t like we had planned this, so it is ok if you have to leave.

He sat down at the kitchen table and looked at me. Haley, I get the feeling that you are a bit uncomfortable with me here. I’ll go, but I really don’t want to. I think we need to talk about last night. We both had quite a bit to drink. You can be honest with me.

I didn’t know if I could be honest with him or not, I don’t remember a damn thing. Should I be that honest and tell him that. Maybe he has drugged me? But then, why would he want to hang around. You look confused, he continued. How about I cook us breakfast if you have anything in the fridge, and we can chat? You can ask me anything you want. I was hungry, and it might help get rid of this dreadful hangover. Rafael looked in the fridge; I didn’t have any food in there. I poured us both a cup of coffee, and we talked for a while. Rafael was a Stock Broker, single, and no children. He was an all around nice guy. He asked me to call him again, but I decided that a one-night stand should stay just that. After he left, I never contacted or saw him again.

This encounter was not the beginning of my drinking so heavily, it all started after my father died. I was very close to my dad, and treasured all the moments that we managed to spend together. I enjoyed doing things with my dad, he would take me places, and most of the time it would just be the two of us. Even though I was a girl, my dad taught me how to play baseball. I could catch better than most of the boys who lived on my block. I didn’t participate in many sports at school. I was always very prissy. Whenever I did decide to engage in sports activities the coaches at school, and the team would be really surprised at how well I could play.

Despite our closeness, my father had a dark secret that he revealed to me on his deathbed. He had kept his secret away from me all the while he was alive. Why he waited until he was dying to share with me that he had a son named Alex was beyond me. My father always worked very hard, and after I found out about his 2nd family a lot of things that he use to do started to make sense. He would always volunteer to do all of the grocery shopping, and would take me with him. He was always buying double of whatever he bought except for a few items. When we would bag up the groceries he made sure the items were separated. Once we made it home we never took all of the groceries in the house. Soon after we took everything in and put it away, he would always have an errand he had to run. He always spent holidays at home with us, but in the evenings he would have to go do a small job that he had promised someone.

Once I found out about my father’s son Alex, a lot of things my dad did started to make sense. My father had always worked two jobs, odd jobs, whatever he could do to bring money into the house. My mother didn’t seem to suffer, or want for anything and neither did I. My dad always came home at night. After he died, I often wondered if my mother ever knew about Alex. She seemed to have a sixth sense about some things, but wouldn’t always speak about them. She was not a big complainer. One of her favorite statements was everything you discover, you don’t talk about. Some things are better left not mentioned. I’m thinking this was one of those things that she was talking about.

Now that I know, I’m surprised that I hadn’t figured out before that my dad was living a double-life. After he told me about Alex, he asked me to forgive him. When he told me, I felt so betrayed by him. I immediately developed a strong hatred for his other child even before I met him. For no reason at all, I blamed Alex for my dad’s death, and I felt that he was slowly tearing my family apart. How could my dad live the lie he did for that many years without sharing that with me? I shared everything with him. He asked me to promise him that I would look out for Alex. He said that he was worried that he was going to get into trouble, and that I always seemed to have my head on straight. Once my father died, I felt like he had really deserted me, and I started going through several jobs and drinking heavily.

Eventually, Alex and I got to know each other quite well, and I was determined to honor my father’s request by keeping an eye on him. There seemed to be an immediate connection between us. Alex was a few years younger than me, and looked a lot like my dad. He had a very mature way about himself. We didn’t see each other often, but if we ever needed one another, we knew that we could count on each other. As time passed, I grew to love Alex, as I’m sure my father would have wanted. He became my confidant, and because of my reckless behavior he was looking out for me as much as I was for him.

After my father died, I had a few security jobs, and worked part-time with a Detective Agency. I didn’t hold on to any job for a long period of time; I seemed to have lost my sense of direction. I had applied to college and started taking courses, but became very interested in Criminal Law. I always had an interest in being on the police force, and had spoken to Alex about it on numerous occasions. Alex, encouraged me to apply. I took the exam and passed it. While working with the Police Department, I learned to handle a gun quite well during the few years that I was on the force. I was spending a great deal of time practicing at the range, and became very friendly with the owner.

I loved working as a Police Officer, but the loss of my dad still weighed heavily on my heart. When I went home after work, I was drinking to try to relieve the pain from him being gone. I had developed an intimate relationship with one of the officers, and he turned out to be a cheat and a very abusive boyfriend. I finally came to my senses and broke it off with him. Some mornings when I went to work I was still intoxicated. After several talks with my Captain with him trying to encourage me to get some help, he eventually pulled me in the office and encouraged me to resign so he wouldn’t have to fire me. Thanks to him, I left there with a clean record. I didn’t really have a desire for anything else but law enforcement. I took a break to clear my head, and went to Louisiana for what was supposed to be a short vacation. While I was there I developed an intimate relationship with someone who encouraged me to stay there for a while. In the beginning, our relationship seemed to be just what the doctor ordered. During the time I was there, I had fallen in love, I slowed down on the drinking, and I managed to start my own detective agency. I had developed a short list of clients while I was there, but the relationship went sour and I returned to L.A.

I was really devastated over the break-up; I thought I had found someone I could be with for life. I enjoyed having my own detective agency, so I searched for a new office in L.A. I found a nice store-front and re-opened my business. While I was gone, Alex had enrolled in college. Besides the courses he was taking, he really got into bodybuilding. Alex had a very intimidating look, and periodically I would use him on some of my cases. He proved to be very beneficial with some of my cases. To make extra cash he hired himself out as a fitness trainer. He was good at it, and stayed on me about my physical shape. Whenever he worked with me, he was relentless with trying to get me into the gym, or work-out in the office.

Word had spread about my agency, and my case-load began to pick up. I was hired to investigate a spouse of a top political official. The husband thought that his wife was up to something, but he just didn’t know what. He encouraged his wife to hire me on as her special assistant. This helped me to get to know her better, and to see who was coming and going through her office. The business classes I took in college came in handy, and prevented me from being a complete idiot when it came to certain things. I had access to her appointments, and after a few weeks Mrs. Rensford started to confide in me.

After I left the office in the afternoons, I started going to a bar not far from my apartment, and resumed my drinking. It was starting to get a bit out of hand, but I couldn’t stop. One evening after a heavy night of drinking, I woke up once again and didn’t remember the previous night. There was a strange man in my bed when I woke up. I had bruises on my arms and my legs, and my insides were sore. I didn’t know what had happened; I looked over at him, and didn’t recognize him. I tried to get up out of bed without waking him, but wasn’t that lucky. My instincts were telling me that this was a huge mistake.

When the man woke up, he wanted to start over whatever we had done the night before. He was a pretty big guy, and I was still intoxicated. He drug himself out of bed, and I immediately asked him to leave. He started grabbing and choking me. I told him to stop, and asked him again to leave. He started to slap me around. Every time he slapped me, I was falling to the floor. I looked for something to grab to hit him with, but I didn’t see anything. Everything was happening so fast; he knocked the chair over to get to me and he grabbed me by my hair and picked me up off of the floor and slapped me again. By this time blood was running down my face. He punched me in my stomach, and threw me onto the bed. I repeatedly asked him to stop.

You invited me up here bitch, and I want some more of what I was invited here to get. You were all into it last night while you were deep-throating my dick.

Besides him being so much stronger than I was, I was too out of it to get him off of me. I managed to get in a few licks, but I think it only served to piss him off even more. He was holding my arms so tight, it felt like he was going to break them. After struggling with him for several minutes, he managed to keep me restrained and he raped me. With every stroke that he made inside of me, I was feeling intense pain. He was so large, and when he was finished with me I felt like he tried to mangle my insides. Once he finally got off of me, he went in the bathroom and when he came out he started gathering his things to leave. I was left lying on the bed balled up in the fetal position wincing with pain, hoping he would just leave. While he slithered out of the door, he paused and turned to look at me. I know you will remember me, when I fuck a bitch, she never forgets it. See you next time baby.

I was hurting so bad I couldn’t even respond to him. I could feel the blood running down my face from my nose, and down my legs. I really didn’t want to say anything that would make him turn around and start all over again. He walked out of the door, and left it wide open. I didn’t want to call the police, because I assumed that I invited him into my apartment. My mouth was sore, and I was barely able to speak. I was able to put my robe on and pull the covers up over me.

After lying there for a few minutes I realized I needed someone there. I couldn’t get up out of bed. My phone was on the night stand, I grabbed it, and called Alex. In what seemed like forever, Alex finally came through the door. He just stood there looking around the room and stared at me shaking his head. My God Haley, what happened?

I tried to look up at him. I was with this guy last night, and we were drinking. It got out of control. I kept telling him to stop, and it seemed like the more I told him to stop, the more he kept hitting me. I’m sorry to call you Alex, but I just didn’t have anyone else to call. He raped me Alex, he was hurting me so bad. The tears started to roll down my cheeks while I told Alex what happened.

He went into the kitchen and got a large bowl and filled it with water; he grabbed a towel out of the closet and sat on the bed next to me. It’s not a problem with you calling me whenever you need me, sis. You have to stop this; you are going to kill yourself with all of this drinking, and picking up crazy men. I know that we didn’t grow up together, but you are a significant part of my life now. I love you, and I don’t want to see anything happen to you. You do know doing stuff like this is not going to bring dad back, or take away the pain you feel from your break-up with Theo. Dad would be so upset with you if he were here. Did you call the police? Where is your gun anyway?

I heard what Alex said, and all of his questions, it all made a lot of sense. No, I only called you, I didn’t want the embarrassment of someone I knew coming here to take the report. I know that they would say that I had let him in, so any case I would have would be weak. My gun is in the safe. I don’t carry it most of the time, so I keep it in the safe.

Alex started wiping some of the blood off of my face, and decided to stop. Can you get up? You need to go get in the tub. My eyes were closed, I was concentrating on the pain I was in. I could hear him in the bathroom, and the water was running. He came back into the room, Let’s see if you can stand.

Alex was an angel. He helped me stand up, but my ribs and my insides were hurting so bad I couldn’t stand up straight. Alex carried me into the bathroom, and set me on the chair by the tub. It felt really good to have someone I knew who truly cared about me to hold me closely at this moment. He had run some bath water for me, and looked under my cabinet and found some Epsom Salts and bubble bath. He poured both in the tub. He was a great brother, and I’m sure one day would make someone a great husband. Once there was enough water in the tub, Alex helped me stand up; I couldn’t stand up straight it hurt so badly.

I can manage from here. I mumbled.

Haley, you don’t have anything that I haven’t seen before. Let me get you in the tub. When he took my bathrobe off he gasped. Oh Haley! Seriously sis, you have got to stop. You haven’t seen all the bruises on your body; no wonder you can’t stand up straight. You really need to go to the hospital.

I carefully stepped into the tub. Every movement I made was causing pain to surge through my body. Once I sat down, the water and the bubbles felt really good. No Alex, I hadn’t looked in the mirror. Is it that bad, or are you being a mother hen?

Yes, it is that bad; mother hen or not Haley. Alex went into the other room, while I soaked in the tub. I knew that he was just concerned, and a bit angry with me. He was right, it felt really good to wash away the smell of the guy I was with, and wash some of the blood off of my body. While I was soaking in the tub, Alex straightened up my room, and took the sheets off of my bed. I was glad he was here. What would I have done if my dad had died and never told me about him? I would have missed out on a great relationship with my little brother, and someone who truly cares about me.

I asked Alex to call Mrs. Rensford and tell her that I had been mugged; that seemed like a story that would be believable, and get a little sympathy out of her. I took the next few weeks off. I stayed in my apartment and once I could stand up straight, I cleaned it top to bottom. Alex came back to check on me, and if he couldn’t he called. I couldn’t find my keys, so I called a locksmith. I definitely didn’t want that last guy to come back and let himself in.

I checked my phone messages, and there were a few requests from prospective clients, which would be easy to do from home with the computer. I took a few of the minor cases so that I could put a little money in my pocket. I’m always grateful for the cases that are easy, but I usually go to the office just the same. Once my face cleared up, you could barely see the marks on the rest of my body. I was starting to feel better and I decided I could go back to Mrs. Rensford’s office, hopefully without being questioned to death. I went back and got back on the case. Mrs. Rensford was glad to see me back, and kept me pretty busy for the first couple of days. She questioned me a little, but seemed to be content with my story of being mugged. I thought she had a temp come in to keep up with the work, but it appeared that she did not. I stayed late for a few nights, and by the second week I had finally caught up with everything. I was feeling like my old self again.

Mrs. Rensford is a criminal law attorney, and had another attorney that came in to work with her frequently. Clarence Quigley seemed to do some of the legwork that Mrs. Rensford didn’t want to do. He was there quite often, and I was starting to suspect him. He was always well dressed whenever he came into the office, and had impeccable manners. This day, he seemed to be extra attentive to me. Well good morning Haley, you look as pretty as ever. I understand you were mugged. Is everything ok?

Thank you Mr. Quigley, it’s very nice to see you. I didn’t have much money on me, but they took what I had. I’m ok."

Oh please call me Clarence. We have seen enough of each other to drop the formalities. I’m glad you are ok. It’s just not safe anywhere these days.

I looked at him wondering what he had up his sleeve. He was awfully chatty today. I’m not sure Mrs. Rensford would approve Mr. Quigley; I think I’d better stick to being formal.

He nodded his head. Well, that is understandable in the office, but outside of this office, and away from Mrs. Rensford please call me Clarence. I was wondering if we could meet for cocktails one day after work. How about this evening or tomorrow?

I didn’t know what he was up to, but I guess I could find out. I would love to meet you. I don’t have plans this evening; is there some place special you had in mind? My female intuition told me that he had some place already picked out; I was just being polite and waited to hear where.

As a matter of fact I do. I’ll give you the address; it’s a quaint little bar in a hotel. I think you will like it. They have food there also, if you are hungry when we get there. I’ll meet you at 5:30 if that is ok?

I smiled; 5:30 is fine. Mrs. Rensford is ready to see you now Mr. Quigley, please go on in. I was glad he left. I really believe he is doing something with Mrs. Rensford that Mr. Rensford would not approve of at all. Maybe I can squeeze some information out of him tonight.

Quigley wasn’t with Mrs. Rensford as long as he usually was today. He waved as he strolled out of the office. I wrapped up what little Mrs. Rensford gave me to do, and left to go for my date. I thought about Quigley on the way to meet him, and remembered that he was not a bad looking man. Thinking about him made me realize how horny I was. I don’t want to let that get the best of me, and do something I’ll regret with him. Clarence Quigley was accurate in describing the little bar. It was quite quaint. When I arrived he had already acquired a table for us, and had a bottle of wine at the table. He could have waited; how did he know that I wanted wine. He was looking as charming as ever, and the dim lights accentuated his sexiness.

When I walked over to the table he stood up Haley, I’m so glad that you made it. I was hoping that you didn’t have a change of heart.

I smiled. Mr. Quigley, I usually try to keep my word. Some days, that is all you have.

Once I sat down, I started to wonder more about his reason for inviting me for a drink. I ordered a bottle of wine Haley, but if you would like something else, please feel free to order it. That was more than I expected. He is always a gentleman.

Well thank you Mr. Quigley, I think I will have some wine.

He poured some wine in my glass. Haley, we are away from the office now, please call me Clarence.

I’m sorry Clarence, I will do my best. Quigley turned out to be quite the conversationalist. Not only was he intelligent and sexy, he could talk about something besides work. Neither one of us had eaten lunch so we ordered a light dinner. We talked and drank. I was enjoying his company. We finished our food and continued to talk. I don’t know who was getting more intoxicated, him or me. He was very easy to talk to, and had a tremendous sense of humor. We finished off the first bottle of wine, and he immediately ordered a second. He talked a bit about his work with Mrs. Rensford, and said that she was demanding more of his time than he felt was necessary. He slipped up and said that there were other things that she wanted from him that he really didn’t like her well enough to give up, but had done so reluctantly. So, you don’t enjoy working with Mrs. Rensford as closely as you do Clarence?

He was beginning to slur his words. "Frankly, I would prefer for her to email me what she wants, or give it to you and have you contact me. I could do the work without spending so much time with her. She has practically tried to blackmail me into having sex with her. I’ve given in a couple of times, but I have to put a stop to it. She’s not a bad looking woman, but she has a husband, and some business people that