The Skull Man: Part 6

DANTE

If there was one thing his mother taught him it was to never come in between a girl and her best friend. Friendship was sacred to women. Dante didn't bother trying to understand it. Which was why he didn't think it odd when Elle showed up at his estate, frantically searching for Hazel no less than an hour later. There was a hint of desperation in her eyes when he let her inside his home, which he chalked up to just her being worried about her friend sleep-walking in the middle of the night. He didn't like having strangers in his home. But he'd have to make an exception this time. For Hazel's sake. Whatever was going on with her, she obviously couldn't be left alone for too long.

"She's asleep," Dante announced to his guest as she took her coat off and practically threw it at him. He'd have glared at her if she weren't already ignoring his words and walking up the steps to his bedroom.

"How do you know where my bedroom is?" he asked sharply, after hanging her coat on the rack and catching up to her on the steps.

"You're a paranoid man, Mr. Jones. Sleeping upstairs would give you the advantage of getting ahead of your burglars during a home invasion." Elle explained as she moved passed him, and looked down both hallways that would lead to the east and west wings of his home. When she decided on the east wing, he swallowed hard as his suspicious nature began to consume him. Elle Dubois gave him the same bitter taste in his mouth every single member of law enforcement did. They all had the same haunted eyes and he'd bet his left arm she was nothing other than a nosy cop.

Shit. How could he not have picked up on it sooner?

He didn't have a good relationship with the authorities, and with good reason. They put him, an innocent man, in prison for a crime he didn't commit based on falsified evidence. The detectives in charge of his case back then had been on someone's payroll and when Trevor had asked to speak to them, they suspiciously ended up dying of natural causes a week before the process of exonerating him began.

If The Skull Man was anything, he was thorough.

He found Elle sitting beside Hazel, brushing strands of hair away from her face as she slept against his pillows. It was a mistake letting her sleep in his bed, where her scent would linger on his pillows and he'd have no choice but to think of her while he took care of the boner she would no doubt cause before she left in the morning.

"She's snoring," Elle observed with bewilderment and Dante rested against his opened doorway, staring at the two women in his bed. Not the scenario he thought about often in prison, but it felt nice to hear someone else's voice but his own in here.

"Is that a good thing?" he added, as he watched Elle stand up from his bed and head in his direction.

"For me, yes. For her, absolutely not," she replied, her expression conflicted as she locked the door from the outside before closing it behind her.

"Explain," Dante insisted as he cornered her against the door. She didn't seem intimidated by his size. Not that she should be. If he was going to accept Hazel back into his life, even as just a friend, he was going to have to get used to the cop as well. And vice versa.

"You got coffee? I'm running low on caffeine," Elle asked, biting her lower lip as she looked up at him. Dante had a feeling caffeine wasn't the only thing she was running low on, but he was going to stay as far away from that topic as possible.

"I don't have any drugs in my house if that's what you're asking for, officer." he informed her, and watched her eyes burst with amusement as she smiled.

"Figured out my secret, huh? What gave it away?"

"I trust my gut. And it doesn't seem to like you much, which mainly happens around cops like you."

"Or you resent law enforcement in general because your father preferredprosecuting criminals in court instead of spending time with you and your mother," she corrected him confidently, and while she was partially right, he didn't want to give her the satisfaction of knowing that. Fortunately for him, she just admitted to him what kind of cop she was without knowing it and he planned on using it to his advantage.

"What's going on with Hazel? Why is she sleep walking again?" he reverted back to the original conversation and watched her smug smile change into an earnest expression.

"Coffee first." she repeated, crossing her arms defiantly. Dante grumbled underneath his breath and lead her back downstairs and into the kitchen. He reached for the container of coffee powder and before he could open it, Elle snatched it out of his hands impatiently, taking over as he suspected she did alot in just about every aspect of her life. He knew it must be exhausting for her to be so uptight all the time.

"So, about Hazel..." Dante resumed their conversation as she sat across from him on the kitchen table after her coffee was done and she poured herself some in his favorite mug. She did it on purpose, out of spite. The woman had no sense of boundaries and he wondered how many guys she had scared away with her assertive personality. Or if she used it to provoke them into confession instead.

"Long or short version?" she offered after taking a sip from her steaming cup of coffee. She barely flinched when her tongue burned and it somehow made him like her a little more. Not that he'd ever tell her that.

"Whatever works. I just want to know what to do next time she shows up here." Dante responded casually, leaning back against his chair, spreading his thighs a bit as he got comfortable. He also noticed her eyes taking a look at his lower body as well, and he ignored that too.

"Her mind doesn't work like yours, or mine for that matter. There are a lot of twists and turns in there and she could've gone her entire life without unleashing it but the fact of the matter is, Mr. Jones," she began, taking another sip of her coffee, then looked at the ceiling above them, "you have a psychopath sleeping in your bed," she finished. Dante stared at her, completely stunned by her statement as a slight chill ran down his spine.

"Before you freak out, there are two types of psychopaths I've come across so far in my line of work. There's the obvious maniac who can't help but reach for that knife every time he can't get it up. Then there's the invisible psychopath, the one you never see coming because their need to kill is dormant right up until someone makes them unleash that rage inside of them."

"She'd never hurt anyone," Dante defended firmly as he stood up, running his fingers through his hair. His heart began to pound as he tried to recall every single moment he spent with Hazel when they were dating, to see if she displayed any kind of sign that would validate what this woman was saying.

"Then why do you look so worried, Dante?" Elle questioned, and he looked at her sharply. She was daring him to argue with her but deep down, he knew there had always been something odd about Hazel's side of the story when it came to the Skull Man, such as what had caused her to leave with him to begin with. She'd been smart enough to tell the sheriff or her parents what was going on at the time. But she didn't. She went with him willingly. His gut had been telling him that since the day she went missing, and he didn't know if he could handle what was left to uncover about his high school sweetheart.

"The sleep walking, does it have anything to do with her condition?" he changed the subject, then sat back down to wait for her answer.

"Yes. In her subconscious, she's still that fourteen year old girl. And since she can't find the truth in her memories, her body goes out to search for it in her sleep. Only there's no telling what kind of triggers will cause her to snap. Carter and I have spent years trying to figure it out but tonight, she remembered something. She took me up to a cabin near Leech Lake and I'm almost sure that's where he kept her."

"What makes you say that?"

"Because she had this look in her eye, like she was afraid of what she might do once she went in. We were out there alone, and I didn't want to take the chance she might have a mental breakdown. But the fact that she showed up here not too long after that, makes me question your part in all this, Dante. Did you help the Skull Man break her?"

"You've been profiling me since we met. I'm curious to hear the answer from your mouth." Dante challenged her and when she leaned in closer to him, barely an inch away from his lips, he didn't move, letting her know she couldn't scare him away so easily.

"I think you're one of her triggers. Her nightmares got worse once she heard news of your exoneration. Carter had to leave town to catch his breath and all because she wouldn't stop saying your name in her sleep." Elle admitted, still staring him down. Dante cocked his head to the side as he noticed her mouth twitch and it made him raise an eyebrow.

"You sound jealous, Elle. Are you and Carter fucking behind Hazel's back?" he countered with a sharpness that made her glare at him and he knew he truck a nerve.

"Did you know there's been eight murders since they announced they were setting you free? The Skull Man might've taught her how to kill, but you're the reason why she goes through with it." Elle baited for his anger, standing before him, but she wouldn't get to him that easily. He'd been beaten down by worse bullies in prison.

"Then arrest us. You have your suspects right in your hands, do something about it," he alleged, standing up from his chair once again. Her nostrils were flaring from the anger as she stormed away from him, ending up on the other side of the kitchen.

"I can't," she said after a moment and when he approached her and placed his hands on either side of her head on the wall behind her, he tipped her chin up so she'd look at him.

"Tell me why, Elle."

"Because you're on opposite sides of the same coin. Neither of you would hurt anyone unless you absolutely had to. You, in self-defense. In her case, its a tad bit more severe, but you get my point."

"Are you going to help me get her out of this mess or not?" Dante asked the exhausted cop in front of him and she pondered for a moment before she answered.

"Funny you should ask, because I think we're the only ones who can."

After Dante convinced Elle to stay until morning, when the storm let up, he grabbed an extra blanket from the linen closet, and took the chair right by his bedside table. Hazel was still sound asleep in his bed, no tossing or turning, no sleep-talking, just the soft purring sound of her snoring in the room. He settled into his chair, wrapping the blanket over him as he closed his eyes and tried to forget the fact that Elle might've been right about Hazel's condition. And if that were the case, he was fucked. He'd be stuck between turning her in, or keeping her secrets and right now, he wasn't sure what the right thing to do was.

When his thoughts finally began to quiet down and he felt himself slipping into a deep slumber, Hazel stirred awake and he kept his gaze on her, watching her every move. She looked around the dark room first, then blinked a few times before her eyes settled on him.

No words were spoken, but Dante couldn't help himself. He stood up and climbed right into bed with her, keeping a distance just in case she felt threatened. Psychopath or not, she was still important to him.

"I've done bad things. I know it," Hazel murmured groggily as she rubbed her eyes with her knuckles, then looked to him for absolution. She was still in her dream state, sounding like the same fourteen year old girl Elle claimed her subconscious couldn't help but turn to. Dante couldn't ignore the horrific things she could be capable of. He also knew the Skull Man had made a mistake in taking her underneath his wing as an apprentice.

What better way to track a psychopath than to use another?

"It's okay. We're going to fix you," Dante whispered, and hoped his words registered in her mind somehow. He froze when he felt her cold hands touched his bare chest and an alarm went off in his mind. The letter the Skull Man sent him, he mentioned something about lives being taken by her cold hands.

What if he had been talking about Hazel?

Before he could start asking all the questions that were running through his brain, Hazel found his lips in the darkness, as if she knew her kiss would stop all thoughts from forming, then he decided to pull away before the kiss got any deeper. He needed her to be fully awake and aware of what she was doing if she intended on going through with this.

"Hazel, I need you to wake up now," he stated in a firm but strained voice. His cock was telling him to forget everything he had learned about Hazel tonight and take what his body obviously wanted. His brain on the other hand, was in a constant battle of wrong and right and he wondered why it was always stuck on the ladder wherever Hazel was concerned.

"I'm wide awake, Dante. I don't just go around kissing random people in the dark." Her sarcasm was a sign of lucidity and Dante proceeded in capturing her lips once again. A kiss turned into grinding, and grinding turned into heavy pants and heated skin. Their bodies were craving cool air and one by one, every piece of clothing that stood in between them, were lying on his bedroom floor. He pinned her body beneath him as he got used to the feeling of her exposed skin on his again. He'd be lying if he said he didn't know they'd end up back here, her plush body underneath him, while the wetness between her legs begged for him to fuck her. He could feel the warmth and soft flesh of her slick folds as he rubbed the tip of his cock on her opening, but he wouldn't drive into her just yet. He needed to make sure she was on the pill. He never got a chance to ask her the first they had done this, ten years ago.

"Are you sure you want me to..." he started but barely finished asking the question when the soles of her feet dug into his lower back, causing him to slip straight into her and forget how to speak.

"I can't have any kids. If that's what you're worried about," Hazel explained softly into his ear and although the confession filled him with sadness for her, it erased some of the hesitation that stopped him from unleashing ten years of sexual frustration.

He plunged deep into her core as he took her lips again, grinding into her pelvis slowly, while he tried to contain his urge to get rougher. Hazel took notice and wrapped her thighs tighter around his waist, encouraging him to continue. While his tongue toyed with hers, his thumb rubbed at her slippery clit and he quickened his thrusts. He felt his balls grow tight and his shaft swell within her wet walls, which made him drive into her faster, her nails scratching at his back as she whimpered out his name, just as her orgasm flowed through her. As soon as he heard that sweet moan of hers, he grabbed a hold of his headboard, and he pounded right up against her g-spot and exploded deep inside of her in a few rough thrusts, filling her with every drop of come he had saved up for her during his time in prison.

"God, what are you doing to me?" he asked the woman who laid beneath him as he stared into her sleepy eyes and cursed at himself for not thinking this through.

"Nothing you couldn't handle, Dante Jones."