Masters & Lovers Box Set Three
Chapter 47
Michael
Klempner is, as usual, waiting as we arrive. From his seat, behind the barrier, he watches me enter with Charlotte. He looks rough; shadows under his eyes and he's lost weight.
The guard, Hartland, is there. He leans down, whispers close by my ear. “If it looks like trouble, just say the word.”
“I will.”
Then he straightens up and levels his baton towards Klempner. “Behave yourself, Larry.”
Klempner looks up, just barely tilts his head in acknowledgement. But I remember the look he gave Hartwell the last time we were here…
The monster stirring…
Klempner watches as James follows us in, letting out a barely audible sigh as he sits.
“That leg giving you trouble?”
James reply is curt. “Cold, damp weather.” But I hear his surprise at the question lurking behind the words.
Klempner fingers a long white scar on his hand. “It can't have been pleasant when Bech shot you. Tell me, do you remember it happening?”
James’ eyes shoot arrows. “What's it to you?”
“If you had just discovered you have a daughter, don't you think you would want to know something about the man she answers to?”
James shifts. Not much and perhaps not visibly to those who didn't know him, but I see it.
Unsettled?
“I didn't remember it at first, no,” he says. “The memory resurfaced after a few months.”
Klempner raises a flat, mirror gaze to him. “The memory was repressed?”
“Apparently.”
Klempner has a plastic cup of water by him. He takes a long mouthful, then sets it down again. “Interesting,” he says, “how the mind protects itself.”
What the hell’s he talking about?
Between me and James, Charlotte sits, shuffling awkwardly. Klempner chews at his upper lip. The pair regard each other in silence for a long minute then Charlotte finally speaks. “Thank you for sending the necklace.”
In restrained tones, “You’re welcome.” His eyes dip to her collar bone. “It suits you. As it did your mother.”
Charlotte swallows and lapses into silence again.
This could take a while…
After another long pause, Klempner says, “Are you going to ask me about your mother? That’s what you usually do.”
Charlotte fidgets then blurts, “I don’t even know what to call you.”
Klempner blows air. Looks down. Looks up. Then, “I suppose Dad is too much to hope for?”
James huffs and Klempner levels a stare at him. Then, “What do you want to call me?”
Charlotte’s voice would cut glass. “Don't tempt me.”
He coughs a laugh with no humour in it. “They know me as Larry around here. You can call me Larry.”
“What's your real name?”
“What?” He seems genuinely taken aback by the question.
I don’t think it’s Klempner. I think you've probably gone by a lot of names. In
name. I left that behind when I was fourteen.
“And Larry?”
was
“Your mother?”
have
wanted
taps a fingernail on the
“What was she like?”
freeze a basilisk. “Why
my… father… then she's my grandmother. I’m trying to find out who my family were… are…. You told me that your father beat you. I wondered what your mother was like. Did she let him do
“No, she didn’t.” Klempner’s
He looks haunted…
“Tell me about her.”
“I barely remember her.”
what you
one
What going on?
elbows on the counter. “You said you killed
He was a violent man. It was him or
“He beat you?”
it. Used his fists. When I was small, he used my mother as a punch-bag. Later, it
speaks. Klempner jerks his chin up. “It’s not a pleasant story. You
“Yes.”
table. He was drunk. Throwing
special. Not a bread knife or a meat knife. Just the kind you’d use to eat your eggs or scrape butter onto bread. But it’s what was in my hand. I stabbed him. I sank it into his chest. It went between his ribs and he dropped
and falls; rises and falls. “Did you enjoy it?”
from the beating he’d
“Where to?”
“At first just out… Then, out of town. Then I didn’t know what to do. I considered joining the army. You know the kind of thing. ‘Learn skills. Become a man.’ But I was too young, and
interrupts. “They wouldn’t have jailed you. Not for defending yourself. And you
age? I’d run a knife into a man and watched
Charlotte’s face goes slack…
Jenkins…
of what happened to her at
thought she’d killed
She ran…
And she kept running…
long as
leans forward.
a
“Those were dangerous places to
is languid, almost bored, but his gaze holds steady to
breaks in. “What were you
her, then back
“There’s always a war to be found in that
over for a moment, then refocuses. “You were a
“I was. Yes.”
would you do
“It’s a living.”
“But it’s so dangerous.”
tilts. “Compared
to….” She holds…
of advice, for what it is worth to you. If you find yourself in a
You wouldn’t have said all that unless you wanted me to know. Why did you stay
says, a touch of asperity in his
Read Masters & Lovers Box Set Three Chapter 47 - The hottest series of the author Simone Leigh
In general, I really like the genre of stories like Masters & Lovers Box Set Three stories so I read extremely the book. Now comes Chapter 47 with many extremely book details. I can't get out of reading! Read the Masters & Lovers Box Set Three Chapter 47 story today. ^^