Micah by Kathi S. Barton Read Free Book Online

is.”
    “ I do. Speaking of which,
I saw that she’s working with another male. Did you want me to go
there and take care of him for you? I wouldn’t mind. I could use
another healthy specimen for my own work.” His brother would too,
go in and take the man out for him; but not yet, he told him.
“Whenever you decide, let me know. I have the equipment to subdue
him nicely.”
    His brother had been a surgeon in his
younger days, a very good one that had been exalted as one of the
greatest in the world. But then something had happened to him, to
both of them really. Their mother had died.
    She’d been a strong person in their
lives; not necessarily in a good way, but she’d been all they had.
When they’d been living with her—both of them up until the day
she’d died several years ago—they had not been able to experiment
with things. She’d put a stop to all their play and study every
time she could see they were happy. And being forty-six years old
and living with their mother had not done much for their social
lives, either.
    There had been no television in their
home; no computers either. The phone that they had was a working
rotary phone that still hung on the wall of the house, so far as he
knew. A car was a luxury that no one had seen fit to need, new
clothing was never theirs to have, and if they wanted a treat, she
would give them a tablespoon of sugar and watch over them so that
they didn’t eat it too quickly.
    Mavis Curtis didn’t believe in doctors
either. Nessie supposed that was the reason their father, a man
he’d never known, had died so young. A gunshot wound to the belly
had taken him, or so they’d been told all their lives. Keith and
he, twins—with Keith being the older by twenty minutes—were their
only children.
    Now he and his brother lived their
lives as quietly as they could, forever looking for a woman to care
for them. Each of them was preparing their home for that certain
girl that would come in and cook and clean for them, taking care of
their homes and being there when they needed them. So far, neither
of them had had any luck. It wasn’t that they had wanted a
replacement for their mother. Oh no, never that. But they did want
someone that they could call their own. So far…well, they were
hoping—at least Nessie was hoping—that things were about to change
in that direction.
    “ I have been seeing
someone.” Nessie nodded. His brother, like him, would not ever
touch a woman with sex. They had been made very afraid of that
ordeal. “She’s very pretty. Young like your girlfriend is. I think
she will work out.”
    “ Have you been preparing
for her?” Keith nodded and smiled. “How long have you been looking
to bring her in? If you should need my help, you need only
ask.”
    “ I have her.” Nessie was
shocked, but was happy for his brother. “I took her last evening to
my house, and she has been working out splendidly since. No screams
or yelling. But I might have to keep her below grounds for a few
more days. I’m worried, you see. I might have been
seen.”
    Nessie didn’t move. He was afraid to
for fear of someone lurking about his home coming for him. His tea
cup, one of his mother’s, was nearly to his mouth when his brother
had spoken. Now it stayed there, the steam billowing up to his nose
and making it burn. Setting it down on the saucer, he noticed that
it trembled slightly, but Keith didn’t seem to notice. Keith
watched him but didn’t speak as Nessie leaned back on the couch,
not even carrying that the spring had made itself known to his
bottom.
    “ When do you think someone
saw you?” He thought his voice was calm sounding, but Keith was
getting upset, his uncertainty apparent on his smooth face. So he
tried again. “Keith, you know what will happen if either of us are
seen. They will know us both. We are not unalike.”
    In fact they were identical, right
down to the way they spoke. If he was seen and they came to him, a
known felon, he would