Her Cups Runneth Over (10)

This is the tenth installment of a short story which began HERE.

A torrid sun; a tropical paradise; a frustrated writer; a cheating wife; a mysterious sultry woman ... the ingredients for a forbidden affair? Or the recipe for murder and the perfect crime?

XXXI

"I'm not Eve?" she was staring at me. "Why, why would you even think that?" I struggled to keep my eyes from meeting hers. She hadn't even flinched at my accusation. Maybe I shouldn't have played that card, at least not then.

"Why would I think that? Eve ... my Eve ... would never have pulled a gun on me!" I glared at her for a moment and decided to back off a bit, "You ... you've changed somehow. You're not the same Eve I've known for ten years."

She stood up and allowed the robe to slide provocatively from her shoulders. She studied me for a moment and smiled, knowing full well she was achieving the desired affect on me. "I'm going to take a nice hot shower," she said as the robe fell to the floor. Her back to me, she bent over and picked up the two pieces of the blue bikini. She held that position for several seconds and cooed, "Tell me, John dearest, that this isn't the same sweet ass you've enjoyed looking at for those ten years."

She stood up but not before grabbing the robe from where it had fallen. She placed it on the edge of the dresser and moved in my direction. She tiptoed before me and brushed her lips against mine. Her hands reached into the robe and gently stroked me. Then without a word she brushed past me and closed the bathroom door behind her.

I waited until I heard the shower running and walked over to the dresser. There was something gnawing at me. I had to know. I dropped to a knee and reached beneath the dresser. They were gone. Both the bra and the note were gone! I stood up and leaned against the dresser to think. It was obvious to me that she had taken them, but how had she known where he'd hidden them? What about the bottom? How did she get her hands on that piece? Shouldn't the pantie part of the bikini have been under lock and key at the police station as evidence?

She emerged from the bathroom clad in that damned blue bikini. If it wasn't on and off of Nova it was Eve getting in and out of it! Damn it, just where was Nova? Who was she? What was her part in all the madness that had become my life?

I remained against the dresser and asked, "Eve, tell me again why you came through that door waving a gun at me?"

She grimaced and took a deep breath before answering. "I told you. You are in danger. I had to make sure no one was in here with you!"

I clinched my fists, approached her and shouted, "Who? Who else would've been here?"

There was a sudden loud crash and the door flew open. A male voice boomed, "That would be ... me!"

XXXII

The talking half of 'the men in black' was holding a large pistol and stepped over the remains of the door. "Okay, bitch! Where is it?" he demanded as he trained the weapon on Eve.

I took a step toward him, "Hey! Leave her alone." Without turning to look at me he moved the gun in my direction and fired point blank. I fell to the ground, banging my head against the bed frame. There was a searing pain in my leg just above the knee. As I lie there clutching my leg I was being overcome by the pain at the back of my head.

Drifting in and out consciousness my weakened senses perceived another voice at the doorway. "Drop it, Naismith!" There was another shot fired and then another and still another. I must have been delirious, for I thought I heard the same voice exchanging verbal assaults with itself.

I don't know much time might have passed before I came to. I tried to move my leg but it was pinned under something heavy. The man was face down on the floor, his torso sprawled upon my leg. I was sickened by the large gaping hole in his back from which blood was flowing freely.

I looked up to my right by the dresser to see Eve in her blue bikini standing there holding a gun in one hand while the other clutched her wounded shoulder. "Eve ... are you alright? You've been shot!"

"I'm okay," came the reply, but not from her lips. It was another voice to my left. I slowly turned my head in that direction. My mouth agape and my eyes wide I looked upon ... Eve ... another Eve! She too was wielding a gun and holding onto a wounded shoulder. She too was wearing a blue bikini! "What the hell?" I muttered.

"John! I'm Eve." said the Eve at my right. She started to move closer, until I pointed the gun in her direction.

"No, I'm the real Eve over here, John," said the other as she too approached me. She stopped when I turned the gun toward her.

"John! Don't listen to her. She's going to kill both of us. She wants the documents."

My neck was beginning to ache as I kept twisting my head from the left to the right and back again and again as the two Eve's tried to sway me, to convince me who was the real one and who was the impostor. Somehow I found the strength to shove the lifeless man away until I was able to free my pinned leg. Though I was bleeding I was relieved to find that my leg had only been grazed.

"Yes, John. That's it. Get up and grab her," said the Eve to my left.

"No, John. That's just what she wants you to do. She wants us close together."

I caught sight of the man's gun and carefully picked it up before managing to stand. I'd never held a gun before. I wasn't even sure if I'd be able to use it if it became necessary.

"Shoot her, John!" said one of the women.

I studied the two of them carefully as I raised the gun. There were no differences between them that I could see. There were no visible distinguishing features. They were identical. I could only hope that one of them made a mistake. As I trained the gun back and forth upon the two beautiful doppelgangers, both kept their own guns aimed at the other.

Was this what they called a 'Mexican standoff' in those wild west novels? I was trying to put together the sequence of events that might have happened from the time Naismith had shot me to the moment I had come to. I had heard three shots. He must have shot one of the women while the other shot him. That meant that the other women must have shot the first one. Either way, neither of these women was the woman I thought I knew.

A sudden thought brought a grin to my face. "Eve, take off that damned bikini!" I demanded. The Eve at my left smiled ever so slightly and began peeling the blue material from from her breasts. I turned to the other and said, "I said take off that damned bikini! Your name is Eve, isn't it?"

I must admit it was a breathtaking sight to watch them remove those bikinis. I had to stifle my libido as I gazed upon the pair of naked women. Neither of them displayed a trace a modesty. They were both comfortable with their bodies. I took in every inch of them from their heads to their toes, noting that even down to the way they had kept their pubic hair trimmed, they were identical. And yet ...

"Beautiful! Just beautiful. You look as radiant as that night we met." I said looking at a point on the wall between them. "I remember that night as if it were yesterday. Remember, Eve?"

I turned to face the Eve to my left and pointed the gun at her chest. I squeezed the trigger and fired!

To be continued.... HERE.

No. 1129