Asha King (15 page)

****

Dani’s bedroom was dark with moonlight spearing through the window, making both Adam’s pale form and the white sheets blue. The fan whirled above, steady thrum punctuating their breaths as she rode him.

Compared to the frenzied lovemaking during earlier sessions, this was slow and easy, tender. He gripped her thighs as she rocked, rolling her hips up and down his length. His skin was smooth, etched in the crisp light. She leaned down to taste his flesh, kissing and flicking her tongue over his chest, and he groaned appreciatively. She moved over him to make it last, bringing them close to climax and then easing back, prolonging it despite her impatient nature because she didn’t want it to end.

Later, she lay wrapped in his arms, satiated, eyes fighting sleep. “Maybe when this is over, I can come back for a visit?”

“Maybe,” he responded. Quiet. Noncommittal. Maybe he didn’t want her to come back—maybe the back and forth thing didn’t appeal to him. Maybe he thought she was going to ask him to come see her, and given his attitude so far, she suspected he’d loathe the city scene.

So she said nothing more, let her eyes close, and fell asleep to the steady beat of his heart.

Thursday

NEW POST: Draft Mode

It’s early in the morning and I’m going home today.

I don’t want to. Maybe that’s why I can’t sleep. Instead, I’m sitting here before dawn, blue light from the computer screen spilled over me, listening to the heavy breath of the man next to me.

I’ll never publish this post, I know. For one, it’s personal—too personal. For another, it’s not remotely funny. But I’ll keep it here for me to read later, when I’m home and remembering what it was like for a while to kind of like the person I got to play at being.

And wonder where this would’ve gone if I could have stayed.

Chapter Eighteen

Just after nine the next morning, Dani had her bags packed and on the front porch next to where she sat on the steps. There was a distinctly melancholy air around her and Adam selfishly hoped at least some of it was because she didn’t want to go.

The day was gray and thick with clouds but not rain so far. It seemed to match his mood, which grew darker by the minute. They’d spoken little that morning, air between them tense with things unsaid, and just awkward half-smiles with few words exchanged. There seemed no reason from Adam’s perspective to get sentimental when it wouldn’t do any good.

Eventually a silver four-door turned down the driveway in the distance, slowing and spitting up dirt as it neared the house. Adam’s chest tightened but he forced his feet to move, so he could scoop up her bags.

Dani rose as well when the car pulled up. A tall, broad man with glasses stepped out of the driver’s side and waved over the back of the car before coming to take the luggage himself. Adam stood awkwardly on the porch steps, thumbs hooked in his back pockets, reluctantly meeting Dani’s gaze. She parted her lips as if to speak when the front door opened and the others piled out.

Carlee and Dewey came first, and it was Carlee who went straight for Dani to draw her into a hug. Dani blinked, freezing for a moment before reciprocating, her gaze going to Adam. He hid a smile.

Dewey moved up next to see her off, then he stood back with Carlee, who had a handful of tears pricking her eyes.

Dani took a breath, and walked up to Gus, who grasped her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “You take care, Dani Girl. And come back to visit.”

She smiled. “Promise. Thank you so much for—”

He waved her off, leaning on his cane with one hand and drawing her into a hug with the other. “Anytime. You get this sorted and come back when you’re ready.”

She nodded. Noticeably didn’t say she would but Adam tried not to read too much into it.

For a minute, Dani paused two feet from Adam, staring up at him and biting at her bottom lip. He longed to reach for her, hold her, tell her everything—offer to go with her and stay with her so she wouldn’t have to be alone.

“I’ll see you,” she offered at last, extending her hand.

He clasped it in both of his, squeezing, enjoying the feel of her soft skin against his one more time. “See you.”

She waited a beat longer, cool wind brushing her hair. When she made no move to withdraw her hand, he reluctantly did so first. She took a step back. So did he. A half smile was her goodbye, then she turned and fled, stepping off the porch with quick steps and moving for the car. She didn’t look back as she climbed in the passenger seat.

Too soon the car was off and Adam expelled a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding, that vise on his chest squeezing harder.

“Well.” Carlee came to stand next to him and knocked his elbow with hers. “That was a really epic goodbye.”

“So romantic,” Dewey agreed.

“I had tears.”

“Oh, me too.”

“That’s enough,” Gus said before Adam had to. “Tash called—said to meet her in town for coffee to go over some things, if you would.”

Of course he would. Adam nodded, staring still as the car turned out of the driveway and disappeared past the hills in the distance.

****

Tash was waiting at the coffee shop but not inside; instead she sat in the truck bed out front, just down the road from the Bar and Grill, a folder in her hands. She was dressed similar to the day before but now her hair was tied back in a ponytail and a baseball hat shaded her face despite not being needed with the lack of sun.

Adam parked his truck next to hers. It was the old one they didn’t use much, Gus’s good one out for detailing since the day before. Tash made no move to rise, so he joined her on the truck bed.

The day seemed even darker, dampness hovering. Wind strengthened and Adam sensed a storm approaching. “So what’ve you got?”

“
First
, I’ve got your culprit from Friday night.”

Wait, what
? “You did?”

“Yup.” She grinned, exposing white teeth. “Easy, too. Talked to the cops. Remember the Hartford Jamboree the week before?”

Hartford was a tiny neighboring town, barely a street to drive through. “Yeah.”

“Two seventeen-year-old boys and a sixteen-year-old girl broke in looking for liquor the night before. Stole some beer, trashed things. Not the first time they’ve done it, either.”

So not that much different than Gus’s assumption. He wasn’t entirely certain if he found that a relief or not. “How did they get in? Nothing was actually broken.”

“Oh!” She slapped his knee. “The best part. Girl’s actually the ringleader and she’s Mr. Young’s daughter. You know, the guy who runs the locksmith on the side?”

Son of a bitch
. Breath blew past his lips as he exhaled. “That’s...good news, I guess.”

“Yeah, the brat was caught along with her minions. She’s caused all kinds of shit in town—I’m hoping he ships her off to reform school.”

Goddamn kids. They screwed around at the farms now and then but never so overtly—always on the fringes normally. And with that being the case...

Maybe Dani left for nothing?

“So she’s safe?” He glanced at Tash, the flare of hope burning against his breastbone almost too much to bear. “She didn’t need to leave?”

“Didn’t say that.” And she nodded at the folder. “Just the Friday night was accounted for—not your other vandal who possessed such colorful names for Dani.” She lifted her hand and pointed across the street. “See Carlos’s Variety over there?”

“He was robbed last fall?”

“Yep.” The folder fell open, revealing a stack of black and white photos, all on the grainy side. “Security cam was the best purchase he ever made on eBay and he will be
happy
to tell you this in great detail, which I had to listen to for forty-three minutes until he finally let me in the back room.”

Adam glanced over the first photo—it showed the front of the Bar and Grill, timestamp putting it at Monday night, near dusk.

“It’s not a straight video or anything,” she explained as she sat the first aside and went to the second. “Eight second intervals. Again, his big eBay purchase. So then we have here...”

The picture flopped in the wind as she raised it, and Adam took it to study the image. No license plate visible but he’d recognize it anywhere. “The farm’s truck.”

“Right.” She slapped the next photo down in his hands. “You and Dani Girl heading inside.”

There they were, hand in hand. Just the back of them, barely visible, but he recognized her miniskirt and dark hair.

“And
then
—” The next picture cut over the last. “You’re inside by this point. I left ones from the next thirty seconds back in the truck, but this one here,” she tapped the photo where a car was pulling up in front of Carlos’s, across from the Bar and Grill, “someone pulls up and
just sits there
. For like an hour.”

He stared at the car. Lighter color, four doors. Tough to make out details and, again, it wasn’t at the right angle for a license plate. His stomach tightened, dread rising. “Did anyone get out?”

“Not right away.”

“Did anyone see who was in it?”

“Hold on.” She grabbed the next security photo, time stamped an hour later, and sure enough, the car still sat there—and he and Dani had left the restaurant by then, the pair of them near the car. “Someone,” Tash said in a stage whisper as she stacked the following photo on top, “was very naughty in a public place.”

There were the two of them sneaking into the alley. “If you could maybe lose that one before Gus is scandalized by it, that would be great.”

“Will do. Anyway, ten minutes later, you left...” First she showed him their truck driving off, then immediately the next photo. “...our mystery driver
stays
and he finally gets out. Now look where he goes.”

And there was the man disappearing into the alley where he and Dani had just been. Ice blasted through him, his body suddenly chilled and it wasn’t the wind. Gooseflesh spread as he stared at the man slipping between the buildings.

“Last one, he comes out a few minutes later and goes back to the car. He left but there’s still no license plate.”

Adam plucked the last photo from her—the one with the man walking back to his vehicle. He narrowed his eyes, drawing it closer...

And paled.

“Get in the truck, Tash.”

“What—”

But Adam was already hopping off the truck bed, the stack of photos fluttering behind him.

****

Dani stared out the passenger window at the clouds gathering. She’d managed not to glance in the rearview mirror while they drove away from the ranch, chancing a look only after she knew she’d never catch a glimpse of it.

Gus invited me back—this isn’t forever.
But she knew how easily things could change. Maybe she’d get to come back in a month. Maybe two. Maybe six months or a year.

And maybe everything would be different.

“You’re quiet,” Randy said.

She cast a wan smile his way before looking back at the window. “Well, someone stalks and threatens you, it takes the wind out your sails. Probably. If people stalk sailboats. Which I don’t think they do, but you know what I mean.”
Even my rambling metaphors are off
.

“You weren’t really
threatened
—”

“Uh, Randy? He
did
follow me around and write ‘whore’ all over the building where I slept.”

“That’s not...threatening, per se. Just...”

“Making a statement of fact?” She cocked a brow, looking at him skeptically, and shook her head. “Please. It sure as hell wasn’t a love letter.”

“Well, it wasn’t like you responded to those.”

A chill walked her spine and her heart thumped harder. She breathed deep and tried to change the subject to shake the feeling. “So Therese had to work?”

“Can’t get away on Thursdays.”

“That’s too bad. But, well, thanks for coming all the way out to get me. Maybe you guys can come with me if I visit again. Therese would have fun, I think.”

Randy said nothing.

Therese should be here now
. She’d been hoping her friend could at least glimpse Adam. All this time and she’d never...

Dani frowned. “Hey, did she say if she ever got my message? I called her on the weekend.”

His eyes were steady on the road. “I don’t remember.”

She still watched him, heart rate rising as the seconds ticked on. “It just doesn’t seem like her not to call me back.”

“She’s been busy.”

Too busy not to call back her best friend? Especially when I mention wanting to talk boys?

The rain started, just sprinkling but the windshield wipers came on, punctuating the silence with a squeak every few seconds.

Randy’s hands tightened on the steering wheel.

Dani’s pulse kicked into high drive and it took all of her energy to keep her breathing calm. Tension spread through her, coiling her nerves tight. “Maybe she just didn’t get it.”

“Maybe,” he responded.

She studied him in her peripheral vision while he stared at the road, keeping the car at a steady speed. He was bigger than her. A
lot
bigger. Could’ve passed for a linebacker with those shoulders if not for the glasses, which always gave him a harmless, geeky sort of look.

Which caused her to underestimate him.

“Oh shit!” Dani slumped in her seat and mock-smacked her forehead. “I forgot my damn boots. We haven’t been gone that long—can we swing back?”

“They can mail them,” he said.

“It’s just that I paid a lot of money for them—”

“I said, no!”

She froze from head to toe, scarcely daring to breathe.

“I’m sorry.” His tone softened. “You just...” Once more he flexed his hands on the wheel. “You walk all over people sometimes, Dani, and you don’t appreciate what you have.”

Shit. SHIT
. “What do I have?” she asked in a small voice.

“Me!” He turned to her, exasperation clear in his eyes. “You’ve always had me and you just...” Randy turned back to the road, a sense of cold calmness falling over his expression once more. “I know you know it. You see it. Feel it. I care about Therese too, but...”

“Randy, pull over the car.”

His jaw set. “But you just
had to
be such a fucking slut. Begging her to call and talk about some idiot you just met. Really, Dani? Outside of a restaurant? You’re
better
than that!”

Tremors rocked her straight down to her marrow, terror palpable and blasting adrenalin through her veins. “Pull over the goddamn car now!”

“Blogging about it?
That
was what that moron doctor thought would piss me off? No, whoring around with the cowboy—ignoring me, pretending you don’t love me—”

She reached and grasped the steering wheel, jerking it in her direction.

Tires squealed, the vehicle careening to the side. Randy fought for control, yanking the wheel back. The road was slick with rain, tires sliding back and forth across the empty country road.

He gave her a backhanded swipe, cracking her across the face. She shot against the passenger door, pain blooming through her lip and cheek. Something warm and wet trickled from her nose, tasting of copper. Once more, Randy locked both hands on the wheel, fighting for control of the car as it slipped over the shoulder toward the ditch.

He eased on the accelerator, slowing them.

Dani reacted, popping open her seatbelt and reaching for the door in the same movement.

Randy saw her, cursed, reached—she narrowly missed being caught before the door swung open. They neared the ditch, wet grass and dirt rising up as the car swerved.

She jumped.