Shooter (Burnout) (49 page)

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Sarah sat on the screened in porch overlooking her parent’s backyard. Her father was upstairs, resting as he often did in the late afternoon. He was healing well from his surgery and seemed more concerned with her than himself, which she chided him for often. She’d taken over cooking for the family to give her mother a break. Twice a week she saw a therapist, who never really said much at all. She simply waited for Sarah to begin talking about whatever topic struck her fancy.

Sarah usually began with the weather, comparing the balmy afternoons of Raleigh to the gusty, blustery days of Rapid City. It took her a while, each session, to eventually work her way around to bringing up that day at the rental cabin. When she finally did, it colored the rest of her day dark. She was grateful for the peace and comfort of her mother’s kitchen, with its gleaming copper pans hanging in rows overhead and the orderly pantry with its grits and vanilla wafers. It was easy to disappear into the familiar.

She called Chris periodically. He was careful to say he missed her, but not make her feel guilty for leaving. She didn’t know how to tell him that she turned her pillow on the bed each night so it felt like he was lying next to her. Home was familiar and yet home was so far away. She knew she was confused. Chris remained supportive.

Today, though, he’d sent her a letter. But the return address was different. Curious, she opened it and had to quickly snatch the stack of pictures that slid out and threatened to litter the porch floor. She read the letter twice and thumbed through the photos. Chris had bought a cabin, high on a ridge overlooking the city. In the photos, Hawk and Tex were, apparently, arguing about a window. Chris, to their left was oblivious of the camera. He had a sketchpad laid out on a counter and had that look of intense concentration he always had when he worked on bikes and cars. She almost laughed.

The house was a wreck, the letter said. But it had the most potential of any he’d looked at. With time and effort, he said, he could turn it into paradise. It overlooked the city, yet was far enough away to be quiet. The stars, he said, were better than any late night television program. Sarah ran her thumb over the photo in her hand.

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Chris rested his elbows on the solid granite countertop that had been laid over the kitchen’s island. The walls were painted slate grey but the countertops were white, giving, in his opinion, a more modern feel to the old rustic place. The large window over the sink overlooked the back porch and let in plenty of light in during the day. It was far from done. The appliances hadn’t been delivered yet. But the cabinets were hung and the floor was laid. They were both solid maple to keep the kitchen feeling warm. Chris had called the same woman that Tex had used to design his own kitchen and though the style wasn’t the same, she’d done a good job.

The house was perfect in its imperfection. It was exactly what he needed right now. It kept his thoughts generally about her, but focused them in a more positive way than brooding would. It kept his hands busy so he didn’t have to think about how much he wanted to hold her. Now that the rest of the kitchen was out of his hands. It was time to go shopping again. He donned his boots and his leather jacket and set the state-of-the-art alarm for his canyon castle. The October wind was just as fierce on the ridge as it was down below but he ignored it. He had a plan and the means to implement it and that was all that mattered.

Caleb stopped by the garage, looking grim, which was his usual, but Chris knew something was going on or he wouldn’t be here while he was on-duty. He put down the torque wrench he had in his hand. Caleb opened a folder and handed a glossy photo to Chris. “Look familiar?”

Hawk, Tex, and Easy came over to peer at the photograph over Chris’ shoulder. A young man with wavy brown hair smiled at the camera. Chris looked up at Caleb. “Oh, no. Oh fucking hell.”

Caleb’s mouth set into a grim line and he nodded.

“What?” Hawk demanded. “Who’s that?”

“Fuck!” Chris shouted and moved a few feet away. “He’s the kid from the car rental place in Virginia. Goddamn it!”

“You don’t want to see what he looks like now,” Caleb assured the men. “Virginia PD did a sweep of your rental car and found a gps tracker in the back wheel well. You never would have found it without a Bug Catcher. That’s why you didn’t pick up on a tail. FBI cracked the laptop Markham had with him and found the tracking software. He was miles away from you. You could never have known he was following you. He must have planted the tracker at the hospital, hoping she’d show up. He followed you to Virginia, tortured the kid for your DMV info that you used to rent the car, and took his time getting up to Dakota.

“I wouldn’t have even told you, since that fucker’s dead and in the hot place, but I know it would eat at you the rest of your life if you never knew how he’d found her. This shit’s expensive, Shooter. Very. I wouldn’t have guessed he had it and neither did you and at least now you know. Don’t let your head get fucked up over it.”

Chris shook his head. “I killed that kid.”

“You did not,” Caleb insisted. “You did everything a reasonable man could.”

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The late fall wind reminded her that she wasn’t in the South anymore. It whistled against the windows of the car. The sun was at their backs as they left the Rapid City Regional Airport and headed north toward the address she’d given the cabbie. As they left the city, they passed a few small farms. The road up the forested hill was winding and the last few rays of sunlight glinted through the trees.

Her first glimpse of the house stirred her to lean closer to the window. It was as beautiful as the photos. She smiled at Chris’ choice. The cabbie turned in the circle drive and parked the car. She only had one suitcase, but it was new and large and packed to bursting. She paid the man and bid him goodbye. Insisting she’d take things from there. That turned out to be a bit premature as she quickly discovered that, though, it was Saturday, Chris wasn’t actually home, despite it being five o’clock.

She hauled the suitcase up the wooden steps and left it by the front door. Apparently, Pepper had somehow figured out she was there and was in the sill. Sarah pressed her fingers to the glass and the cat pawed at them. She dug out a warmer coat from her luggage and zipped it up. There were comfortable looking chairs on either side of the front door so she settled into one and sat down. Chris had been right about the solitude. The only sound, other than the cat of course, were the birds in the surrounding trees. The wind blew leaves across the drive and shimmied the branches. She closed her eyes to take it all in.

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Chris had been leaving the Harley at home more and more since he often stopped by the home improvement store on the way home every night for something. This time he was loaded up with hardwood flooring. He wanted to stockpile all the things he could work on indoors when the harsh weather kicked up permanently. He figured he’d store it all in the garage. He was mentally listing all the things he needed when he turned into the driveway. Hit hit the brakes instinctively before he even got to the house.

The sun had gone down but the shadowy figure on the porch couldn’t really be missed. He took his foot off the brake, pressed the gas, and as he got closer, his approach triggered the security lights. They illuminated the driveway as well as the steps of the porch. He slammed the stick shift into neutral and yanked on the parking brake. He was out of the truck in seconds.

Sarah was at the bottom step by the time he’d crossed the gravel drive. “Hey,” she told him. “I-”

Ignoring her, he swept her up against him and planted his mouth over hers. She was a little surprised at first, but then she melted into him with a soft noise of contentment. After several long minutes, Chris, grudgingly, let her go. He looked behind her to the suitcase by the door and frowned.

“Just the one bag?” he asked cautiously.

She glanced over her shoulder and then back to him. She cleared her throat. “Well, they don’t really sell cold weather clothes down South. So I figured I’d wait to do my shopping when I got home.”

His heart squeezed at her words. He lifted her up, cradling her, and bounded up the steps as she gasped. He left her bag by the door and unlocked the house.

“Chris,” she said in protest, but she was smiling.

“I want you to see the place. And I’m carrying you across the threshold so the first time you ever went inside, it’s because I brought you here.”

“Chris, that’s for married people,” she corrected, laughing.

“Yeah, well....” he replied and swept her into the living room.

Sarah gasped again. “Oh my God.”

He set her down on her feet. “I know it doesn’t look like much right now. It-”

“No, it’s amazing!” she protested and began walking around.

The living room was impressive, he agreed silently, if you could see past the cobwebs and grime. The floorboards were cracked and peeling, so were the pine board walls, but it was open with and two stories tall with large windows high up near the ceiling to let in the most light possible.

Pepper launched herself at Sarah, who picked her up and snuggled her close. She carried the cat around the room as she looked it over. Stopping at the fireplace, she reached out and touched the mantel. A small piece of the stonework crumbled and fell to the floor. She jumped back with a yelp and looked at him apologetically. “Sorry!” she cried.

He smiled and shook his head. “I’m replacing that. Before winter hits. There’s one in the master bedroom, too.”

She turned to him and gave him that look. Heat immediately pooled in his belly. “Let’s go look,” she said quietly.

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Sarah had lost all of her reluctance in her time away from Chris. She’d gone to bed every night missing him and woke up every morning missing him that much more and she wasn’t going to waste another minute missing him. She kicked off her slip-on ballet shoes and pulled her shirt off over her head. She turned to face him and unfastened her bra while he watched. She let it drop to the floor and then wiggled out of her jeans and panties. Chris’ darkening gaze watched her every movement. Then it was his turn.

She approached him before he could do anything. She took hold of the hem of his shirt and pushed it up. He raised his arms so she could strip him of it, kissing his broad chest as it was revealed. She kept her mouth on him, working her way down his stomach. She knelt down in front of him and untied first one large boot then the other and laid them aside. Looking up to meet his gaze, she unfastened his jeans.

She rose up to pull his boxer briefs down enough to expose his already hardened cock. She only teased him with her hot breath against it as she pushed his jeans and underwear down to the floor. Chris was naked now in front of her and her hands were trembling, this time from sheer excitement and aching desire.

She licked his shaft from the base to the tip, repeating the process until a glistening drop of pre-cum beaded out of the slit. She barely touched it with the tip of her tongue giving him an unfettered view of it. He groaned appreciatively.

She wrapped her lips around the head of his cock and sucked gently. Since Chris hadn’t taken it upon himself to touch her yet, she took hold of his hands and put them in her hair. His fingers threaded through the brown locks and she took him as deep as she could manage. She worked him slowly, though, because he was already so hard and she knew he couldn’t be far from finishing. She’d been gone a long time.

When he was almost at the edge and she was nearly out of breath from her ministrations, she stopped and leaned back. “Don’t come yet,” she managed to say.

“Baby,” he said, his voice strained and his breath equally ragged. “There’s no way I can wait.”

She got up and grabbed his wrist. “You don’t have to wait,” she assured him. “Just finish inside me.”

She pulled him to the bed and brought him down with her. She was already wet with her desire for him and she gripped his hips to angle him into her aching pussy.