Unleashed (17 page)

“I’m looking for Edward and Nora Parrish,” Danny said.

“You’ve found us,” the man said. His expression was guarded and he used his tall frame to block the doorway.

Danny quickly introduced himself, then Caroline. “We want to ask you a few questions related to a case we’re working on.”

“If you’re a cop you better show me some ID.”

“I’m not a police officer sir, I’m a private investigator.” The wind whipped the snow into a vortex and he felt Caroline shiver next to him. “Please sir, it’s really cold out here. If we could just come in and ask you and your wife some questions, I promise not to take too much of your time.”

Caroline gave an exaggerated shiver for emphasis. The man raked her up and down, his mouth taking on a disapproving cast as he looked her over. But finally he stepped back and motioned them inside.

The bottom floor of the house consisted of only one big room, which held the kitchen, a dining area, and a sitting area with a worn small sofa and a padded armchair. A narrow wooden staircase in the far corner led to the second floor. Though the house was lit with electricity there was no sign of a TV, a phone, or even a radio.

A Bible was displayed prominently on the small table in front of the sofa and a magazine with the headline “Is the End of Days Nigh? What You Need to Be Ready!” lay discarded on one of the sofa cushions. The man motioned for Danny and Caroline to sit and called for his wife. “Mrs. Parrish, can you come down here please?”

The interior of the house was almost uncomfortably warm, thanks to the giant wood stove tucked into one corner of the kitchen. An old fashioned coffee pot sat on top, steam curling from its spout.

Mrs. Parrish—Nora—came down the stairs and Danny could see Caroline trying to school her face into impassivity. He knew exactly why—Mrs. Parrish was dressed like an escapee from
Little House on the Prairie
. Danny introduced himself and Caroline, and she responded with a quick nod. “Let me just get the coffee and I’ll be right with you.”

“Please don’t go to any trouble,” Caroline said, but Nora had already retrieved four ceramic mugs and filled a plate with some kind of dark bread. She loaded everything onto a tray and brought it over, serving Danny and Mr. Parrish first, before offering Caroline coffee and taking a cup for herself.

Only he could detect the subtle arch in Caroline’s brow as it cocked in disapproval.

“How can we help you, young man?” Mr. Parrish asked after he’d taken a sip of coffee.

“We’re working on a missing persons case, and we believe the woman may have had a connection to your daughter, Emily. We were hoping you could help us track her down.”

While Edward Parrish’s demeanor hadn’t been exactly warm up to that point, it had at least been cordial. Now it turned downright glacial. “I have no daughter.”

“Sir, I understand you may have had a falling out with Emily—” Caroline began.

“Do not say that name in this house!” Edward boomed.

Caroline’s eyes widened as she sat back, while Nora Parrish stared at a point across the room.

“Sir, if you could just tell us when you last spoke to her, if she ever mentioned a woman named Anne Taggart—”

Edward slammed his coffee mug down on the table. Steaming black liquid sloshed across his hand but he didn’t seem to notice. “You’ve defiled my home with her name as she defiled it with her presence. She died the day she decided to become a whore. I repeat, I have no daughter. Now take your painted Jezebel,” he pointed at Caroline with a snarl, “and get out of my home.”

Danny stood up and gave Edward a look that had made dozens of new recruits wet their pants in fear. “I need to know where your daughter is, sir.”

Edward turned his back, marched across the room, and went up the stairs.

“Oh dear,” Nora’s soft voice trembled slightly, “you’d better go. I’m afraid he’s fetching the Remington.”

“Shotgun,” Danny said in response to Caroline’s confused look. Her eyes widened as she heard the thumping of footsteps overhead.

“Maybe we should go,” Caroline said.

Danny ignored her, and pinned Nora with a hard stare. Nora’s watery brown eyes darted furtively to the stairs.

“I haven’t seen her in nearly twenty years. Not since she told us she’d gotten herself in trouble.” Her eyes filled with tears and her chin wobbled. “She’d sinned,” she said like a woman trying to convince herself.

“She didn’t come back to live with you and have her baby?” Caroline pressed.

“Edward wouldn’t abide a bastard in this house.”

Booted feet were approaching the staircase overhead, and Caroline edged toward the door.

“Do you have a picture of her?” Danny said, staying Caroline with a hand on her arm. She was vibrating like a hummingbird, terrified Edward was going to march downstairs and open fire.

“We got rid of everything,” Nora said, but Danny could tell from her downcast eyes she was lying.

“Please. Anything taken around the time she left would be helpful.”

With another nervous look at the stairs, Nora hurried into the kitchen where she opened a cabinet stocked floor to ceiling with canned goods. She knelt down and stuck her arm all the way back and pulled a snapshot out of an envelope. “This was one of the few I was able to save.”

Danny took the picture, thanked her, and started for the door as Edward’s foot hit the first step.

Nora grabbed his arm and whispered frantically, “If you find her—”

The metallic click of a rifle cocking rang through the air. “I told you to get out of my house,” Edward bellowed as he swung the barrel in their direction.

Maybe Caroline was right to be so nervous.

Danny grabbed Caroline’s arm and yanked her through the front door. Cold air stole their breath as they hurried down the front steps. The blast of a shotgun cut through the thick snowy silence, followed by Edward yelling what Danny thought might be a Bible verse. Caroline gave a yelp of fear and dove for cover. Danny yanked her to her feet and rushed her to the Jeep, shoving her in through the driver’s seat before climbing in after her.

Danny hazarded a look back at Edward just in time to see the man fire into the air.

Caroline dove for the floor and screamed as the blast reverberated around the Jeep.

“Relax,” Danny said as he started the car and put it into gear. “He’s just firing into the air.”

“Well excuse me,” Caroline said, her voice shrill, “if having a gun pulled on me scares the shit out of me. You may be used to people trying to kill you, but the experience is still relatively new to me.”

“Edward wasn’t trying to kill you,” Danny said as he carefully negotiated the Parrishes’ drive. In the brief time they’d been inside, the storm had increased in intensity. He could barely see through the windshield as the wipers struggled to keep pace with the dumping snow.

“Says you. You weren’t the one he called a painted Jezebel,” Caroline said, grunting a little as she pulled herself from the floor.

“Now that he mentions it, you could lighten up on the lipstick there, Tammy Faye.”

“Go fuck yourself.”

“But it’s so much better when you do it.”

She responded with a disgusted noise and turned her attention pointedly out the window.

As Danny turned onto the main road, it became evident that Edward Parrish’s shotgun wasn’t their only worry. The snow lay in a thick blanket, and as they inched along, the wind buffeted the Jeep until Danny had to use all of his strength and concentration to keep the car on course. After a few miles he pulled off to put chains on his tires, but all the tire traction in the world couldn’t help anyone navigate in zero visibilty.

He kept their pace to a crawl as they passed through Whiskey Creek, knowing that the only hope of escaping the snow was to get to a lower elevation. As he reached the outskirts of town, flashing lights barely penetrated the thick curtain of snow.

“What’s happening?” Caroline asked as the Jeep crawled a few more yards.

A sheriff’s SUV blocked the road ahead, positioned in front of a closed metal gate. Yellow lights flashed where the two sides of the gate met. “The pass is closed because of the snow,” Danny said.

“Maybe they’ll let us through—”

Before Caroline could even finish her sentence the sheriff tweaked his siren at them, signaling them to stop. A thickset man in a wide brimmed hat and fur trimmed parka climbed from the SUV. He stomped through the snow and Danny lowered the driver’s side window.

“Sorry folks, road’s closed.”

“Well how are we supposed to get home?” Caroline snapped as she leaned across the console to the driver’s side.

“Sorry ma’am, I’m afraid you’ll have to turn around and wait it out until we can get the roads cleared.”

“How long will that take?” Caroline asked, exasperated.

“Can’t say, ma’am,” the officer said, getting irritated and no doubt yearning for the warmth of his car. “But seeing as this is the only road out of here, I suggest you turn around and wait it out.”

“Wait it out? Where the hell are we supposed to wait it out? There’s nothing there.”

Danny rolled up the window mid tirade and gave the officer a friendly wave before turning the Jeep around. “Will you give it a rest already? So the road is closed. We’ll deal with it.”

“What are we going to do? Sit in the car for the next twelve hours?”

“No,” Danny said, slowing as a truck pulled out of a parking lot in front of him. He signaled and turned right into the driveway. “I figure this place will do.”

“We’re going to spend the night in the 7-Eleven?” Caroline asked.

“No,” Danny drove past the 7-Eleven toward the dimly lit sign that was barely visible through the snow. “We’re staying at the Whiskey Creek Motor Inn. We’re in luck. The VACANCY sign is on.”

The Whiskey Creek Motor Inn was a squat, two story building painted a color that was probably once white or cream but had turned to a dirty putty color over the years. The rooms opened to the outside and offered an unobstructed view of the parking lot. The lot was full of trucks pulling trailers loaded with snowmobiles on the back.

Danny pulled under the awning in front of the motel’s office and got out. Caroline followed with a faintly disgusted pull to her mouth. “We’re going to stay here?”

“Unless you want to stay in the car, princess, this is our only option.”

They entered an office that smelled of old coffee and stale cigarette smoke. An ancient TV, complete with rabbit ears, displayed a picture even snowier than the storm outside. A worn rust colored couch flanked by two Naugahyde arm chairs completed the retro seventies feel.

No one was at the reception desk, but when Danny rang the bell a hacking cough, followed by a husky, “Be right with you,” sounded from the back. The hacking started up again, and a woman with an iron gray beehive emerged from a room behind the desk. Her face was as weathered as an old boot, a slash of scarlet lipstick the only color in a complexion roughly the color of her hair. Her thin shoulders were covered by a thick wool sweater with puffy birds sewn on the front. She paused long enough in her coughing to ask, “How can I help you?”

“We need a couple rooms for tonight,” Danny replied.

“You have a reservation?” the woman asked in a voice that sounded like she’d been swallowing gravel.

“No,” Caroline said, “we got stranded by the storm.”

The woman tapped on the keyboard of a vintage IBM machine and squinted at the monitor. “Afraid we only have one room,” the woman said.

“Are you sure?” Caroline asked. “Maybe if you check again—”

“There’s a big snowmobile rally this weekend over in Lake Alpine and we’re full up.” Danny saw Caroline wince as the woman paused to hack up another quart of phlegm. “You’re lucky we have anything available, but someone canceled at the last minute.”

“We’ll take it.” Danny drew his money clip out of his pocket and pulled out his credit card.

“But we can’t share a room,” Caroline sputtered, her dark eyes wide with alarm.

“It’s all we have,” the woman repeated as she snatched up the card in arthritic fingers. “Don’t worry hon,” she said as she ran the card through an old fashioned manual credit card imprinter, “there are two beds. I’m sure your virtue is safe with him,” she said with a sly wink at Danny and handed over the key.

C
aroline followed Danny into their second floor room and chafed her arms against the chill. Danny switched on the light and quickly located the thermostat. “Wood paneling. Nice touch,” she said over the low hiss of the wall heater.

Danny threw his leather coat across an armchair in the corner. Caroline snatched it up and hung it with her own in the closet, then took a closer look at their accommodations. Next to the lumpy, worn armchair was a round table coated in wood laminate with a table lamp on top. Two double beds were covered in polyester bedspreads in shades of green, orange, and gold, divided by a bedside table that held another lamp. She could feel Danny standing beside her, too warm, too close, and the shiver that ran through her had nothing to do with the cold.

She moved away and heard the thump of Danny’s duffel bag hitting the thinly carpeted floor. Unlike her, Danny carried an overnight bag with him everywhere, so he was prepared for an event like getting stranded in a hotel overnight.

With someone he used to have sex with.

Really, really, amazingly awesome sex.

She pulled back a bedspread to distract herself and fingered the rough sheets. “Ooh, what is this, like, twenty threadcount? How luxurious.” She injected as much snottiness into her tone as she could muster, trying to remind herself that there was nothing sexy or provocative about being stuck in a dive of a motel with Danny Taggart.

“You didn’t used to be so particular,” Danny said from right behind her, so close she could feel the heat of him against her back. And there she was, so close to the bed her thighs brushed the edge. Why had she moved so close to the bed? She froze, willing him to move away, promising herself that as soon as he did she would sit her ass in that armchair and not move until morning.

But Danny got even closer. “In fact, this kind of reminds me of something.” Her eyes fluttered closed as she felt him brush her hair to the side. Warm breath wafted against her cheek as he bent his head to that ultra sensitive spot right below her ear. “Remember that hotel in Spring Lake?”

Oh God, she did. The hot press of his mouth on her skin sent warmth pooling between her thighs. Danny had been stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and she’d managed to get a few days off. Danny got a three day furlough and took her to a hotel in nearby Spring Lake. It was the last time she’d gone to visit Danny, right before he’d been deployed on yet another mission she couldn’t know anything about.

“Remember how bad it stormed?” His hands curved over her hips, up to circle her waist, his touch burning her through the weave of her sweater.

That time it had been rain instead of snow. She and Danny had locked themselves in a room similar to this one. Caroline hadn’t cared about the rain, or the cheap sheets, or the ugly décor. All she’d cared about was having Danny and a bed. They’d gone at each other voraciously, made love until they were both sore and tired and could barely move. Then one of them would run a hand up the other’s thigh, or circle a nipple with a finger, or kiss the other’s neck, and it would start all over again.

Still, it wasn’t enough. She hadn’t seen him for six months before that, and had no idea when the next time would be. They parted with desperate kisses and whispered “I love you”s.

Three weeks later Caroline had realized she was pregnant.

That was enough to snap her out of it. She pushed away from Danny and walked on shaky legs to the other side of the room.

Danny followed her like a tiger on the prowl.

“This is a really bad idea,” she said, as much to herself as to him.

He ignored her, of course. “Come on Caroline. Don’t try to tell me you’re not curious what it would be like now.”

“Curiosity is a really bad reason to have sex with an ex,” she replied, hating the way her voice shook as much as she hated the way her sex throbbed between her legs.

He moved closer and she took another step back, then another, until he had her pinned up against the room’s door. Her breath caught as he leaned into her, letting her feel the weight of him, the heat of him. The hardness of him pressing insistently against her belly. “I want to know if you still like it when I suck your tits while I fuck you.”

Caroline closed her eyes and let out a low moan as her nipples hardened at the thought.

He braced his hands on either side of her head, trapping her.

Not that she wanted to escape. He kissed her then, rough, hungry. “I want to know if your pussy is still as hot and tight as a wet little fist, squeezing around me.” His tongue swept the seam of her lips, and she couldn’t stop herself from sucking him inside.
Stupid
, her brain tried to warn.
This is so stupid
.

One hand slid under the hem of her sweater and he rocked his hips against her. “I want to know,” he said, his breath coming faster, “if you still yell so loud when you come that the people next door will worry that I’m killing you.”

Caroline let out a low whimper and slid her arms around his waist. She should be angry, offended, or at the very least, embarrassed by the things he was saying, but God help her, she wanted to know, too. Need pumped through her veins like warm honey. It had been so long since she’d felt anything like this, she’d almost convinced herself she’d never felt it at all.

But as Danny pulled her sweater over her head and pulled off his own shirt, it was like the years melted away. Caroline was back in that hotel room in North Carolina, running hot and wet with the need to have Danny fucking her hard and deep.

He unhooked her bra and slid the straps down her arms. He leaned into her, and they both hissed at the first skin to skin contact. The skin of his chest was hot and smooth, and the dusting of rough hair brushed her nipples into achy peaks. It was so familiar, yet so new. He was bigger, harder, leaner. Mountains of muscle rippled under her fingers and she wanted to explore every ridge with her lips and tongue.

“From that first day I saw you again,” he muttered against her mouth, “I haven’t stopped thinking about you, about all the ways I want to make you come.” He bent his head and sucked her nipple into his mouth. She laced her fingers through his hair and pressed him close, urging him on.

“Tell me,” she moaned. “Tell me everything you’ve been thinking about.” Heat flooded her face at her own boldness, but this is what Danny did to her. Made her crazy. Made her lose control.

“How about I show you instead,” he said, his breath hot against her other breast as he slid one hand down the back of her jeans. His fingers slid against the silky fabric of her panties and he insinuated one thigh between hers. She moaned and hitched her leg up over his hip so she could ride the hard muscle. His mouth abandoned her breasts and he straightened. His hands slid down to the button of her jeans and buzzed the zipper down.

Caroline’s head tipped back against the door and her breath came in sharp pants as he slid one hand down the front of her panties. Thick, callused fingers caressed her slit, parting her so he could tease the ripe bud of her clit.

“I remember the first time I made you come with my fingers,” Danny murmured, increasing the pressure up, down, around as she braced herself against the door and tried to keep her legs from buckling under her. “You were so wet, just like you are now.” His lips brushed hers. “By the time I got your pants off your panties were soaked, and you were so embarrassed. But you’re not embarrassed now, are you?” He kissed her again, thrust his tongue inside before retreating.

“No,” she moaned, arching against his fingers, a silent plea for him to increase the pressure.

He ran his fingers up her slit in a firm stroke while his other hand shoved her jeans down her hips. She clumsily kicked off her boots and pulled her legs free, eagerly parting them as his hand slid down further. A low groan escaped her throat as he circled her clit with his thumb and slid one, then two fingers inside her.

“You’re even tighter than I remembered,” he groaned against her mouth, sinking his fingers in and out until the hot stretch and slide was enough to make her scream.

She clung to his shoulders for balance as her entire universe centered around that pleasure giving hand. Her muscles clenched and she rocked against him. His low words of encouragement against her lips pushed her higher and higher.

“That’s it, Carrie. I can feel you, so tight around my fingers. I can’t wait to get my cock inside you.”

The thought was enough to send her over the edge. A harsh, high pitched cry pushed through her lips, and he quickly swallowed it with his mouth over hers.

“Mmm, don’t want anyone calling the cops just yet,” he said, as he scooped her up and carried her to one of the beds. He pulled the tacky bedspread down and onto the floor before laying her across the sheets.

Caroline didn’t notice the roughness of the sheets against her bare skin as she looked at him. The room was dim, lit only by the single lamp on the table across the room. Danny was a dark, shadowy figure above her, a study in light and shadow, golden skin and rippling muscle. His face was partially obscured, but she could feel him looking at her as he stripped off his pants and boxers. His cock stood stiffly at attention, jutting up between his legs. Jesus, she’d remembered him being big, but not that big.

It seemed to swell before her eyes as she stared, transfixed. Veins traced along the thick shaft and a drop of moisture beaded on the swollen head. She sat up a little and reached out, a thrill coursing through her at the feel of silky hot skin over steel. He stood frozen, every muscle locked and trembling as she wrapped her fist around him and pumped, once, twice. Bits and pieces flooded back as she stroked and squeezed, memories of what he liked, how he wanted to be touched. How to make him shudder and groan until he spun out of control.

After only a few seconds Danny grabbed her wrist and wrenched her hand away. He collapsed on the bed beside her and pressed a surprisingly tender kiss to her palm. “I’m so jacked up right now, if you keep touching me like that I’m gonna blow. And I want to make you come about a half a dozen more times before that happens.”

A thrill ran through her as he rolled her underneath him, his weight pressing her into the mattress. She would have thought any other man was bluffing about the half dozen orgasms. But she knew what Danny was capable of. Knew what
she
was capable of when Danny took control of her pleasure.

She could only pray she made it out of this room in one piece.

The last flutters of her orgasm had barely faded, but already the heat of his skin, the weight of him against her, made her clench in renewed need. His hands were everywhere, sliding up and down her sides, the curve of her ass, fisting in her hair to take his kiss, parting her legs so she could feel the firm press of his abs against her sex. Over her breasts, squeezing, pinching, his mouth sucking at the tips as he murmured how beautiful she was.

God, it was so good, just like it had always been. Under Danny’s hands, Danny’s lips, she lost herself in a vortex of pure pleasure. He knew exactly what to do, exactly what to say, to spin her up until she exploded into a million shimmering pieces. His mouth trailed down her belly, pressing a line of hot, sucking kisses to her skin until he was between her legs.

He hovered over her, teasing her with his hot breath. “I’ve been dying to taste you again,” he murmured as he spread her pussy lips with his thumbs. “Wanting to see if you’re as salty sweet as I remember.”

Caroline arched off the bed, nearly coming at the first, teasing lick of his tongue.

“So sweet,” he said and ran his tongue up one side and down the other before ducking down so he could dip inside. In, out in a wet velvet slide, he fucked her with his tongue until she thought she’d lose her mind. Then he withdrew to trace lazy circles around her clit. He hooked his hands under her knees and guided them over his shoulders so she was completely open, completely vulnerable to his touch.

“God I love going down on you.”

Caroline could only moan as he licked and sucked, feasting on her like she was the most delicious thing he’d ever tasted. The first time he’d done this she’d nearly died of embarrassment, unable to believe that a guy could really enjoy it. Danny had pleaded and pushed, promised her that all she had to do was pull on his hair and he’d stop. She’d yanked on his hair at the first flick of his tongue, but of course he hadn’t stopped like he’d promised. But soon she’d had her fingers twisted in his hair as she writhed underneath him, embarrassment forgotten as he sucked her clit into his mouth with firm pulls of his lips.

Just like he was doing now. Sucking her hard as his tongue stroked her. Her heels dug into his back as her orgasm tightened and built, more fiercely than before.

“Mmmm, that’s it baby, come in my mouth. You know I love to taste your sweet pussy juice running over my tongue.”

She arched her head back into the pillow, her hands fisting in the cheap sheets, too turned on to be embarrassed by the hot, filthy things he whispered against her swollen flesh. Pleasure broke over her in a dizzying wave, even more intense than before. She was dimly aware of him moving off the bed. She wanted to reach for him, keep him with her, but her arms were rubbery dead weights.

She watched him walk across the room, his naked, muscular body moving with predatory grace. He knelt on one knee in front of his duffel bag and rustled around. Finding what he was looking for, he straightened and turned back to the bed.

Caroline’s boneless satisfaction receded when her gaze dipped between his legs. He was still rock hard. Unsatisfied sexual heat rolled off him in waves. Her mouth went dry and she licked her lips at the thought of satisfying his need.

Renewed desire pulsed through her. She sat up against the pillow and parted her knees wider in invitation. She could see the flash of white teeth as he smiled in anticipation.

She heard the rip of foil and watched him smooth the condom down the length of his cock. Her pussy fluttered at the remembered feel of him sinking deep inside her. After twelve years, she was going to have him inside her again.