Rock Me, Stalk Me

by Jamie DeBree

  "Nice try, that's what I say. Get in and shut up, woman. I've driven through fields too, just probably not the kind of stuff you grow up there." He chuckled and slid in beside her.

  The door slammed shut and Eddie sat sideways near the front, so he could keep an eye on things. The vehicle started to move, and he grabbed the thick chain that spanned the width of the bed to keep his balance as they bounced slowly along the rows.

  It seemed like forever until they finally reached the asphalt, and Eddie was sure he was just one giant black and blue bruise from all the jostling he'd endured. The truck stopped, and the window at the back of the cab slid open.

  "Are you okay?" Holly asked, her voice weary.

  Eddie nodded, then remembered she couldn't see him. "I'm fine. Are you? He hasn't touched you or anything, right?"

  "She's fine," Winston called out. Impatience laced his voice. "Now shut that window and let's go. I want to ditch this guy as soon as possible. The next town should do."

  The window closed and the old truck picked up speed, rattling on its frame as Winston gunned the engine. Eddie held on tight, thankful that at least the road was relatively smooth. The sky was beginning to lighten, and he could make out dim shapes lying on the other side of the bed. Some small tools, more chain, some rope and a shovel. He'd need to take Winston out at the next stop, and a few options flitted through his head. All of them required some risk, but anything was better than letting him take Holly with him again. And he had the advantage being higher than Winston would be when he got out of the truck. He'd just have to make every second count.

  Moving slowly, he inched his way to the center of the bed and pulled the shovel closer to his side. Retrieving the rope with a toe, he positioned it near the front left corner of the bed, closest to the driver's side door. Leaning his head back against the cold metal, he settled in to wait.

  * * *

  It was going to take a lot of hot water to feel clean again, Holly thought as she ran a hand over Sean's thigh. He'd wanted to pull over to check out some noises in the back of the truck, and physical contact seemed to be the only way to distract him. She wasn't sure what Eddie was up to, but whatever it was, she wanted to help.

  "Now see, that's what I'm talking about," Sean said, a sly grin on his lips. "We've got chemistry, babe...I knew you'd get in the mood if we spent some quality time." He grasped her hand and moved it to his crotch, pressing it against his length. It was all Holly could do not to snatch her hand back. Or gag.

  Pressing her left breast into his arm, she slowly slid her fingers off of his lap. "Now, now...patience, dear. I wouldn't want to cause a wreck while you're driving." The thought actually had merit, but it was too risky with Eddie in the back. "We'll get to a hotel soon, won't we?"

  She kissed the top of his shoulder and laid a hand on his chest, sneaking a peek out the back window. Eddie's legs were visible right behind Sean - his moving to that side of the bed must have been what they heard. And there was a long handle of some sort beside him, as well as a coil of rope.

  "Of course we will, sweetheart." The truck picked up speed, rattling in protest as Sean pushed it harder. "It won't be long now at all."

  Turning her head back to face front, she laid her cheek against Sean's arm. He'd put the gun on the center of the wide, rubber-covered dashboard, with the barrel facing the windshield. Holly idly stroked his chest while she considered how best to keep him from taking it out of the pickup with him when they stopped. If Eddie could knock him out with the tools he had, they could tie Sean up and go to the police.

  "What kind of a gun is that?" she asked, rubbing her cheek against his shirt.

  He frowned, and then chuckled. "Right, I forgot. You're a writer. You want to know for a book, right?"

  She giggled, glad he'd given her a better excuse than just being curious. "Of course." She sat up so she could look at him. "Can I see it? Does it have the safety on? I really don't know much about guns..." A lie, but a necessary one, she reminded herself.

  He shook his head. "Leave it there. If you want to learn how to use one, I'll teach you when we get home. I'm surprised you haven't learned yet, being from Montana and all. Lots of hunters there, I thought."

  She shrugged. "I was never very interested in that sort of thing. Is that one hard to use?"

  "Just point and shoot, babe. But it's got a heck of a kickback."

  "What's that?" Holly was pretty sure she couldn't sound any more stupid at the moment, but Sean was eating it up.

  "It's when...shit. Hang on!" He twisted the wheel to the left, throwing Holly across the cab toward the passenger door. She grabbed for the handle, trying to anchor herself as the truck bounced off the shoulder into the dirt and the gun fell into her lap.

  Chapter 15

  The whole world shook as Holly gripped the door handle with one hand and Sean's gun with the other. Thrown sideways across the seat, she couldn't see what was going on and when the truck stopped, the momentum tossed her forward onto the floor.

  For a moment, she just laid there, silently taking stock of her body while wondering how to extricate herself. She could see Sean's feet on the floor, but they weren't moving, and she wondered just how badly he was hurt.

  Then she remembered Eddie.

  Her stomach turned as she thought about him possibly being thrown from the truck as they crossed the asphalt, his body lying battered in the road. She forced herself to move, not allowing herself to think about any option other than finding him alive. Reaching up over her head, she found the handle and pulled, thankful when the truck door swung open on its own. Moving slowly, she twisted and turned, wriggling her upper body high enough to slide her legs between the seat and the doorframe as she half-stepped, half-fell out onto the hard-packed dirt. The gun slipped out of her grip and she scrambled to pick it up and hide it behind her back when she other truck door slammed. She peered over the side of the bed, but Eddie wasn't there.

  "Holly? Are you okay?"

  Sean staggered around the front of the vehicle, one hand maintaining contact with the metal to steady himself. Blood trickled from a gash in his forehead, and he looked disoriented as he approached.

  "I think I am," she said, turning so the hand with the gun was pressed behind her as she leaned against the truck. "You should sit down though - that's a nasty cut. And I don't see Eddie anywhere. What happened? Why did you swerve?"

  "Deer in the road." He pressed the palm of one hand to his head, moving around the open passenger door and peering inside. "We need to get moving, but you'll have to drive. I just need to find..."

  Holly stepped back, swinging the gun up and leveling it at him as she grasped it with both hands. "Looking for this? Just point and shoot, right?" Her index finger slipped into the trigger loop, but she was careful not to touch the lever.

  He slumped against the seat with a sigh. "Come on now - don't be like that. I thought we were just starting to get along."

  "Yeah, well, that's what I wanted you to think." Something moved near the front of the truck, and she nearly smiled with relief when Eddie's face appeared just above the hood. He held a finger to his lips, and she gave a tight nod as he held the shovel out where she could see it. If she could just get Sean away from the truck...

  Glancing at the gun in her hands, she recognized it as a Glock of some sort, though she wasn't familiar enough with them to know what caliber. Sean hadn't lied - there wasn't a safety lever to disengage before shooting, but she recognized the button at the back of the butt that freed the bullet clip from the handle - a cop she'd done research with had shown her one time.

  Pressing the button, she let the clip fall to the ground, widening her eyes and gasping as she watched it fall. When she looked up, Sean was smiling.

  "I told you there was no safety," he said, pushing away from the truck and walking toward her. "Now hand that over, and no one will get hurt, okay?"

  She let the gun drop as Eddie snuck out from his spot in front of the truck and swung the shovel hi
gh at the back of Sean's head.

  Sean went down hard as the shovel made contact. Eddie dropped the impromptu weapon and fell to his knees as well, clearly hurt. Holly hobbled to his side, and he pressed a coil of rope into her hand.

  "Tie him up. Now, before he comes to. We don't want him getting loose again."

  Holly took the rope, but didn't leave. "Are you okay? What happened? How are you alive?"

  Eddie sat back on his heels, the lines in his face tight with pain. "Later," he said, working to catch his breath. "Get him tied up first. Please."

  A car zoomed by, then another. The sky was getting brighter, and apparently that meant more traffic. Several more cars flew past as Holly wrapped loops of rope tightly around Sean's wrists and ankles, securing them with tight knots. It wasn't long before sirens approached, and she went over to where Eddie was sitting propped up against the front truck tire.

  "This isn't over yet, is it?"

  He shook his head. "Not yet. But soon." He reached for her hand, entwining their fingers and rubbing his thumb over her skin. "We're probably not going to see each other for a while once those emergency people get here. After that there will be hospitals and interviews and lawyers - do you have a good lawyer?"

  "Not the kind we'll need, but I'll get one." She scooted a little closer. "Will I ever see you again?"

  He chuckled, the deep, comforting sound dissolving into a painful-sounding cough. "We'll be seeing a lot of each other, don't you worry. If you're okay with that..."

  "I'm okay with that." She smiled, then leaned over to kiss him ever so softly on the lips as an ambulance stopped on the shoulder and two police vehicles pulled up behind it.

  * * *

  Three weeks later, Holly stepped off the airport in Billings and scanned the crowd for that all-too-familiar face before making her way to the luggage claim. She'd feel better once she got out to her comfortable house in the country, where she could see visitors approaching and had a double-barrel shotgun and a lovely antique six-shooter at her disposal. Most people thought they were for show, but she always kept them in good working order, just in case.

  Finding her bags, she tried not to look too nervous as she scanned the crowd again, walked out the door with only a slight limp leftover from her injury and through the long-term parking lot to her trusty SUV. It was going to cost an arm and a leg to get out, considering all the extra time she'd been gone, but she didn't care. Book sales had exploded as her name got bandied about by the press in California, so at least money wouldn't be an obstacle for awhile. At the moment, getting home was the only thing that mattered.

  She'd nearly cried when they took Eddie away in the first ambulance and her in a second. After a short stay in the hospital to make sure her leg was healing well, she’d spent a lot of time over the next few days in a small, cold interrogation room, first trying to explain all the events that had happened from the time she got to California, and then letting the lawyer Eddie sent over tell her what questions she could and couldn't answer. At the end of it all, she was frazzled and on her last nerve. It didn't help that she wasn't allowed to see Eddie at all - they told her he was okay, and still in the hospital, but every time she tried to steal away someone always seemed to need just one more thing.

  For a bunch of legal reasons she had a hard time understanding, she had to fly back to California and give more statements there. When she was finally cleared to return home to Montana, she wasn't optimistic that anything would ever come of it. The evidence was abundant once they found the plane and the house she'd been held in, but none of it directly pointed back to Sean. He'd been released on bail a few days before her flight home, and she'd spent those days holed up in her hotel room with only a restraining order for company.

  Eddie had tried calling once or twice, but by then, she wasn't sure what to say. So many things had passed, and she'd done a lot of thinking. Too much, maybe. But they had completely different lives and now, as she turned on to the dirt road that would get her to her driveway, she just didn't see how it was going to work between them. Yes, she could write on the road and rearrange her schedule so they could be together, but did she really want to? Her house came into view, a beautiful smallish rancher on several acres all her own, with no immediate neighbors for a few miles in any direction. Quiet, peaceful, and the perfect place for crafting her stories.

  Or attracting stalkers.

  The thought came unbidden as she turned into her drive, and then stopped to stare at the dark sedan that was parked beside the house. No one should be there. And no one she knew drove that kind of car...

  * * *

  Eddie watched as the SUV Holly's parents had described approached the house, and then stopped. He frowned, wondering if something was wrong as he stepped off the porch and began to walk towards her vehicle. He hoped that being here would convince her to just give him...them...one more chance. He also wanted to be the one to tell her about Sean.

  Before he could get closer, the vehicle started to move again, slow over the deep ruts in her gravel driveway. She gave him a half-hearted wave as she passed by to park beside his rental. He went to her door and opened it when she turned the engine off, hoping for the best, but expecting a lukewarm reception.

  He didn't expect her to step out and shove both hands into his chest, sending him sprawling in the dirt.

  "What the hell? I know you're mad, but..." By the time he was on his feet again, she'd wrangled her luggage out of the back and was headed for the house. He ran to catch up and reached for one of the bags, but she refused to give it up.

  "You scared the crap out of me," she said, finally forced to set her suitcase down at the front door. "I thought you were Sean. What are you doing here, Eddie?" Fitting the key into the lock, she pushed the door open and turned back for the case, but Eddie already had it. He nodded towards the door.

  "We need to talk," he said, waiting for her to move. "About a lot of things, apparently. Let's go inside, and I'll tell you about Sean."

  She looked at him for a long moment, some of the fight leaving her expression. When she finally went inside, she left the doors open behind her.

  Eddie followed, glancing here and there as Holly led him past a tall staircase, through a cozy looking living room and down a narrow hall to her bedroom. She set her bag on the bed and reached for the one he was carrying, but he shook his head and lifted it up onto the dark green velvety comforter himself. He smiled at the decor - rich, deep colors and plush fabrics for the bed, curtains and an oversized chair in one corner. The walls were dark too, a kind of mottled green and black color that matched the velvet on the bed.

  "I like it," he said, amused to see her cheeks turn pink. "It's you."

  "Most people wouldn't think so," she replied, turning toward the door. He reached out to lightly grasp her wrist, pulling her back when she didn't fight him.

  "Then most people don't know you like I do." He pulled her close to his chest and placed her hand on his shoulder before wrapping his arm around her waist. With his other hand, he coaxed her chin up until she looked into his eyes and he saw that spark of hope he'd wanted to see when he first opened her car door.

  "Hi," he murmured, lowering his head to brush his lips over hers. Her hands slid up to cup the back of his head and he deepened the kiss, relieved when her tongue slipped out to meet his. He kept it slow and easy, nibbling at her bottom lip before he pulled back to look at her again.

  "I missed you," he said, watching her face for any clue about what she might be thinking. "I was worried when you didn't come see me, and then you wouldn't take my calls. I thought we had an understanding."

  She pulled out of his embrace and went to sit on the edge of the bed. "They wouldn't let me see you. Every time I wanted to, they had something else for me to do, or said it wasn't a good idea. And by the time you called...I just wasn't sure what to even say. So much happened." She looked down at her hands, then up at the window, and back down at her hands again. "Honestly, I wasn't really sure
if something could work between us. We're so different, and our worlds are so different..."

  He sat beside her and reached out to take one of her hands. "None of that matters. It's all window dressing - you know that. We'll figure it out, but I need you, Holly. I love you, and I think you love me too. We need to be together, no matter what."

  She chuckled. "I thought I was the romance writer here."

  "Funny how many songs are romantic, isn't it? I may have even written a few myself." He thought about the one he'd started on the flight up - the one he planned to sing for her later tonight. Scooting closer, he wrapped an arm around her shoulder and leaned in for another kiss.

  "I do love you," she murmured, snuggling in with her head on his shoulder. "And I'm sorry I pushed you. When I saw the car in the driveway, I thought Sean had tracked me down already. That's why I stopped where I did. Then I saw you, and I was just relieved and mad at the same time - mad that even the thought of him could scare me so much." She sat up with a frown. "Didn't you say you had something to tell me about him?"

  Eddie nodded. "I'm sorry I scared you - I didn't even consider what you might think." He rubbed her arm gently. "Sean's dead, Holly. They found him around two this morning at his mansion - someone made an anonymous 9-1-1 call. He'd been shot, and it looks like he bled out before emergency personnel could get there."

  * * *

  “Did he shoot himself, or was it someone else?” Holly asked, stunned.

  “They aren’t sure yet, but from what I’ve heard, it looks like someone else got him. An inside job.”

  It took Holly a minute to process what Eddie was saying. When she'd left California, she'd been resigned to watching and waiting for Sean to make a wrong move so there would be some reason for her to put him in jail. For that to happen, he would have had to attack or assault her, and the officers she'd spoken with hadn't seemed optimistic. She'd been on high alert since she stepped off the plane, and now the danger was just...gone.