Boomtown

by Lani Lynn Vale

“You need to pack a bag for you and Janie. Enough for a couple of days.” Sam said distractedly

  “Ummm, that’s harder than it looks. Janie requires a bunch of shit: diapers, wipes, toys, clothes, shoes, bath stuff, a play pen for her to sleep in, and a lot more that I probably haven’t even thought about.” I said “You’ve never been around kids before have you?”

  He looked at me for a long moment, and then nodded. “Okay, I’ll move over here until we can get it to my place. We will have an alarm put in tomorrow. I know a guy who owes me a favor.”

  He pulled out his phone, and went about setting up a time for the guy to come install an alarm.

  “Can I put her back to bed?”

  “Yes, Max will stay over here too. Where can he sleep?”

  “There is James’ bed in with Janie, or there is my Mom’s room.”

  “He can sleep with Janie, which would solve the immediate problem of making sure everyone was safe.”

  I got Janie settled in bed, and then got ready for bed myself while Max and Sam were busy discussing logistics. I settled into bed, got my pillows situated and Mr. Bear in the crook of my arm. It was then what happened finally settled in and I started to shake, shortly after starting to cry.

  It was during my crying jag that Sam slipped into bed behind me, pulling me into his warm body. I turned still clutching my bear and buried my face into his neck.

  “Are you done?” I asked, still crying, but trying to get it under control.

  “I am now; I heard you crying and came to you.”

  “Thank you. I can’t get over the fact that Janie was in danger. I have no way to protect her. I was frozen; if it wasn’t for you telling me what to do I don’t know what would have happened!” I said crying myself into exhaustion.

  “Shhhh, I’m here now. Nothing will hurt y’all.” Sam said quietly, running his hands through my hair.

  I stopped crying shortly after, falling into a restless sleep, snuggled into Sam’s warmth and his arms wrapped around me.

  SAM

  “What’d you find?” I asked Max. There wasn’t a question of if, it was what. Max was good at his job.

  “Jack was able to get him. Little shit doesn’t know anything though. Some guy paid him to put a note on her kitchen table. He was told that no one was here and he would have to pick the lock. Jack took him to Cooper. ”

  “Did he say what the guy looked like?”

  “Blonde hair, built, around six foot.” Max said.

  I nodded and said a brief thank you to Max.

  As Max walked away, I thought a little more about what I had felt tonight when she had called. Pure terror. Even knowing that Jack was right outside, and would have been able to get there if I needed him to, I still freaked. I was normally stone cold. That was my call sign when we were performing missions, the boys thought it was a laugh calling me that. But tonight I was pure crazy. All of my training went out the window. I hadn’t acknowledged it before that second, but I was in love with her, and the idea of her being taken away from me tore me apart. Finally calming enough to get my head on straight, I called Jack. But proving that I had trained them well, Jack was already aware that someone was there, and had him detained on the side of the house away from any windows or prying eyes.

  I set the note on top of the fridge so I could send it to the lab in the morning and have the prints run. I walked back to Cheyenne’s room, stripped my clothes off, placed my .45 under the pillow and gathered Cheyenne in my arms. She still had a death grip on the ugly green bear, so I just wrapped my arms around both of them. I breathed in her scent, laughing softly when I remembered her earlier explanation about smelling me. We were one of a kind. I closed my eyes, and fell into a light fitful sleep.

  Chapter 7

  I heard pots and pans banging, male voices talking, and Janie laughing her carefree laugh. I rolled over and buried my face into the pillow. Sam. I was almost asleep again when I felt a hand running up the leg stopping at the inside of my thigh where it met my core. I gave an involuntary shiver and moaned. That being permission enough I felt the fingers slip past my undies, and up inside me in the next breath. I was already dripping wet, all Sam had to do was touch me and I was ready for him.

  Realizing that I was wet for him already, he peeled my underwear off and then dragged me to the edge of my bed so my feet were on the floor but my upper body was supported by the bed. I heard a zipper lower, and lightning fast I was filled with him.

  I let out a moan, and wiggled my hips a little to see how much leeway he would give me. His hands tightened, so obviously he wasn’t willing to give up much. He pulled out, then thrust forward again, hitting my cervix. I started to moan again when his hand covered my mouth.

  “Shhh, we don’t want to be too loud. I’d hate to have to stop.” He said.

  I buried my face into the bed, and wiggled my hips as if to say get on with it.

  Well he got on with it alright, if I was on the bed normally, my head would be pounding the headboard with every thrust. Every time with him it just kept getting better and better. He seemed to hit a spot in me that made me wild. I moaned into the sheets with almost every thrust he gave me.

  Out of nowhere my orgasm blindsided me. I came back to myself in time to hear Sam moan into the back of my neck, as he jerked and came. We both lay there panting.

  When my wits came back, I said, “You forgot again.”

  “I wore one.” He said as he pulled out then went to the bathroom to dispose of the condom.

  Wow, I hadn’t even noticed. I had been so lost in Sam that it never even crossed my mind. He also seemed kind of pissed.

  He came back in the room and pulled up his jeans without putting any underwear on. He grabbed a black tee off the floor and pulled it over his head as he walked out of the door of the bedroom, closing the door softly behind him.

  Guess he was pissed at me. He didn’t normally leave me so fast, or without at least saying something before he went. I needed to talk to someone, and for that to happen I would actually tell someone what was going on.

  I sighed and grabbed my phone, and typed a quick text to Ember.

  Me: “I need you to come see me ASAP. I have major problems.”

  Ember: “OK, I’ll be there in 10. Make me breakfast.”

  ∞

  I walked out of my room and went to the kitchen. Max and Janie were at the table finishing what looked like pancakes. Sam stood at the coffee pot filling up two mugs, his back to me. I walked up to him and hugged him from behind. He tensed up a little, then relaxed, snaked his hand around to pat my butt. I rubbed my head into his back, sniffing a little, trying not to let him know what I was doing. His body started shaking, and I knew he was laughing.

  “You’re sniffing me again aren’t you? Get your coffee and some pancakes and sit down.” He ordered, shaking his head at me. I held on a little longer, and placed a kiss between his shoulder blades. His body seemed to relax while doing this, making him seem not as mad as he was.

  I decided not to argue with him and did as he said. He brought his food and coffee, as well as the syrup.

  “Ember is on her way over. I need to talk to her.” I said to everyone.

  Max groaned and I glanced at him.

  “What?” I asked him.

  “Ember is driving me nuts. It was kind of nice to wake up and not have her knocking at my door for once asking if she could get me anything.” He answered.

  “Max, what do you think we all went through when we heard you were injured? We didn’t know how bad you were hurt, whether you were alive, where you were. Nothing, they told us nothing. Ember was dying inside. She held up fairly well, but when they finally called and told us that you were ok, and would be on the next flight home, she broke. She was seriously broken; I haven’t seen her cry like that since your parents died. It was not pretty. Give her a little slack.” I scolded him.

  He looked at me for a couple seconds, and then his face fell. “I didn’t even think of that. I just t
hought she was being annoying. I never knew. Thanks Chey Chey, I’ll talk to her.”

  I nodded, and started to eat. Ember walked into the house a few minutes later, using her key to get in.

  “Hey y’all! Is that pancakes, who made these? I know it wasn’t Max, he sucks at pancakes.” She said, grabbing a plate full and sitting down across from Janie.

  “Me.” Sam said, “But it was nothing special, just Hungry Jack mix. Anyone could do that.”

  “Cheyenne is a kickass cook. I don’t think it’s fair that y’all both can cook. So why was the door locked? It’s never locked.”

  “Cheyenne nearly had a break in last night. If it wasn’t for one of the men I had watching her, he probably would have gotten in.” he answered her question. “I’m having an alarm system installed today at two. Gabe will be here to watch the house while I’m gone. If y’all go out, make sure Gabe knows where y’all are going. And send me a text as well. Also, I want you to make sure you get double of everything you will need for Janie and you, and you can keep it at my place, just in case we need to go there.” He said as he went back to eating, like he didn’t just drop a few bombs on me.

  “Who the hell is Jack?” I sputtered. “And what do you mean double up. That’s like moving in with you. And who is this Gabe yahoo?”

  He gave me a half grin and started to explain with amusement, “Jack and Gabe work with us. They were in our old unit and got out when I did. And you just said last night that it was hard to just bring a two year old over, so I want to make it easier in case we need to go there.” He stood up, tossed his plates into the sink and headed for the kitchen area where I heard his voice, apparently talking into his phone, unless he was talking to himself.

  Ember and I glanced at each other, and then both turned to Max simultaneously. He gave a big huff, knowing our looks for what they were.

  “He doesn’t like explaining himself, and it’s really hard for him to talk about how he ended up where he is at today. The guys didn’t like the way we were ambushed when I got hurt, their contracts were up, and they all decided to get out. James will be done after this last deployment he is on. Same with Dougie. We are all going to work with Sam at Free. It’s funny how we all met each other and had the same interests in motorcycles and cars.”

  Most of what he said was the truth, but we could tell that something was fishy about the explanation of why they were all working with each other the way they were at Free. Guess we had some more things to dig into. Max got up and left too, placing his dirty dishes in the sink with the rest. Guess they didn’t do dishes. Damn.

  I collected the rest of the dishes off the table, and tossed them in the sink with the rest while I went about cleaning Janie up. I let her down, and then went to the sink to help Ember tackle the mountain of dishes that had stacked up. Janie ran off towards the living room where I could hear the guys, and I finally got Ember alone. Time to come clean.

  So that is what I did. I told her everything. Not skipping any details. I told her about meeting Sam at the bar, not being a virgin anymore, unprotected sex, and condoms. When I was finished she sat staring at me, her mouth opening and closing like a fish.

  “Say something!” I pleaded.

  “I don’t know whether to congratulate you on losing your virginity, or yell at you for keeping this from me.” She said.

  Apparently congratulating won out, because she started squealing and jumping up and down, grabbing around my waist and making me bounce with each of her jumps.

  A throat cleared behind me and we both stopped jumping and turned. Max, Sam, and Janie, who was in Sam’s arms, were in the doorway staring at us while we made fools of ourselves.

  “Better get used to this Cap. They are weirdoes. This is tame for them. Just wait until they start talking to each other in Cooke Monster and Elmo voices. It gets downright whacko.” Max said laughingly

  “We haven’t done that in at least a year, Max!” Ember said, “Stop embarrassing Chey.”

  “Whatever. We are heading out. Me and you need to talk later.” Max said to Ember before turning around and walking away.

  “We are heading out, come meet Gabe before we go.” Sam instructed, and left too.

  “Ember, I do believe he just gave us an order. Hop too!” I said, slapping her ass then taking off before she could retaliate. I heard her pounding behind me, and put on some speed, not stopping until I had Sam in between her and me. I stuck my hand to my nose, stuck my tongue out and made the nanny nanny boo boo gesture. We dodged each other for a few seconds, jumping over the couches and dodging Sam and Max before I finally noticed the intimidating looking guy right in front of me. Ember jumped on my back, which made me stumble into the guy, who I assumed must be Gabe. He steadied us, and that’s when Ember noticed him. Slowly her feet slid to the floor, and she stared in shock at the guy in front of her. Her cheeks went a deep shade of red, and she sputtered out a “Sorry.” before she backed off completely and went to stand by Max.

  So this was Gabe. Wow, he was kind of scary. I gave a wobbly smile and offered him my hand. He took my hand, shook it and let it go. I felt Sam come up behind me and wrap his fingers into the waist band of my pants. He pulled me into his side, and said, “Gabe, this is Cheyenne, James’ sister. The other one is Max’s sister, Ember. Cheyenne, I want you to remember what I told you, if you don’t see Gabe, don’t go anywhere. Make sure you call me and keep me informed on what you are doing. I’ll see you when you drop off your stuff at my place. Gotta go.”

  He wrapped his hand in my hair, gave me a deep wet kiss, and let me go. He blew a raspberry on Janie’s tummy, she squealed, and then he handed her off to me. Janie cried, reaching for Sam, but Sam was already out the door with Max following. I heard his bike roar to life and him take off without another word, leaving Ember, Janie and I alone with Gabe the frightening.

  Janie was wailing at the top of her lungs, big crocodile tears running down her face, and snot mingling with the tears.

  “Ummmm,” I said to Gabe, “I need to go get some shoes on, and afterward we need to hit Walmart so I can get Janie some stuff. Is that alright?”

  He nodded, but wasn’t really paying attention to me. He was staring at Ember, who was doing her best to disappear into the couch. I took pity on her and said, “Hey Ember, do you mind taking Janie and getting her dressed? “

  She nodded emphatically, and took a still wailing Janie out of the room and down the hall. I stared after them, and felt a little pang in my chest. She missed her daddy, any male attention she soaked up like a sponge, and it didn’t help that Sam was good with her.

  I headed into my room, slipped on some tennis shoes and pulled my hair into a bun on the top of my head. I got Janie’s diaper bag ready and we all headed out to Wal-Mart. Three hours later, we arrived at Free and took everything to Sam’s duplex, rearranging some stuff so everything would fit, and not look like we had just bombed his house with baby stuff. I laid Janie down for a nap, and left Ember with her because she was hiding from Gabe. They were doing googly eyes at each other while they thought the other wasn’t looking. It was actually kind of cute; I would have to see if I could talk Ember into coming out of her shell around him.

  SAM

  “The prints are Justin’s, Sam.” I heard over the phone. “And I know what you are going to say, but they are his. And the weird thing is they were left there on purpose. He left them in the shape of a smiley face. No other prints anywhere else on the page.”

  “Justin’s been dead over a year. Something isn’t right. I was the one who identified the body, and it was his body. I’m positive.” I said to Elliot, our resident computer geek, and ex-Army Ranger that served under my command.

  “Well it may not actually be him, but if that’s the case, then it is someone who would have had contact with him enough to have his fingerprints. Then took his fingerprints and had a mold made. There is no logical explanation.” Elliot said, sounding just as frustrated and confused as I was feeling.

&nb
sp; “Thanks for everything. When will you be getting back here?” I asked

  “I’ll be back late Sunday night. I just got Hummingbird into her new place, and all that nice fun stuff.” He answered.

  “Alright. I’ll see you soon. I’ll call you if I need anything else. Keep your phone close. Something is fucked up here.” I said, stating the obvious.

  Next on my list was to call James and inform him what had happened last night.

  The secure line rang four times before it crackled and a disembodied voice that sounded like Dougie. “Oh Captain, Our Captain!”

  Yeah, that was Dougie. I loved that kid. I hadn’t been able to teach him as much as the others, but what I was able to teach him he soaked up like a sponge. He was a very smart kid, almost super genius smart. He also had a great sense of humor. He was easy going, and a genuinely fun person to hang around.

  “Hey there DD, how’s Kayla doing? How old is she now thirty?” I asked. Kayla was his 2 year old, going on twenty. She had a lot of spunk, and acted a lot like her daddy. We used to watch videos of her that his family had sent to him. James and he used to compare videos of their little girls. They both ended up having them about a month apart. The women that they had them with both ended up doing the same thing as well, so they were really quite close. She was staying with some of his relatives until he got home. He planned on joining us as soon as his tour was up, which happened to be four more months, just like James.

  “She’s turned into a little diva with a capital D. My mom is counting down the days until I get home. She can’t handle much more, she could barely handle me. My cousins are giving as much help as they can, but they all have a bustle of kids of their own. So, I hear you are goin’ out with little Chey Chey. How did that happen?” he asked wickedly.

  “Ugh, not you too! I know James’ already told you how we met, so I don’t need to explain it again.” I said stubbornly.

  “Aye Aye, Captain. So did you find out anything more on what’s going on with her?”