Boomtown

by Lani Lynn Vale

  “Yes, that’s actually why I am calling.” I took a deep breath, “Do you think I could talk to James first though? I have an important question I need to ask first.”

  “Yeah Cap, here he is.” He said, sounding a little more serious.

  “Alright, Cap. What’s up?” James asked

  “I have two things I need to talk to you about. First, I wanted your permission to marry your sister.” I told him. Oh god, it would kill me not to have his consent, but I would do it anyway, with or without his support.

  A deep breath was taken from James, and then he expelled it and said, “I never thought I had to warn you off my sister. But I’m glad I didn’t. There is no one that I’d love more to be with my sister who means the world to me. Isn’t this a little sudden though?”

  “Yes and no. I knew I wanted her forever when she walked into the bar that night. We have spent almost every moment we could together this last month. I have never in my life felt as good as when I am with her. She seems to make it possible to breathe again. I haven’t been breathing for years, and finally I can take a full breath.” I explained.

  “I didn’t ask for you to write a poem. But as long as you treat her right, I have no problem. What was the other news?” James asked.

  “Your sister got another note yesterday. This one was left at the back door. She saw him deliver it.” I said solemnly.

  “You’ve got to be fucking shitting me! To our back door? Please tell me you moved her out of there. God. My baby is there too. You have got to take them back to the compound. I’ll try to get back home as soon as I can. They will have to give me leave for this.” He said sounding as frustrated as I felt.

  “I told her to double up on her stuff and move it in. We will be at my place tonight. But that’s not the worst of it. There were prints on the note. They belonged to Justin.” I said.

  A long pause sounded over the line.

  “No.” he breathed out.

  “Yes. They were his. Elliott checked them three times.”

  “Elliott thinks that it’s possible that someone got a hold of his prints and had a mold made.” I told him, giving him everything that Elliott had just told me.

  “Okay, we’ll keep an eye out. Watch out for my family. “James said as he hung up. I hung my head and let my hands dangle in between my legs. I sat like this for fifteen minutes contemplating what to do next.

  “Sam?” I heard a soft voice call from the doorway. I looked up and there she was. Cheyenne. My heart picked up a little at just the sight of her, just like it did that night I first met her at Deacon’s.

  I turned my chair and motioned for her to come. She did, and curled into my lap, rubbing her nose along my neck.

  “Are you ok?” she asked, “I knocked, but you didn’t hear me. You seemed lost in thought.”

  “Yea, I’m ok. Just some bad news. Did you get everything you need today?”

  “Yep, all but the kitchen sink, but you have one of those so no big deal!” she said teasingly. “I think Gabe and Ember have a thing for each other. The entire time today they were eye fucking the other while they weren’t looking. It was quite hilarious. Every once in a while, Gabe would catch Ember looking at him, and he would smile, and she would get all huffy. I loved it.”

  I smiled; I loved listening to her talk. She didn’t have that cynical look of the world like I did. She enjoyed life, didn’t see danger around every corner.

  “When is your birthday?” she asked me.

  “December 24, 1980.” I answered.

  “Wow, you’re old! I’m only twenty five! My birthday was a couple of weeks ago. March third, the day I met you at the bar.” She said lightheartedly.

  I jerked.

  “That night was your birthday? Why didn’t you tell me?” I demanded.

  “What did you want me to say? That I was spending my birthday all alone? How humiliating would that have been? At least you unknowingly gave me a good birthday present. That was the best night of my life!” She said emphatically.

  I smiled and hugged her close while whispering, “I was the one given the gift. I never thought I would get something so pure. My whole life I have lived in filth. You are like a breath of fresh air.”

  Curling up a little closer to me, she laid her head back on my chest, she didn’t moved for a couple of minutes, and that’s when I noticed that she had fallen asleep. I sat like that, just holding her for over an hour. I sent a coded message from my phone to James and Dougie asking them to call me back as soon as possible. Finally my bladder wouldn’t be denied anymore, and I had to wake her, but even that short reprieve seemed like enough to tamp down the roiling emotions that I was feeling about what I had talked to Elliott about on the phone earlier. She didn’t know that she was doing it, but she made it to where it was at least a little more bearable.

  “Wake up, sweetheart.” I nudged her.

  She woke, but I’m not even sure she was all with it yet, because her eyes were distant when she pushed up on my shoulder.

  “Why’d you wake me? I was dreaming about cake!” she yelled.

  I was so surprised that I let her get up off my lap while I tried to hold my laugh in. Wow. She just stood there a couple more minutes, and then in a snap she was really awake.

  “What’d I say to you?” she asked with this really confused look on her face after noticing my smile.

  “You asked me why I woke you, and told me you were dreaming about cake. Practically ripped me a new asshole for it too. Jumped off of my lap like I burned you.” I laughed out.

  “Oh, well something you should know. I don’t wake up easily. I say some weird stuff. James and Mom have all kinds of stories of me doing this. I’m sorry I fell asleep. It was a long day, Janie was horrible.” She said cutely.

  “I’ll keep that in mind. Let’s go see where everyone is.” I said grabbing her hand.

  We walked into the garage bay to see where everyone was. They were all in the common room in the back of the garage. The TV on, Max sat on a chair eyes ahead on the TV, with Ember beside him talking softly to each other. Jack and Gabe were playing pool across from them.

  “Elliott got hummingbird settled, he’s going to be heading back this way later tonight. I think we should all stay in the compound tonight. We will need to debrief later. But in the meantime, I think we should grill some burgers.” As I was saying this, all of the guys looked at me. They knew something was wrong when I asked them all to stay in the compound. For one, they already lived in the compound, so they would have nowhere else to go. I just didn’t want to get the women worried when I didn’t have to yet. I would have to tell her before she left for work tomorrow, and I was not looking forward to seeing the worry in her eyes.

  Chapter 8

  Three days had gone bye with nothing too exciting happening. I called mom to tell her I would be staying with Sam, and explained all that had happened up to that point. She wasn’t too happy that I had waited so long to tell her, but she understood, and agreed that I should stay with Sam. Janie and mom talked for over twenty minutes. Mom had a lot more patience than I did.

  Sam had also explained that I would have a tail from now on, and explained why. I hated knowing that someone was watching me, it made me feel vulnerable. Sam also explained that he thought someone from their old unit, or someone that knew all of their call signs and had access to confidential information was sending the letters. I wasn’t too sure what to say to this, but knew that it was something big.

  Work and school were just fine. Things crawled by slowly, and I found myself thinking more and more about Sam. I finally allowed myself to admit that I loved him. He was everything to me. He seemed to really like Janie, he took care of me, didn’t think that Ember and I were too weird. He let me have my freedom because he knew it was important to me, but had someone watch over me just so I could be protected.

  I was on my way back from school heading to Free when I entered a construction zone. The sign to my left said Left lane closed up ah
ead, so I waited for my opening and changed over to the right lane behind an eighteen wheeler. I glanced in my mirror and saw that Elliot had made it over too.

  I’d met Elliott only last night.

  He was a funny guy, reminding me of Dougie with his sense of humor. He wasn’t hideously tall like Sam’s six feet four inch frame. Elliott was five feet eleven inches or roundabout with shaggy blonde hair and a wide smile. He dressed the nicest out of them all. New jeans, that didn’t have and holes, rips, stains, or frays. A polo shirt that looked like it had been ironed within an inch of its life, and nice polished boots. Elliott was also the only one of the group at Free that was married. He had a very beautiful wife named Blaine. Blaine was a spunky short red-head no more than five feet tall who reminded me of that high school cheerleader who had enough spunk for four people. She was wearing the cutest little smock shirt with a wide black belt around the waist and black leggings with ankle boots. Her hair was in ringlets that made her look like little orphan Annie. She brought Ember, Janie, and I into the fold like we had always been there.

  Blaine had commented about the lotion that I was wearing and asked where I had gotten it from. The retelling of this story then went into when Gabe had accompanied Ember, Janie and I to target to get the lotion

  “Ember and I went to target to get all of Janie’s baby stuff. I decided to swing by the condom isle because I wanted to make sure we had some on hand, for…you know. Any who, we were standing in front of the selection of condoms, debating the different types.” I started telling the story

  “Ember, what does ribbed for her pleasure mean?” I asked her.

  “It has ridges all along the condom that is supposed to enhance sex.” She said back to me. She kept glancing to her left where Gabe stood staring at the ceiling wearing a shit eating grin. We decided to ignore him and kept going on without discussion.

  “Why on earth would you need a flavored condom?” I asked.

  “Well some people wear the condom during blow jobs, maybe because they don’t want to get it in their mouths.” She answered, her face blushing a bright red.

  “Hmm. That makes sense. What do you suppose this yours and mine lube does?” I wondered to myself.

  “It tingles and heats it says when the two come in contact with each other.” She read from the back of the box.

  I’d started adding random boxes to my cart when Ember and my old high school science teacher came up to Ember and said, “You look familiar. Do I know you?”

  “Do you watch porn?” I asked her with a straight face.

  Gabe burst out laughing behind me, and Ember had a dead serious look on her face and nodded her head. Mrs. Jackson did not find this funny, and stormed off from where she came from.

  Ember and I both held it together for a good five seconds after she left before we collapsed into each other and laughed until tears ran down her face.

  We did things like that all the time. There were even instances when a man has asked that very same question, and we give the same reply, and he seriously thinks that is where he has seen her before. It never gets old.

  “Oh My god!” Blaine said, “That is hilarious.”

  Blaine then turned around to tell Elliott, but there was no need because all of the guys were staring at us with grins on their faces.

  And that was how Blaine was let into our fold.

  We all spent the entire night in the down room playing Things while the guys had watched a ball game until we had suckered them into playing too.

  Let me explain how Things is played. There are cards that you choose, that say for example: “Things you shouldn’t put in your mouth.” Then everyone had a slip of paper, and each person puts down what they think. Then everyone passes it to the reader, and they read them all aloud. You take turns choosing who you think said what.

  Ember and I could normally guess each other’s knocked each other out fairly easily. Max is a close second, because he had known us the longest, he could usually guess the one of us who managed to stay in. We were both very vulgar when we played this game. Our friends loved playing with us; they said we entertained the hell out of them.

  At first we only played with Blaine, Ember, Max and I, but shortly after we were able to rope Elliott, Gabe, Jack, and finally Sam in to playing as well.

  One of the funniest turns was when the card said: “Things you shouldn’t display in your china cabinet. It was my turn to be reader, so I read the answers that were written out loud to the group:

  “Your bras”

  “Your whips, chains, and floggers”

  “Your dildo collection”

  “Your pot stash”

  “Broken china”

  “Your kidney stones”

  “Your collection of panties from every one of your sexual encounters”

  “Your vaginal douches”

  I barely was able to read the slips of paper. By the time I was done, I was wheezing and barely able to stay in the chair. Tears were leaking out of my eyes uncontrolled. Blaine however didn’t have my problem. She was on her hands and knees trying to push herself back into her chair. Sam ended up winning the round, catching on in only a few short turns. As the night wore on, everyone loosened up and said what was really on their minds. I don’t know if the inventor of Things meant for the game to be played this way, but it was a riot when everyone played with no reservations. I had one hell of a time, and it really let me let go of some of my worries.

  Blaine fit in great with Ember and I. She seemed to compliment us with her quirky sense of humor, and didn’t think that we were weird at all. In fact she seemed to join right in with our antics.

  Shaking my head to come back to the present, I noticed a Red Miata in my side mirror passing the line of cars so they could get ahead in the line of cars. There was nothing I hated more than these types of drivers. My inner road rage bitch decided to show her head, and sped up just in time to prevent little Ms. Red Miata from squishing in between my truck and the eighteen wheeler in front of me. She slowed down a bit, but there was no way that Elliott was letting her in behind me, because then it would mean he wasn’t as close to me as he needed to be.

  I yelled out the window, “There is a reason there was a sign four miles back saying you needed to get over, bitch!” I laughed when she gave me the finger, and then sped forward and past us to see if she could find room up ahead somewhere before she had to stop. In my rear view mirror I could see Elliott shaking his head at me. I smiled. A little ways up the road there was a line of cars stopped by a construction worker that needed to get in. Once again, I didn’t stop to let the red Miata in, not my fault she tried to cheat! I thought to myself, Karma is a bitch.

  I arrived at the compound a tad later than usual and pulled up beside Sam's chopper. Sam had given me a lesson in bikes, and he informed me that the ones that he and his boys rode were choppers. Sam exited the front door and Janie barreled past him and hit me about knee height. I bent over and lifted her in my arms, giving her a good squeeze before transferring her over to my hip. I walked up to Sam and gave him a peck on the lips, then gave him an awkward hug, burying my face into his neck. He wrapped his arms around both of us and hugged me back.

  “Your woman has a bit of road rage.” Elliott said from behind me.

  “Oh really, do tell.” He replied

  Elliott went on to tell him about the Miata bitch and the construction zone.

  “You need to be careful about doing that, someone might pull a gun on you one day, then what would you do?” he said reproachfully.

  “Jesus, you sound just like James and Ember. Excuse me; I have to go make dinner. And James is supposed to Skype tonight with Janie, so I want to get her fed before then.” I walked into the house without a backward glance.

  I set about making dinner, James’ favorite in fact, of Sour Cream Noodle Bake and Honey Glazed Chicken when Sam walked in.

  “I have a doctor appointment tomorrow to get on birth control. I know it won’t help the last t
hree weeks of having not used any, but it’s a start.” I said distractedly to him.

  He came up behind me and gave me a one armed hug, pulling me into his body.

  “I like having you here, in my kitchen, cooking for me. I like it a lot.” He said, rubbing his erection into my ass.

  “I feel. But as the way with the world, Janie is awake and around here somewhere, so save that for later.” I smiled at him, and then went to the oven to get the food out.

  We ate dinner, and Sam agreed with James that this dish was by far his favorite that I had made. Then I got Janie cleaned up and ready for bed, reading her two books, which she in turn took over to Sam and made him read them to her too. He was much better at reading the Dr. Seuss books that I was.

  I had just put Janie to bed, and was walking back into the kitchen when I glanced at the computer and realized that James had never Skyped Janie today. That was unusual for him, but he had missed a time or two before. Not worrying about it too much, I headed outside to the back porch where Sam was sitting outside having a beer. The back yards had a small area of green grass, and then turned into mostly woods the further back you went. Sam was sitting in a rocking chair, rocking slowly with one foot on the rung and another on the railing to keep his pace. He reached out and pulled me down into his lap.

  Curling his arm around me, he said, “Thanks for dinner. It was good.”

  “You’re welcome. I love cooking. It wasn’t a hardship. What’s your middle name?”

  “Cash. My mom had a thing for Johnny Cash when I was born.” He answered.

  “You don’t talk about your family much, why not?” I asked him gently. I only knew that his childhood wasn’t the best, and that his mom took him and ran about every six months or so, but they were never gone for long because his dad always found them.

  “My mom was great. She would do anything for you, you will love her. She lives in Dallas right now with her new husband. It’s my dad that bothers me. My childhood wasn’t a good one, and he was the sole reason why. My dad cheated on my mom openly and constantly, which is the way of a biker gang. They dealt and ran drugs, sold pussy, and he was horrible to my mom and me. Beat us both when he was drunk, one time he hit my mom so hard that her face split open from chin to temple. I think that was the last straw for me, I started hitting back. I enlisted as soon as I turned eighteen, vowing that I would be able to protect my mom better when I got out. My mom endured another three years until I could get her out without her being found. We got her a divorce, and a new name, and now she lives in Fort Worth with a restraining order against him, it also doesn’t hurt that she married the Captain of the Swat team. I’m not so worried about her anymore. That’s also what we do now. We offer safe passage to those who are abused, and get them new identities. We have also done a few rescue situations with hostages. But we don’t really advertise. The custom bikes, and fixing cars thing is just a way to make sure we keep enough money in the tanks when we need it.”