by Sable Hunter
“We both know that’s not true.” Alivia took Saxon’s arm as they followed Savvy down the hall toward the elevator.
* * *
“Welcome to Globe Life Park in beautiful Arlington, Texas! Tonight, the Rangers are hosting the Seattle Mariners. With both teams unbeaten, this should be a match made in heaven. And speaking of heaven, we have a whole bevy of angels with us this evening. We’re honoring the contestants of the Miss Texas Pageant tonight, they’re all suited up, and waiting in the dugout to be introduced to you!”
As the announcer welcomed the crowd, Saxon stood at the edge of the dugout while Alivia and the other girls ran out onto the field. The Ranger organization had furnished each contestant with a stylized uniform meant to mimic the player’s attire, but be intriguingly feminine as well. Saxon was torn between being turned on at the sight of Alivia in the outfit, and wanting to wrap his hoodie around her waist to hide the amazing curve of her ass from every bug-eyed man in the stadium.
“Join me in welcoming these Lone Star beauty queens,” the announcer called out to the sold-out crowd as deafening applause followed. He proceeded to introduce each young woman by name and the city or area they were representing. “To kick off our game, please stand while Miss Sweetwater leads us in singing our national anthem, followed by our current Miss Texas, Cynthia Cayman throwing out the opening pitch. And don’t forget, a mobile blood center is set up in the parking lot and will be open after the first inning. So, be generous today and save a life. Everyone who donates will receive a coupon for a discount on their next visit to Globe Life!”
While the announcements droned on, Saxon studied his surroundings. He wouldn’t have classified himself as a sports enthusiast, but he would’ve had to take up residence under a rock not to be aware of the players surrounding him. Elvis Andrus. Adrian Beltre. Cole Hamels. Only a pair of feminine arms sliding around his neck could tear his attention away from the men huddled together while their coach gave them last minute instructions. He clasped Alivia’s hand to draw her around for a kiss when she whispered in his ear…
“Hey, sugar.”
Not Alivia.
From across the dugout, Alivia’s eyes widened as she saw Andrea Jasper, draping herself all over Saxon. “You’re cruising for a bruising, Miss Sweetwater. You’re going to wish you were still back home wrangling rattlesnakes.” Narrowing her eyes, she was just about to stalk over and reclaim her territory when a collective sigh arose from the crowd. Glancing up at the instant replay on the big screen, she saw what the crowd had reacted to – Cynthia’s opening pitch wound up, fizzled out, and ended up traveling a total distance of two feet or so.
“Well, uh, thank you, Miss Texas,” the announcer stammered. “Hold on. What’s that? For good luck, they’re going to give another contestant a try to see if we can get the ball over home plate.”
Alivia shook her head in amusement and turned her attention back to Saxon and Andrea, who seemed to be exchanging pleasantries.
“Alivia!” Victoria took her by the shoulder. “How’s your arm?”
Dragging her gaze away from Saxon and the beautiful beauty contestant with the killer smile, she shrugged. “Well, I played Tee-ball, and I have a mean right hook.”
“Great. Translate that talent and energy into a killer opening pitch, and I’ll owe you one.”
Alivia let herself be drawn out onto the field and a baseball placed in her hand. She’d been so fixated on what was going on in the dugout that she hadn’t really comprehended what she was being asked to do. The announcer’s introduction and the welcoming applause of the crowd brought the situation into clear focus. “Oh, my God, Alivia!” she chided herself. “Get a grip!”
Meanwhile… “Uh, excuse me,” Saxon extricated himself from the clingy woman’s unwanted embrace. “I need to…move.” He wasted no time doing so, his concentration completely diverted by what was going on at the pitcher’s mound. “Alivia?”
Out on the field, Alivia wound up. “Just what does she think she’s doing?” With baseball in hand, Alivia went through a traditional pitcher’s warm-up. She had this whole routine down, thanks to her Nintendo Wii. “I wish you were standing right in front of me, you bleached blonde flirt. I’d use this hard ball to rearrange all of those huge beaver teeth.”
Saxon stared as Alivia displayed perfect form, releasing the ball to fly over home plate, resulting in a smiling catch by one of the Texas Rangers who immediately shouted out, “How about dinner, cutie-pie?”
Raising his lip in a snarl, Saxon breathed a relieved sigh when Alivia gave him a smile and a wave, but no answer. Stepping forward, he went to meet her. “Now, that’s the way it’s done.”
Seeing the camera was still following her movements, Alivia sidestepped his greeting. “Thanks.” Victoria stepped forward and gave her a hug, leaving Saxon waiting awkwardly with his arms open. Hearing one of the players snicker, he vowed to put the guy into his next video game as a troll.
As they moved past Saxon, Victoria snagged his arm, including him. “Security seems to have everything under control, head on up to my box and make yourself at home.”
“Aren’t you coming?” Alivia asked, wanting to use Victoria’s presence as a buffer. She didn’t really know what to do with these jealous feelings.
Victoria was about to answer when her cell phone sounded. Checking the screen, she brightened. “Guess who’s here?” Not waiting for them to say, she announced, “It’s Destry! Tell him I have to run one quick errand, and I’ll be right up!”
“Will…do,” Alivia managed to get out as Victoria took off at a fast clip.
Saxon placed a guiding hand at her back, noticing she jumped a bit. “What’s wrong?”
If he didn’t know what was wrong, she certainly wasn’t going to tell him. Flashing him a too-bright smile, Alivia shrugged. “Not a thing. Which way?”
“To the left.” Saxon headed Alivia down the hall the player’s used to enter the stadium and over to the VIP elevators. “I wonder where she was off to in such a hurry?”
“Not a clue,” Alivia mumbled as she stepped through the door he held open.
“Must be important, I can’t imagine her making Destry wait,” Saxon tried to read her expression.
“I can’t either, Destry is such a considerate man.”
“Oh, really?” Saxon wasn’t arguing his friend’s qualities; he was just curious how Alivia had come to such a conclusion. “How do you know?”
Alivia lifted her chin defensively, pooching her bottom lip out a fraction.
It was all Saxon could do not to push her up against the wall and claim a kiss.
“We talk.” She leaned forward and pressed the button for the top floor. “Destry is a total gentleman. He would never hurt Victoria.”
Somehow, the impression began to grow on Saxon that there was a hidden message for him buried in all this innuendo. Stepping to the control panel, he stopped the elevator – mid-floor.
“What are you doing, Abbott?”
Saxon gave Alivia a lascivious smirk. “I’ve always wanted to do that.”
* * *
Victoria hurried out to the mobile blood unit, determined to get her donation out of the way. She planned on wearing a proud ‘I Donated Blood’ button to spur others on to do their own good deed. Glancing at her watch, she saw that she had a few minutes before anyone else arrived. “Great, the sooner I get this over with, the sooner I can be with Destry.”
Tap! Tap!
Without waiting for Adam to answer, Victoria just pushed her way in. “Adam, it’s Victoria. Can I be next?”
No answer.
“Adam?” The unit was well lit, several stations were prepped and ready. “I see you’re all set. Adam? Where is everyone?” Surely, he’d arranged for some assistance. A bumping noise in the back drew her attention. Wondering if something was wrong, she headed through the rows of donation stations. “Odd, from the outside, this RV looked to have a ton more room.” Pushing through a curtain, she gasped in
horror. “Oh, my God!” To Victoria’s shock, she found a woman dressed in nursing scrubs, tied up and lying on the floor in front of a locked door, curled up in a fetal position. Her eyes were wide with horror. “What happened?” She went to her knees and desperately began to untie her wrists. “Just hold on, I’ll help you get loose.” She wondered where Adam was and if he was okay. “Did someone try to rob you?”
“Ummmm!” The woman tried to scream, looking over her Victoria’s shoulder in abject terror.
“What?” She was just about to turn around when something fell around her neck and tightened. “Oh!” was the only word she could get out before the chain or whatever it was tightened completely. For a split second, confusion reigned. What was happening? The woman at her feet was writhing in panic. Victoria didn’t know how to help - - she couldn’t even breathe. The next heartbeat brought the realization that she was in horrible trouble. She couldn’t take a breath. Someone was choking her. She clawed at her neck, desperately trying to make a little space to take a breath. Her fingers became tangled in the necklace she wore, a necklace Destry had given her, engraved with their names. To her sorrow, she couldn’t force her fingernails behind the…beads squeezing the life from her body.
With her lungs on fire, Victoria fought to her dying breath.
Her last thought was for Destry and how she wished she could’ve said goodbye.
* * *
“Remind me to lock the damn door when I go to the bathroom,” Adam huffed as he slid the beauty pageant coordinator’s body to one side. “So, curiosity kills two damn bitches. She was meant to die…but you…” He hauled the lab technician up off the floor. “You would’ve lived to sin another day if you’d stayed away. I told them I didn’t need any help. But would they listen? None of this is about collecting blood; this is about cleansing the world of an evil stain. Meddlesome cunts!” He’d come from the Eisemann to find the lab tech had let herself in, then unlocked the back compartment of the RV, revealing his big surprise. At first, she hadn’t realized what she’d found, only that the metal barrels looked out of place stacked floor to ceiling, just waiting for their ultimate purpose. She probably wouldn’t have put two and two together, but the damn woman hailed from Enid, Oklahoma, and grew up on stories of the Murrah Building bombing. She opened a screw top on one of the barrels and identified the fertilizer and diesel fuel by smell. Realizing what the contents meant, she’d been dialing 911 when Adam found her.
“I’ve been buying a bag of fertilizer here and there for years. A project like this takes planning, and I’m not about to let an ugly busybody like you get in my way.” As he talked, he unwound the rosary beads from his first victim to wrap them around the neck of his second.
She wasn’t cooperating. Despite being trussed up like a Christmas turkey, the woman’s struggles were proving to be a problem. “Stop it!” Finally, losing his patience, he picked up a wrench and crashed it into her temple. Her movements ceased automatically, giving him the opportunity to end her life without undue interference. Once she was limp and lifeless, Adam Curtiss stood and surveyed his handiwork. “Now, what am I going to do with the two of you?” There’d be no staging of a scene, he just didn’t have the time, not until this phase of his mission was completed. “Oh, well…fuel for the fire, that’s what you’ll be.” He proceeded to move the two women deeper into the RV. “In just a short time this will all be over.” Until then, he needed to throw the investigators off the scent. Pillaging in the dead women’s pockets, he located their cell phones and proceeded to send a couple of texts to their last few contacts. “Had to run emergency errand. Don’t worry. Will be back soon. See you tomorrow.” Great. Vague. Innocuous. “This will buy me some time.”
As he worked, arranging the bodies on the barrels like offerings on an obscene altar, Adam wondered if Father Murray would be proud of him. He hoped so.
* * *
“What are we doing, Saxon?” Alivia asked as the elevator ground to a halt between floors.
“That’s what I want to know. What are we doing?” He backed her up against the wall. God, she was soft, and she smelled so good. Like sugar cookies and holidays. Giving into an uncontrollable impulse, he buried his face in her neck and inhaled.
“You tell me.” She wasn’t trying to pretend she didn’t understand his question, Alivia just didn’t know what he wanted her to say.
“I’m crazy about you, Gertrude. Can’t you tell?” Saxon lost himself in her gaze, loving the softness of her eyes. “And this mouth, my God.” He layered his lips to the perfect rosy cushion, claiming her kiss. “I can’t get enough of you.”
Alivia should have chastised him over the use of her middle name, but the way he was feasting at her mouth consumed all her attention. There was so much she wanted to say to him, needed to say to him, but the way he aligned their bodies where she could feel the press of every rigid inch of his cock stole her good sense. He wound a hand around her nape to better position her face, then swooped down for another kiss. Immediately, the world faded away, and there was nothing left but their frantic heartbeats. Alivia’s blood ran so hot it scorched her veins. Nudging her lips apart, his tongue stole inside as if her mouth were his second home – thrusting inside to possessively map his territory, mingling their breaths, and claiming her soul.
Alivia found herself surrendering, going up on tiptoe, and grasping his shirt to bring them closer together, rubbing herself against him. Her bout of jealousy only fueled her passion. His kiss was everything she longed for, arousing her to a level she’d never known before. Alivia was dizzy, delirious, and she loved every moment of it. Only thoughts of the future and what it might hold caused her to pull away. “Are you sure? You seemed pretty preoccupied earlier.” As soon as she said the words, she wished she could call them back.
“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” Saxon said, and he didn’t. He only wanted more of her mouth. Bending to seek another kiss, he was disappointed when she pulled away. “The only thing I’ve been preoccupied with is you – and this damnable case.”
“What about the Miss Sweetwater second-runner up?”
“Miss who?”
“That woman who was draped all over you…” The words tasted bitter in Alivia’s mouth. She hated to feel so insecure. “Never mind.”
Saxon stepped back and stared at Alivia in astonishment. A flicker of a smile flitted across his face. “You’re jealous.”
“No. Absolutely not.” She was. Terribly.
“I like it.” He framed her face. “Shows me you care.” Saxon fought through a haze of lust, trying to find his brain. All the juices in his body, the blood powering his thinking process, had all rushed south. The sex drive he’d kept on ice all these years while watching Micah and Jet carouse like tomcats, had roared back to life with a raging furor each and every time he was near this irresistible woman. “I can assure you I barely noticed the lady’s existence, much less returned her interest.”
There was a sincerity in Saxon’s voice that Alivia couldn’t deny. To her delight, he lowered his head to hers and indulged himself in a long, slow possession of her mouth that caused her to shiver. The man was freaking hot and the chemistry literally blistered between them. Alivia didn’t know how long an attraction like this could last – a few months, a few years, a lifetime? But she wanted to know – she needed to know.
“Do we have to stay?” she managed to whisper when an opportunity for taking a breath arose.
“Hell, no, I’ve never been a big fan of baseball.” Saxon drew his phone from his pocket and sent a text to Micah, letting his friend know that they were leaving. “Madison and Micah will give Savvy a ride back.”
“Good, I hope they don’t mind.” Alivia did the same thing for Victoria. “I’ll let her know we have some investigating to do.”
As Saxon turned the elevator back on and hit the garage button, he gave her a wicked smile. “We do, in more ways than one.”
He intended to investigate her body, every beau
tiful inch of it.
* * *
“Odd.” Destry checked his phone again, as if the cryptic message from Victoria would extend itself, elaborate on whatever errand had carried her away from an event he knew was very important to her. “Victoria won’t be joining us at the moment.”
Micah was listening, but his gaze was fixed on the ballfield, where it was the bottom of the third with three men on base. “Why is that?”
“Something came up, something she couldn’t put off, she didn’t say anything specific.”
“Weird.” Micah’s own phone buzzed, and he glanced down to read Saxon’s text. “Well, your date isn’t the only one not showing up, Saxon and Alivia are skipping out and leaving us to babysit the robot.” He gestured toward Savvy who was standing right up at the glass viewing wall, thoroughly enthralled by the spectacle on the field.
“At least she’s potty-trained.” Destry laughed, but his smile didn’t reach his eyes.
Micah could see he was disappointed that Victoria stood him up. “Sorry, old man, I know you were looking forward to spending some time with your lady. Just remember this is a big deal for her, she’s pulled in a thousand different directions. There was probably a crisis of some kind, a fire that only she could put out.” He did his best to console his friend.
“Yea, you’re right.” Destry accepted a drink from a waiter’s tray. “So, tell me the progress on the hunt for the killer. Any news?”
For the next few minutes, Micah brought his friend up to speed. “We really thought we were on to something when we zeroed in on the boy that Father Murray took under his wing. His wife was one of the victims. Saxon and Alivia put together a pretty tight case that this younger fella picked up Murray’s mantle, took his place after the Father’s death.”
Destry joined him, sitting at the table and pulling a plate of nachos toward him. “What happened? How did you eliminate him as a suspect?”
Micah chuckled. “We didn’t. He disappeared into thin air. Just dropped off the grid. We suspect he assumed another identity, but we have no proof of that. I aged the photograph, but found no correlations when we ran it through Alivia’s Dragnet program.”
