“So what is it that you were watching that I’m not allowed to see?” He has a very good idea of what it might be that she was watching, and he’s intrigued to know if he’s right. Her cheeks blush, but she starts to open the laptop lid. Expecting to see Back Door Slut three or something similar on the screen, Troy frowns when he sees what looks like a sappy romance.
“They’re kind of my guilty pleasure. I know they’re silly, but sometimes it’s nice to see that good guys exist and all. And that women can actually interest them, you know?” Troy’s still wondering why she would be embarrassed about watching a chick flick. She’s a chick, right?
“Good guys do exist?” He sounds as if he’s asking about aliens, and Cassidy chuckles as she pushes him away playfully.
“Of course they do! Somewhere, at the end of a rainbow, there’s a good guy waiting to hold the door for me. Or maybe he’ll make me breakfast in bed on Mother’s Day. Perhaps he’s always been really kind to his mother, and she’s the sweetest lady around. Or maybe he’ll take me on a long walk on the beach-” Troy puts a finger over her flapping lips and smiles at her.
“So what I hear you saying is, you’d prefer a man that treats you like glass, wears an apron, and is a Mama’s boy?” Cassidy rolls her eyes as she closes the laptop lid and sets it aside. She pulls her face away from his finger before she can do something embarrassing, and neatly wraps up her headphones before they’re lost in the hay.
“I’m just saying that sometimes a girl likes to be treated like,” she pauses for a heartbeat. “Well, like a girl I guess.” Her shrug of indifference only spikes his curiosity. Is this what women wanted from him all along since he was thirteen and developed muscles? He just thought they were interested in what was between his legs and nothing more. Hell, most of them never complained when he left before sunrise, and they did the same to him.
“So the movie is about a guy treating a girl like a girl.” Before she can stop him, Troy has the laptop in his hands and he’s flipped it open. He turns away from her and blocks her attempts at getting the device back with just one hand, and it infuriates her. A person shouldn’t be this strong!
“It’s none of your business, Troy! Hey, hand it back!” She realizes that may hap they’re both being childish, but she does it anyway. Cassidy tugs on his earlobe until he tilts his head to the side to allow some give. The laptop is forgotten in the hay as he growls low in his chest.
In a flash, his arm is around her waist as he pulls her down into the stray strands of hay on the wooden flooring. One of the horses stomps with worry below them, but Troy ignores it. His hand is on her chest just above her breasts as he holds her down, straddles her, and holds her wrists above her head with his other hand.
“Are you going to do that again?” He asks her calmly as she breathes heavily from the exertion of attempting to get free. Cassidy wiggles her hips and turns her head away from him, but she’s not screaming, so he must not be frightening her.
“I will if you keep touching what’s mine!” He chuckles, and the sound makes her feel warm all over.
“Didn’t your father ever teach you to share?” It has the desired effect. Her lips twitch up at the corners in the darkness illuminated by a full moon and stars.
“He did, but he also taught me about respect for other people’s property.” She has me there; Troy contemplates how to come up with a response to that.
“What about respecting other people’s bodies?” Her cheeks flush, and he realizes what he said as soon as they do. Her flesh feels warm against his, and he’s suddenly very aware of the woman beneath him. Too aware, Troy lets go of her wrists and climbs off her in one lithe move. He hands her the laptop and tries to come up with something to say other than an apology. Grant would be appalled if he knew that Troy Red touched his daughter in any way.
But Cassidy doesn’t seem too appalled by the gesture.
“You can watch it with me if you promise that you won’t make fun of the guy.” Troy thinks about it for a long time, and Cassidy moves to get up and leave. He reaches out a quick hand and pulls her down by the belt loop on her jeans so that she’s next to him. Without a word, he flips open her laptop and rests half on her leg with the other half on his. It’s not the warmth from the hard drive working away in the device that is making it warm.
It’s the heat that flares up from Troy whenever Cassidy twitches. The movie is only fifteen minutes in, and Troy inches her cellphone out of her pocket so gently she barely notices.
“What are you doing?” She hisses at him trying to get the device back. He flips it on and marvels at how trusting she is.
“No password? That’s a huge security risk, Cassidy.” He finds the alarm and sets it for the next feeding time for Reese’s Pieces and sets the cellphone down between his legs. She dare not reach where it’s sitting lest she touch something warm, and returns her attention to the movie. The sound is low enough that the horses beneath them are not disturbed.
It’s boring up until the point where the two main characters begin to take their clothes off. Cassidy’s face flushes and Troy can see it in his peripheral vision. She moves to skip ahead, but he lays a hand over hers to keep her from ruining the scene. It’s just starting to get extremely heated when she twitches her leg away from his involuntarily, and the laptop hits the wood beneath them.
Troy tries to right it, but her fingers are intertwined with his. At some point, she must have sneaked her fingers in between his, and now they’re caught. The moment he pulls away is the moment that she will realize he’s noticed, and it will embarrass her even more than watching a love scene with him. If it were any other woman, he wouldn’t give a damn. Hell, he wouldn’t be watching a movie with her at all unless it was a shoot ‘em up one. Or something much more heated than a romance chick flick.
Cassidy is the first one to pull her hand away, only out of necessity to bring the laptop back up into position. The movie has paused, and she moves to hit the fast forward button. Two fingers graze over the flesh of Troy’s arm, and the hairs rise in response to her light touch. His nerve endings feel on fire, and all he can think about is what her face must look like when she’s losing herself.
The movie starts to play where it left off, and to his shock, Cassidy leans into his arm. In response, Troy raises it so that she fits underneath and pulls her in close. Despite the cool air, she feels warm against him. Making it through the scene without embarrassing himself or her is almost like trying to thread a needle, but he manages it. In fact, he makes it through the entire movie without jumping all over Grant’s daughter.
It’s past time to feed the foal, and Cassidy offers to fill up the bottle. She disappears in through the front door as Troy watches, and he sees the kitchen light flick on. His breath is crystalizing in front of him, but he can’t seem to shake the feeling of her warm body beside him. Realizing that he’s playing with fire, Troy tromps back into the barn to see if Reese’s Pieces is up.
For the rest of the night, neither one of them touch. But Troy ends up catching Cassidy glancing in his direction more than once. He doubts she gets much trading done, and he can’t seem to keep his mind off the way her fingertips felt against his arm.
* * *
“Hey, whatever happened to that Hilly girl?” Olivia’s mixing up a batch of chocolate chip cookies, for her daughter or her brother, she’s not sure. Both of them get a beater to lick when she’s finished, and both of them manage to get cookie dough batter on their chins.
“Eh, she’s not into Rambo movies.” Olivia rolls her eyes to the ceiling and gives Lilly a meaningful look.
“The cookies will be done in twenty minutes, why don’t you go upstairs and wash up before we eat them?” A bottom lip juts out, but Lilly recognizes why she’s being dismissed. Troy also recognizes why and attempts to slide off the breakfast bar stool in retreat. “Uh huh, you stay!” Olivia’s finger points at the vacant stool, and Lilly mouths ‘haha’ to her uncle before she flounces off up the stairs.
/> “Now, why did you really break it off with her?” Troy stares at the dough being spooned onto the cookie sheet, and wonders what lie he’s going to tell his sister next. The truth is he wasn’t able to tell Hilly what he did for a living. And she knew his lie about working second shift at a factory was just that, a lie.
“I didn’t break it off with her, she broke it off with me.” He hopes that will satisfy her into going on another ramble about how he’s just too good for these women. The truth is he’s not good enough for them.
“Oh come on, Robert!” The Troy in the dream knows that this is not real, and flinches when she uses his real name. He used to flinch when she used his real name anyway because she usually said it with exasperation.
“What?” Her hand is frozen over the cookie sheet as the dough plops off, and suddenly the room grows cold. Troy stiffens as he attempts to listen for the intruder, but he hears none. Just as his sister begins to turn with a horrified expression on her face, Troy is launched from the dream into darkness.
* * *
“Troy!” The loud shout of his name brings him to, and Grant breathes a sigh of relief when the man lets go of his wrist.
“Sorry,” Troy mumbles as he sits up in bed and rubs the heels of his palms on his eyes. It’s sometime late in the afternoon the following day, and it’s time for him to take his shift with Cassidy again. They had to fix the hay bales today so that they were stacked properly.
“It’s alright, son. I just wanted to wake you up, so you don’t miss dinner tonight. Or you’ll eat more than your fair share of the breakfast again tomorrow morning.” Grant pats him on the back once before he leaves the room whistling. But Troy doesn’t miss the way he rubs at his wrist gently with two fingers. If he’s not careful, he might actually hurt the old man.
Cassidy’s already sitting down with another crockpot roast in front of her for dinner. She’s nibbling on one of her rolls as she flips through a few internet pages. Last night, Troy attempted to understand what she’s doing by investing in small businesses worldwide, but it was useless. He sits down to enjoy a quick meal with the two people he’s come to view as friends, and the phone rings.
Something tells him it’s not the usual telemarketer calling at dinnertime, and everything seems to slow down. His heart rate feels sluggish as Grant picks up the phone and says a friendly ‘hello’. Someone answers and Troy sees the way Grant’s fingers tighten around the receiver. He glances once at Troy before he tells the person on the other line that there is no one by that name living at the premises. Then he gently puts the phone back in the receiver, and sits down as if nothing happened.
Cassidy hasn’t realized that something monumental has occurred as she taps away at her keyboard with a vacant look on her face. Her father ignores the way that Troy tries to learn something from the old man’s expression and eats his dinner like nothing is wrong. The silence is killing him, but Troy eats his own supper. Only it feels as if he’s eating bricks rather than beef stew, and he has a feeling that soon he won’t be the only one in the witness protection program.
He has to get them out of here before whoever just called and asked for Robert Trenton shows up.
Chapter Seven
“I don’t understand why we have to leave! What the fuck is going on here?” Cassidy’s voice is shrill as Troy throws her belongings into her father’s truck. Grant is already packing a bag upstairs, and Troy’s few belongings are all in the bed of the truck. The horses have been taken care of by the agents already, and the foal is being transferred to their new home.
“My cover has been blown, which means that you and your father are in danger. I don’t like this as much as you, but the agent knows how to care for horses. She’ll feed Reese’s Pieces on the way. We have to take a different route than them to make it less obvious.” Troy puts a hand on Cassidy’s shoulder in an attempt to calm her down. “It has to be done this way, alright?”
He feels his heart sink and hit rock bottom when her eyes begin to fill with tears, and he keeps himself from pulling her to him for a comforting hug. Grant is coming out the doorway with a duffle bag in hand, and an agent following him. Cassidy’s bottom lip trembles as she looks at the barn, the house, and then back at Troy.
“This is your fault.” She whispers the damning words he knew were coming, and then she clambers into her father’s truck. Troy doesn’t bother glancing at Grant as he makes his way to the familiar, light blue mini-cooper sitting at the end of the driveway.
“She’s not right, you know.” Moonlight Rogers actually attempts to make the burly man in front of him feel better, but it’s not working out too well.
“So what’s my name now?” Troy asks as he slips into the passenger seat. Mr. Rogers meanders around to the driver’s side and holds out his hand. Without a word, Troy puts his old driver’s license in the guy’s palm and looks at the conflicted face of Robert Grant sitting in his truck.
“I don’t know yet. We’ll know that when we get you to the safe house. I do know that six miles outside of town you’re buddy will pull over, and he will be transferred into a new vehicle. Everything they packed will be confiscated.” Troy sighs as he looks out the front windshield of the small, clown car. The agent starts it, and they’re off at around one that morning.
“I know, but I just thought it would make them feel better for a little while longer.” Shocked by the man’s obvious tone of caring, Moonlight glances at Troy several times.
“I understand.” Their journey down the bumpy driveway is hazardous, and neither one of them speak until they pull over to the side of the road outside of town. And it’s only when Moonlight tells Troy to stay in the car while the other two are transferred to another vehicle. Cassidy looks frantic, but Grant seems to be taking this all in stride. He tries to crack a smile at his new driver, but it wanes quickly.
“Where are you taking me this time, Moonie?” The agent slides back into his car and narrows his eyes as he looks at Troy. All thoughts of the man having changed leave the agent’s mind as he glances in his rearview mirror and takes off. They head north.
Several hours pass by, and the light of the rising sun is on the horizon when Moonlight finally speaks. It’s not to Troy, though. It’s over his cellphone to the man behind them. That’s when Troy watches the vehicle that Cassidy and her father are in disappear down another street, and his fingers tighten in rage.
“I thought we were staying together?” His voice is calm, but when it’s this quiet is when someone dies. Moonlight hangs up his phone and sticks it back in the console.
“You are, calm down, jeez Robert, Troy, whatever the hell your name is! They’re just taking a different route to get there. It’s procedure, don’t ask.” His fingers don’t uncurl until four hours later as they’re just crossing over another state line. The black sedan that Cassidy and Grant are riding in appears beside them on the highway, and Troy gets a glimpse of the old man in the back seat. He’s fast asleep with his head lolling back, and Troy wishes he could be this laid back about his life being uprooted for the second time in two weeks.
Around ten that morning, Moonlight Rogers pulls his mini-cooper into the parking lot of a small airport. It’s so small there is only one plane sitting outside and absolutely no one else around. Cassidy looks slap happy when she stumbles out of the sedan, and Grant looks no better even though he slept. Troy doesn’t attempt to comfort either one of them or speak. Cassidy would most likely slap him if he tried.
“Now where are we going?” She has her hand over her eyes to block the sun so that she can see, and her pink streak is sticking out from her head as if she’s been running her hands through her hair over and over again.
“I can’t tell you that, but I can tell you that it won’t be that much longer.” The earth begins to shake and quiver under Troy’s feet, and he grabs onto Cassidy. The plane starts to crumble away as if it’s dissolving, and then they’re thrown into darkness.
* * *
“Hey kid, wake u
p!”
“Cassidy!” His voice feels raw from screaming, and he tries to push the hands that are attempting to hold him down away.
“I’m over here. What the hell is going on?” Suddenly he finds his eyes and opens them to find that he’s lying on Robert Grant’s couch with the old man attempting to hold him down. As soon as Grant realizes that Troy is actually awake this time, he moves off the man and glances to the doorway of the kitchen. Cassidy’s standing in it wiping her hands on a dishtowel with a confused look on her face.
“Cassidy? Grant?” His head feels as if it’s going to fall off his shoulders at any moment the way it’s pounding, and he feels nauseous.
“Yeah, we’re here. It was a dream, one hell of a dream at that.” Grant sits back down in his chair and flips off the television. There was a movie playing about the end of the world.
“When did I fall asleep? I don’t understand. I don’t remember.” Cassidy sits down on the coffee table in front of the couch and lays the dish towel across her lap as she reaches out a hand. Before he can tell her that her father is watching with hawk eyes, the back of her hand goes to his forehead. It feels like an ice cube against his flesh.
“He’s running a fever, Dad. Maybe we should call a doctor, set up an appointment. I’ll get some Aspirin.” As soon as her hand is gone from his forehead, Troy slumps back and lets the back of his head rest against the pillows. He feels like Beethoven stomped all over him a hundred times.
“Who called earlier?” That was the last thing he remembers before he fell asleep, or moved into delirium. How did he get out to the couch?
“At dinner? It was no one. They were looking for-” Grant shuts up as soon as Cassidy comes back into the room with a glass of water and two pills. Troy doesn’t miss the fact that the old man doesn’t want her to know something, and neither does she. Instead of badgering her father about it, Cassidy makes sure that Troy takes his medication before she heads back out to the kitchen. He hears her on the phone with someone and assumes that she’s making an appointment for him without even asking him.
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