I obliged. The ground was hard and rough on my knees.
Bernstein kept glancing at the car. Jody’s head was sticking up, like a chipmunk peeking out of its den. She watched the scene play out with wide eyes.
“You can come out of there, miss. You’re safe now.”
Jody nodded. She swung a bare leg out of the trunk, dangling it over the blue rust-splotched Nova. The dusky skin of her leg seemed to sparkle under her sweat. Her cutoffs pulled high on her rump, showing a small jut of cheek where the fabric went tight. She climbed out, pulling at the thin skimpy bikini top as if she were trying to make it stretch all the way down to her ankles. I glimpsed a pale nipple before she adjusted the cup to cover it.
Bernstein attempted a strange smile that showed a lot of teeth. I guessed they were dentures from how blocky and perfect they looked. “Stay right there, miss. This’ll be over in a minute.”
Jody nodded again, bringing her arms up. Her fingers squirmed around her mouth.
He focused back on me, eyes narrowed. Mouth twisted into a snarl. “Now I have you.”
“Looks like it,” I said. “Put the cuffs on and take me in. My knees are starting to hurt.”
“Take you in? Cuffs?” He made a face as if he’d never heard of such asinine things. “You’re not getting any cuffs.” Pursing his lips, he smacked them together. “Nope. I don’t believe that’s how this works out. My sister wants your head on a stick. And she can be quite hard to reason with when she gets in one of her moods. And because of you, she’s been mothballed in that mood for nearly a year. So I plan to give her what she wants just to make her smile again.”
I felt a twinge of panic. “You’re going to cut off my head?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I just haven’t decided if you’re going to be alive or dead when I do it.”
“Holy shit,” I said, laughing though nothing was funny. “You’re really going to cut off my head?”
“I really am,” he said, smiling as if happy to do it.
“But…aren’t you a man of the law?”
“Not out here I’m not. This far away from home, I’m just like you: A cold-hearted bastard with no conscience and a taste for blood.” He let out a wicked laugh that turned into a coughing spell. When he was finished, he wiped the spittle from his lips with the sleeve of his uniform shirt. “I’m kind of excited about it, really.”
“You can’t do that!” cried Jody. “That’s not…humane.”
“Humane?” Bernstein said. He spat a large wad of phlegm onto my pants. “You want to know what’s not humane? This son of a bitch right here. He’s killed at least ten people, that I know of. One of them was my nephew.”
I looked up at Jody. She was shaking her head, as if unable to understand. She put her worried eyes on me and her head shook even harder. I guess she couldn’t comprehend what Bernstein was telling her, though moments ago she’d been damn close to being my next victim herself.
She let out a shrilly whine.
“Don’t let his charm and good looks fool you,” Bernstein said. “He’s a wicked bastard and I promised my sister I would find the son of a bitch responsible for her son’s death. She made me swear I’d bring her his head. That’s what I intend to do. If you play your cards right, missy, there’ll be a nice little handout for you too. My sister’s got lots of money…”
Jody acted as if she hadn’t heard his haggling attempt. She just kept staring at me, tears brimming in her eyes. She shook her head again.
Bernstein brought his eyes back to me. I noted how wild they looked. I’d seen such a look in the mirror multiple times. “I think I’ll use your knife.” He nodded at the knife protruding from the ground. “Is that the one you used to slit that poor woman’s throat a couple months ago?”
“Probably,” I said.
“Then I’m going to use it to saw off your head.”
“It’s going to be messy.”
“I can deal with a mess.”
He started to go for the knife, then stopped. He faced me again. “You know what. It might be best if you’re dead when I chop your head off. Your screaming’ll probably get to me after a while.” He stepped closer, pausing a few feet away from where I was on my knees. “This should be a good spot. The blood should go out behind you.” He nodded, as if he agreed with himself. “Yeah, that’ll do just fine. Might get some on the car, but we can wash that off, right, miss?”
Jody groaned.
“What about when you chop off my head?” I asked.
“Huh?”
“You’re going to get a lot of blood on you when you chop off my head.”
Bernstein’s savage eyes crossed with confusion. He made an awkward face that suggested he hadn’t thought about that. This must’ve been his first premeditated homicide.
“I’ll worry about that later,” he said. “First things first.” Bernstein trained the gun on me. I saw the red line on the scope flicker as he settled the dot on my head. I jerked at the loud ratchety sound the hammer made when his thumb cocked it back.
I couldn’t believe I was going to die like this. And knowing that my killer was somebody as half-stupid as this sheriff made my shame even worse. I felt like a coyote tricked into his death by a rabbit.
Bernstein’s finger gently squeezed the trigger. It squeaked as it started to pull back.
“Have a great time in Hell,” he said.
Closing my eyes, I waited for my demise.
Then I heard a sound like a watermelon being punched. Bernstein started screaming. Opening my eyes, I saw he’d pointed the gun high. With his other hand, he reached behind him, slapping at his back. I didn’t understand what had happened until he spun around.
My knife jutted from the between his shoulder blades. A curtain of red spilled down from the embedded blade. I tried to figure how my knife had wound up in his back. A minute ago, it had been stuck in the ground like a tomato stake.
Bernstein turned to Jody. She was no longer at the car and stood just behind him, hands to her mouth as if shocked by what had happened.
“You bitch,” Bernstein said. He pointed the gun at her. “You stabbed me!”
Jody screamed.
I was on my feet and running at Bernstein in a flash. I grabbed one of the charred sticks from the pile as I passed by. Bernstein must’ve heard me coming. He spun around, throwing the gun’s barrel in my direction. He was too late. I stepped out of his line of sight and swung out.
The jagged end of the stick punched into the side of his neck.
Blood spouted, soaking my hand as I continued to shove the stick in. Screaming, Bernstein tried to fight me off, but there was no use. I’d already won.
Staggering away from me, Bernstein tried bringing up the gun. I imagined he didn’t care who he shot, so long as it was one of us. But he didn’t have the strength to do so. The weapon slipped from his fingers, hitting the ground with a soft thump. I snatched it up and trained the sights on his chest. Wanting to shoot him, I knew I couldn’t risk it. I could miss, or somebody might be somewhere off in the woods, hiking. We didn’t need any more problems.
So I lowered the gun.
Trying to pull the stick from his neck, Bernstein staggered this way and that, shooting blood all over. It doused Jody, turning her skin murky and slick. She looked so sexy drenched in his blood. I know how it sounds, but I’m not going to lie and say it didn’t turn me on. Seeing her crimson-oiled skin, her hair hanging around in her face in dark wet sheets, the blood sluicing down her breasts, soaking the bikini top, making it cling to her—it just did something to me.
I ran over to her, grabbed her by the arms and pulled her to me.
And as Bernstein screamed behind us, we had our first kiss.
6
Jody
Somehow, I knew Seth wasn’t supposed to die. Fate had brought us together. I’ve read a lot about astrology, and know all about twin flames and soul mates. A lonely girl like me reads up about a lot of things she didn’t have.
What else did I have to do?
So when Seth and I looked into each other’s eyes…I just knew. It was as if the universe held out a gift, unwrapped it, and inside was Seth. Corny, huh? But that’s how it felt.
And here was this sheriff about to put an end to it before I could find out why we’d been put into each other’s life.
So I…reacted.
Didn’t even think about it, not really.
It was like I was watching a movie. You know how they sometimes switch the point of view to the character? And the camera moves around and we’re watching the movie through their eyes? That’s how it was for me when I plucked the knife from the ground. I was an audience, watching through Jody’s point of view, and I was even more surprised by what she did than anybody.
When it was over, and Seth came over to me, pulled me against him, I knew he was the man I loved. That was why I lay down on the ground, why I let him yank my bikini top down, and tug off my shorts and bikini bottoms.
Why I allowed him inside me.
And it was good, too. Passionate, intense. He slammed into me hard and fast. Pounded places deep inside me I didn’t even know were there. It didn’t last very long, but it didn’t need to. Had it been one of those long, drawn-out things, I don’t think it would’ve had the same impact.
When we’d finished, I lay on my back with Seth on top, still inside me. I hugged my legs around his waist to hold him there. We stayed like that for a long time.
“Wow,” I finally said.
Seth lifted his head, looked me in the eyes. He brushed away the loose hairs that had fallen on my face. Again, I found myself drifting into his sapphire halos, losing who I was in the process. “Yeah,” he said. “Wow.”
My back was starting to hurt from being on the hard ground for so long. And I told him so. Smiling, Seth crawled back, sliding out of me. I felt a sense of loss without him inside.
He stood, pulling up his pants with one hand and holding Bernstein’s handgun in the other. He buttoned his pants, then slipped the gun behind him in the waistband of his pants. Taking off his shirt, he used it to wipe the sweat off his face. When he was finished, he hung it over his shoulder and looked around. I saw his face start as a grimace and slowly turn into something of amusement. “Jeez-us.”
“What?” I asked. Planting my feet on the ground, I elevated my rump. Then I pulled up my bathing suit bottoms. I didn’t know where my shorts had gone after Seth tossed them over his shoulder.
“Got a little messy out here,” he said.
Frowning, I sat up. I spotted my shorts a few feet away, doused in blood. It looked as if I’d soaked them in red paint. “Damn.”
Seth stepped between my feet, reaching down. “Help you?”
Nodding, I grabbed his hands. He hoisted me to my feet. I was a little startled by how easily he’d been able to lift me. His strength was incredible, natural. I could tell it wasn’t something he’d spent hours in a gym to achieve. It was just there. Made me a little light-headed, to tell you the truth.
Seth, hands on his hips, walked toward the scorched pile of sticks. It wasn’t much of a pile anymore. It had been trampled, and kicked over. Sticks lay in broken pieces here and there, candy-striped in blood. Sheriff Bernstein must’ve stomped through them while doing his bleeding-to-death dance.
I followed Seth around the small camping area. It looked as if it had rained blood while we were having sex. Red had splashed the ground, the car, the trees, and the grass. The trodden dirt had turned into bloody mud in several places. How could a man bleed so much?
“Where is he?” I asked.
“Don’t know,” said Seth, a hint of concern in his voice. He yanked his shirt off his shoulder and chucked it in anger.
We checked around Seth’s car, under it. No sheriff. We walked to the other side of the camping area, taking a path between two oak trees. It led to an old picnic table that had turned a soft shade of green from moss. He wasn’t there, either.
Seth turned around, his face flushing. “Where the hell is that bastard?”
Chewing on my bottom lip, I said, “He couldn’t have gone far.”
Seth turned a quick circle. Then he faced me. “Come on,” he said, grabbing my hand.
We headed back for the camping area.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“To find his car.”
Something like cold worms squirmed in my stomach. I hadn’t once considered how the sheriff had gotten here. Of course he’d driven himself. He’d followed Seth the whole way, and he couldn’t have done so on foot.
Sometimes I could be really clueless.
We rushed through the camping area, passing the Nova. I liked old muscle cars, and this one seemed to fit Seth perfectly. Rough exterior, a little tarnished in places, but undeniably sexy, and perfect on the inside.
We jogged on the dirt road, looking this way and that. Trees were crammed up to either side of the road. A few hiking trails etched through, but nothing wide enough for a car to travel on. I pictured the sheriff making it to his car and driving away, holding his spurting neck as he hauled ass to a hospital.
Somebody could be heading here to bust our asses right now.
“There!” Seth shouted.
As we came around a bend, I spotted the sheriff’s car and felt joyous relief. The driver door hung open. I noticed a sprinkled trail of blood. It started off with fat blobs that became smaller and smaller as we neared the car. By the time we reached the driver door, they were tiny dots.
Sheriff Bernstein sat in the driver seat, one leg sticking out of the car, his foot flat on the ground. Dead. The polished boot was peppered in dust. His skin looked very blue in the shadowy cab of the squad car. One blood-drenched hand reached up for the stick jutting from the side of his neck, as if he was about to make one last effort to snatch it out. The other hand held his CB microphone in his lap. I noticed right away that his thumb was holding the button down.
“Shit,” whispered Seth. He must’ve noticed it too.
“Do you think he called somebody?”
Seth shushed me and ducked into the car. He grabbed Bernstein’s hand and pried his fingers away from the mouthpiece. When his thumb came off the button, the radio hissed static.
“Come in. You were saying? Hello?”
Though I didn’t think Bernstein had been able to alert whoever the woman was on the other side of what had happened, I didn’t feel any less worried. For all I knew, he’d managed to tell her everything—where he was, who’d killed him.
Had she been able to hear us talking?
“I doubt he could reach his station,” said Seth. “But he probably patched through to the local police.”
“Great,” I said. “What are we going to do?”
“Let’s get back to the car.”
Seth took my hand again, and this time we ran. I watched his back flex under the nets of sunlight coming through the trees. Soft glowing dots danced across his undulating skin. The curved handle of Bernstein’s handgun jutting from behind his pants bounced and turned. The trigger guard kept it from falling down his leg. I hoped he wouldn’t accidentally shoot himself.
We reached Seth’s Nova. I ignored the pain of rocks and twigs pricking my bare feet. Seth let go of my hand and ran over to where my shorts and sandals sat together in a pile. He noticed as I had earlier that they were drenched in Bernstein’s blood.
“Can’t wear these anymore,” he said.
“I know.”
He stared at me, his eyes running down my legs. “I like it, though.”
Smiling, I said, “Me too.”
It did give me a kick, running around in just my bikini. But I knew it wasn’t the time to relish it.
Seth stood up. I watched his burly abdomen ripple as he gathered my stuff. He tossed me my sandals. They bounced across the ground by my feet. I slipped them on.
Hurrying over to the trunk, Seth dug his keys from his pocket. He opened the trunk, tossed my shorts in, then gave me an
apologetic smile. “I’ll replace them.”
“It’s okay. I can get new pair.”
“No. It’s my fault. I’ll get them for you.”
Smiling, I said, “Okay.”
Seth looked around, spotted his shirt lying in a crumpled mound nearby, and hurried to it. He grabbed his shirt, tucked it in a back pocket, and said, “Come on.”
I followed him to the car. His shirt flared behind him like a white tail. He plucked the keys from the trunk lock, and tossed them to me. “You drive,” he said.
“Really?”
Nodding, Seth walked toward the passenger side. “Can you handle it?”
“I’m good with a stick.”
“I’ve noticed.”
Blushing, I darted around to the driver side, flipping through the abundance of keys. Getting behind the wheel, I crammed the key into the ignition. Then I cranked the car as Seth sat down, slamming the door.
“Where to?” I asked.
“Let’s get out of here.”
“But…the blood, our fingerprints.”
“Everything that has our prints on it is in the trunk and Bernstein’s car.” Reaching behind him, he pulled out Bernstein’s gun. “Except for this.”
It made me a little uneasy seeing the gun so close to me. All Seth had to do was pull the trigger and my brains would splatter all over his window. But I realized that wouldn’t make sense. After all, he’d asked me to drive, and I couldn’t drive us anywhere with half my head blown off. “But our footprints,” I said, “and the blood. I’ve watched enough crime shows. They put people away for less evidence than the bloody mess we left back there.”
“The rain will wash it all away.”
“It’s supposed to rain?”
“Yep. Tonight.”
“Smart boy.”
He shrugged. “I try.”
Feeling a tad calmer, I pushed the clutch down with my foot. It had a heavy clutch, so holding it down with nothing but a thin sandal to protect my foot was hard. Though it took a few tries, I managed to get the car turned around and heading away from the campsite. The gravel crackled underneath us.
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