Southern Comfort

by Natasha Madison

  “I don’t know how I would lose in any way,” I say, and he shakes his head and comes to the shower door opening.

  His eyes are so dark that if I didn’t know any better, I would think they were black. “Fucking you how I want is hours and hours, and you not coming until I want you to.”

  “Again.” I turn the water off. “How am I losing in all of this?”

  “Are we bettin’, darlin’?” he says in the most Southern accent I’ve ever heard.

  “Oh, we’re bettin’, cowboy,” I say and grab a towel wrapping my hair up in it. “The question is do I make you win or do I lose because either way,” my hand slips the towel off him and I see his cock is ready to play, “I end up with this.” Grabbing his cock in my hand. “Or your mouth and I can’t decide which one I like better.” I lean up and kiss him under his chin but not before squeezing him in my hand and then turning to walk away.

  “That’s the best ass I’ve seen,” he says, and I look back over my shoulder and see the twinkle in his eye. “I’m going to have fun making it mine.”

  “Again, cowboy, I don’t know how I could ever lose.” I wink at him and walk over to my closet after my shower. I grab the pink skirt and white halter top from the closet, slipping another pair of lace silk panties on and my matching lace demi bra. It leaves me ten minutes to do my hair since I’ve learned way back when that my hair is naturally beach ready. I apply just a touch of mascara, and I slip my skirt on and zip it on the side, tying the long pink sash in the front. I slip the white shirt on and tuck it in. Grabbing my pink suede Louboutins, I slip on some bangles and then my gold Rolex watch that I haven’t put on in over two months.

  “Okay, cowboy,” I say, walking out of the room and stopping in my tracks when he comes out of his room. He’s dressed in another suit; this time, it’s blue with light white pinstripes, and he’s tying a gray silk tie. His hair looks like he just brushed it back with his hand, and his scruff is a bit longer today, but what makes me stop is the way he dominates the suit. “Looks like you lose.” I try not to let him in the suit get to me, or at least I try not to let him know how much it gets to me.

  He shakes his head and checks his Rolex watch. “Looks like I did.”

  “Well, then.” Walking to him, I can smell his aftershave, and I can’t decide if I love Casey with the woodsy smell or Casey with the musky smell. There is that word again love. “I guess I do lose.”

  “That’s right, sucker,” I say, and he throws his head back laughing, one of his arms coming out and bringing me close to him. His hand is resting on my ass. “I can’t decide,” I say softly to him, fixing his tie. “Which Casey I like more.”

  “Always go with the cowboy.” He leans forward and kisses me. “That’s the real Casey.”

  His phone rings before I can answer him, and he looks down. “We’re on our way there right now.” I don’t know who is on the phone, but his face goes from a smile to a stone face. “I want security in place.” He looks at me. “Set up the safe house just in case.” He disconnects and then he looks at me.

  “We need to go right now,” he says, and the tone in his voice shows me he’s not joking.

  “What happened?” I ask and follow him quickly out of the room and to the elevator. He looks around the lobby the whole time until we are safe in the car and my heart is pounding so fast I don’t think I will be able to hear him talking. “You're scaring me,” I say and my mouth goes dry.

  “Darlin’,” he says and grabs my face in his hand, making it so much worse. “I’ll explain everything once we get to the office, and I have all the information.” He tries to appease me by kissing me lightly on the lips, but it doesn’t help. My whole body goes cold, and I don’t even notice that I’m shaking until he takes off his jacket and puts it around my shoulders. When we get to the office, he almost shields me, bringing me into the office. We walk past the receptionist and go straight to the room I was in yesterday.

  When we walk in, Derek looks up, and he takes off his headset that he’s wearing, and the room is darker than it was yesterday. “Turn on the light,” Derek says to Casey, and the lights come on lightly.

  Casey walks over to the side and grabs a chair and rolls it to me. “Sit,” he orders. I sit down, and I just look at him and then at Derek.

  “One of you is going to have to tell me what in the sam hill is going on right now,” I say, and Derek looks at Casey and he just nods his head, but he holds his hand up, getting in front of me and squatting down.

  “I want you to know that nothing is going to happen to you,” he says, kissing my hands in his. The tears come to my eyes before I can even fight them off.

  “Casey,” I say his name, and he hangs his head in defeat.

  “Derek,” he says, “you can start.”

  “Okay,” Derek says, and I look down at Casey who doesn’t move from in front of me, nor does he let my hands go. “I will go step by step.”

  “That works.” I take one hand away from Casey and wipe my cheek.

  “This is your cell phone,” Derek says, and one of the television screens shows me my telephone screen. The background of the Eiffel Tower fills the screen with my applications all around it.

  “As you can see you have your basic applications,” he says. “Your photos, settings, maps, camera, Instagram, and Facebook.” He gets up from his chair and walks over to the screen. “Looks normal, right?”

  “Yes,” I say, not understanding why my phone is such a big deal.

  “But then you have this little folder here,” he says, pointing at one that is written NEWS under it.

  “I put all the news under one,” I say, and he looks over at me.

  “TMZ and People is not news,” Derek says, and I just roll my eyes. “But anyway, there was another application in there that was marked INTL.” He shows me, and I look at it and I just shrug.

  “I don’t know what that is,” I say. “I mean, I saw it, but I never opened it. I assumed it came with the phone.”

  “It didn’t,” Derek says and clicks on the app, and you can see the cursor blink. “Look at this. I’m going to text you,” he says, taking his phone and texting me. The text comes through, but it also registers in the INTL. “This is how he tracked you and everything that you typed. He also had your locations on it.”

  “What a douche,” I say and then look at Casey. “This isn’t as bad as I thought.”

  “There is more,” Derek says. “So not only was he tracking you,” he says, ”but I think he buried something either on your phone or on your iPad or on your computer.”

  “I don’t have an iPad,” I tell them. “My computer.” Looking at both of them. “There is nothing on my computer. I only use it for work.”

  “Did you ever have it around Dominic?” Derek asks, and I nod. “Where is the computer now?”

  “At the hotel,” I tell them, and then I look at Casey.

  “I’m going to have someone go there right now and get it,” Casey says, and Derek nods, taking out his phone and texting someone and then putting his phone away.

  “Okay, so now that we have one part settled,” Derek says. “Or at least we can checkbox one, it might be the reason everyone is so determined to get to you.”

  “Who is trying to get to me?” I ask him and then answer for him. “Is it Dominic? I mean, how can he? He’s locked up.”

  “Yes, but his associates aren’t,” Derek points out. “He’s in jail, but whoever he is working with isn’t.”

  “Okay, this is going above and beyond,” I say, getting angry now. “I don’t know anything about his associates. I don’t know who he worked for, and I don’t know who worked for him. I know nothing.”

  “But they don’t know that,” Casey says. “For all they know, you know everything, and you are hiding it for him.”

  “Well, who are these people? I could maybe call them and tell them that I know nothing.” I start to get angry. “I mean, do I take out a billboard in Times Square? Do I grant CNN an inter
view? What the hell can I do?”

  “There was a couple of visitors that Dominic got a couple of weeks ago,” Derek starts to say. “I got a copy of their conversation, and it’s all in code.” My eyebrows go together. “They talked about the sun in India and then the water in Bora Bora.”

  “Again. No idea,” I say, and he looks down and then up at me, and just from his look, I know that shit is going to get worse.

  “He got to use the phone yesterday,” he says. “He called the same man who visited him in prison.” I wait for it. “He wants to wipe the slate clean.”

  “That’s good, right?” I ask. “Means he’s ready to 'fess up.”

  “Not exactly,” Derek says. “Someone put a price on your head.” I look at him and then at Casey, not sure I understand.

  “What does that mean?” I ask, waiting for someone to answer me.

  Casey is the one who answers me. “It means there is a contract out there to end your life.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Casey

  I watch her face when I say what Derek told me not even thirty minutes ago. I watch and see the words sink into her, and then I watch her crumple in front of me.

  “Why?” she asks, lips quivering while she does it.

  “We have the FBI on their way here,” Derek says, “and when I get the computer, I can see if something is on there. But bottom line. You have something that they need and now they are done waiting for it.”

  She shakes her head and gets angry. “I don’t fucking have anything.”

  “I know you don’t,” I say, and I don’t say that my parents’ house is under surveillance; I don’t say that Jacob and Kallie are staying at my house because they are set up with cameras, and that Jacob feels safer having eyes all around him. I don’t say that my mother is beside herself with worry for her and wants her home because I’m afraid that she won’t go. Instead of going where she is going to be safe, she’ll run away from it to make sure the people she cares about are safe.

  “All of this.” She gets up now and starts to pace. “All of this has nothing to do with me. Not one thing.”

  “I know it doesn’t,” I say, getting up now. “But …” I’m about to say something when Derek gets a ping on his phone.

  “He’s using the phone,” he says, and then I look at him as he presses the button, and you hear ringing.

  Someone answers the phone, and the operator comes on, “There is an inmate from a correctional facility.” You hear the sound of someone pressing the button.

  “Hey,” Dominic says, and I look over at Olivia who stands there. “What’s new?”

  “Nothing. I’m in Atlanta,” the guy on the other line says. “It’s hot as balls, but a lot better than the fucking South.”

  “Did you clean up the place?” Dominic asks, and I want to spend five minutes with him and wring his fucking neck. I actually need two minutes alone with him, just two minutes.

  “I tried,” he says. “Can’t get close enough.”

  “You need to just erase it all,” Dominic says.

  “She’s kept under lock and key. She has that cowboy trailing her like her pussy is the missing link.”

  “Trust me, I’ve been in that pussy. It’s cold as ice.” I want to tell Derek to shut it down.

  “Maybe if your dick stayed hard longer than thirty-five seconds, my pussy would be warmer, you piece of monkey shit!” Olivia shouts. I can see something in her change, and she looks over at me. “I want to do whatever I need to do to make sure that he dies.” She folds her hands. “I mean, I don’t want anyone to kill him, but I want to.” She tries to think of the words.

  “You want to bury him?” Derek says with a smirk, and Dominic’s voice cuts in.

  “Just get what we need, or else I’ll be the next one hanging in my cell,” he says, and I look over at Derek, and he nods.

  “It should be taken care of tonight,” he says. “Call me back tomorrow.”

  “Yeah,” Dominic says and hangs up.

  “Who was that?” I ask Derek, and he goes to the computer and types something, and the man’s face comes onto the screen.

  “Meet Peter Bostrov,” Derek says. “Also known as ex-KGB.”

  “What is that?” Olivia asks from beside me, and the need to hold her hand rips through me.

  “It’s ex-military for Russia.” I look at her.

  “Oh, perfect. I have an ex-Russian spy trying to kill me. God, and I thought today would be a good day.”

  “It started out good,” I say, and she smiles at me.

  “It might end with me dead.” She tries to joke, but it gets to me. “I mean, not literally.”

  “This is the man who broke into the house, and who was setting traps on your property,” Derek says, and now it’s my turn to look at him. “What I didn’t tell you until I got confirmation was that he was setting up traps at your house. He was going to light it all up.”

  “Oh my God,” Olivia says from beside me, and whatever strength and fierceness she had ten minutes ago is gone. “Your parents.” She looks over, and the tears are running down her face. “And the horses and your house.” The sobs rip through her, and she folds over. I grab her now in my arms.

  “I’ll give you guys a minute,” Derek says. After he walks out of the room, I hold her face in my hands.

  “Look at me, darlin’,” I say. She looks at me, and her eyes are so bright I could get lost in them. “Everyone is fine,” I say. “We got all of the traps out and took care of it. I also have people at the farm locking it down so no one is going to get hurt.”

  “But …” She starts to say and puts her hands on my hips.

  “But nothing,” I say. “Now I want to warn you. Today is going to suck,” I say. “It’s going to be the suckiest day you’ve ever had. But …?”

  “It might be my last,” she says, and I want to say it can’t be her last because we are just beginning.

  “Can’t be your last.” I kiss her. “I still have a bet that needs to be collected.” She smiles now, and then there is a knock on the door, and Derek comes back in.

  “Feds are here,” he says, and I look at her.

  “I need to wash my face,” she says, and I nod and show her where the bathroom is. Then I walk back into the room and see Derek standing there with the computer in his hand.

  “Is she okay?” he asks, and I shake my head.

  “You going to say how you feel before all this?” I look over at him. “I never thought I would see the day that badass cowboy Casey Barnes falls in love and breaks his whole I’m never getting married bullshit.”

  “It’s not bullshit,” I say and then turn back to look at the closed door. “I’m not getting married.”

  “Then you’re not as smart as I thought you were.” He plugs the computer in.

  “What the fuck does that mean?” I ask.

  “It means that if you don’t marry her, someone else will, and then what?” he says, knowing that it’s going to burn me. “You going to watch her come visit Kallie with her husband and kids and not kick yourself for letting her go.”

  “She …” I start to say, and then the door opens, so I stop, and I look over at her. “You ready?”

  “No,” she answers honestly. “But there is no time like the present.”

  “Let’s do this,” Derek says, and he walks out of the room. I grab Olivia’s hand and walk with her into the conference room.

  We walk in, and I scan the room and hear Olivia say from beside me. “Isn’t he the butler?” She points at the butler from the hotel.

  “Special Agent Duchene.” He says his name. “Thank you for not being a diva.”

  “Did you know?” She looks at me, and I answer her honestly.

  “I did. They got to me right before we took off,” I say. “Shall we sit?” I motion for her to sit down, and I sit down next to her. There are five guys around the table all dressed in suits, all with the USA flag pinned to their lapel.

  “Olivia,” one
of them says. “My name is Special Agent Robinson, and we’ve been watching you for the past six months.”

  “What?” she says, and even I’m surprised they would say that.

  “Dominic Albano is mixed up with the wrong type of people. He doesn’t know it, but his time is almost out, and the people who he owes are tired of waiting for him.”

  “I don’t know what that means,” she says, looking at them. Her hands shake, but I take one of them in my hand, and I have to hold it in both of my hands because it’s cold as ice.

  “It means that he owes the mob a lot of money. More money than his ass can cash,” one of the other agents says.

  “Is that who is after me? The mob?” she asks, and they all shake their head.

  “They want nothing to do with you,” Special Agent Duchene says. “They told him that he made the deal with them, not you.”

  “I don’t know what they want.” She looks around the table. “Honestly, I don’t. I have thought and thought, and there is nothing that he told me, nothing that he gave me, nothing.”

  “I just got her computer,” Derek says. “It may take me an hour, but I can see if there is anything in there.”

  “Please do,” one of the agent says, and Derek gets up and then looks at Olivia.

  “Can you come with me so you can see if anything looks unfamiliar to you?” he asks. Olivia gets up and walks out with them, and only when she’s out of earshot do I look back at the table.

  “Now that she isn’t here, what aren’t you telling her?” I ask them. “And it’s safe to say that even if you don’t want me to know, we all know that I can find out.”

  They share a look, and then Special Agent Duchene takes the lead. “We have to send her in,” he says. “She has to go see Dominic and try to trick him into spilling his guts.”

  “No fucking way,” I say, shaking my head. “No fucking way in hell is she going in there.”

  “It’s the only way to get rid of him,” the other guy says. “We have the evidence but having him admit it is something else.”