Love You Still

by Kat Bammer

  “This is Lisa Reynolds, Peter’s Lisa, and this is Claire.” Blake laid his arm around Claire, marking his territory.

  The boys just sized them up for a second, then Lisa and Claire were immediately brought into the fold including hugs and kisses.

  The boys, as Blake and Peter called them, were actually grizzly bears in a uniform of jeans and black T-shirts, who could break her in two seconds. At least Lisa got that feeling when she was hugged by each of them. All three of them were heavily bearded and rough around the edges.

  Untamed and sexy.

  “So, you are Peter’s Lizzy, hah?” Lucas’s steel-blue eyes had a friendly twinkle in them. He wore a beige baseball cap, which had seen better days, and his Oakley’s on top of it.

  A flush of heat turned Lisa’s cheeks hot. “Yes.” Somehow it came out as a squeak. Great, two seconds and they all thought she was a squeaking idiot. Damn.

  Christopher shoved Lucas away and introduced himself with the same bear hug Lisa observed prior. His eyes were blue, as well—just more morning glory, less steel. He was the shortest of the bunch. Still, he had to bend way down to hug her and his long, wavy hair fell onto his forehead and he quickly repositioned his black sunglasses to push it back again.

  “Don’t let them bully you. I’m Rey.” The third man stepped forward and what started out as a handshake ended in a hug too. God, the guy smelled good. Rey had a darker complexion than the other two and his dark brown hair was even longer than Christopher’s. He wore a man bun and a beard. But he was cover-model material, as well.

  Lisa nodded and smiled but stayed silent to avoid another squeak. Rey acknowledged her slight discomfort and grinned at her.

  “Where’s Peter, anyway?” Their gazes ping-ponged from Lisa to Blake and back toward her.

  “Very brave of him, to leave you alone with us,” Christopher said. “Funny thing, he did that again. Remember the one time in Thailand, when we met this small, Asian girl.” They all, including Blake, snickered.

  Lisa leaned in. Here came the juice. This was her opportunity to fill at least some of the huge gap in her knowledge of Peter’s life.

  “Wait, let me call Pete first, tell him you’re here, before you tell me all the gory details.” She turned, grabbed her phone off the reception desk, and called.

  “Hey, the boys are here. Where are you?”

  “I’m still at my mother’s. My dad’s here too.”

  Lisa pinched her lips. She thought Peter and his dad had opened a new chapter in their life, but Peter’s voice was tense. “Okay, well it’s only a five-minute ride, so get going, okay.”

  “Did they already talk crap about me?”

  “Oh, they’re just about to.”

  “Get me Blake on the phone.”

  Lisa handed Blake the phone and after a terse “I’m on it, bud,” he handed it back to her.

  “I’m on my way, won’t be long, keep your chin up, and don’t believe anything they tell you.”

  Lisa laughed at that and ended the call.

  She turned around, but the boys were heading out to grab their stuff.

  “Let’s show them their rooms and meet afterward on the patio,” Blake said.

  Story time was clearly over.

  The boys came back and Lisa showed them to their rooms while Claire and Blake went to prepare some beers and snacks.

  They were all on the same floor and Lisa opened first Rey’s, then Christopher’s door. The third room was a little farther down the corridor, and Lucas walked beside her.

  “Peter’s the best guy I know. And he waited a long time to get you back. The things we say, the stories we tell…we’re just a bunch of overgrown kids. Don’t take any of it serious. Or let it intimidate you.”

  Lisa opened the door to his room and then turned to look him in the eyes. His serious expression was in contrast with the slight twinkle in his eye. He had mischief written all over him. But his affection for the other guys shone through.

  “Don’t worry, I usually can hold my own. See you downstairs in a few.”

  He saluted and shut the door while Lisa walked back to the stairs. Downstairs she ran smack dab into Peter who was leaning against the reception desk.

  “Hey, beautiful. So, where are they?” He took Lisa by the hips and pulled her against his body.

  She would never get used to the butterflies in her stomach. “Upstairs—we’re meeting on the patio in a few.”

  “Great.” Peter pulled her to the sitting area next to the reception desk where he sat down and pulled Lisa onto his lap.

  “I missed you.”

  Lisa chuckled and raised her left eyebrow. “It hasn’t been that long.”

  Peter shrugged. “Long enough.”

  He kissed her again and between kisses, stood up and carried her to the stairs. “I think I need to go freshen up, as well.”

  Lisa snickered and together they climbed the stairs. In her room, Peter locked the doors and had them out of their clothes and her on her back and moaning in record time.

  It was a miracle the way this man used his fingers and tongue in a perfectly choreographed dance. Somehow, he had the uncanny ability to combine just the right pressure, with perfect rhythm and pacing.

  “Wait.” Lisa clutched Peter’s hair until he looked up from between her legs.

  He lifted his eyebrow and lust coiled inside her from his look alone.

  She grabbed him by the shoulder and urged him to crawl up, then she pushed him on his back besides her.

  “My turn.”

  Her devilish grin elicited a groan from Peter which she stifled with a kiss.

  She caressed first his cheek, then his chest, and followed with her mouth on the path of her finger down his body. Lisa loved touching the ridges and valleys created by his muscles. She followed the visible veins with her tongue until she arrived at his impressive erection. When she kissed his velvety tip, Peter groaned.

  She took as much of him into her mouth as she could and slowly released him while she looked him in the eyes and kissed his tip again.

  “Okay, this is killing me.” Peter’s voice sounded strangled when he grabbed her at her armpits and hauled her up for a kiss.

  “Why?”

  “Because if you do this, I won’t last very long.” He sheathed himself in record time and lifted her until she straddled him.

  “Well, a quickie then.” Lisa wiggled her eyebrows, which earned her a playful pinch.

  It turned out a quickie, but not because Peter didn’t last, but because Lisa’s quick orgasm surprised them both and Peter’s followed, triggered by her spasms around him.

  Afterwards they cuddled and Lisa felt so at ease, she couldn’t remember ever feeling this way. This was new. It felt different. Easy, more natural. Completely right.

  When they finally joined the raucous group on the patio, they earned their fair share of whistles and comments. Sometimes they talked all at once, laughing loudly, telling funny stories about each other, but always affectionately. The only silent moments were when their stories involved a fallen comrade or someone who got injured.

  Lisa didn’t know how they could deal with so much stress and pressure and heartbreak and still stay that funny and kind. It had to take a lot of practice to compartmentalize your life like that.

  They made plans for later that evening.

  Dinner at Blake’s Bar & Grill first and after that, beers and a small campfire at the Inn.

  33

  Julie, Holly, Claire, and Lisa had arranged a girls’ night out in a matter of a few phone calls. The motivation and outlook of drinking in good company and watching a group of gorgeous men, made the decision to meet at the Bar & Grill that much easier.

  And watching they did.

  The girls had settled in a booth a few tables down from the men’s, all of them facing the men, except for Holly who sat with her back to them.

  “Could anyone say something?” Holly stared at the three other girls, as if they were brain dead�
��not far from the truth, the way they were staring more than holding up their conversation.

  “I have never been so turned on by just looking at a man,” Julie said matter-of-factly, before absently taking a sip of her beer.

  Claire and Lisa nodded while Holly pouted. “For real now?” She turned around and watched the men for a minute. Blake must’ve said something particularly funny, because their deep laughter rumbled through the bar.

  Holly turned back around, crossed her arms, and pouted. “Not fair.”

  But Lisa felt good. Too good to really care. Watching Peter reconnect with his friends made her happy. Every day, she felt more at home, living a life she could see herself living in ten, twenty or thirty years. Same place, same friends, same love. She’d never had that on the ship or any of the places she had lived before. There had always been this restlessness, an expectation of more, more to see, the world to discover. Now she had arrived. Or at least it felt like it at the moment.

  Blake stood up and came over to their table, and all of the girls, probably acutely aware they were staring more than talking to each other, simultaneously looked inconspicuously in another direction.

  “Hey, Lisa, your phone is going off, a lot.” He handed over her purse, which she had left with Peter.

  “Thank you, Blake.” She took it and immediately rummaged through it. Where was the damn phone? She finally got hold of it, shoving the rest of the stuff back in. She really should clean this out at the next opportunity. Three missed calls from Karen. Lisa got a sick feeling in her stomach; Karen never called that late. She grabbed her bag and decided to take this out the front door. The noise level in the bar was too high to be able to understand a thing.

  Two minutes later the sick feeling turned up a notch. Karen couldn’t reach their mom—she had tried for an hour now, but their mother hadn’t picked up her house phone or cell phone and Karen was past worried—frantic.

  Lisa promised to check on her immediately—she was just a few miles from the Inn, but she came with Peter, so she didn’t have a car right here. She could ask him if he could drive her, but she would hate to disturb his evening with his boys. She could ask Julie or Holly, but judging by them both consuming alcohol, she didn’t think any one of them came by car. Lisa was just on the way to return into the bar and catch a ride somehow, when a cab rolled into the parking lot. There weren’t many of these out here, so she took it as a lucky strike and waited until the passengers got out. She could be at the Inn, check if her mom was okay, and back here in less than thirty minutes.

  “Hello, do you know Gabriel’s Inn?”

  She couldn’t see the cab driver because of the bad lighting in the parking lot, but he nodded and drove off.

  “I need you to wait for me at the Inn and get me back to the bar afterward, okay?” His silence irritated her like hell. Couldn’t he talk to her and not just look at her funny in the rearview mirror?

  “You’re Carl’s little daughter, Lisa.”

  Now it was Lisa’s turn to nod. Maybe silence wasn’t that bad after all.

  They arrived at the Inn in a matter of minutes.

  “Please wait, I’ll be back in a few.”

  “Okay.”

  When Lisa opened the door, the interior light illuminated the driver’s face, and she recognized him immediately. Lisa shook her head. Now was not the time to think about it. She dashed alongside the Inn to the cottage where there was, thank God, still the light on in the living room.

  Lisa pounded against the door and called for her mom at the same time.

  After a few tense seconds, her mother appeared and opened the door. She refastened her bathrobe, and a towel was wrapped around her wet hair.

  “Lisa, what’s going on; did something happen?”

  Her confused look was nearly comical, but Lisa sighed heavily and grimaced. “Karen couldn’t reach you on your phones, so she got nervous and sent me to check in on you.”

  Her mother’s eyes narrowed down into a pinched expression and her voice turned from worried to scolding. “I’m not a baby; I just took a bath. Before you ruined it, I had a very relaxing evening. I don’t need you babying me.” She turned on her heels and went back into the house, leaving the front door open.

  Oh great, now she was the one who got blamed. Again. Lisa stepped into the door and yelled, “Mom, please just call Karen—tell her you’re okay.”

  Her mother came back with her phone already at her ear, giving Karen a lecture, and Lisa waved goodbye and closed the door on her way out.

  That had been a quick fix. Karen had been overreacting as always. She couldn’t fault her though. Her mom had mood swings lately. Understandable, with losing her husband and blaming her daughter for God knows what. But being alone and dealing with all of this couldn’t be easy for her mother. Lisa shrugged and stepped up her pace. She had a cab waiting.

  When she got there, the driver was standing beside the car in the dark parking lot.

  “I’m sorry. Thanks for waiting. We can go back to the bar now.” Lisa waited for the cab driver to move, but instead he opened the door for her and stood entirely too close. Lisa leaned forward, ready to get in, and then—nothing.

  The first thing she was aware of was her tongue, which felt strangely swollen in her dry mouth. Her head hurt and she couldn’t move her hands. What the hell happened? Did she fall? Did she faint? Why was she lying in the back of a driving car facing the back? Lisa turned her head until she could make out her purse right there in the foot area. But her brain was too foggy to make sense of it.

  Until the man in the front began talking. Not to her, but to himself. At first he mumbled some things Lisa couldn’t understand, but after a while her head became clearer and his voice got more and more agitated.

  “Find a nice girl. If you find a nice one you can bring her home, otherwise get rid of her. Okay, mother. I’ll do that. You’re right, maybe she has to go, too. But I need some information first.”

  He mumbled the same thing over and over again. Who was he talking to? Was he on the phone with his mother? Lisa’s first instinct was to get her phone, but her hands were squished between her body and the seat cushions. She inched farther to the other side until she faced the front of the car, but her hands were bound together with something that felt like—a cable of some sorts.

  Lisa remembered their encounter earlier in the woods, and a chill ran down her spine. That day she and Peter had their big fight. She’d been scared that day. Where was he going with her? And how the hell would she get out of this situation? She tried to slow down her breathing. Think, Lisa, think.

  Nobody even knew she left the bar. Why didn’t she tell anyone, or at least send a text? Even if they were missing her by now, they wouldn’t know what had happened.

  The ramblings up front stopped for a moment and then she heard static noise. Was he searching for a radio station? Lisa felt bogged down by the surrealism of the situation. There she was—unconscious and bound in the back of a car, while the man who abducted her, searched for his preferred music.

  A wave of cold flushed through her body and tears gathered behind her eyes. She had to get out of this car. Now.

  But first she needed her hands. Her knife was in her bag, as was her phone. If she could only get her hands free.

  The man in front began his ramblings again but Lisa tuned him out. She had to come up with a plan.

  Her life had just come together. The Inn, Moon Lake, her friends, and Peter. She loved everything about it.

  Finally, she’d felt truly at home. Her life had a purpose—meaning. She wouldn’t let this dick take it away. She fumbled with her bonds. There had to be a knot somewhere. She twisted her hands until her joints hurt; she hadn’t even loosened them up a bit.

  But she wouldn’t give up. She would fight.

  34

  Where was he taking her? Lisa shifted her focus from her bruised wrists to the surroundings outside the car.

  If she didn’t know where she was, she would
n’t know where to go when she escaped, or be able to call for help.

  It was dark outside—not a streetlight or any other source of light anywhere. He was driving pretty fast and straight ahead, so they must have left the town behind them. There were clouds overhead, but they gave room to the moon every so often.

  Lisa slowly rolled to the side and propped herself against the car door. It was a slow move upward until she could glimpse through the opposite window.

  The lake. They were on the highway to Whitebrook alongside the lake. They passed the parking lot, where Lisa had found the body and she slowly exhaled—at least he wasn’t taking her there.

  But where the hell was he taking her? Her breath hitched when another wave of fear cut down her airways. Was this man about to kill her too? But why?

  Suddenly the car slowed down, and she glimpsed the sign right before they turned right.

  Dragon Cliff Wall. The car accelerated again but didn’t go as fast as before. The road to the cliff was narrow and restricted by trees. Plus, it wasn’t going anywhere. This road terminated at the cliff with a small parking lot at the end. As teenagers they went to the cliff a lot. The boys always dared each other to jump from a rock ledge at the lower end of the wall.

  Lisa had never jumped. Even the ledge with its twenty feet was too high for her comfort.

  The cliff itself was about eighty feet and the ground broke away into a breathtaking drop-off right down into the lake. Lisa got dizzy just thinking about it. One wrong step in the dark and she could fall down and die. Screaming for help wouldn’t do a thing for her either. There was nobody out here. No houses or passers-by.

  Nobody would rescue her here by accident. It would be on her to escape.

  Sweat poured down her face; she didn’t know anything about escaping, or fighting. She should have taken Peter up on his offer for self-defense lessons. Now it was too late to learn. Peter. His smile appeared in her mind and she could hear his deep belly laugh. He had been so happy, so relaxed this evening—his boys in town, their relationship on the right track. He seemed content, and she loved watching him. She also loved the longing looks he cast her way every now and then. Secret promises of later. She didn’t have to be nervous about meeting his friends. They were just like Peter and Blake. Kind and caring. Like family.