by Lainey Reese
“I wasn’t interested in leaving,” he told her with eyes nothing but dark shadows in the moonlight. “Then without you there, I wasn’t interested in staying. By the time I figured that out, you were long gone. I didn’t think I’d get a second chance to see you until I just recognized your dress.”
Fuck making him sweat. A huge smile bloomed across her face. His words filled her tummy with butterflies, and she fluttered her lashes at him. Looking back, she couldn’t see where he left his car to catch up with her and wondered briefly why he’d walk so far to meet up.
“Over there on Crawford,” he answered her question and gestured at the distant corner where she thought she could see the outline of a car.
“What’d you park so far away for?” she wanted to know.
“It’s the closest place that has a big enough spot to get outta the road.”
“Oh, yeah, huh.” Brandi looked around at all the boring barley and shrugged the thought off. Then she looked at her knight in shining armor.
“You did scare me though. So bad I gotta pee now.” This time, her giggle was genuine. “I guess you didn’t scare the crap outta me after all. You scared the piss outta me.” She didn’t stop to ponder why he wasn’t laughing with her. She thought it was funny as hell. “Here, will you hold my shoes for me? I’m gonna make like a farm girl and use the field real quick. Then we can go.” Without waiting for his reply, Brandi thrust her favorite pair of sparkly heels his way and turned to stumble into the stalks. It was almost harvest time for this crop, and the feathery tops were so tall they tickled her chin as she barged her way through. When she started humming a song from Oklahoma, it occurred to her with a hiccupping burp that she was still more than a little intoxicated. The thought only brought another giggle.
The barley pressed close as she wove her way through the stalks, and the familiarity of a life spent traipsing through these fields comforted her. She didn’t want to go too far, but she also didn’t wanna be so close he could hear her. God! What if I farted? The horrific thought sent her scuttling across an extra couple rows. Just in case.
“That’s plenty far enough. Don’t you think?”
“Oh my God!” Brandi squealed in giggling alarm and whirled around to face him. “I told you I gotta pee! What are you doing? Go away.”
Brandi really did have to go, but he was looking at her with those dark gorgeous eyes, and his shaggy hair was still damp with sweat from the rave. As all the things they could do in this soft concealing crop so far away from the road occurred to her, Brandi gave him a smile instead of another order to leave. With lashes lowered, she trailed her fingers over the tops of her thighs and played with the hem of her skirt.
“At least turn around. Sheesh.” When his eyes followed her hands the same way her cat followed his laser toy, Brandi smirked with feminine power. “I mean it,” she told him, her voice going soft and breathy. His eyes lifted up to hers at her change of tone, and she lifted the skirt up to her hips and showed him her panties. “I’ll squat right here in front of you.” Her voice was barely more than a whisper now. “Is that what you want? You wanna watch me pee?” Even as she taunted, Brandi lowered her ass toward the ground with a sensuous swirl of her hips.
“Yes,” he said, his voice hoarse. “Yes. I want to watch.”
Too turned on to smirk, Brandi spread her knees then ran her middle finger over the satin covering her in a few teasing strokes. He made an impatient sound that gave her ego a power boost, so she quit playing and with her middle finger slid the material to the side until her pussy was wide open to his avid gaze.
The moon was full and bright, and Brandi knew he could see every detail of her parted flesh. She waited until he looked his fill, until he finally lifted his eyes to hers. “Do it.” Brandi emptied her bladder and never took her eyes off him, and he never took his eyes from between her legs.
It was the most erotic moment of her life. Until he dropped to the ground in front of her and started lapping midstream. Brandi screamed her ecstasy to the moon and fell back on the ground gleefully, and within seconds, an orgasm detonated within her like a nuclear blast. It was the first of three, and not even the best of them.
Later, but much too soon to Brandi’s way of thinking, they were rolling to their backs, replete. “I wish we didn’t have to go. I wish we could just sleep out here all night. Under the stars, so we can wake up and do everything all over again.” She stretched luxuriously, her body well used and aching in so many interesting places. Brandi pushed herself to a sitting position. Since he had already stood and was rummaging through his discarded jacket, Brandi guessed she would have to get moving as well.
“Help me up?” She extended a hand his direction.
“Sure.”
She didn’t have time to draw the breath to scream. She never even saw the blow coming. Before she made it to her feet, all the air was driven from her lungs by the sledgehammer of a fist to her midsection. The blow was well aimed and the most vicious thing she’d ever felt in her young life. Brandi folded against him under the tremendous force of his strike. Her arms went around his waist as though in an embrace, and she was helpless to move away. Helpless to do anything except gape up into his handsome, expressionless face. Terror suffused every fiber of her being as she fought to draw a breath.
“Shh, shhh. Just relax into it. It’ll be over soon. There you go. There it is. Nice, deep breath now. Come on. There you go. One more….”
Brandi’s eyes wheeled in horror at the grotesque pain ripping through her stomach and looked down in time to watch the wicked-looking blade at the end of his fist as it slid free from her flesh. Red fountained forward in a hot, wet burst. Disbelief and horror fountained out just as profusely.
“Oof!” The third blow was even harder. This one came up under her ribs, and the pain was as hideous as the sound the knife made when it sliced into her.
“That was a good one. There you go, almost over now. Won’t be much longer. There you go.” She hated that he cooed to her, crooned to her even as he stabbed her yet again. Her knees buckled, and incongruously, he eased her descent to the ground. With hands coated in her bright, hot blood he was grotesquely gentle as he brushed the hair from her face. As he shushed her and cradled her in his arms and continued to stab.
As he killed her.
Chapter 9
“You were out late last night,” Luke told his son as the two of them sat down to big plates of fried ham, eggs, potatoes, cornbread, and about a pint of sausage gravy each.
“Went to a dance.” Logan’s curt reply was uttered around a mouthful, and he never looked up from his plate, just continued to shovel in his food like the bottomless pit he was.
Luke let the rudeness go. Kid was understandably upset. Hell, you’d think if anybody shoulda learned to glove up, it woulda been the dumbass who knocked up the prom queen. But nope. Of course his kid was pissed at him. Luke was pissed at himself. You’d think the second time around he’d at least get to raise the child with its mother.
“Aw shit, kid.” Luke scrubbed at his face as though washing it then lowered his hands to the table in defeat. “You got every right to be twisted up about this. But damnit, I miss you, Logan. Yell at me or break something. Hell, let me catch you sneaking a beer. But don’t freeze me out like this, okay?” He gave his son’s shoulder a nudge. “One of us has to be the grownup about this. The bigger man.”
“Yeah,” Logan told him, and though he still wouldn’t look up from his plate, Luke could see a marked release of tension and animosity in his posture. “It’s obviously not gonna be you.” Then he pushed up from the table and took his now empty plate with him. “I swear, Dad, I’m getting you a vasectomy for Christmas.” The exasperated words held the warmth he was used to hearing in his son’s voice, and Luke let the forgiveness, his son’s understanding, rush through him. It flushed out all the tension he hadn’t even realized he’d been carrying.
The rest of the world could go hang itself for all Luke cared
. It was his son’s thoughts and opinions that mattered. He was man enough to admit it’d been quite a blow to have the kid so disappointed in him. Something he had been careful to avoid in the past. And he sure as hell was going to do everything in his power to avoid it in the future too.
At the knock on the door, Luke said, “Your chariot awaits, m’lord.”
“Dad.” Logan’s eye roll was exactly what he expected. “Can you let Abe know I’m takin’ the truck in today?”
“Sure. But why? You going to another dance, Twinkle Toes?”
“Nah,” Logan shouted back as he thundered up the steps like a heard of overfed cattle. “I just gotta run into town after work today, and I wanna head straight out from there.”
Made sense to Luke. He stepped out into the early morning sunshine to see a plain black buggy pulled by a sway-backed mare about a thousand years old and waved a hand in greeting toward the solemn boy holding the reins.
“Morning, Abram,” Luke said as he stepped to the railing. “Logan says you go on ahead without him. He’s taking the truck today so he can head into town later.”
“Thank you, Luke. Tell him I’ll see him there then. You have a good day now.” Abram touched a hand to his Quaker’s hat and clucked softly to his old horse.
Luke was turning to head back in when he saw the sheriff’s cruiser pull up past the buggy while it made its plodding retreat in the opposite direction.
“This can’t be good,” Luke mumbled under his breath. When the car came to a stop and a tall, weary-looking man stepped out, Luke greeted him. “Hey, Derek. What brings you all the way out here so early in the morning?”
“Just stopped by to see if Logan was about. He leave for work already?”
Luke felt his stomach drop at the complete lack of emotion on the sheriff’s face. The careful blankness had alarm bells firing in his chest even as he called for his son.
“Logan.” His voice was pitched loud enough that he knew his son would be able to hear him even if he were still upstairs.
“Yeah?” came his son’s disembodied voice from somewhere behind him.
“Front and center, son. Sheriff Anderson wants a word with you.” Luke never took his eyes off Derek, not liking all he couldn’t read in the other’s expression. They’d grown up together, played on the same high school football team, and still grabbed a beer or a round of pool a couple times a month. It did not bode well at all that his childhood friend was nowhere to be found within the law officer standing in front of him.
When Logan tromped down the steps in his usual bigfoot fashion, some of the tension eased. His kid was a good one; this wouldn’t be any trouble involving Logan, Luke silently assured himself. This had to be about somebody else.
“What’s goin’ on, Dad? Sheriff?” There was only open curiosity in his son’s face, and more of that tension drained from Luke’s shoulders.
“Mornin’, Logan,” Derek began. “Sorry to bother you so early in the day, but Brandi Parker didn’t make it home last night.”
“Who?” Logan only looked confused now.
“Brandi Parker. She was at the rave down in Clovis County at the Grindhouse with one of her friends last night. Word is that you and her spent a lot of time on the dance floor together.” When Logan only looked more baffled, Sheriff Anderson held out his mobile, and Luke saw over his shoulder the smiling face of a sweet-looking teenager with dark curly hair, too much eyeliner, and the glazed eyes of a stoner smiling out from the screen.
“Oh, her.” Logan shrugged and looked at first his father then the sheriff. “Yeah, we danced a couple times. But not like a lot. Not more than with anybody else. It’s a rave. Everybody dances with everybody all at the same time. I mean, it’s pretty steamy, and there’s a lot of grinding going on.” Logan’s cheeks tinged, and his shoulders hunched, clearly uncomfortable talking about dry-humping on a dance floor in front of his father. “But it’s nothing personal, ya know? I mean, it can be, if you’re going there to hook up, sure. But we—my friends and everyone I know—we just go for the experience. The music and the movements and getting lost and stuff, you know? Sorry. You probably don’t care.”
“That’s fine, son. I’m a music lover too. So, you saw Brandi? Danced with her?” At Logan’s quick nod, Derek put his phone away and continued his questions. “Did you notice who else she danced with?” Easy shrug, shake of the head.
“Did you notice any one in particular paying a lot of attention to her besides you?”
“No, sir. Like I said. It’s all everybody just dancing with everybody. I don’t know who all she danced with.”
“Did you happen to notice what time she left? Who she left with? Maybe notice if someone else left right after she did?”
Logan was shaking his head more emphatically with each question now. “I’m sorry, sir. I really wanna help you out, but other than knowing I danced with her a couple times, I can’t really tell you anything else about her.”
Luke put a calming hand on his son’s shoulder. Admittedly, it was more to soothe himself than sensing any need for comfort from him. Logan’s posture was relaxed, and Luke could feel the easy deep breaths he took. That went a long way to reassure his mind. If his kid was hiding something, no way he’d be this cool. Logan had so many tells when he was guilty it looked like he had Tourette’s.
“You mind tellin’ me when you left the dance? What time you got home?” Anderson took out a notepad and pen then looked up expectantly.
“Left about two, I guess. Dunno what time I got home. I wasn’t payin’ attention.” His shoulders shrugged and he scratched at one of his ears.
“Did you come straight home? Was anybody with you?” This time, Logan’s shoulders bunched. Luke felt ice gather in his belly and spread until he was frozen from the inside out. Why should that question bother Logan?
“Um, yeah, I came straight home.” Logan scratched at the side of his nose then tugged at his ear. “Nobody was with me though. And Dad was asleep when I got home, so….” Logan looked from the sheriff to Luke again with a guilty flush in his cheeks.
“He got home just after three this morning.” When Logan jumped and looked at him in surprise, Luke couldn’t hold back the rueful smile that tugged at the corner of his mouth and scrubbed through his son’s hair. “Yes, son. I still wait up for you. I just do it from the privacy of my own bed now, instead of pacing the living room like when you were in school.”
Logan’s eye roll was so on par with his norm that Luke felt some of that ice melt.
“And you didn’t give anyone a ride home? Take a detour?” the sheriff inquired.
“Um, no, sir.” Logan did that annoying thing he did and cracked his knuckles one-handed with his thumbs. The cracks worked like nails on a chalkboard on all his “dad nerves” and were his biggest dead giveaway.
“Well, a full hour is an awful long time to take from here to there, don’t you think?” Looked like Derek wasn’t anymore fooled than Luke was.
“Not really,” Logan hedged. “Not if you’re doing the limit.”
“Son, my momma makes that drive in half the time. Did you take a backroad home maybe? Was there a different girl you think might get in trouble if you said something? I need to know, so I can check you off my list and get on with finding Brandi and getting her home safe where she belongs.”
“I wish I could help.” All tells gone and now Logan looked as earnest as a scout. “Honest. We danced some and then I had to jet, because I had to work in the morning. Other than that, I really didn’t pay much attention to any one girl. Her included.”
“Okay, well—” Sheriff Anderson tucked his notepad and pen in his chest pocket. “—if you happen to see Brandi, you give us a call. Thank you for your time. I’ll get outta here and let you guys get on with your day. Sorry to bother you. With luck, little Brandi just spent the night with one of her friends and is already on her way home.”
“This have anything to do with the girl you found in the ditch a while back? We go
t something to worry about Derek?” Luke asked.
“Well, I can’t say one way or the other right now. Things bein’ what they are, I just want to make sure everyone in my county is accounted for until we catch this guy. Until then, we’re just going to be extra careful around here.” Logan nodded philosophically, loped over the railing and barged through the hedges like an orangutan, and more of that ice melted. The kid was harmless. Whatever happened, it wasn’t on him. Luke knew that with the certainty of more than just a parent; he knew it as surely as he knew himself innocent of whatever this was. However, whatever had brought this to their door, it had sealed Luke’s childhood friend off completely behind the badge he wore. And the owner of that badge was staring after his son like he had his eye on a target.
Chapter 10
Def Leopard’s “Pour Some Sugar on Me” wailed through the peaceful countryside like an audible orgy. The rock song was as out of place to the surroundings as the tatted-up and blowtorch-wielding pixie in coveralls was. Nevertheless, there she stood. A black steampunk-looking helmet obscured her face. A heavy paint-splattered apron weighed her down from neck to ankle. The torch in her hands glowed like a fucking light saber, and Jax stood mesmerized in the open barn doors.
Sparks flew. The twisted steel monstrosity in front of her glowed and smoldered and practically breathed as she danced around it like a sorceress. She was spellbinding. The metal seemed to liquefy under her whim. It flowed and bent and swirled. Her sculpture did her bidding with an effortlessness that marveled him. Called to him. Time ceased to exist for Jax as he watched her creation come to life. The swirls arced and swooped like ten-foot waves crashing onto shore. Within the waves, tentacles began to take shape, threaded and weaving within the frothing sea of steel, and Jax could almost feel the sea creature striving to break free of the ocean’s depths. Within the center of the tsunami, a new shape began to take form. A face, crude at first then more refined. It was fierce in its power and beauty. The struggle for freedom was etched in every line of the sea creature. Satisfaction and triumph just within reach gleamed in its jewel-like eyes.
