Boomtown (11 page)

  He gave me a searching look, and then threw the wrench he was using on top of the tool box.  He walked over to the Bug, started it, and drove it out of the garage bay.  He got out. 

  “Get in.” He said to me, and then got in to the passenger side. 

  My heart was pounding.  I didn’t want to look like a dumbass in front of him.  I got Janie from the ground, walked her over to Max and left him to watch her.  I turned around and headed to the Bug.  I eased down in the seat, closed the door, and looked at him expectantly.  He also looked quite funny, his big body scrunched up into this tiny space. 

  “Whose car is this?” I asked. 

  “It was my mom’s car.” He answered. 

 “Really? Why doesn’t she have it anymore?” I asked. 

  “She has a new Bug, and didn’t need this one any longer.  Nowhere to put it either.  Stop stalling.  Put your foot down on the clutch, make sure your in neutral, and start it up.”

  I pushed the clutch down to the floor, put it in neutral, and turned the key.  The Bug fired up and idled like a dream. 

  “Now, the gas and the clutch are opposites.  If you let off the clutch, you need to be pressing the gas.  You can’t give it too much gas.  Let off the clutch slowly.” 

  I followed his directions to the letter.  And died.  Fuck. 

 I tried again.  And died.  Motherfucker. 

  This went on for a while, Sam teaching me patiently.  My mouth spouting off curse words, and finally I started to get the hang of it.  I drove around the garage area, around the back, and made circles around the entire lot.  Finally I came to a halt outside the bay doors again and shut the car off.  I sat silent for a while, turned to Sam and gave him a big smile.   

  “You did well.  I just think that maybe family members shouldn’t teach each other some things.  Especially when both family members have tempers.  James and you both have tempers from hell.  And I’m sure y’all fight like cats and dogs.”

  I smiled and agreed, leaned over and gave him a soft wet kiss.

  “Thank you!” I whispered.

  Sam parked the car back into the spot it was originally in, and walked over to where I was standing with Max and Janie.

  “That is some miracle shit you just worked.  Neither James nor I could teach the girls how to drive.  They were awful.  You should get a medal of honor.” Max teased.

   The sun was setting when I decided it was time to leave.  I gathered all of Janie’s crap and tossed it into the floor of the truck via the open window.  I had just turned around when I found myself pinned to the door by Sam’s very hard body.  He leaned down and kissed me.  His tongue slipped into my mouth when I gasped and ours dueled for a few seconds before he pulled back.  My lips were tingling, as well as a few other parts of my body when he leaned away from my body. 

  “Anything else you want to do that you never have?” he asked.

  “I’ve never gone fishing.” I answered.

  “We can do that sometime.  I have a boat at Lake O’ the Pines.  As soon as we both have some free time we can go.” He said.

   “Yay! I’ve always wanted to go fishing!  I don’t like swimming in lakes though, so don’t expect me to do that.”

  “I’ll see you tonight.” He whispered, and then wandered back to the bike that he was working on.

  After getting Janie into bed, I took a quick shower and headed to my room to get dressed.  A low rumble of thunder shook the house.  I loved thunderstorms, what I didn’t like was tornados, which were a likely possibility in the south in the spring months.  The most relaxing thing in life was sitting on the porch watching it rain.

  The power had gone out at the first gust of wind as usual.  When I happened to glance out the window of my bedroom at just the right time, the lightening had flashed and lit up the sky and illuminated the entire back yard. Our house is set up in an L shape with the living room and kitchen and garage on one side, and the bedrooms were located in longer half of the L on the other. A man in a black trench coat and black cap was squatted down and messing with something beside the back door that led into the kitchen.

  I leapt for my cell phone on the end of my bed tripping over Chewy who was at my feet. I quickly held the 3 down and it dialed Sam's number that I had programmed into my speed dial so I could reach him easily and quickly.   While doing this I headed into the direction of Janie's room.

  Ringing two times he answered with a gruff sounding "Yeah?"

  My breath hitched a little when I whispered, "Sam, someone's trying to get into the house."

  Sam immediately said, "Grab Janie, furthest bedroom from entry, closet. Cover yourselves with what's already in there. I’ll be there in five."

  I opened Janie's door quietly, went to her crib and carefully lifted her trying not to wake her. She curled her little body into mine and stayed fast asleep. My heart pounded as I walked back to my room and into the closet. I laid her down and covered her with one of the sheets that I stored on the floor. Pushing her as far back as I could between the clothes hanging in the closet, I did the same with myself protecting her with my body. I left chewy on the floor by my bed and closed the closet door. My shotgun was in a safe in my mom’s room so it wouldn't be accessible by Janie who had begun to be curious about everything. I was rethinking that move as I put the phone back up to my ear and whispered, "Here" And waited.  

  I could hear the roar of an engine in the background of the phone when he said, "Two more minutes." And hung up.

  I couldn't hear anything over the storm, so I just stayed as still as I could and prayed. A little while later I heard Chewy's dog tags jingle and a low menacing growl sound from his throat.

  I was about to hyperventilate from holding my breath when I heard Sam say, "It's me. You can come out. " 

  I launched myself out of the closet and threw myself at him. He wrapped his arms around me and ran his 5 o'clock shadow over my hair. I quivered in his arms and he just held me until I got some control back.

  Walking back to the closet, I bent down and picked Janie up and held her to me.  

  Sam watched silently, and finally said "No one here. Back door was breeched, but other than that no signs of anyone being in the house. I made a lap around the house also, but didn't see anything. I called max and asked him to come help me check out everything. We are going to wait for him to get here so he can stay with you while I check a little more thoroughly." 

  At that my body simply deflated. I collapsed onto the bed and let out a relieved sigh. Sam took Janie from me and cradled her in his big strong arms.  

  You would never know by the ease at which he held her that she weighed nearly thirty five pounds. He held her with such little effort you would think she weighed next to nothing.  Thankfully she was still blissfully unaware of anything that was going on around her. 

  Max called to let us know that he was outside.  Sam laid Janie down on my bed, and walked out of the room.  He came back a little later with Sam, and they started talking in gibberish, something that sounded like military speak, but went right over the top of my head. 

  Max left the room, and Sam came up to me.

  “You need to pack a bag for you and Janie.  Enough for a couple of days.” Sam said distractedly

  “Ummm, that’s harder than it looks.  Janie requires a bunch of shit: diapers, wipes, toys, clothes, shoes, bath stuff, a play pen for her to sleep in, and a lot more that I probably haven’t even thought about.” I said “You’ve never been around kids before have you?”

  He looked at me for a long moment, and then nodded.  “Okay, I’ll move over here until we can get it to my place.  We will have an alarm put in tomorrow.  I know a guy who owes me a favor.”

  He pulled out his phone, and went about setting up a time for the guy to come install an alarm.

  “Can I put her back to bed?”  

  “Yes, Max will stay over here too.  Where can he sleep?” 

  “There is James’ bed in with Janie, or there is my Mom’s room.” 

  “He can sleep with Janie, which would solve the immediate problem of making sure everyone was safe.” 

  I got Janie settled in bed, and then got ready for bed myself while Max and Sam were busy discussing logistics.  I settled into bed, got my pillows situated and Mr. Bear in the crook of my arm.  It was then what happened finally settled in and I started to shake, shortly after starting to cry. 

  It was during my crying jag that Sam slipped into bed behind me, pulling me into his warm body.  I turned still clutching my bear and buried my face into his neck. 

  “Are you done?” I asked, still crying, but trying to get it under control. 

  “I am now; I heard you crying and came to you.” 

  “Thank you.  I can’t get over the fact that Janie was in danger.  I have no way to protect her.  I was frozen; if it wasn’t for you telling me what to do I don’t know what would have happened!” I said crying myself into exhaustion.

  “Shhhh, I’m here now. Nothing will hurt y’all.”  Sam said quietly, running his hands through my hair. 

  I stopped crying shortly after, falling into a restless sleep, snuggled into Sam’s warmth and his arms wrapped around me.

SAM

  “What’d you find?” I asked Max.  There wasn’t a question of if, it was what.  Max was good at his job. 

  “Jack was able to get him.  Little shit doesn’t know anything though.  Some guy paid him to put a note on her kitchen table.  He was told that no one was here and he would have to pick the lock. Jack took him to Cooper. ”   

  “Did he say what the guy looked like?” 

  “Blonde hair, built, around six foot.” Max said. 

  I nodded and said a brief thank you to Max. 

  As Max walked away, I thought a little more about what I had felt tonight when she had called. Pure terror.  Even knowing that Jack was right outside, and would have been able to get there if I needed him to, I still freaked.  I was normally stone cold.  That was my call sign when we were performing missions, the boys thought it was a laugh calling me that.  But tonight I was pure crazy.  All of my training went out the window.  I hadn’t acknowledged it before that second, but I was in love with her, and the idea of her being taken away from me tore me apart.  Finally calming enough to get my head on straight, I called Jack.  But proving that I had trained them well, Jack was already aware that someone was there, and had him detained on the side of the house away from any windows or prying eyes.   

  I set the note on top of the fridge so I could send it to the lab in the morning and have the prints run.  I walked back to Cheyenne’s room, stripped my clothes off, placed my .45 under the pillow and gathered Cheyenne in my arms.  She still had a death grip on the ugly green bear, so I just wrapped my arms around both of them.  I breathed in her scent, laughing softly when I remembered her earlier explanation about smelling me.  We were one of a kind.  I closed my eyes, and fell into a light fitful sleep. 

Chapter 7

  I heard pots and pans banging, male voices talking, and Janie laughing her carefree laugh.  I rolled over and buried my face into the pillow. Sam. I was almost asleep again when I felt a hand running up the leg stopping at the inside of my thigh where it met my core. I gave an involuntary shiver and moaned.  That being permission enough I felt the fingers slip past my undies, and up inside me in the next breath.  I was already dripping wet, all Sam had to do was touch me and I was ready for him. 

  Realizing that I was wet for him already, he peeled my underwear off and then dragged me to the edge of my bed so my feet were on the floor but my upper body was supported by the bed.  I heard a zipper lower, and lightning fast I was filled with him.   

  I let out a moan, and wiggled my hips a little to see how much leeway he would give me.  His hands tightened, so obviously he wasn’t willing to give up much.  He pulled out, then thrust forward again, hitting my cervix. I started to moan again when his hand covered my mouth. 

  “Shhh, we don’t want to be too loud.  I’d hate to have to stop.” He said. 

  I buried my face into the bed, and wiggled my hips as if to say get on with it.  

  Well he got on with it alright, if I was on the bed normally, my head would be pounding the headboard with every thrust.  Every time with him it just kept getting better and better.  He seemed to hit a spot in me that made me wild.  I moaned into the sheets with almost every thrust he gave me.  

  Out of nowhere my orgasm blindsided me.  I came back to myself in time to hear Sam moan into the back of my neck, as he jerked and came.  We both lay there panting. 

  When my wits came back, I said, “You forgot again.” 

  “I wore one.”  He said as he pulled out then went to the bathroom to dispose of the condom. 

  Wow, I hadn’t even noticed.  I had been so lost in Sam that it never even crossed my mind.  He also seemed kind of pissed.

  He came back in the room and pulled up his jeans without putting any underwear on.  He grabbed a black tee off the floor and pulled it over his head as he walked out of the door of the bedroom, closing the door softly behind him.  

  Guess he was pissed at me. He didn’t normally leave me so fast, or without at least saying something before he went. I needed to talk to someone, and for that to happen I would actually tell someone what was going on. 

  I sighed and grabbed my phone, and typed a quick text to Ember. 

  Me:  “I need you to come see me ASAP.  I have major problems.” 

  Ember: “OK, I’ll be there in 10. Make me breakfast.” 

∞ 

  I walked out of my room and went to the kitchen.  Max and Janie were at the table finishing what looked like pancakes.  Sam stood at the coffee pot filling up two mugs, his back to me.  I walked up to him and hugged him from behind.  He tensed up a little, then relaxed, snaked his hand around to pat my butt.  I rubbed my head into his back, sniffing a little, trying not to let him know what I was doing.  His body started shaking, and I knew he was laughing.