Luna Tick: A Sunshine Novel (9 page)

“Okay, where are you?”

“Meet me on Lakeview Drive. You'll see me. Just keep driving until you do.”

“Okay, gotta go.”

And without a goodbye, the line went dead. My breathing had returned to normal, and my heart rate was slowing down. I never considered how fucking scary getting caught would be. Never considered exactly how much I had to lose. I wouldn't change a thing I've done, but I was more sorry that it was almost over than I thought I'd be. Sorry I'd be leaving my wife, my daughter and my friends. However, I wouldn't go quietly. I still had shit to do, and I hoped to hell Michelle was willing to help me.

Chapter Eight

Matt

It would have been nice to say the bright sunrays or my wife's fingers around my cock woke me up, but that's not what had me awake at the ass crack of dawn. No, my own thoughts and worries kept me up almost the entire night. After making love to Sunshine, then holding her until she was snoring softly I watched her sleep for a long time before drifting off to a fitful sleep that continued to wake me throughout the night. Finally, after the last nightmare, I stayed awake and watched the sky outside our window change from night to day. Sunshine was still snuggled up next to me, her dark hair piled on her head.

I slid my thumb down her back, tracing her curves, hoping she'd wake up. Once I reached the flesh of her ass, she began to stir. A moan slipped from her mouth and I took that as encouragement. My hands softly massaged her ass cheeks while I laid kisses across her back.

"Mmm, I love waking up to a horny husband," she whispered sleepily before turning over. Her eyes opened slightly, and her perfect lips curled into a small smile. Gripping her flesh, I pulled her close to me as she buried her head in my chest and draped her leg over my waist. We were facing each other. Our bodies fit perfectly together. My hand explored her body as if it was the first time I'd touched her. It didn't matter how many times we made love, every time was like the first. Every time I fell in love with her more. Her hips ground into me, her pussy caressing my cock.

"You're ready for me?"

"Mmhmm," she replied, grinding a little more aggressively. Grabbing her thigh, I pull it up higher, allowing my entrance easily. The moment I entered her I felt her tighten up, holding me inside. I stayed there, holding her, touching her until we both began to rock in unison. Our bodies, once again, became one. The world could have stopped spinning, and we'd never have known it. When I was inside of her, I was invincible, king of the world, a man of men when I felt my wife all around me. Our breathing sped up in tandem until the walls of her pussy began to pulsate, telling me she was close. I moved more quickly, with urgency until her body tensed beneath me causing my own release.

"Well, good morning to you too, baby," I whispered into her ear, my body covering hers.

"Yes, good morning indeed. What time is it anyway?" Her voice was still breathless from our lovemaking and her words spoken slowly.

"It's only seven, go back to sleep. I gotta go." I kissed her on the head before getting out of bed. She lazily turned to face me. Her arms stretched above her head.

"So early?"

"Yeah, we can't let him get away. He knows we're on to him, and he's on foot as far as we know. With any luck, we'll catch the SOB, and I'll be back before you're up and dressed. Maybe we can go home soon."

"I'd like that. All of that. I miss the kids."

"Me too. Stay safe today, baby. I don't know what Nick has in mind."

"Don’t worry about me, just get him." Her demand was spoken softly yet spoke volumes. There was no choice. Nick had to be stopped. I quickly kissed her again before heading for the shower.

The hot water stung my skin at first but quickly got my blood flowing. Dade and I agreed to meet at 8:00 a.m. so I quickly washed up as my tired muscles came to life. The last of the soap had just gone down the drain when I shut the water off. The moment the sound of falling water ceased is when I heard her scream. I grabbed a towel and ran out of the bathroom to find the window wide open, the breeze blowing the curtains. Sunshine was gone.

Before my brain could fully process what was going on I grabbed my gun that was lying on the nightstand and hauled ass out the door, screaming for Dade as I passed his room. Sunshine's voice could still be heard screaming, fighting back. Her pleas for help pushed me to run faster. Just as I rounded the corner, I saw a woman hit Sunshine on the head, knocking her out before running around to the driver side of the car. The woman looked back at me and smiled before sliding in and taking off. They were so close yet so far away from me.

"STOP or I'll shoot," I hollered as loud as I possibly could before unloading a round into the back of the car. The back window shattered, but it wasn't enough to stop the speeding car. I kept running after them until they disappeared around a corner. "FUCK!!!"

"Matt!" I heard someone say in the distance. I kept running. "Matt!" The voice was growing louder, closer. I’d pushed my body to the brink of exhaustion and was ready to collapse when a horn blared, causing me to stop running. "Get in the fucking car, bro, you're not going to catch them running down the street naked!" Dade's voice was low and forceful. I quickly got in the car.

"They went that way, GO!" Apparently, my towel fell off at some point, and I didn't really care that I was naked.  We couldn’t let them get too far away. Dade stepped on the gas, jolting us forward. As soon as we were on the road, he threw a pair of sweatpants at me. "Good thing I always keep a pair in the car." I should have questioned why, but I didn't. Really didn't care. All I cared about was getting my wife back.

"Was it him?" Dade asked, blowing one red light after another.

"No, a woman. His wife I think."

"How did she get in?"

"The window. She must have been waiting outside. I was in the shower when I heard Sunshine scream."

"The reason for no pants?"

"Yes. Fuck, I don't see them. Go to his house. Maybe she went back there."

Dade continued driving through the town, at breakneck speeds while I looked for the piece of shit car that held my wife's lifeless body. We were disappointed to find no trace of Sunshine at the bastard's house and after driving around the entire town we went back to the hotel where Trish and Ronin were waiting nervously out front.

"Nothing?" Trish asked as soon as my foot hit the pavement. I shook my head no before slamming the car door shut. "Ten minutes, give me ten minutes to get dressed and gather my shit. I want a meeting with the chief and Lonnie." Without another word, I stomped away, the need to be alone overwhelming. It was once I was behind my hotel room door that the nerves kicked in. Horror overpowered the rage. Sunshine’s screams echoed in my head. My entire body shook as tears pooled in my eyes, reality setting in. The bed was empty, the window still open but Sunshine was gone. My wife, the woman I swore to protect with my own life was gone. I failed her. Fear swam through my body, taking over all rational thinking. Allowing myself a moment of insanity I collapsed against the door, my body sliding to the floor. The sobs came in full force, stealing the air from my lungs, squeezing my heart in desperation to get her back. I had to get her back. Sitting there, a pile of raw emotions and rage wasn’t getting my wife back. I allowed myself a brief break down before I picked myself up and got my shit together.

I dressed quickly, slipping on my bulletproof vest under my shirt and loading my gun, shoving extra rounds in my back pocket. My hand was inches from the doorknob when I heard my cell phone ringing. I considered leaving it behind. What if it was the kids or her parents? How could I explain that I allowed their mother, daughter to be kidnapped? Just as I turned the knob, I changed my mind and grabbed the phone. Unknown flashed across the screen.

"Hello." I spat into the phone.

"Hey, buddy, what's up?" His voice bellowed through the phone, causing my stomach to turn. I hadn't heard his voice in years, yet it was unmistakable.

"Where is she?" My voice came out in a low growl, representing the animalistic urge that I felt to rip his throat out.

"Now, now there, Matt … slow down," he said chuckling.

"Don't fucking tell me to slow down, you sick son of a bitch! Where the fuck is my wife? Where is Sunshine?" I demanded, losing my patience.

"Isn't it funny the things people do for love? All this time I hid my dark side from my wife, Michelle. You met her, lovely isn't she?"

"Yeah, she's a real fucking gem. Now, tell me where your psychotic wife took Sunshine Nick!"

"Well, I'd like to really. There's nothing more I'd like to do than to see your face when I fuck her then kill her, but I have other plans. Things I still need to take care of. You see, I'm not done having fun and if I led you right to me, that wouldn't be any fun right?"

"Stop fucking with me, Nick! Where in the hell are you?" I was trying to keep my cool. I wanted to reach through the phone and rip his tongue out of his mouth, but I knew the longer he stayed on the line the easier it would be for me to trace him, hopefully.

"Being a dickwad will not help Sunshine, you know that right?"

"Come on, man, what did we ever do to you? That's Sunshine. You fucking grew up with her! Why do you want to hurt her? Me?" Different tactic. Reasoning. Guilt. Anything to keep him talking. I walked out of the room to meet Dade.

"Don't be an idiot, Matt. You know exactly what you did to me."

"What? Shannon? I never fucking touched Shannon. We were just friends, you know that!"

"Do I? See, I don't believe that for a second. She always had a crush on you, the perfect Matt Everly. Captain of the football team. All American fucking guy. She wanted that, I tried to give her that."

"Fine, then it's me you want. Not Sunshine. Tell me where you are and you can have me. We’ll fight this out, man to man. This isn't high school anymore."

"No, it's not high school and we will fight this out man to man but when I say it's time and not a fucking second sooner."

Before I could respond the line went dead. Dade and I were already in the car and on our way to the station.

"Any idea of location?" Dade's voice echoed the urgency I felt.

"No, I was trying to keep him talking until we got there, thought we could trace the call but he hung up. It's an unknown number. I don't even know if it's a cell or landline."

"Anything in the background? Any noise at all that we might be able to trace to a location?"

"Not that I can think of. Give me some time, maybe something will come to me." Dade nodded in agreement just as we pulled into the station.

"How's Trish?" I asked with genuine concern.

"She's pretty shaken up, but she's okay. She and Ronin are going to rent a car today. This minivan isn't doing the job, bro, and I don't trust these small town cops to get this job done. They're going to meet us at the hotel in two hours, and together we will make a plan to get Sunny back. Okay?" He tried to sound reassuring, and I hoped to hell he was right. I did agree that the van was not the kind of car we needed, and if there was ever going to be someone to have our back it would be Trish and Ronin. Trish could handle her own for damn sure and Ronin, I was confident would be better to have as back up, no police training, than the officers that had no idea a murderer was among them.

When we entered the station, we were greeted by chaos. Phones were ringing. Fax machines were working, and people were everywhere. We made our way through a maze of panicky people. We found Lonnie and the chief in the office, apparently in deep conversation judging from their expressions.

"Your boy's not working alone, chief, and he's got my wife! What the fuck are you gonna do about that?" I barged right in, no hello or fuck you. I just stormed into that shitty little office. I couldn't contain my anger. I told myself on the way to the station that I'd walk in calm, professional but the looks on those bastards’ faces did something to me. I slammed my fist down on the desk, causing a cup of coffee to tip over, spilling the dark liquid all over the messy desk.

"Now you listen here, you smug asshole, you don't come in my office like you own the place. This is my station and you will show me respect." He stood, his face inches from mine. This wasn't our first standoff but I hoped it would be our last. Once I found my wife and took care of that fuckface Nick, I was getting the hell out of this fucking hell hole.

"You're a shitty excuse for an officer and a pathetic waste of authority for a chief. You let a man run around your town killing women and you never had a fucking clue. Now that man has my wife. So help me, if a hair on her head is out of place I will come down here and burn your fucking station to the ground." I felt the quiver of anger in my own voice as I spoke. "Now, tell me everything there is to know about Nick. I wanna know his schedule, his friends, his family, his vacation spots, hobbies. Hell, I wanna know if he shits on a schedule and I want all of that information within the next twenty minutes. You and this douchebag right here…" I paused, pointing at Lonnie. "Better start fucking talking. Now!"

"You don't get to give the orders, son." I was shocked the dickwad would even consider challenging me. Why weren't they already jumping at the chance to save my wife? Why didn't they have every damn officer out there looking for Nick?

"I'm not your goddamn son, but I will be your worst fucking nightmare if you don’t give me what I want!" I felt the heat rising. My head was beginning to pulsate, adrenaline rushing through my veins.

"Uh, if I can break into your merry little argument," Dade said. "You see, he actually does get to make the orders. You should have a fax coming over, and that phone should be ringing any minute to confirm. Matt and I are the lead detectives on this case per the Oregon State Police commissioner. Now, it would be great if you'd get the information we asked for." Dade's voice was calm, steady. I backed away from Chief White allowing him a little bit of space to gather his thoughts. Leaning against the wall, we watched the two men squirm uncomfortably.