Passion and Pearls (The pearl series) (9 page)

Aqua sunk to her knees and scored her nails over Blu’s erection through the denim of his jeans before undoing the top button then sliding the zipper down. She pushed her hands inside the material and then snagged both his boxers and jeans sliding them down his legs until she tapped his feet to get him to step out of them.

Stroking his calves
,
then thighs
,
she kept her eyes open and watched his face. He was watching her every move until he glanced to her face. Their eyes connected and held. Aqua licked the tip of his shaft and watched his eyes darken. Without breaking eye contact she used her hands to guide her tongue and mouth taking him slowly into her mouth by closing her lips around him and sucking deeply. His breathing became rapid and she could feel the tremors as she licked and sucked him. When he closed his eyes and threw his head back she knew he was close. With one more lick from base to tip she stood and taking his hands she turned them until she was bumping the bed.

She sat and scooted back, opening her legs and lifting her arms to him in an age old invitation. He climbed between her soft thighs and leaned over her keeping his weight on his arms and knees. He had to lean to one side to take himself in one hand and guide the tip of his shaft to her wet entrance. He teased her nub once, twice then positioned himself and as they once again connected with their eyes. Blu slowly pushed into her as she lifted her knees taking him deeper. Once he was fully engulfed by her heat Aqua wrapped her legs around him and with her hands on his flanks urged him on. He lasted through only a few slow strokes before they were both in a frenzy. Blu reared up and began slamming hard and fast into her. Her moans of pleasure egging him on. Her body tightened and he felt the rush of her release which triggered his and with one last thrust emptied himself into her.

Once he could move he shifted to his side and slid out of her, pulling her close. They
lay
tightly intertwined as both struggled to catch their breath.

“I’m so sorry, Blu. I wish I could have known the fire was going to happen and could have warned you ahead of time. It’s not fair.”

Blu wasn’t sure what to say to that, so he just pulled her close. The whole psychic thing was really making him unsure of how he felt.
Sometimes
it seemed possible she really was, there were definitely things he couldn’t explain. But he was a cop and he dealt in logic and things he could see, explain and define. All he knew for sure was that he wanted to be with her, needed her in a way that he’d never needed a woman before.

Blu woke up and smiled when he realized he still had Aqua in his arms. He laid there feeling content until he remembered the fire. With a resigned sigh he gently got up, dressed and headed out. He wanted to see if there was any indication of how that fire started.

The fire Chief wasn’t very happy. “I’m no expert, but this has all the earmarks of a deliberate blaze.  Blu, someone wanted to hurt you, maybe worse. You need to be careful my friend.”

Blu drove to the station and began going through the files of all the cases he was currently or had just finished working on. Nothing seemed of the nature to cause someone to be that upset at him. This was a small town and generally there wasn’t too much of the darker side of things. Blu continued going through files and handling phone calls.

Blu was almost glad when the school called and asked if an officer could stop by to talk with one of the teachers about a concern she had. Blu closed up and headed over to the school.

Sally Green was the 4
th
grade teacher and Blu knew her to be one that the kids generally liked. She was strict but fair and fun. She sat down with a folder in the teacher’s lounge with Blu and showed him what she was concerned about.

“I’m worried about Bobby. These are his homework assignments and drawings from art class.” She handed Blu the file.

Blu read what the boy had written and felt a shiver of dread. This was the work of a very abused and scared little boy. The pictures were even worse. Family drawings with the Mother covered in red, the father huge and mean looking and the child tiny
and
hiding. Blu thought about his attempts to talk to the boy and felt guilty that he hadn’t tried harder. He was going to have to do something now. He called social services and got them involved. They all met with the judge and a warrant for the removal of the boy from the home was signed by the end of the day.

Because of the nature of the father’s criminal and violent nature it was determined that two officers would go pick the boy up, keeping the social worker safe.   Blu called in for back up and he and a second officer met up to go get Bobby.

The two officers pulled up in front of a
rundown
shack of a place. There were car parts all around, some with weeds already growing through them. A mean looking dog on a heavy chain growled and snarled at the men. The place had the look and smell of defeat all around it. Blu was once again angry at himself for not trying harder to talk to Bobby before. They walked up to the porch, stepping lightly over the broken boards. Blu rapped twice on the door. The door opened about two inches and Blu could just make out Bobby’s face
peeking
out.

“Yeah, what are you doing here?” The boy was already starting to sound like his father in attitude anyway.

“Son, we need you to open the door and come on out. Is your father home?”

Bobby nodded his head and started to open the door.

“Why?” was all the boy got out when the door was wrenched from his hand and swung wide. There was his father and Blu could tell he was half drunk and feeling mean from the look and smell of the big man.

“Get the hell off my property, cop.”

Blu started to say why they were there when the other officer pulled his gun just an inch from the holster. Blu didn’t know why, other than the younger man might have felt threatened or maybe thought the belligerent man inside would back off. Who knows, but it was the wrong thing to do.

Bobby’s father swung his half hidden arm out and shot Blu in the shoulder
,
then
turned
, and just before the young officer drew his weapon, shot him right between the eyes.
Blu had been knocked backwards
off his feet
with the blast
.
H
e
could only
watch as the young
officer
teetered then crumbled. He was already dead before his body ever hit the ground. The big man aimed his gun at Blu again. Blu didn’t move a muscle, he knew he was in deep shit.

In as calm a voice as he could muster through the pain he tried to talk to the man. “Now wait a minute,
let’s
settle down and think a little before things get worse.”

“Keep those paws where I can see them.” Bobby’s father told Blu and grabbed him, pulling him into the house, kicking Blu’s gun off the porch from where it had fallen from Blu’s now useless hand.

Blu could just make out Bobby hiding crouched down between a ragged sofa and the stained wall, crying.   Hell, this wasn’t good. Bobby’s father slammed Blu to the floor. He grabbed some cord and tied Blu’s hands behind his back. Pain radiated through Blu’s shoulder almost to the point that he passed out. The whole time Bobby’s father was doing this he was ranting and raving, occasionally shoving or hitting Blu, his anger was a palatable thing.

“You just couldn’t leave things alone could you, cop? I should have made sure you were in your place when I torched it. Now, I’m gonna have to kill you and get rid of your stinking corpse too.”

Bobby let out a tiny strangled cry that caught his father’s attention. The man walked over to where the small figure was hiding and drug him out by his hair.

“Shut up brat or you’ll end up in the same grave.”

Bobby cried harder.

“You’re just like your pain in the ass Mother. Dumb bitch couldn’t shut the hell up either. You know what I did to her
.
If
you don’t be quiet I’m gonna have to do the same with your dumb ass.”

Blu saw Bobby flinch and try to quiet his crying but the poor boy was terrified. When his father
saw
the boy had urinated in pure fear, he threw the boy down next to Blu and ordered him not to move. Bobby laid there next to Blu, too frightened to move, tears pouring down his young face.

The house phone rang and with another curse Bobby’s father answered it. “Yeah, yeah, I can get there. Let me lock up a couple things here and I’ll be there.”

“Damn it, I don’t have time for this,” the man muttered as he paced a time or two.

He walked to Blu and aimed the gun at his head.

“Time to die, cop
.
”

Bobby seemed to come unglued at this and launched himself at his father. He was crying and trying to hit the big man. It was as if he’d gone crazy. One thing the poor boy kept repeating would haunt Blu for the rest of his days.

“Don’t kill my Mommy. Don’t kill my Mommy.”

The big man finally shook the boy off and with a backhand knocked him to the floor where the boy curled into a ball and sobbed.

“Damn it I don’t have time for this shit.”

Bobby’s father had made some kind of decision Blu realized when the man grabbed him and started dragging him out of the ramshackle house. The pain in his shoulder was excruciating. They stopped in front of a warped door to the home’s cellar. He was thrown down the stairs and landed hard. He blacked out as he heard Bobby’s father mumbling.

“I’ll take care of you two later.” 

Blu could hear breathing. Wherever he was, he wasn‘t alone. It took a few minutes for his brain to kick in past the pain to remember what had happened and register. He turned his head and saw Bobby
lying
not
too
far from him.  He was pretty sure the boy was unconscious. He tried moving just his arms but they were still tied tight. He moved his body a little and quickly realized he had probably broken a rib or two. He wasn’t sure how he was going to get out of this situation but at least he and the boy were still alive at this point.

He couldn’t rouse the boy by calling his name. Soon he got frustrated and started thinking of his life and how things had gotten to this point. Th
e
n Aqua come to his mind and he realized he was mad that he wasn’t going to get to spend more time with her. Damn it, they should have had years together. Hell, he even wanted babies. He thought about the psychic thing that had been holding him back and it finally hit him that he just didn’t care. Ok, so she’s psychic, that wasn’t so bad.

He knew she’d always be true to him and that they could make a good life together. The more he thought about it the better it sounded. Hell, worst thing he could think about it was that it would be dang hard to surprise her on her birthday. He would have smacked his own head, if his hands weren’t tied. Why the hell was he just now figuring this out?

Ok, Blu told himself, if I’m in this than I’m in it all the way. He got a picture of Aqua in his head and let himself start talking to her in his mind.

“Hi Darl’n, I sure hope you’re listening. Just wanted to tell you that I love you. I know, my timing sucks but hell I’m a man and we are slow sometimes. Not sure if I’m gonna make it out of this mess alive this time and I wanted you to know how I feel. Well, and if we ever ha
d
a little girl, I wanted to name her Hanna. No reason
,
other than I just always wanted a little girl named
Hanna
.

Just so as you’ll know, I’m not faring too well at the moment. I’m out at little Bobby’s place. Boy is his Pop a piece of work. He killed one of our officers, his own wife, and torched my place. He’s got me tied up down in the cellar so he can
kill
me and Bobby too. Bobby is already hurt, not sure how bad. I’ve been shot and bunged up a bit. Not feeling so hot myself.

Whatever you do, don’t you come out here. If you
can
hear me, call the Chief and tell him
what’s
going on. Tell him to come loaded for bear. The damn man killed Fred without blinking an eye. Guess that’s it other than let my family know I love them too. Damn Baby, I wish I’d not been so dang stubborn. Love ya, Darl’n. Oh, and the pearls are for you.”

Aqua was ringing up a sale and chatting with
a
customer when a feeling of dread came over her. She did her best to finish up and then went to the door of the store and locked it, turning the closed sign on. She wasn’t sure what was going on but she hadn’t felt this overpowering feeling before. She went upstairs to the apartment and sat in her favorite chair and closed her eyes trying to pick up on what was wrong.

It wasn’t long before she knew there was something going on with Blu. She flipped the mental switch to try and tune into his thoughts. He seemed to be in pain and talking to some young boy it seemed. Then she felt him mentally flinch. The images of blood and death brought a startled gasp from deep inside her. She saw and felt his sense of urgency as the scene played out in Aqua’s mind.