by Gen Griffin
“Baker County. It’s supposed to get doused in luminol tomorrow morning,” Kerry said quietly.
“Tell me you've already called the crime lab and canceled that order?” Frank asked, pulling unhappily at his mustache.
“Yes sir,” Kerry nodded.
“But my truck is still in Baker County?” David crossed his arms over his chest, clearly enjoying Kerry's discomfort.
Kerry nodded again. He was ready to cry.
“It’s not like you don't have another truck,” Frank pointed out.
“That's not the point,” David replied. “This idiot took my personal vehicle against my wishes, and I want it back.”
Frank shook his head in irritation. “Just take your wrecker and go get the damned thing. You can send the bill to the department. I'm sure it will be astronomical.”
“I'm thinking around five grand,” David said flatly.
Frank glared at him. “Three grand. Max.”
“Three grand and I get to take Addison's truck home with me tonight. Baker County impound closed two hours ago and won't reopen until 8 o'clock tomorrow morning. I need transportation. It’s not like Possum Creek has a taxi.”
“You're pushing it, David. You can drive the wrecker.”
“Your deputy arrested me without just cause. So far he's cost me an entire day of work, plus however much time it takes me to go up to Baker County and get my goddamned truck back tomorrow.”
“Fine. Three grand and Addison's truck. He's technically off duty until tomorrow night anyway. I'm not prying the keys away from him though. That's your problem.”
“It won't be a problem,” David turned to Kerry. “I reckon that can be your job.”
Kerry swallowed visibly. “You want me to go get Addison's keys from him?”
David nodded. “This is your fuck up, buddy. Fix it.”
Kerry looked pleadingly at Frank. The Sheriff ignored him and instead played with a fishing lure that was sitting on the corner of his desk.
Kerry sighed. “He's not going to give me his keys.”
“Who isn't going to give who keys?” Addison stuck his head in to the doorway of the Sheriff's private office. He looked over at the Sheriff. “I'm headed off duty, boss. I'll see you tomorrow night.”
“Uh, your keys, actually.” Kerry stammered at Addison.
Addy blinked at him. “You want my keys?”
Kerry nodded, his right eye twitching slightly. David sniggered as Addison glared at Kerry as if he had sprouted a second head.
“I don't think so,” Addy informed him. “You ain't touching my truck.”
“No, he's not. I am.” David smirked at Addison and crossed his arms over his chest. “The Sheriff and I have come to an agreement, seeing as my truck is impounded in Baker County.”
“What kind of agreement?” Addison demanded.
“He's getting to bill us an outrageous sum of money to take his wrecker back up to the impound lot in the morning to pick up his truck. He also gets to take your truck home with him tonight, so he won't be without transportation,” Sheriff Chasson informed Addison.
“What the hell?” Addison glared at David. “I've been on the clock for damned near thirty hours straight trying to get this shit straightened out and find out who really killed this guy, so we can clear your name, and this is how you repay me?”
“I'm still pissed at you for letting it happen in the first place.” David took in the dark circles underneath Addy's eyes and the slump of his shoulders. “Not my fault you're surviving on Redbull and black coffee.”
“No, it's his fucking fault,” Addison shot a go-to-hell look at Kerry. “My truck? I'm losing my truck?”
“For less than 24 hours,” Frank repeated the details.
“It’s my truck.” Addison put his hands on the edge of Frank's desk and stooped down nearly a foot so he could look Kerry squarely in the eyes. “I should wring your scrawny little neck.”
Kerry took another step backwards and crashed into the wall behind him, knocking down a framed picture of Frank Chasson and Cal's Pappy cutting the ribbon on the new elementary school playground. The glass in the frame shattered when it hit the tile floor and Frank cursed.
“That's enough, Addison. David. Y'all two leave now. It’s not like the two of you don't already share vehicles. You practically live together, for christsakes. The only reason y'all are making an issue over this is because y'all like pissing people off and being pissed off. Now why don't the two of you go back home and sort this blasted mess out between yourselves.”
“I'm kicking him out,” David said flatly. “He can't stay with me anymore. He let me get arrested on bullshit charges.”
“Dude, there wasn't anything I could do about it,” Addy glared back at him. “You can't kick me out anyway’ I don't technically live with you. I just stay at your place most of the time because I don't want to wake up Granny Pearl coming in at two in the morning.”
“Out.” Frank made a shooing gesture at the two of them. “Go away.”
David snorted back a sarcastic laugh. “First I get drug in here, and now I'm being thrown out. This is bullshit.”
“How about we negotiate?” Addison looked over at David. “We've still got enough daylight to finish up repairs on few of the cars down at the shop. You let me keep my truck, and I'll spend the rest of tonight and tomorrow working at the shop with you to make up for today.”
David chewed his lip thoughtfully. “Throw in a bottle of whiskey and you've got yourself a deal.”
“You'll have to wait until I get paid for the whiskey.”
“Oh Jesus, don't tell me you're broke again.” David made a tsk-tsking noise. “I was planning on making you pay for dinner.”
“Make Kerry pay for dinner,” Addison said, glaring over at Kerry. He was still hiding behind an increasingly annoyed Frank.
“Kerry already has to pay a three grand towing bill,” Frank said flatly, ignoring the look of surprise on Kerry's face. He reached into his wallet and pulled out a $20 bill. Tossing it to Addison, he made another shooing gesture. “There's your dinner money. I advise you eat cheap. Now get out.”
Addison and David looked at one another, shrugged, laughed and headed out the office door.
Kerry started to follow them out of the room when Frank stopped him. “You know I'm serious about that towing bill, don't you son?”
Kerry sighed and nodded. “I figured you were. I'll write you a check.”
“Just make it out straight to Breedlove Automotive. It'll save me the hassle of having to explain it the next time the department gets audited.”
“I can do that,” Kerry said in a voice that was too worn out to argue.
“Oh, and if you ever get another warrant without consulting me first, you will be fired. Is that understood?”
Kerry nodded again. At the rate he was going, he wasn't going to be officially hired anyways. The thought was depressing, but not nearly as depressing as the thought that he'd screwed up the Benjamin Gomez case so badly the dead man would never see justice.
Chapter 22
It was well after dark by the time Cal pulled the Chevy into David's driveway. Gracie was only mildly surprised when he pulled a key out of his pocket and let her through the front door of the silent single-wide trailer. “Welcome home,” Cal said sarcastically.“Ian said the Sheriff was letting David go. If we wait here long enough, he'll turn up.”
Gracie nodded. She was far too exhausted to be half as scared as she felt like she should be. In truth, being with Cal made everything else that had happened lately seem like it had been a bad, bad dream. As long as she was with Cal, she felt safe. “I can't believe Kerry found the wrong body and David still got accused of murder.”
“Me neither. Shit like that could only happen in Possum Creek.”
“And yet, I can't imagine living anywhere else.” Gracie smiled at him. “You don't know how much I hate college.”
“If you really hate college, then why haven't you come hom
e already?” Cal asked.
Gracie hesitated for a second and then decided that she might as well tell him the truth. “Being at college was still better than watching you date Jo Beth Greene.”
“I was only dating her to prove to you that I could move on,” Cal said tiredly.
“Well, good for you then. I guess you proved that one of us could move on.” Gracie flopped down on David's worn out couch.
“Speaking of the break up, I have a question for you.” Cal looked thoughtful.
“Hmm?”
“Why do you keep saying that I dumped you?” Cal asked. “You were the one who said you didn't want me.”
“I never said I didn't want you.” Gracie frowned at him. “Sometimes I swear that you don't listen to a word that comes out of my mouth. I never said I didn't want you. I said that I didn't want you if you weren't willing to give me a chance to explain how I felt.”
Cal stared at her, completely dumbfounded. “You said you didn't want to marry me.”
“Oh my God. You need your hearing checked.” Gracie didn't know whether to laugh or cry. “You pick bits and pieces out of what I say and only hear what you want to. I do want you. I want you so badly I've spent the last eight months feeling like there's a gaping hole in my life where you're supposed to be. But damn it Cal, you don't give. It’s always your way or nothing. You're so much like your Pappy that it isn't even funny.”
“I asked you to marry me and you said no.”
“You didn't ask me to marry you. You were drunk and you informed me that I would be marrying you.”
“I thought you wanted to marry me.”
“I do want to marry you, but I also want you to let me breathe. You don't care if I don't know what I want from life because you have no intention of letting me make any choices anyway. You have everything all planned out forever, and it sounds boring as hell, Cal. We're going to wind up exactly like your parents. Maybe you're okay with turning into your Dad, but I don't want to be your Mom.”
“You've got to be kidding me.” Cal stopped, stunned. The look on his face was so vulnerable Gracie couldn't stop herself from reaching out to him. Her fingers brushed against his forearm. He immediately moved his arm. She nearly cried out when she thought he was pulling away from her, but he took her hand in his. “I don't want to turn into my parents either.”
“Well, that's a relief,” she whispered. “I want you. I want a future with you. I just don't want every detail of it set in stone. I wanted the freedom to decide on my own whether I wanted to go to college or not. I would have chosen you, but I wasn't going to just let you decide for me. There's a difference.”
“Jesus Christ, Gracie.” Cal growled at her. She could see disbelief in his eyes. “You weren't going to leave me, you just wanted the freedom to tell me that yourself?”
“When you say it like that, it doesn't make any sense,” she complained.
“I'm saying it the way you said it to me.”
“No, you're not. You still don't get it.”
“I get it,” Cal argued. “You wanted to marry me, but you didn't want me to tell you that you were going to marry me.”
Gracie opened her mouth to argue with him and then closed it again. She looked down at their still intertwined fingers. “Maybe you do get it.”
“Now that you've beaten me upside the head with it,” Cal muttered. “Girls. I swear to God. Why can't girls just say what they mean?”
“We do, you just have to work a little harder to understand us sometimes.”
Cal snorted. “I still say that you were the one who broke up with me.”
“I didn't break up with you,” Gracie said.
“If you didn't break up with me, and I didn't break up with you, then does that mean we're still together?” Cal asked.
Gracie blinked at him in surprise. “Do you want to be?”
“You know what I want,” Cal said. “The question is whether you want what I want?”
Gracie half-way smiled. “I want you. We can figure the rest out later.”
“Good enough for me.” Cal sunk down on the couch, pulling Gracie down beside him. She snuggled into him, reveling in how good it felt to be with him when he wrapped his arms around her waist.
“I've missed you so much.” Gracie knew it sounded cliché but she just didn't care. It was the truth.
“You have no idea,” he admitted with a smirk. “I feel like an idiot.”
“Well, if the shoe fits.”
Cal snorted back a laugh and pulled her closer to him. He tangled his thick fingers into her long blonde hair. She loved his touch more than anything else.
“If you were a nice girlfriend, you might try to make me feel better about myself.”
“I am a nice girlfriend, but you can still be a real idiot sometimes.” She teased him gently. “You know it’s bad when you even miss arguing with someone.”
“We've always been really good at the arguing.” Cal made no move to release her from his grip as he shifted her into his lap. His eyes met hers and their gaze held. Gracie could see the desire in his eyes as plainly as she could feel the heat from wanting him building in her own body. She readjusted her hips so that she was straddling him on the couch, their lips only centimeters apart.
“Among other things,” Cal whispered, breathing a little bit harder than necessary as Gracie closed the last tiny gap between them and pressed her lips against his. Being kissed by Cal felt like coming home after a storm. Gracie normally held herself back during sex, afraid she'd look like an idiot, but now she practically threw herself into his chest as she pushed against him. His tongue slipped between her lips and flicked against hers. She twisted her fingers into the fabric of his shirt and pushed herself further into his lap. He kissed her harder, and she gasped slightly at the force behind it. She buried herself into him and let go of all her emotions.
Cal groaned as she rubbed against him. Her fingers were in his hair. His hand was up her shirt. She purposely pressed her teeth against his lower lip, pulling and sucking on him as he stroked her nipples through her bra.
Gracie wanted him so badly that her desire wiped all other thoughts out of her mind. She could feel how hard he was through her jeans, and she wanted nothing more than to have him inside her. His tongue was inside her mouth, teasing and pushing and she lost herself in his kisses until neither one of them could breath.
“I love you so much,” Cal said when they broke apart for air. He stroked her cheek with his rough, calloused hand. His eyes were dark with emotion.
“I love you too,” she whispered in reply. “I need you.”
He just nodded as he adjusted her so that she was lying across his lap instead of sitting on top of him. He stood up with her in his arms, lifting her as if she weighed nothing at all. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and kissed him again.
Without another word, Cal carried her into David's spare bedroom and laid her down on the bed.
Gracie propped herself up on her elbows, watching as Cal yanked off his shirt. She smiled as took in his board, muscular chest and thick arms. She slid onto her knees so that she could run her hands up through the slight bit of hair that dusted its way across his pecs and then wrapped her arms around his neck. She flicked her thumbs across his nipples. “I've missed you.”
Cal unzipped her hoodie and lifted up her shirt to expose her breasts. His fingers fumbled with the clasp of her bra for a second and then it fell off of her to the floor. “You are wearing way too many damn layers.”
Gracie laughed as Cal, his tongue pushed into her mouth. His hands were on her breasts, kneading and caressing her soft skin. She breathed in the familiar scent of him, so glad to be back in his strong arms as he laid her back down on the bed and spread her legs apart.
“I'm so hot for you,” she whispered as he kicked off his own jeans. His dick was already rock hard and standing at attention.
“Good,” he replied. “Because I'm not really in the mood for foreplay. I just wan
t to be in you.”
“Take me.” She spread her legs even further apart and nearly screamed in pleasure as he thrust into her. She was so wet that her pussy was nearly dripping as her hips followed the motion of his own. He began fucking her as hard as he could, putting the force of so many months of miserable separation into every passionate thrust.
Gracie was soaking wet and swollen within minutes. He pushed into her harder and faster, making her buck and moan against the sheets. She was getting closer and closer to climaxing with every thrust. Gracie reached up for him, raking her nails down his spine. He was so hard inside her tight hole that she felt like she might tear open if something didn't give.
Her climax was as hard and fast as the sex had been. A rush of sweet bliss rushed through her, shaking her to the core and leaving her gasping and sweaty between the sheets.
“You're not done yet,” Cal said. He kept his dick pressed deep and hard into her wetness as he grabbed her by the hips and rolled over on the bed so that she was now sitting on top of his crotch. “Ride me.”
She thrust herself back and forth and up and down until muscles started to shake from the effort. His climax shook through her, forcing her to come a second time and then collapsed against his bare, sweaty chest.
“I love you,” Gracie gasped.
Cal laughed even though he was out of breath. “I love you too, baby girl.”
Chapter 23
“I still can't believe he agreed to give you my truck.” Addison grumbled from underneath a Ford Focus with a chronic fluid leak.
“He wanted me to go away.” David stared down into the engine. After a moment he selected a hose and gave it a tweak. Fluid immediately squirted Addison in the face.
“What the hell?” Addy jerked the crawler out from underneath the car. “If you're really that pissed off at me, let’s fight and get it over with already.” He was wiping fluid off of his face with the hem of his t-shirt.
“Sorry,” David muttered as he snagged a fresh hose clamp off the edge of his work bench. “I didn't mean to.”
“Yeah, and you didn't mean to drop that damn rotor on my foot earlier either. This shit is getting old.” Addison rubbed the toe of his boot. “I didn't let you get arrested, okay?”