Runaround

by Jay Crownover

  Webb

  “Don’t make me go over your head, Gage. How’s it going to look when your superiors find out I’m doing your job for you . . . again? The father is in New Orleans. He was easy enough to find. He knew there were twins from the start, even ended up with custody of one of them, albeit briefly. Get a statement and officially clear Webb.” Ten rubbed the furrow between her pinched eyebrows. “And get Webb’s picture off the damn television, or at least let people know it isn’t him. That was a real dick move.”

  Ten was pacing back and forth in front of the rumpled bed, phone to her ear, as she practically barked orders at her former lover.

  “I can’t believe no one on your end tried to contact the father when the mother proved difficult to locate. Still cutting corners when you think you have the right person for the crime, I see. I shouldn’t be surprised, but I am.”

  The shower we shared had been steamy and relaxing in more ways than one. I finally knew what it felt like to have her pretty mouth wrapped around my dick, and I knew she went soft and pliant when I kissed and sucked along the long line of her neck. She was incredibly responsive and receptive. There was a deep pool of sensuality running underneath her hard-as-nails surface. All I needed was a tiny crack in the surface to get at all the sweetness which laid molten and surging below the hard veneer. She got to me in a way I wasn’t one-hundred percent ready for. Sure, I chased her, practically hunted her like she was prey, a prize fought for and won. But now I had her, beyond keeping her and making her want to stay with me, I wasn’t certain what I was supposed to do with her. Ten made it clear, time and time again, she didn’t need anyone. I wasn't sure what it meant for us that I knew I needed her and really wanted her to need me in return.

  Ten ended her call with a growl, and I watched as she threw her cell phone halfway across the room. Luckily all it hit was a decorative chaise lounge, hitting the velvet surface and bouncing harmlessly to the floor. She plowed her fingers through the front of her long hair and resumed pacing.

  “God. He is the actual worst. I don’t know how he keeps his job. I can’t believe I was ever stupid enough to agree to marry him. It gives me nightmares when I think about what my life would’ve been like if I went through with the wedding.” I swore I could hear her grinding her teeth in aggravation with each step she took.

  Unwilling to let the past snatch away the really nice things currently happening between us in the present, I rose to my feet and caught Ten by her stiff shoulders. I dropped a kiss on the top of her head, enjoying the way the damp strands felt against my lips. There was one sure-fire way to get rid of the shadows still surrounding me. I had to pull them all into the light so there was no place left for them to haunt.

  “Let’s get out of here. There’s somewhere I want to take you.” While the conversation with Bernard had been enlightening in a pretty shitty way, we still didn’t have a clear-cut way to locate my long-lost brother or any idea where Jolene might be hiding. Having Bernard admit he knew I was a twin would get Gordon off my back for a little bit, but I’d seen the determined look in the man’s eyes when he sat across from me in the interrogation room. He didn’t want to let me go, because he knew I was going straight to the woman who left him. He was operating from a place of retribution, not justice, which made him dangerous.

  I was thrilled when Ten’s arms wrapped around my waist and gave a hint of a squeeze. She’d spent so much time trying to keep me at arm's length, it was nice to finally feel her thawing out, pulling me closer.

  “Where are we going?” She was frustrated and annoyed, but for once those feelings weren’t because of me, and I pretty much loved it.

  I tugged on the ends of her hair and gave her a lopsided grin. “It’s a surprise. Just trust me.” I wouldn’t say it was a good surprise, but it was one I needed to share with her if this thing I’d been diligently trying to grow between us ever had a chance to flourish.

  Wordlessly, she nodded. She pulled away from our embrace and moved to pick up her abused phone. “Give me a minute to run to my room and change. I need to pull my hair up, too. If I leave it down and let it dry, it’ll be a rat’s nest in no time.”

  “Take your time. I’m gonna run and put gas in the rental and grab us something to eat while we drive.” I also needed to ask Wyatt to put some kind of tracking on the bank accounts with the money Bernard had stockpiled for his unwanted mistakes. Not a conversation I was looking forward to. “I’ll be back in an hour or so.” Maybe it was wishful thinking, but I was also going to stock up on protection while I was out and about. Never had being unprepared hurt as badly as it did when I felt Ten come apart all over my tongue. I could still taste her and picture the look of shocked ecstasy on her face when she finally let go. She was always the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen, but when she dropped her shield and forgot to hide behind her iron walls, she was absolutely breathtaking. She looked like a goddess, an ethereal being I had no right to be touching, no right to be falling for. I was a mere mortal, a man who was flawed and fucked up on a good day. She was something else, and I felt like the luckiest bastard on the planet to be the one she let close enough to touch. Even if she was covered in thorns, I didn’t mind bleeding for Tennyson McKenna.

  We parted ways, and I rushed through the piddly errands, the stilted conversation with my brother taking the longest. I took the time to find some authentic Cajun food for us to eat as we drove out of town. I texted Ten when I got back to the hotel, and she came running down the steps a few minutes later. It was all too easy to picture her as a tragic southern belle, fighting everyone and everything for the only home she’d ever known, as all she loved burned in the background. Scarlett was tough; Ten was a hundred times tougher.

  She slipped into the passenger seat and immediately grabbed for the bag of food I’d placed on the back seat. She peeked inside and shot me a look out of the corner of her eye. “This looks messy. How are you going to eat and drive at the same time?”

  I chuckled and got us on the road. We were headed out of New Orleans and across Lake Pontchartrain. It wouldn’t take too long to get where we were going. The drive was short, but the journey had been a long and arduous one. If the FBI hadn’t gotten involved, and if I hadn’t wanted to prove to the woman sitting next to me, currently trying to delicately eat étouffée from a to-go container, that I was a man who could be worthy of her time and attention, there was a good chance I never would’ve made a trip back. But I needed Ten to see exactly where I’d been, so she could see how far I’d come, how far I was willing to go . . . for her.

  She surprised me when she leaned across the interior of the car, and offered me bites of her food from her spoon so I didn’t have to juggle the messy Cajun food and try to drive at the same time. I was used to eating on the run. I could’ve managed, but it was enlightening to watch Ten step out of her comfort zone and be overtly affectionate and sweet. We were both lost in thought as the miles rolled by. I was watching her. She was watching the scenery as it changed from the glitz and relative glamour of the Quarter to the damaged and decimated outskirts of the city. Katrina had been years ago, but there were areas that still looked ravaged and abandoned, possibly to never be rebuilt as the inhabitants had long since fled.

  She let out a shaky breath when we hit the Causeway, which would take us all the way across the lake into St. Tammy Parish. Weird flashes of nostalgia and memory swept over me as we charged toward my past with no warning. It felt familiar, yet somehow so very different. Things had changed, but it all still felt the same. The water glinting underneath the roadway felt like it had been there since I was a child, even though I knew it was impossible. Once we hit the outside of the city and the landscape turned dense and far more remote, Ten reached out and put a hand on my thigh. I knew it was hard as a rock and still as stone, because the tension in my muscles was taut enough I was afraid I might shatter if I moved wrong. Clearly, Ten knew exactly where we were headed without me having to say a word.

  I was glad we
rented a four-wheel-drive vehicle when the terrain shifted from paved, well-maintained roads to the gnarled, slippery paths I traversed as a child. No one in the swamp worried about ease of access. The harder it was for a trespasser to get onto your property, the better. Once it got dark, finding your way out of the mossy, tree-lined landscape was nearly impossible unless you knew where you were headed.

  “Who owns the property you grew up on? You mentioned aunts, but never said anything about grandparents.” Ten’s questions were abnormally loud in the quiet of the car.

  I wanted to put a hand over hers on my leg, but they were locked around the steering wheel so tightly I couldn’t pry them free. I felt a muscle in my jaw twitch as I was swept up in unclear memories and old resentment.

  “My Aunt Clara and her husband own the land. I think they inherited it from Jolene’s parents who both passed away fairly young. Car accident. Her dad was driving drunk. Killed on impact and took a young family with them.” Jolene came by her chaos naturally, it seemed. “There were five girls in the family. Clara is the oldest, Jolene falls somewhere in the middle. When I lived here, four of the five lived on the property. Jolene had the shack closest to the swamp, Clara and the youngest sister lived in the house with their families, and my Aunt Ana had a trailer closer to the road. They all had a bunch of kids running around, except Clara. I think that’s why she had a semi-soft spot for Wyatt and me. She wasn’t exactly maternal, and from what I remember, she couldn’t stand Jolene, but she always stopped by once a day to make sure we at least had one meal.” I shook my head. “Unless Jolene was around, then she stayed away. The rest of the sisters would pop by every now and then, but Clara was the only one who remembered to check on a regular basis that Jolene hadn’t killed us.”

  “Are you sure she still owns the place? This reminds me of the backwoods in Wyoming. I don't want to run across an armed homesteader pissed we’re on their property.” I knew by the tone of her voice she wasn’t kidding. She probably would’ve preferred to take this trip down memory lane armed with her shotgun.

  “You only leave the swamp if you die or if someone runs you off. No one in these parts is going to give up the hold they have on their property. It’s usually the only thing they have.” I rolled my shoulders and cracked my neck, trying to remind myself I was an adult now. I didn’t have to worry about the creepy crawlies and the pitch black darkness, or the monsters hiding inside of it anymore. “Besides, we can get to where we’re going without running into the family. Jolene made sure she set herself up out of the way. She hated anyone poking into her business. I doubt anyone will know we were ever here.” I shrugged. “The place was barely standing back then, who knows if it’s even still there.” It might be rubble and ruin just like my childhood.

  Ten made a humming noise and her fingers dug into the tight muscle she was gripping as if her life depended on it. “You sure you don’t want to talk to your aunt if she’s around? Might be nice for her to see you’re alive and mostly well.”

  I thought about it for a second, but shook my head when a sliver of unease slipped under my skin. “I think I can only handle facing one ghost at a time.” I owed Clara a sincere thank you for doing what she’d been able to. But, the little boy who was whisked away in the middle of the night, stolen away from the only family and home he knew, still had a lot of resentment and anger when it came to dealing with the people who sent Jolene running. Logically, I knew my mother probably deserved the boot, but the wounded child I carried around inside of me stubbornly blamed everyone for the way his life had twisted after that night.

  When we rounded a sharp corner, the murky water was visible just beyond the flowing sycamore trees. So was the dilapidated and rusted building where I’d grown up. Calling it a shack was generous. Looking through adult eyes at the mashup of old wood, aluminum sheeting, rusted tin, and broken glass, I realized the building was closer to a shed or a pile of industrial rubbish than any kind of habitable home. Bile burned the back of my throat, and something ugly dug its claws into my gut. I forgot all about Ten sitting next to me until she asked me if I was okay.

  It took longer than it should’ve for me to nod. It was hard seeing this place Jolene considered an acceptable place for her children to live. I guess the accommodations, or lack thereof, never bothered her because she was never around. I threw the car door open with more force than necessary and gratefully clasped Ten’s hand when she wrapped it around mine as she resolutely started toward the ramshackle structure.

  “I didn’t need to see this, Webb. I know you’re more than where you come from. I could see you were more than you showed the world, from the minute you told me you weren’t going to the hospital to get your shoulder looked at, until you knew for sure that your brother was dead or alive. You never fooled me.” She gave my hand a squeeze, which I returned.

  “I needed you to see it. I think I want you to understand why I’ve done some of the things I had to in the past. Everything I am, everything I do, is to make sure I never end up back here. I’ve never needed forgiveness from anyone, but I’m not above asking you to recognize how scared and desperate the kid who came from here was.” I stepped in front of her, tested the door, and found it unlocked. No one locked their doors this far out in the swamp. I took out my phone so I could shine a little bit of light into the dark, dreary space.

  I was surprised to see the interior looked pretty clean, cleaner than when Jolene was in charge of the upkeep. The furnishings were old and ratty, but someone had patched them up, and there wasn’t any dust on them. The floors were uneven and cracked in places, but they were free of debris, and it was obvious someone had swept and mopped recently. The windows were broken in places, but there were cheery yellow curtains hanging over them. The inside was in direct opposition with the outside of the small building.

  “Someone has been in here taking care of the place,” I stated the obvious, letting Ten’s hand drop as I walked around the place that held both my worst and best memories.

  “It looks like someone has been waiting for this place to have people living in it again. You think Jolene has been back here?” I felt Ten at my back, protective and curious as she took in our surroundings.

  “I doubt it. Like I said, I don’t know why the sisters ran her off, but it was bad. She had it easy here; I can’t picture Jolene making amends with anyone. She doesn’t know how to say ‘sorry.’” Oh, she could say it, but she never meant it.

  “Maybe whomever has been taking care of this place wanted to make sure you and Wyatt had a place to come back to, a place to call home. Maybe they never wanted you to leave.” Ten’s voice dropped to barely a whisper, and I felt her palm land on the center of my back. The heat from her touch was oddly reassuring, but her words, those hurt my heart. “I have to tell you, Webb, I ache for the little boy who left here, but there is no way I could want the man who was brave enough to come back here more than I already do.” I looked over my shoulder at her and was nearly knocked over by the honesty in her eyes. She wasn’t telling me what I wanted to hear so I would feel better, she was giving me the truth.

  I exhaled, letting some of the tension and pressure which had been building up inside of me out on the long breath. I managed a smile. “Prove it.” The taunt was flirty and meant to be a harmless challenge, but I should have known Ten wasn’t the type of woman to be goaded without getting an unexpected reaction.

  The next thing I knew her hands were on the center of my chest, and she was pushing me back until I went tumbling over the couch. I landed with an oomph, phone falling to the floor as Ten’s body suddenly pressed into mine. She practically crawled into my lap, the dim light of the room making her features hard to see, but there was no mistaking the intent in her hands when they started to pull at the hem of my T-shirt. Her long legs straddled either side of mine as she leaned against the bulge which was steadily filling the fabric behind my zipper.

  I felt her fingers brush along the line of my jaw, and her lips lightly touched my t
emple as she whispered, “It doesn’t matter where you are or where you’ve been. I still want you, Webb. I don’t want to, but here we are . . . together.”

  She managed to wrestle my shirt over my head without any help from me. When her mouth touched mine, I tasted her determination to prove something. To me or to herself, I wasn’t sure, but I was happy to be the recipient of the point she was making. Her soft hand skimmed across my chest, nails dragging through the dusting of hair between my pecs. I both loved and hated that her face was obscured by shadows. Not being able to read her reactions or see what she was thinking added an edge of something erotic and dark to the way she touched me. All I had to go on was the small sounds she was making and the way her body moved and bent against mine. She kept pressing closer, her hands seemingly intent on touching as much of my bare skin as possible.

  There was no way she could miss the hard shaft rising and pressing between her legs. I could feel my cock weeping and throbbing against the back of my zipper. I would bite my own tongue off before I showed an ounce of discomfort though. I wasn’t about to break the spell Ten was weaving around me. With her hands on my skin and her mouth playing with mine, there was no past waiting to take a bite out of me, no future that seemed hazy and daunting. All that existed was the present, the moment where she kissed me, touched me, told me without words that maybe she wanted to keep me around.

  I sighed in surrender when her tongue slid across mine, and quickly stripped her out of her top and bra so we were the same amount of naked. I’d had her under me once already, but my skin sizzled when I felt the brush of her pointed nipples against my chest, and I liked the feeling of having her over me even more. Ten was a natural when it came to taking charge and being in control. There was no hesitation in the way she touched me or teased me. Never in a million years would I have dreamed that coming back to the place where everything in my life started to fall apart was going to lead to something I couldn’t live without. Maybe I had to go back to the beginning before I could start all over.