In Style 4 Now (The Jennifer Cloud Series)

by Janet Leigh

  The cool summer air drifted through the window along with a chorus of crickets and an occasional bass bellow of the bullfrog. I closed my eyes. My brain hurt from moonshine, fatigue, and illegal wrongdoings. These two young people had taken their simple life and made it complicated. I refused the temptation to sort out the details and pushed the complicated thoughts from my mind. In seconds, I drifted off to sleep.

  I awakened with a start and blinked against the light streaming in through the car window. The sun was making an appearance, but it wasn’t what woke me from my uncomfortable slumber. Elma was speaking to Caiyan as she closed the door to the cottage.

  “I’m gonna go check on Mitch,” Elma said, leaving Caiyan alone.

  The sound of her footsteps kicked pebbles of gravel as she walked away. I raised up slowly, peeking through the gaps in the steering wheel. Clyde’s cabin was quiet. I slowly opened the car door, slipped out, and scuttled into cottage six.

  Caiyan was lying on the sofa staring at the ceiling. I shut the door quickly.

  He raised his head and saw me enter, then dropped it back down on the arm of the sofa.

  “How was your night?” I asked him.

  “Uncomfortable and your aunt snores like a lumberjack.” He sat up and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m sorry I couldnae come get you. She fell asleep, and I figured I’d let her rest a few hours before I woke her.

  I nodded and went into the bathroom, used the facility, washed my face, and finger combed my hair. A partially used tube of Ipana toothpaste was left on the sink ledge. I squeezed some out on my finger and did the best brusha-brusha I could manage. When I returned to the room, Caiyan was folding up the blanket he’d used earlier.

  I cocked my head at him. “How did you get Elma to leave?”

  “I told her lookout duty was a man’s job and I better get ready to relieve Mitch. She insisted on going down to check on him. Told me she’d cover, and I could get some rest.”

  I smiled. “My aunt’s a feminist.”

  “Naugh exactly, but I know what pushed her buttons.”

  I had forgotten Caiyan was Elma’s defender when he first became a traveler. She was much older and wiser than the Elma I knew in this time. I prayed the things we did today wouldn’t change the way she trained Caiyan when they met again.

  “Are you ever going to tell me about the time you spent with my aunt?”

  “One trip to the past at a time, Sunshine.” He entered the bathroom and I heard the shower turn on.

  I scavenged through the cupboards for some breakfast. I came up with a few shortbread cookies and a glass of milk. When he exited the bathroom, he was dressed in pants and his undershirt, his hair still wet from the shower. It curled around the nape of his neck. Caiyan had the kind of hair a girl wanted to run her fingers through—thick, dark, and tousled to perfection.

  He ran a hand through it himself, and my girl parts gave a tingle. “This is a hell of a mess. Clyde doesn’t want Ace here, and you’re dead. Now I dinnae have any backup. Not that I need it, of course, but ’tis nice to know it’s available.”

  “I’m not really dead,” I smiled, but Caiyan’s face was all business. I changed tactics and tried to help by stating the obvious. “We need to find a way to get the key.”

  “We have a gun,” he said, pointing to the BAR leaning against the wall. “I could sneak in while they’re sleeping and remove the key.”

  “With Mitch and Elma on lookout duty, it might work.” But if he got caught, Clyde would kill him for sure, or Caiyan would kill Clyde. Neither option was a good one.

  Bonnie’s voice carried through the open window. She giggled and the sounds of two people in the throes of passion drifted in with the next breeze.

  Caiyan huffed. “I missed my opportunity.”

  If Clyde was busy, he wouldn’t have his gun handy. Caiyan could hold him at gunpoint and take the key.

  “Maybe you should give them a few minutes to, you know…get involved, then go in guns blazing.”

  Caiyan smiled, and his eyes changed from a dark and stormy black to his normal green and horny. “Guns blazing, eh? I like the sound of it.”

  “We still don’t know what Mitch is doing here,” I said.

  “Sunshine, our time is almost up. The moon cycle ends at dawn. We need to get the key and get oot of here.”

  I needed to get the key and give it to my aunt and get her out of here.

  He flopped down in the nearest chair and ran a hand through his hair. The thick, almost black strands stood on end. He caught me staring and held his hand out to me. I took it and straddled him on the chair. Wrapping my hands around his neck, I met his lips with mine. He grew hard beneath me and his hand roamed over my breast, sliding under my dress and flimsy bra. He tweaked my nipple and it shot a lust-filled arrow down to my boy howdy.

  “We can’t, it’s too dangerous if we get caught—” I pushed against the soft cotton fabric pulled taught across his chest.

  “They can go at it for a while. We have time,” he said, taking my mouth in a long passionate kiss.

  I matched his passion with mine. I tore at his shirt. He reached under my dress. The garters tangled him up for a moment, then he found my sweet spot. I spun soft kisses across his jawline, down his neck and at the hollow of his throat. His key glowed, and the sound of thunder roared across the room. I paused at the interruption and his mouth gave that evil tug at the corner. I took a deep breath as he ran his tongue over my exposed breast. One of my favorite things. I sighed and leaned my head back, taking in the room as he stirred up my insides. His shirt was balled up in a heap on the floor. My underthings were strewn over the room.

  “Are we nuts? We can’t do this,” I said, removing myself from his lap and picking up my undergarments from the floor.

  “Jen, for fuck’s sake, ye cannae tease me then change yer mind.” He groaned as he stood up, his manhood reminding me I had unfinished business.

  “For fuck’s sake?” I questioned him. “Have you lost your mind? Have you forgotten we are in 1933? If we get caught, Clyde will kill us.” I began returning my underthings to their original location.

  He frowned at me. I wasn’t sure if it was for the accusation or the fact I was rolling my stockings back in position.

  “We had time. Now you’ve left me…” He pointed downward, stormed into the bathroom and slammed the door.

  I stared after him. I’d never seen Caiyan throw a temper tantrum, especially one over sex. I heard the shower turn on again. He came out a few minutes later, wearing only the pants and the expression of the Caiyan I used to know.

  “I dinnae what’s come over me. I can’t keep my hands off you. It’s like ye have a spell on me.”

  He stood, hands down to his sides. His key sparkled against the tanned skin of his chest. “I’ll get the gun and go after the key.” His slow Texas drawl had returned and made me go weak in the knees.

  “Caiyan, you can’t kill them,” I said grabbing his forearm.

  “I promised you I wasn’t going to kill anyone, ever again.”

  I wanted to believe him, but his words didn’t match his actions. I loved Caiyan, but I couldn’t spend my life with a man who could murder an innocent bystander to catch a brigand. I couldn’t marry a Clyde Barrow.

  “You shot that guy at the Terrace,” I said.

  “I didn’t shoot anyone.”

  “I saw you.” I felt his temper start to rise again, and he jerked his arm free of my hold.

  “What you saw was one of Stella’s friends grab his chest and fall to the floor, then writhe in agony.”

  “You didn’t shoot him?”

  “No. The bullet is probably stuck in the wood siding behind his head.”

  “That was clever. How did you pull it off?”

  “I told him I was a bounty hunter and I needed his assistance to catch the Barrow gang.”

  “Oh, yeah? What did you promise him?”

  “One of Clyde’s guns when I make the arrest.”
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  “But you’re not going to make the arrest.”

  “He doesn’t know that.”

  “But it was a lie.”

  Caiyan huffed. “We’re not going to do this here, are we?”

  “I don’t like the way you lie. You can look me right in the eye and lie to me. If you didn’t get that twist in your upper lip, I wouldn’t know.”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “It’s a twist of your upper lip. It pulls to the side like Elvis.”

  “I’m sure I dinnae do that.”

  “It reminds me of the way Toecheese twisted his lips together.”

  I froze. As soon as I said the words goosebumps pimpled on my arms. I had seen that same nervous twitch before on the brigand who originally owned the Thunder key. I realized the key was possessing Caiyan the way it had taken over Toecheese. He was evil because the key had bad juju and enhanced feelings he normally kept at bay.

  It all made sense now—the insatiable desire, the overconsumption of alcohol, and the intense anger. All the emotions Caiyan had under control were controlling him.

  “Take off the key!” I demanded.

  “Are you nuts? I’m not getting stranded in 1933.”

  “I’m serious. Take off the key!”

  Caiyan put some space between us.

  “Caiyan, the key. It’s the reason you have intense emotions.”

  “I dinnae know what ye are talking about!” He’d slipped back into the Scot.

  “Toecheese made that same twitchy action with his mouth. The one you just did.”

  “Pure coincidence. I feel fine.”

  “Take off the key!” I stomped my feet in front of him.

  “No, I cannae get home if I remove the key.”

  “It’s making you do bad things, like rob banks.”

  “I robbed the bank to get closer to the key we are trying to save. Remember?”

  “Remove the key. Ace can take us both home.”

  “No way in hell I’m riding with Ace.”

  “Caiyan, take off that key!”

  “No, I’m in charge and I say we can deal with this when we return.”

  “It might be too late. The key is affecting your judgment and not in a good way.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “Caiyan, take off the damn key!” My voice was loud and firm. I dropped my shoulder and rammed him, trying to knock him to the ground. He pushed me away. I ninja kicked him in the ribs and he let out a groan.

  “Jen, I dinnae want to fight with ye, but you are leaving me no choice. Stop or I’ll have to restrain you.”

  “My ass, you’re not restraining me.” I moved away from his grasp.

  “Jen, dinnae make me have to use force.”

  “You mean like the way you told Clyde you strangled me?” I lunged at him again, and he sidestepped me.

  “Dammit, Jen, stop.”

  “Not until you take off that key.”

  “I willnae!” He shouted at me like a disobedient teenager about to lose his favorite video game.

  I threw a chair. He ducked, and it splintered against the far wall, giving me the opportunity to corner him.

  I reached for his throat and grabbed the Thunder key. He tried to pry my hands loose. A loud clap of Thunder reverberated around the room. I yanked hard, and the key came off in my hands.

  We both stared at each other, our mouths hanging open. It was impossible for a key to be removed from a traveler by anyone other than the owner, unless the traveler was dead.

  There was a rattle, and the door flew open. Bonnie and Clyde stood in the threshold. Clyde pointed a gun at both of us.

  “Well, well, well, I thought you was dead and here you are.” Clyde spoke to me but cut his eyes at Caiyan as he held the gun on us.

  I closed my fist over the Thunder key and raised my hands in surrender, hoping he wouldn’t shoot an unarmed woman.

  “Wouldn’t your fella be disappointed you was havin’ relations with the help?” Clyde asked as he stepped into the room.

  I glanced at Caiyan; he seemed to be in a funk. Removing the Thunder key had made him foggy.

  “What have you got there?” Clyde asked me.

  I bit my bottom lip as I opened my hand.

  “It’s a key like mine,” Bonnie said, moving in for a closer look at the key I held. She waved a pistol and her words slurred slightly. She was feeling the effect of the bottle of whiskey she had ingested. If I took her down it would play to my advantage, but I needed Caiyan to disarm Clyde. I looked over at Caiyan. He was shaking his head and having a fit of the blinks.

  “Why does everyone have these necklaces?” Clyde asked, ripping the key from my palm and admiring the artistry of the moonstone. He handed the necklace to Bonnie and it made a tiny clap of thunder.

  “This one makes a noise,” Bonnie said. “It must be worth somethin’.”

  Caiyan was standing in a daze, naked from the torso up. Bonnie was staring at the cut of his abdominals the same way Clyde admired the necklace. Clyde bent down and tossed Caiyan his shirt. Caiyan pulled it on over his head.

  Clyde moved with his back to the open door, his tommy gun aimed at Caiyan. Bonnie kept her pistol pointed in my direction. The sadness in her eyes told me this was not the first time someone had disappointed her.

  The cock of a shotgun made Clyde freeze. Elma pressed the barrel against Clyde’s back and moved him further into the room.

  “Elma, what are you doing?” Bonnie’s head jerked toward Elma, her voice escalating up a few octaves. “I thought you was with us?” Bonnie asked. The hand holding the pistol she pointed at me began to shake.

  Elma reached around and took the rifle from Clyde, dropped it on the bed, then directed her attention toward Bonnie. “Give me the key around your neck, and I won’t hurt Clyde.”

  “You don’t need mine. We have an extra.” Bonnie dangled the Thunder key at Elma.

  “Where’d you get that?” Elma asked.

  “Took if from this one.” Clyde nodded his head in my direction.

  Elma locked eyes with me, and I knew she understood I had the gift.

  “You need to give it back to Jennifer and give me the one you wear.” She jabbed the gun harder into Clyde’s back and he held up his hands.

  “Is Mitch with you, too?” Bonnie’s voice was beginning to quiver.

  Before Elma could answer, Mitch burst into the room. Clyde spun around on Elma and pulled the gun away. Mitch stopped and surveyed the scene. “What’s going on?”

  Damn, the guy had terrible timing, but if Mitch could take out Clyde we could save ourselves and the keys. Clyde bent Elma’s arm behind her back as she kicked out at him.

  “We have a situation. Elma was after Bonnie’s necklace. She’s not here to be in our gang. In fact, I think y’all are in this together.” Clyde pointed the gun at Mitch, keeping an eye on Caiyan as well. “Are you with her?”

  “No, Clyde, I’m on your side. She was an easy piece of tail, that’s all.” Mitch swallowed hard when Elma’s eyes welled up. His eyes lit up when he saw the Thunder key dangling from Bonnie’s hand. He walked over to her, lifted the necklace from her hand, and let out an admiring whistle. “These necklaces might bring a good price.”

  “Elma has one, too,” Bonnie chimed in.

  All heads turned toward Elma.

  “Mitch?” Elma squeaked.

  Mitch ignored her plea for help and clasped the key around his neck. “How’s it look on me?”

  “It suits,” Bonnie said.

  I heard Caiyan say “shite” under his breath.

  “Bonnie, I don’t believe these folks have been rightful with us. These necklaces must be worth a pretty penny to have so many folks after them. I think we should take all of these necklaces, every last one,” Clyde said and aimed his gun at Elma.

  “I’ll get it,” Mitch walked over in front of Elma and held his hands out. The little weasel had promised me he wouldn’t take my key.

  “You’ll have to k
ill me first.” She crossed her arms over her chest.

  “No!” I yelled. Everyone turned to stare at me. “I mean, why risk your life over an inexpensive bauble?”

  She stared at me for a long moment, then nodded and handed over her key. My key.

  Mitch started to pocket the key, but Clyde cleared his throat and extended his empty hand out. “Seems like I’m the only one without a pretty necklace.” Mitch paused, then handed it over to Clyde. He placed it in his shirt pocket, never removing his finger from the trigger.

  “Are we going to kill them?” Bonnie asked.

  Clyde considered, but Mitch spoke up.

  “We got another problem. The laws are coming.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “A bunch of copper cars passed me on the way in. They stopped at the main office to talk to the owner and guess who’s with them? That fat bastard from the bank. The one trigger boy here was supposed to dispose of.” Mitch pointed at Caiyan.

  “Dammit Mitch, why didn’t you give me the low down when you got here? We’ve got to make tracks.”

  A man shouted in the distance, “Lay your weapons down and come out with your hands up!”

  Clyde dragged Elma with him toward the window. He peeked through the curtains. “It’s the laws. They’ve got a blockade set up, Bonnie. Two cars at the exit, another two are blocking the garage and a third parked behind Elma’s truck.” He gave a little chuckle. “They think we’re in the other cabin. I have a good shot at the jackass squatting behind the car blocking Elma’s truck.”

  “What are we gonna do?” Bonnie wailed.

  He cut his eyes at Caiyan. “Looks like we’ve decided to part ways. Lock them in the john.” Clyde shoved Elma toward Mitch.

  It was a test of loyalty. Mitch hesitated and then pulled Elma toward the bathroom.

  “Mitch, I thought we were going to get hitched?” Elma asked.

  “Sorry, babe, maybe next time.”

  Caiyan stumbled around like he was drunk. He moved toward Bonnie and she cocked the gun at him. “Not so fast, cowboy. I think it’s time Clyde and I found a new gang.”