THE STRAGGLERS PROTECT

by Misha Anderson

  “Hold on, only in my arms you understand that you’re mine, then so be it.”

  He stuck my body on the wall and his hips banged on mine, each time deeper, increasing the rhythm little by little till I felt him hammering inside me. Dilating my vagina walls with each thrust, in and out, in and out, stronger and deeper. He sank his teeth in my shoulder and I felt my skin breaking open in his mouth, like a deep scratch. The pain from his teeth on my flesh strangely made me feel even more pleasure in a scaring way.

  I held on tight to his neck and screamed his name, feeling myself flood with orgasm, with pleasure, in a wordless ecstasy.

  Wow, I never thought I could feel something this intense. Adam growled loud still stuck to my shoulder and he came hard, his incredibly hot semen flooding my flesh, as if it was warming my insides and my soul thirsty for affection.

  Still weak and drowsy, after amazing sex with Adam, he dried me and wrapped me in a towel, he took me in his arms to his bedroom. He laid me down on bed and got his body near mine, nesting me on his arms. No crimes, no fights, no redheaded whores, no drinking.

  Only the sweet pleasure of being in each others arms once again.

  CHAPTER 7

  ADAM VAUGH

  If there’s anything better in this world than waking up with the woman you desires by your side, I sincerely don’t know.

  Sam is laying down on my humble bed, with half her face covered by a cascade of golden hair like the sun and her lips half open, like they have been prepared to be kissed by me forever. I look and look again, still excited by conflicting feelings that invade me.

  I want this girl to me, with a huge intensity that scares me, but Sam is a huge mystery. She claims she’s not involved in the bank robbery, but she doesn’t give me proof, she doesn’t give me the possible suspects. And there’s still photos with that guy that’s is considered suspect in the crime, after all, what is her real involvement with that man? Why did they send me those photos saying I should investigate her?

  My instincts have always been my friend, it has never failed me. I feel Sam can hide the details from this crime, to me she’s involved in it somehow, but the humble way she lives, having to work at Mathews, to me, is the most concrete proof that she didn’t steal this money, she has no fortune saved. Sam, just like me, is afraid of trusting people, in believing from deep of her soul that you are in fact important, dear to someone, to then be betrayed, stabbed in the back. I had my share of deceptions, of pain, and I refuse to be hurt again.

  But I’ll gain her trust, not in a hurry, she got into my live bringing such lightness, so much experience, that I don’t want this to end. I got up in silence not to wake her and I put on my beaten up pair pijamas pants, and I go to the kitchen to make a beautiful breakfast for both of us.

  Both of us? There’s no problem in dreaming! When I get to the living room, I fall down from the clouds. I have a very different reality... The strange equation of my daily life is: zero privacy plus zero tranquility is equal to three brothers, there are grown up noisy men, that every sacred day annoy the fuck out of my mind, without a chance of truce, right up from morning.

  “Da... Da... Damy, today no one can g... g... get me off this so... so... son of a bitch of your br... brother. Kay, today I’ll stick m... m... my boot in the m... m... middle your asshole, give me the fucking to... to... towel, fuck!”

  NO! NO! A THOUSAND TIMES NO! Connor stuttering like a jamming parrot right in the morning is bad, really bad. And everything gets worst, when I look at both of them I see Kay’s annoying mockery face staring at Connor. Son of a bitch of a brat, forgive me mother, my mother was a sweet and honest Alaskan Native American, I shouldn’t curse him this way, even mentally, but this guy deserves a beating, why the hell does he get everybody’s stuff? He seems like a stealing goblin, stealing one’s towel, hiding the other’s underwear, there’s no way of this little shit learning to respect the older ones, unless we beat him.

  But as the older brother I restrain myself in being calm and bringing peace to this chaos of testosterone and hot temperaments. Hunt is shining his boots, looking amused as Connor runs after Kayden through the living room and he doesn’t say a word, omitting himself from the morning confusion. I look him up and down, forgetting that we’re about to have a wrestling round right in front of us, and he asks with a smile on his face:

  “What’s up, old man?”

  “Old man my ass, you tell me, what happened to you to be this dressed up so early in the morning?”

  Hunt shines his shoe with one hand and the other he keeps it elevated, defending himself from the fragments from the ashtray that Connor drop it.

  “I’m going to a therapy session, I told you last week, I miss annoying Franklin.”

  “I’m happy for you, it’s good for you, man.”

  How weird! Connor and Kayden stopped fighting, I look to the kitchen counter and Sam is awake, rubbing her eyes, still drowsy and even more beautiful wearing one of mine shirts, covering half of her thighs.

  “Ho... holly sh... shit!”

  Connie swears and looks at Hunt, he shrugs, as if wanting to say that he has nothing to do with the apparition of that beautiful woman in the living room and I feel myself with ridiculous manly pride. That’s right, this little delicious scared bunny is mine, only mine.

  “Good morning, Damy.”

  I get away from Hunt, who is watching me with a stupid smile on his lips and I go to Sam, I put a hand on her back and with the other I caress her rosy cheek. I speak low near her face, kissing her forehead after:

  “Good morning, did you sleep well, little bunny?”

  She stared at me with her rosy face of

  “Little bunny?”

  I smile and she does too, I try to explain without seeming like a fool.

  “Yes. My little bunny: white, soft and beautiful.”

  Hunter gets up and goes to the kitchen, today is his day to make breakfast.

  Connor and Kayden look at Sam with amuse curiosity, I’m embarrassed by the foolish air my brothers analyzed me, as if the fact of a beautiful woman being by my side made me a circus freak attraction. To make my misery complete, Kay lets out of his pearls of a comment.

  “Fuck, see Connie? We can’t call Damy Mr. Wanker anymore.”

  Now I’m going to skin this fucker, how can he say something stupid like this in front of Sam, what will she think? That I behave like a masturbating boy of 15? When actually I was opposed to relationships, a classic exemple of the lonely wolf?

  I ran after him through the hall and I hear Hunter, Connor and Sam laughing out loud, at me, bunch of idiots.

  Kay hides himself on Hunter’s bedroom and I yell from the hall so he can hear:

  “You’ll have to get out at some point, you brat, then I’m going to teach you some manners, stupid.”

  When I get back to the kitchen, Sam is sitting on a stool, being served a nice portion of pancakes and scramble eggs by Hunter. I sit by her side, without saying a word and she looks at me with smiley eyes, surprisingly revealing a bit about her personal live.

  “I only have one sister.”

  I huff and answer:

  “Lucky you!”

  Connie butts in our conversation and throws a kitchen rag on my face.

  “Geez, Damy, this w... way you hurt m... me, old m... man, didn’t y... you want us t... to exist?”

  I remain in silence, I stare Connie kind and needy eyes and by turning my face I watch Hunter looking at me in silence.

  Kayden appears in the living room, wearing a pair of beaten up pants and boots stole from Hunter.

  I would prefer the tranquility of a lonely life, then a movie goes quickly through my mind and I can’t even control myself, I am transported to the exact moment I’m only a scared and lost teenager, dressing my father’s cold and motionless body, trying to honor the promises I made before losing him, the promise of keeping my younger brothers in the path of good and straight caracter.

  United, together like
a small and inseparable pack. I look at each one of them and a knot comes up in my throat and I can’t undo it. We are so different from each other: Hunter is the second man in the family, very quiet, a war tank, my ogre with a soft heart. Connor is a hero, hero in life, a guy with dignity, a survivor, with scars that marked his body as much as his soul, even though, keeping his sweetness.

  And Kayden, Kay, the cowboy, he’s a fellow full of life, his only three friends are us, his brothers, he fills this house with so much movement, one day by Kay’s side will never be empty, he is hungry for life.

  How do I want to be alone? They are like a pice of my flesh, I would die and kill for my brothers, my pack of brothers in arms, in this wandering life of hiding oneself, trying to adapt to what everyone says it’s right.

  Right, my balls, right is what we’ve got, a bunch of misfits that can’t live without one another, I look around each one of them in front of me and the only thing I can answer is the truth.

  “I would be nothing without you, you are a huge kick in the nuts, but I love you guys!”

  The sons of a bitch laughed out loud and Hunt gets me on his arms, the three of them throw me up in the air, almost letting me fall on my ass.

  “Damy Boy, Damy Boy.”

  Hunt kisses me on the cheek and Connie and Kay ruffle my hair, kissing my face.

  After putting me down, Hunter looks at Connor and Kay frowning and says something as stupid as he is.

  “That’s enough, girls! You’re too frisky, are you ovulating? Have a little respect with your elder, Damy Boy is too old for this kind of tasteless jokes.”

  I smile embarrassed at Sam and she looks back in a mix of joy and incredulity. I don’t think she’s used to living around boys. We’re like that, a bunch of noisy and rowdy boys that don’t know how to behave in front of a lady.

  “Forgive about the mess, Sam, my brothers are a number.”

  She looks at me sideways while she puts a generous chunk of pancake in her mouth.

  “I like them.”

  Hunter asks her, trying to seem polite.

  “Is the pancake good, Samantha? Do you remember me, from The Sickle?”

  “Yes, I remember you and the scare you two gave when I thought you would fight.”

  “Yeah. I’m the polite brother, don’t pay any attention to the others, they are a bunch of brats.”

  It’s the first time we have a women to share breakfast with us, since our mother passed away, it’s curious how a feminine presence brings lightness to an environment full of hormones and manly smells.

  After we had breakfast together, full of joy, I’m back with Sam to the bedroom. She brushes her teeth, with my toothbrush?! And I think it’s funny. After it, she washes the tooth brush, she gives it back to me with a fake snobbish air and I can only laugh. While she washes her face, I brush my teeth, I surprise her trying to steal a kiss with my mouth still full of tooth paste.

  “Behave, your brothers are awake.”

  “It’s just an innocent kiss, there’s no harm in that.”

  We end up on the bathroom floor, fucking like two monkeys, wrapped in a sea of legs, laughing like idiots.

  “Adam, do you think they heard it?”

  “Fuck it, it’s good if they did, that’s the only way they stop with that senseless nickname.”

  “Mr. Wanker? Where did they get that, Adam?”

  She smiles and I take advantage to kiss the corner of her soft mouth.

  “I don’t know, now seriously, they called me that because I was never the guy to show up with girls, so they just assumed I was into this resources.”

  She finishes getting ready and I take her home, before Sam saying good-bye, she kisses me and without we even realized, I pull her to sit on my lap, breathing satisfied into her neck.

  “You smell good, Sam, fresh flowers, I love to feel you like this.”

  “Adam, I need to talk to you.”

  She wants to open up, I shut up, I’m paying attention to every word Sam is saying.

  “The guy who robbed the bank was my ex-fiancee, he used me, I was a big fool, now his gang thinks I have those damn diamonds, but I have no idea where he may have hidden them. Please, I saw how much your brothers are important to you, don’t get involved, they are really dangerous.”

  I hear everything she has to say in silence and the sincere way she’s opening up to me, brings me an unexpected surprise.

  “Too late, Sam, I worry about you, there’s nothing you can do about that. We are going to figure it out, I promise you, I’ll protect you, they won’t lay even a finger on you. Now we are together in this, little bunny, thanks for telling me.”

  Sam gets up from my lap and I miss her body on mine, she is so perfectly shaped for me, everything seems to be right when she’s in my arms.

  She gives me a kiss, full of promises and I watch her get inside the house thinking right after: I marked her, I bit her again, now she carries my brand, my saliva mixed in her blood, my fluids running free in her flesh, there’s no rational or logical explanation.

  It’s all very simple: she’s mine, without “buts”, “more or less” or any of this shit.

  She’s mine and period. My woman, my female and there’s no way in hell someone will take her away from me.

  I only beg the skies that she never faces the wolf, the dark side that lives in me. She would never understand the fact that I’m like this, different.

  I claimed her, I took her and I will protect her from these unfortunate people.

  The fucker who decides to touch Sam will know the hell that lives in me, he will be a dead man.

  CHAPTER 8

  SAMANTHA THOMPSON

  Adam brought me home, like the true gentleman he is. I open the door in an automatic way, still in ecstasy from the wonderful night I had and I kept thinking: I don’t know if I did the right thing in telling him about Igor and the New York robbery, but I’m a bit tired of all this.

  I’m tired of hiding, of running, of being afraid... If all my fears were only about my relationship with Adam going wrong, it would be way more simple, I’m truly scared about the cold blooded murderer I was sleeping with. I fear for Adam and for his brother’s lives.

  My god! How can a woman not fall in love with them?

  So messy, so much laughter, so much love between those huge men that is touching. What I call family is not even close to what Adam and his brothers have.

  My father was an absent guy and my mother, even though she took care of two girls by herself, she ended up losing herself in trying to keep us in the right way of life and with a bitter heart she ended up living a plain and mediocre life.

  For the first time in my life I felt in the boson of a family and just by thinking that Igor may hurt one of them, makes me sick with anger and full of fear.

  I faced Mathews night shift and when it was time to leave, Adam was waiting for me at the restaurant door, wearing dark jeans, a white shirt and beaten up Converses. So different from the distinct image of him in his uniform, I look from a distance, salivating with the sight of his strong and tanned arms, and I imagine him dressed as a man of law or in this transgressor boyish way, he’s delicious either way.

  I approach him and he doesn’t care not even for a second that we might be seen or not by someone. He pulls me to him and my traitor body just goes with it, satisfied to be able to nest in his arms.

  Adam pushes the hair stuck to my sweaty face, after a day of work and brushes his lips gently on mine, with no rush, as if time had to bend over to his will, slowly tasting our lips merging together. I smile and he greets me, he seems very cheerful:

  “Good evening, my little bunny, how was your day, Sam?”

  I love when he calls me little bunny, it’s so tacky and so sweet.

  “Good. Some drunk clients, but nothing serious.”

  “If one of them disrespect you, I want you to tell me, okay?”

  I nod, thinking it’s funny that he can be this protective, like an armed knigh
t, ready to defend his defenseless damsel.

  “How can I honor your visit?”

  He takes me by the hand to his truck, closing the door for me, while he explains:

  “It’s no visit, you told me in the morning that you were leaving Mathews at night, I came to pick you up and take you home.”

  I think I was able to feel embarrassed, it’s so strange to me to be taken care of, protected by a man. From the first time I looked a boy, I realized that I had terrible aim for relationships. All losers and useless and after Igor’s betrayal, my list of shitty man hit a new low: besides useless and losers, I added to my resume an ex-fiancee who was a thief and a murderer.

  The way Adam looks at me, as if I was something special in his life and the care he has for me, makes me believe is possible to be loved and the certainty of it at the same time that fills my chest with joy, it’s also enormously scary.

  Adam analyzes me inside the car, while I’m looking Portland deserted streets and my chest tightens with the nefarious thought that I don’t know if it’s better never to find someone who loves us or, to simply have him to taste the bitterness of losing him.

  Two trucks approach us before we get to the trail that leads to Oregon, everything happened frighteningly fast, suddenly the truck behind us, gets right in front of us blocking our passage to the road.

  Adam releases the seat belt and our car skids, almost colliding with the side of the truck ahead of us. Two guys come near and one of them gives an order.

  “Say where the diamonds are, bitch.”

  Adam yells at me and after I’m paralyzed by fear for a few seconds, I can hear him.

  “Sam, when I count to three, get out of the car and run! One, two, three, now!”

  I can’t open the door and I drag myself through the window, falling like a sack of potatoes.

  I drag myself to the side of the road and Adam gets out of the car drawing a gun, using the truck as a shield. Two other guys get near the car and the crossed fire starts.

  Bullets are going everywhere and I scream for help, we are going to die! My god, Adam is going to die...