Long Ride (Riding with Honor)

by Avery, Rebecca

  “So why aren’t you married?” she asked after several minutes of comfortable silence.

  “Too good looking with way too much charisma… that’s a lot for any woman to handle,” he smiled.

  She actually laughed out loud and God help him, it made it all worth it… even rounding the corner of the exit ramp on two wheels. If she could relax around him… trust him, just a little bit, he’d be happy with that.

  It wasn’t that he didn’t appreciate her sanctimonious behavior, especially when it was directed at him. That stern and bossy attitude she gave him did nothing more than turn him on but it was just as nice when she loosened up a little bit.

  “Do you have any idea where you’re going?” she asked looking out the window.

  “I think we can hit up I-85 if we keep heading this direction,” he said.

  “So what happens now?” she asked looking at him.

  “You come and stay with me for a little while. My place is not near as nice as your beach house, but until he is caught I don’t want you anywhere he can track you down. Keeping you under wraps in the least likely place for him to look is the goal, until Greg gets him in custody,” he replied.

  “I want to file for a protection order when we get there, just to make sure,” she said.

  “You can order me to protect you… ma’am,” he said with a smile and a wink.

  Trying desperately to ignore his comment and those eyes she asked, “So you live near Edna Jackson?”

  “Not too far. Tommy and Dana live the farthest. They have a bigger place on account of the kids,” he said.

  “How did you meet them all?” she asked. Maybe if she kept him talking, he would stop with the inappropriate comments that made her think of sex.

  “Well, I guess Greg told you I was in the Navy, right?” he asked.

  “He mentioned it. How long were you in the service?” she asked. So it was true.

  “Went in when I was about Chuck’s age and came out just a few months shy of my thirty second birthday. Saved almost everything I made while in the service and bought a house with it and I’ve been there ever since,” he explained.

  “So they were like neighbors of yours then?” she prompted. This felt more like a courtroom interrogation rather than a casual conversation.

  “Well Edna’s husband Robert… Bobby Senior… owned the shop before Lilly and Bobby. After a month of being home after getting out of the service, I was bored and he was hiring. My training in the Navy was such that I was pretty good with anything mechanical and making special parts… working with my hands,” he paused for effect and then winked at her.

  “He hired me on and after making sure I wouldn’t cheat his customers, he put me in charge and retired. Worst thing he ever done… retiring… he died two years later. Anyways, Bobby and Tommy have been best buddies since grade school but were in their teens when I got hired on and took over. They were a rowdy bunch of hooligans,” he laughed.

  “I would never have guessed,” she said with sarcasm and a smile.

  “Well when Bobby Senior got sick and Edna’s head was turned caring for him, Bobby Junior and Tommy took to sneaking out and running the town. One night they got caught and Edna sent them to work for me,” he said laughing some more.

  “It was pretty rough going for the first few months until they happened upon an old motorcycle frame and drug it into the shop. Every spare minute and every spare penny they made working at the shop went into that bike. Once they got it running they took turns riding it until they figured out that they had basically built it from the ground up and could do it again… so they both could have one. I guess the rest is history as they say,” he finished.

  “So I’m guessing Bobby’s grandfather left the shop to him and you just stayed on as the manager?” she asked.

  “Something like that… at least until Chuck came on board. I took a pay and position cut so the boy could have a job. Now that things have picked up the way they have, I got my full pay back. I’m not rich but I do just fine,” he answered. Looks and a heart… Richard Long was a whole new kind of dangerous.

  “Why on earth would you do such a nice thing for Chuck when he broke into your shed?” she began. “Edna told me,” she finished upon seeing his surprised look.

  “Because I think I might have known his mother,” he replied.

  “Really? From the repair shop or…?” she asked.

  “Actually, I dated her for a time during my stint in the Navy,” he replied. “Her name was Amber Reynolds.”

  Chapter Two

  “Wait just a minute…” she said hesitantly.

  “When I would get leave I’d come down and stay with her and I sent her money sometimes. I thought when I got out we’d maybe get married, settle down, white picket fence and shit… you know. So a couple of years in I started taking it for granted that she would be there ready and waiting for me to show up on leave,” he said, his eyes taking on a far off look.

  “I spent the whole Christmas holiday with her when I was twenty seven and then got leave a couple of months later and decided to surprise her with a diamond ring. When I got to her apartment she wasn’t home so I headed up to a local bar to have a drink and wait for a bit before trying again. After I’d been at the bar for too long and had one too many shots, here she came hanging on her other boyfriend,” he finished.

  “She broke your heart… I’m sorry,” she said softly.

  “Yes she did… and I broke her boyfriend. His jaw, a couple of ribs, his nose and busted out the majority of his teeth,” he said, looking in the rearview mirror and then back to the road. “That brief moment of stupidity… cost me more than just her. Uncle Sam decided I could best pay my debt to society for that lapse in judgment by using the training they gave me for special assignments.”

  So he was a violent man too. It would seem that most men were. This was the most time she’d spent with a man, other than Greg, since before walking out on Brian. Dickie always appeared so laid back and charming.

  Those kinds of thoughts were what had gotten her mixed up with Brian in the first place. How long would it be before Dickie’s anger got the better of him, just like with Brian? In the few months she’d known him, she’d never seen him angry but obviously he was capable of it.

  “Oh…” She said.

  “I had just successfully completed training for the SEAL program before the holidays hit and finally been assigned to a team. We were to deploy in two weeks on a team extraction mission. I had hopes of a quickie wedding and a honeymoon before shipping out,” he said, shaking his head at his error.

  “So… is Chuck’s father possibly the man you beat up back then?” she asked.

  “I would guess so… the timing would have been about right,” he replied, looking at her.

  “Look, I’m not telling you this old news, sob story for sympathy. It’s just I heard a couple of years after that, when I was on leave, that she’d died nearly a year to the day from our split. I should have felt something or looked into what happened to her, but I was young and still angry so I didn’t… and if she was Chuck’s mother then I want to know first. Then I would want to know why the man didn’t keep Chuck… his own son,” he finished vehemently.

  “Why?” she asked. “What does it matter why he didn’t keep Chuck?”

  “Because you don’t fucking take something that belongs to someone else, use it, and damn the consequences,” he said angrily.

  “And if she was Chuck’s mother…?” she asked.

  “Then I want to be the one to tell him,” he said with finality.

  “What if she wasn’t his mother? Reynolds is a pretty common surname and it could just be a coincidence,” she said.

  “He looks like her. I thought that the first time I saw him and that’s why I just couldn’t turn him in to the police. I figured it was maybe paying penance or something if I helped him,” he said.

  “Then as you know, since it happened to you too… he kind of grew on me. I don’
t think it took as long for him to grow on me as it did you. So a week later I had a little talk with Edna about him. That woman is an angel sent from the big man himself with a heart big enough to keep a man’s secrets and help him right a wrong. So she took him in and he’s been hanging around ever since,” he finished with a fond smile.

  Silent tears were sliding from her eyes at his admission. Who did that for a teenaged punk in this day and age, especially one who looked like Chuck? How could he be so violent and yet so compassionate? Was that even possible?

  “Oh come on now, darlin,’ don’t leak on me now. You’re our smart, tough, and hot as hell attorney. Chuck wouldn’t want you shedding tears over him,” he said, rubbing his thumb along the inside of her wrist from where he still held her hand.

  His fingers linked with hers were strangely comforting but the rough skin of his thumb created an intense friction each place that it touched on her arm. After all these years of being alone, refusing to date, being celibate, and burying herself in her work, he’d broken her ‘no touching’ rule with a simple gesture. Holding hands.

  Looking down at where their hands were joined she whispered, “The tears aren’t for Chuck.”

  “Don’t shed them for me either… no, not a man like me… you save those drops for someone worthy,” he said with a smile as she pulled a tissue from her purse and swiped at her face.

  “Having done something like that for Chuck… I think that is worthy,” she said after wiping the tears from her cheeks.

  “I’m not a good man Becca… don’t think for a minute that I am. The man I am now is only a cover for the machine the United States government created,” he said, looking in her eyes until she turned away from him.

  “In war it’s usually kill or be killed, right?” she asked. “What makes you think you’re so much worse than any other soldier who’s fought for their life or for their loved ones… or their country?”

  “I didn’t fight any wars, I was sent in for specific… targets… and the people who stood in my way were just casualties of the mission,” he said, looking out the window. It was the first time she could sense his discomfort. He was normally so easy going he would answer any question asked and sometimes with a response that left her breathless and tingly.

  This must have been what Greg meant when he’d said, “Richard Long is a military killing legend. I couldn’t do better hiring someone to protect you than if I’d hired the secret service.”

  Looking over at the man, she just couldn’t fathom that this man could kill someone… had killed someone. He sat casually back in his seat driving with one hand and holding her hand with his other one. Impossible… or was it?

  “I expect what we discuss to stay between us… client and attorney privilege or whatever,” he said. “The guys don’t have any idea about that period in my life and I’d like it to stay that way. Chuck got a little bit of a show when those punks broke in at the Johnson house, but I’m hoping he either forgets or isn’t too curious.”

  “You killed the men at the Johnson’s house didn’t you?” she asked quietly

  He looked at her as though judging whether to trust her or not and said, “I didn’t pull the trigger if that’s what you mean. You can look over the police reports and all the results of the investigation if you don’t believe me,” he offered.

  The man may not have shot the gun but when she’d asked Chuck about what happened he mentioned that Dickie’s ‘mad Rambo skills’ had saved them all that day. It hadn’t made much sense at the time but after spending the past two hours talking nonstop with the man… it suddenly did.

  He was bigger and more capable than Brian had ever been of hurting someone if he got angry… or drunk. Looking again at their locked fingers, it just didn’t seem as likely somehow.

  “Fine… you can have it your way then,” she finally replied.

  “Is that an invitation, darlin? If so, then I’d like you to tie me up, order me around, and then have your wicked little way with me. Use this old man for your pleasure… ma’am. I won’t mind.” He smiled his most devastating smile yet and she felt it in places long dead.

  His words brought images of him with his hands tied to her headboard while she… Oh my God! What was she thinking? Fantasizing about him was not good… not good at all. He may be her age but he didn’t look a day over forty and with looks like he had, his age didn’t seem to matter to women.

  What would it be like to be with a man like him? Would an intimate encounter with him be dreadfully dull and bothersome as it had been in her early twenties? Or would it be painful as it had been with Brian? She had no desire to be with another man and she wasn’t gay, so what was it about him that made her wonder?

  His grin was sexy as sin, and his face made girls young enough to be his daughter take notice. If a handsome face wasn’t enough, a body that had young and old alike looking twice made her wonder why he constantly flirted with her. Truthfully it was the idea that even if he was kidding about letting her have her way with him… there had to be some seriousness to it or he wouldn’t repeat it every chance he got.

  “I would expect whatever military training you received would aid you greatly in escaping… should I tie you up… so why would I bother?” she asked. Damn it… no flirting!

  “I’d tie myself up if that’s what it took to get that sweet mouth of yours anywhere near me,” he said, looking over at her. Then as she watched he lifted the hand that he still held on to and kissed the back of it. The kiss wasn’t a simple or gentlemanly kiss, but a searing open mouthed kiss that she could swear included a small lick of her heated skin.

  It felt like his mouth branded her skin with lava and the excited sensation flowed all the way up her arm. The sensation was so pleasant a gasp escaped her lips followed by a shiver that went from the small of her back up to settle in her neck. If that small of a gesture brought on such a strong physical reaction to him… what would his mouth on other places feel like?

  “Your shivers of pleasure taste amazing,” he whispered against the back of her hand before moving their hands back down against the seat.

  They stopped for dinner a few hours later where he consulted a map to get a better idea of how to continue on while still keeping them off of the highway. While he ate and studied the map she pulled out her laptop and emailed the private investigator her firm used for some of their cases.

  She gave him information about the case she was working on and all the information she had managed to get from Dickie regarding Amber Reynolds. Perhaps if he could investigate Chuck’s potential mother while she investigated Chuck, they would meet in the middle somewhere.

  She remotely connected to her work computer and was able to draft a letter on Chuck’s behalf to the Florida Department of Children and Families. The letter asked for any and all medical records, dental records, counseling or mental health records, and educational records including a high school transcript from prior to his time in the Juvenile Justice system.

  The letter requested access to any personal belongings that pertained to Chuck including photographs, news articles, cards, and letters for all years he was within the foster care system. She requested his original birth certificate and social security card or relevant information needed to obtain a certified copy of each. She demanded all records regarding discipline of Chuck either within the educational system or the foster care system prior to his incarceration as a juvenile.

  Knowing the miles of red tape involved to get him anything of significance that could be used to track down any living family, she gave them thirty days to provide the requested records before a civil suit would be filed on Chuck’s behalf for willful neglect with regards to his education, medical, dental and mental health.

  For good measure she noted that the civil suit would ask for an absurd amount of monetary damages for the mental distress caused by the state not providing a reasonable and customary environment for him during the time he was a ward of the state.

  Satisfied
that she had come up with enough items to keep someone at the DCF office scrambling and digging around for his records, she powered down her laptop. She wasn’t used to long car rides and the idea of another four hours or more on the road didn’t sound pleasant.

  “Why don’t you change into something a little more comfortable for the rest of the trip, maybe stretch out in the backseat and take a nap?” he asked suggestively. First she heard his words and then she felt them like a caress on her bare skin. Good God… he needed to stop that.

  Deciding he was unlikely to trade off driving with her again, it would be safe enough to take a sleep aid. She hated taking the pills because most of the time they helped her fall asleep but she still found herself awake at odd hours of the night. Sometimes she was able to go back to sleep, other times she just got up out of frustration.

  “I might just do that,” she smiled pulling out one of the pills and drinking it down with some water.

  Even with the pill it still took her nearly an hour to finally fall asleep and as soon as she was out he physically relaxed back into the seat. It bothered him to see her struggle and she was struggling with something.

  Either the weight of this lunatic who was gunning for her was actually getting to her, or she had some other issues. He hadn’t missed the prescription sleeping pills she’d taken at dinner. What kept those beautiful eyes wide awake while other people slept?

  Becca was the kind of woman any man would be proud to show off. She was very attractive, curvy in all the right spots, intelligent, witty and had the most amazing eyes and a beautiful smile. He’d first met her when she’d come to Florida to help out Bobby and Chuck when they had kicked the shit out of a deserving FBI agent.

  His first glimpse had been a set of killer legs getting out of the back of a taxicab and not a day went by that the image of them didn’t replay at least once through his mind. If the mental image of her curvy little bottom or shapely legs didn’t kick his libido into over drive, her sassy mouth certainly did the trick.