by D. J. Wilson
Twenty feet from the plane, Victoria appeared in the doorway with Joseph directly behind her. “Let her go!” I demanded. “We’re here, just like you requested.”
“You take orders very well,” shouted Joseph smugly, as he nudged Victoria out the door of the plane. He directed her down the steps with the Glock .45 in his right hand.
Without warning, Candi broke free from my hand, running to meet Joseph at the bottom of the stairs.
“We did it, Joseph! We did it!” she shouted over the jet engines roar, while pulling two strangely familiar jeweled disk boxes from her back pocket and holding them into the air. She then wrapped her arms around Joseph’s neck and exclaimed, “Ten million dollars, baby! We did it! The ledgers are ours!”
Victoria looked dumbfounded at me just as I looked equally dumbfounded at her. The two of us mouthed the words, “What the Hell?” at the exact same time.
“Joseph, baby, we don’t need them anymore. Let them go, please. They’ve been loads of fun, but nothing compares to you. I mean like, I know where there’s a BOA when I need one. And I’m gonna need one pretty soon.”
Joseph countered, “What did you just say, Candice? Oh, never mind. You heard the lady. It’s been a pleasure doing business with you. D, Donny says he owes you one. I’m sure when he gets out of the hospital, you’re the first person he wants to see. If I were you, pal, I’d sleep with one eye open from now on.”
With that, the jet’s door retracted and they taxied off, leaving Victoria standing on the edge of the tarmac, speechless, while I made my way to the fence rail, trying my best not to throw up.
Chapter 54
Still, holding onto the fence, I felt a soothing arm wrap around my shoulder. “Damn, D, she got me good!” exclaimed Vic. “But she sure as hell got you worse. Woo-eee, that girl can act. Damn, if I wouldn’t nominate her for an Oscar,” Vic continued. “Ten million dollars goes a long way toward devious and deceptive.”
“Stop it, Vic,” I implored. “I don’t need this right now.”
Frank and the Marines pulled up in the Suburban, whereas Frank jumped out and ran to my side. “Are you okay, D? Are you hurt?”
“He’s hurt all right,” quipped Vic. “But nothing a case of beer and a good lay won’t cure. His girlfriend ‘blindsided’ us. Those are his words, not mine. Basically, she screwed his brains out over the last three months for a $10 million dollar reward.”
“Man, I’m sorry. I really thought you had something going with her,” Frank said. “It was all an act? Someone should nominate her for…”
“An Oscar, I know,” I replied, right before I laid my head once again on the fence rail.
“Frank, did you make the call to Jim?” I asked hesitantly, without lifting my head.
“No, sir, but I have the phone right here.”
“Don’t. Just give it to me, please. I’ll handle it myself.”
“I need a beer,” Vic said. “On second thought, I need a case.”
“Works for me,” echoed Frank, and it was seconded by both Ron and Terry.
“Are you up for some company, D?” asked Vic. “If you are, I’d like to ride along. Hell, I’m not doing anything later, either. If you’d ask me nicely, I might even ride all the way home with you.”
“You’re welcome to ride back to the Inn with me, beyond that, we’ll see.” Handing her Candi’s helmet, which fit surprisingly well, I took off balls to the wall, trying to get as far away as I could from that last gut-wrenching picture of Candi waving the ledgers in the air.
“D,” shouted Vic, over the motorcycles roar, “don’t you just love to feel the wind in your face? I especially like it when it blows through my hair.”
“I used to,” I replied in the same volume. “But now, I’m not so sure I believe anything I feel anymore.”
Chapter 55
Pulling up at Josie’s Inn turned out to be the absolute highlight of my day. Plus, I knew there was ice-cold beer and lots of it, just beyond the door.
Josie greeted me as usual with a warm hug, “I’m glad you’re back, Jon David, Victoria. Where’s Candi?”
“You tell her, Vic. I hear a Molson calling my name,” I whispered, grabbing a six-pack from the fridge on my way out the patio door. Tossing myself into a lounge chair, I drained the first beer in one long pull. I imagined how many times I’d been played … not once, not twice, but three times. That has to be a record, I thought, as I drained the second Molson and opened a third.
I heard the door open and shut and watched as Victoria settled in beside me. “Are these other three mine?” she playfully asked, “Or should I go get my own?”
“You’re welcome to them, Victoria. There’s more where those came from and I know where to get ’em,” I shared, already starting to feel the alcohol buzzing in my system.
Frank, Terry and Ron, joined us as I finished my third. “Let’s do dinner out, but in,” I offered, while laughing at myself. “Is that okay with everybody? I bet Josie knows the best restaurants that deliver. Ya’ll work it out; I’m buying,” dropping two Franklins on the table, before rising from the chair. “Right now, though, if you’ll excuse me. I need to go to the room.“
I felt a headache coming on, grabbing three more Molson’s from the fridge to take the edge off, before I attempted to negotiate the stairs to our room. Our room, what am I thinking? It’s just mine now … all mine. When I opened the door, Candi lingered everywhere. But, in reality, she was so long gone.. Yesterday’s thong was tossed on the chair next to her backpack, her makeup bag and mirror were sitting on the nightstand, and her perfume and mousse were on the bathroom sink next to my shaving kit, along with the Advil I desperately needed this moment.
Opening Molson number four, I popped three Advil in my mouth and washed them down with half the bottle. Crawling onto the bed, I rolled over on my back and stared at the ceiling. Closing my eyes, I reflected on our very first encounter at Starbucks, our first night together at the Inn in Alabama, followed by our first bike ride through the cornfields of Iowa. Rounding out those three firsts came the confessionals, with each one adding a little more distrust. However, after last night’s heart to heart, I’d thought she finally turned the corner. Those hopes all washed away today.
Reaching the edge of sleep, I was startled by a loud knock at the door. “D, are you okay? Can I come in?” Vic asked, barging into the room without waiting for a response. It's Victoria; I would expect nothing less.
Climbing onto the bed beside me, Vic propped her chin on her elbows, “I’m worried about you, D. Drinking won’t fix it. Time won’t fix it. Hell, even I won’t fix it.” She rolled off the bed and stood in front of me. “However, it’s possible that some delicious, wicked combination of all of the above might work. D, look at me. Do you remember the last night we were together?”
“I remember, Vic. Oh, how I remember. You’re just as beautiful as ever, actually more so now that I’ve seen how you operate. You see things that others don’t and you read people, oh so well.”
“Thanks for the compliments. I’ll take all those I can get. I will disagree with one thing, however. I’m not able to read people as well as you think. Like today, I did my best to read between the lines Candi was spewing, before boarding that plane. She seemed sincere, but emotionally distanced when she announced her $10 million dollar windfall. That blew me away. What I couldn’t wrap my head around was her comment that she knows where there’s a snake when she needs one and she’s going to need one very soon.”
“Vic, I’m sorry. Everything you just said went right over my head. I can’t for the life of me remember her mentioning a snake.”
“Not a snake, per se, D. I believe she called it a boa. Like that frilly thing you wear around your neck.”
Vic rose from the bed and released her luxurious red hair from its bun and shook it out so that is cascaded down her back shoulders. Undressing before my eyes, she revealed a black and red lace bra holding back her voluptuous, milky white breasts. Turning her
back to me, she dropped her pants, showcasing a matching black thong. Déjà vu! Standing somewhat naked before me once again was the beautiful redhead I’d spurned repeatedly.
This and all the events from earlier in the day, along with Candi’s parting words were rolling ‘round and ‘round in my mind trying to distract me from the exceptional beauty standing deliciously in front of me.
“D, I guess you didn’t hear me. Do you still like what you see?”
Woo-hoo is all that comes to my tossed and troubled mind right now. I longed for … wanted … needed someone right now. But who?
To Be Continued…
A sneak peek at book two, Ride to Restoration
CANDI
Tampa Bay
In the dark of night, the Gulfstream V touched down at Peter O. Knight Airport in Tampa, Florida, enveloped in sweltering humidity; a far cry, from the crisp fall air the passengers left behind in Calgary, just a few hours before. Multiple, nondescript black SUVs sat just off the tarmac, their engines idling, ready to whisk Candice, her cousin Gio, his girlfriend, her ex and his bodyguard away. More important than the passengers, however, were the encrypted ledgers Candice was carrying, which provided incriminating details about the Family’s money laundering practices, including a detailed list of their numerous off shore and Swiss bank accounts.
Helping Giovanni deplane, his crutches clanging toward the waiting car, I saw Joseph hurriedly closing the distance between us. Here comes the talk!
“Did you mean what you said earlier, Candice?” Joseph asked, grasping my hand in the process, longingly gazing into my eyes. “If you meant it, I mean really meant it, I’d like you to come home with me tonight. I’ve missed you. Your being with D, I’m sure banging his brains out all this time, pushed me to the brink. And I know you don’t want me on the brink. I can’t think of a better way to prove your sincerity than to make love to me again, like you used to.”
What is it with men and their penile thinking? They think that having sex will make everything all better, regardless of how tumultuous the state of the relationship might be, Candice asked herself before answering. “I meant what I said in Calgary, Joseph. Much has happened while we’ve been apart. I’ve changed; you’ve changed. It’s important to me to take it slow this time around. Be the man I fell in love with a long time ago. You may be ready to jump back in the sack with me, but I’m nowhere near ready to jump in it again with you. I’m sure you’ve had your share of sluts — I mean girls — who have satisfied your daily animal urges. Go hook up with one of them if you need to get off so bad right now.” There he goes, hanging his head again!
“Damn you! You still don’t get it. I see that hurt puppy dog look in your eyes. I want to be courted. I want to be wooed. I want you to make me feel special again. Go buy a motorcycle and I’ll ride with you,” I caught myself saying aloud, dreaming fondly of the memories I made with D — not him, not ever. “I want you to convince me by your actions. I want to know that, unlike before, you want me for me, not just as an avenue to get closer to my family. Besides, you’ve got to prove to me that you will keep your end of the deal and leave D and Victoria alone. They deserve to be happy, without continually looking over their shoulders for you or anyone else. We’re splitting the ten million,. Surely you don’t need to worry about collecting that ridiculous bounty that Standford put out on D... Do you?”
“I guess that all depends on you, sweetheart,” Joseph said, the familiar indignation of times past rising in his voice. “If you really created this whole ruse to retrieve the ledgers for us, then I guess not. Only time will tell if we’re on the same page or if you’re blowing putrid smoke up my ass. Let me tell you straight up, baby girl — your family be damned — if you screw with me, you’ll not like the results. But hey, if you keep your end of the bargain, I’ll gladly keep mine.”
Threats ... He’s threatening me in the same breath, through the same lips that want to make love to me tonight? It’s not happening! “Go away, Joseph. It’s late. I’m going to ride with Gio and Mile to Mom’s. We’ll continue this talk tomorrow.”
Climbing into the black Suburban with Gio and Mile, I replayed the absurd promises I made to Joseph in Calgary over and over. I did it to keep him from harming D and Victoria. What was I thinking? Leaving D with Victoria was like leaving an injured lamb in a cage with a ravenous lion. What else could I do? D called and Victoria dropped everything and came with reinforcements. That’s loyalty, love or lust, or possibly some combination of the three. D has a way with women and men, too, that’s for sure — me included.
“Candice, you okay?” asked Gio, while Mile expressed the same question to me through the sadness that filled her eyes. “D, he good guy. You see. He save me, he fix leg. You wait, he come for you.”
“I’m no good for him. Look at all the trouble I’ve brought him, and the two of you for that matter,” I stated factually, while the tears I’d bravely held back for so long started to flow.
Mile handed me a tissue from her purse, while Gio continued undaunted, “You wait. I tell your momma, he, how you say, special. He care for you. I know it. You know it. We fix it.”
“He did, before I sold him out and got on the plane with Joseph.” I couldn’t tell him what I had to do to protect him. If I did, he would have never let me go. Bodies would have been scattered everywhere. I did what he taught me to do, put other’s needs before my own. What a difference a few months make. When he met me, I was a selfish spoiled bitch. Now, I have a hole in the pit of my stomach. Doing the right thing was supposed to make me feel better. It doesn’t!
“You reach him, you tell him why you leave. He understand.”
Sniffling and snorting was so unladylike, but we’re family here so I continued, “How will I find him now, Gio? He’s still on his bike trip, riding who knows where and for how long, before he makes his way back home — if he even goes home. His identity has been compromised. There’s a bounty on his head. For all I know, he may just keep on riding.”
“He and you talk about his dog, you call May Jore. He will not leave his dog. You look there.”
Cousin Gio thinks like a man, not some silly broken-hearted girl. I appreciate that! “Good idea, Giovanni. There can’t be that many kennels near where he lives. I’ll send my girlfriend, Marcy, to visit all of them until she finds him. We find Major, we’ll find D or at least I’ll be able to get a message to him. He needs to know the truth about what happened and why. He has to know I did what I did, for him, for Victoria. For once in my life, I didn’t do it for me.”
Get the full story in Ride to Restoration, available now!
Second Harvest Food Bank
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Each year, the Feeding America network helps provide food to more than 46 million people facing hunger in the United States, including 12 million children and 7 million seniors. Through 200 member food banks, such as Second Harvest, and 60,000 food pantries and meal programs, the Feeding America network serves all 50 states, including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Together, they secure nearly 4 billion pounds of food annually, which provides 3.3 billion meals to individuals and families needing a little extra help.
Here’s your opportunity to pay it forward. Make a contribution to a Second Harvest Food Bank near you, where one dollar purchases three meals to those in need.
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From the Author
Thank you for taking the time to read Ride to Restoration, our second novel in the Ride Series.
Major and I welcome and encourage your comments, alon
g with your fair and honest reviews on Amazon — as they will guide me in my continued quest to remake ... me.
My ultimate goal in this series is to entertain, as well as engage you, promoting selflessness, while generating more than enough sales to purchase a million meals through Second Harvest. We can do it, but not without you. Each month, one dollar from every e-book sale in this series is given to Second Harvest in your honor, our readers, purchasing three meals for those needing a little extra help.
In the meantime, spread the word, pay it forward, volunteer where you’re heart is and encourage your family and friends to be a part of it.
Many thanks — DJ Wilson
Email me: [email protected]
Find me on Twitter: @dhlakelover
Visit my website: www.dalehollowlakelover.com