Shooter (Burnout)

by West, Dahlia

  His living room was decked out in comfortable but stylish matching furniture and a huge flat screen above the fireplace. Hayley hadn’t exactly been expecting milk crates for chairs and hubcaps for dinner plates, but neither was she expecting a house that looked as though it could be photographed for Midwestern Living.

  A large group, some regulars from the bar but mostly people she didn’t know, had gathered around in Tex’s fenced-in backyard to judge the cook-off. Hayley held her breath after tasting Tex’s fall-off-the-bone pork ribs and had to admit the man could braise his ass off.

  Whether she was a sympathetic newcomer or truthfully a better cook was up for debate, but Milo declared her a culinary angel sent from God to deliver them, and the rest of crowd agreed. If Tex thought she’d won merely because she was new and cute, he kept it to himself, losing gracefully and supplying the crowd with a huge batch of peach cobbler to make up for his perceived shortcomings.

  Hayley admitted the dessert was as good as anything she could make herself and busied herself gathering up dirty dishes and empty serving bowls and taking them to the kitchen. She wasn’t quite comfortable in the large crowd of mostly strangers. At the sink, she heard a voice from behind her.

  “Still disappointed you ain’t my type,” Tex said.

  “You said that before,” Hayley called over her shoulder. “What’s your type? And how do you know I’m not?”

  “You got too much sass. See, honey, there’s two types of sass. Regular sass….and bedroom sass. Now, I like regular sass. But-” A sharp crack sounded and Hayley spun around to see Tex holding a wooden spoon that he’d apparently used to swat the heel of his palm. He was grinning. “I don’t tolerate bedroom sass.” Hayley held her breath as he casually replaced the spoon in the holder. “Hard as hell to find a good woman with a lot of one and none of the other.”

  Hayley’s heart raced. “You...beat them?”

  Tex frowned. “Hell no, Slick. Do I seem like the kind of guy who beats on women? Or needs to? No, Slick. I don’t beat them. I discipline them. No permanent marks, no blood. Just discipline. For our mutual pleasure.”

  Hayley nervously wiped her wet hands on her jeans. “Mutual pleasure? They…like it?”

  “They like that they don’t like it.”

  “That…makes no sense.”

  He grinned. “Which is why you’re not my type.”

  Hayley considered this and swallowed hard. “Does…I mean, Chris...doesn’t…”

  Tex shook his head and Hayley let go of the breath she was holding. “Nope,” Tex said. “Not even a little, far as I know. He likes a lot of bedroom sass and not so much regular sass.”

  Hayley frowned. “What does that mean?”

  Chris’s voice caught their attention from the open doorway. “Means I’m used to giving orders and having them followed. But not in the bedroom. I got my fill of ‘Yes, Sir/No, Sir’ in the service. And “Master,” he rolled his eyes, “is on a level I can’t even being to deal with.”

  Hayley’s eyes widened and she looked from Chris to Mark. “Master?!” she squeaked.

  Mark shook his head. “Me neither, honey. If I wanted a blow up doll, I’d own one. Nah. I’m looking for a smart, beautiful, regular sassy, not bedroom sassy woman who can dress herself. When I let her wear clothes.”

  “And call you, Sir,” Chris added.

  “And call me, Sir.” Tex considered this. “Or not call me Sir, if I’ve a mind to gag her.”

  Hayley’s mouth dropped open. “Gag her?!”

  “Mutual pleasure, darlin’.”

  Hayley’s brain hiccupped. “Why would that be pleasurable?”

  He smiled and tilted his head to the side. “Which is again why you’re not my type.”

  Hayley rubbed her hands on her jeans again. “But you don’t hurt them?”

  “Not the way you mean. Never.”

  “And you’re looking for a smart, beautiful, regular sassy, not bedroom sassy, independent woman to call you Sir.”

  Tex pulled his hat down in a gesture of acknowledgment. “Yep.”

  “Except when she’s gagged,” Hayley added.

  He nodded again.

  Hayley grinned up at him. “Does she salute then?”

  Tex’s mouth dropped open. Then he leaned his head back and roared with laughter. “Does she salute? Oh, God.” He swept Hayley up in a hug and laughed even harder. “Girl, you’ve got way too much sass.”

  Tex headed back outside and Hayley looked at Chris. “He really doesn’t hurt them?”

  Chris shook his head. “If he did, he wouldn’t be welcome in my home.”

  Hayley nodded to herself. “So….you don’t…”

  “I tried it once.”

  “You did?”

  “Tex and I went to a club in Japan while we were on leave. Wasn’t for me.”

  Hayley considered this. “Maybe it was the language barrier.”

  Chris laughed. “Honey, I speak enough Japanese to get by. Wasn’t a language problem. Submission is submission in any language and that’s not what I want.”

  “You want bedroom sass. Not regular sass. That’s what Tex said.”

  Chris shrugged. “I like a girl who gives as good as she gets. Not one who just wants to be done to. So, yeah, I guess.”

  “What about Caleb?”

  Chris lifted an eyebrow. “Are you shopping?”

  “No! I just thought, I mean, he has the handcuffs. And he’s very…authoritative. I could see him wanting to be called Sir,” she mused. “And Hawk. Hawk is…large. He’s intimidating without actually doing anything.”

  Chris shrugged. “Only to you. Women normally just throw themselves at him, he doesn’t have to do much to get their attention.”

  “But he never calls them back.”

  Chris grinned a lopsided grin. “He’s not big on commitment.”

  “Why is that?”

  Chris shrugged. “Parents had a shitty marriage. Sister had a shitty marriage. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for monogamy.”

  “What was Jimmy like? Before?”

  Chris laughed. “Easy’s so young he was barely out of the, ‘Oh my God I can’t believe I’m getting laid,’ stage.”

  “Really? That’s hard to believe. He’s so hot.”

  Chris folded his arms across his chest. “He’s so hot?” he repeated.

  “Well, kind of! I mean, when he’s not scowling, or frowning, or otherwise messing up his face by being perpetually in a bad mood. Yeah, he’s easily the hottest. Which is saying a lot because you’re all kind of hot. Like scary hot. It’s weird how there’s not like one average guy in your group. Then again, if I were an average guy, I would never hang out with you guys, ‘cause I would never meet girls. Or maybe I would meet girls, like when Hawk’s done with them. So how come there aren’t any normal guys in your circle of friends?”

  “I don’t know!” Chris nearly shouted back. “Maybe because your options are never getting pussy or getting Hawk’s sloppy seconds! Neither of which would seem that appealing to a guy! Is that what you want? Some ‘normal’ guy?

  “If you wanted a normal guy, how come you’ve got your nose stuck in romance novels all day long?! You think Duke Poofy Pants is a ‘normal’ guy? Who just happens to be super rich, underwear model handsome, and somehow has the answer to all your problems? You don’t know what the hell you want! And you’re shopping my friends like you’re picking out a new car!

  “Well here, I’ll help you! You already know Tex likes girls to call him ‘Sir’ when he spanks them. And Hawk’ll fuck anyone as long as you don’t expect him to remember your name before, during, or after. Especially not after. And Jimmy’s probably so happy that his dick didn’t get blown off along with his leg that he’d do you right now just to prove to himself that he can. If you-”

  “What the hell is wrong with you!” came Hawk’s booming voice from the entryway of the sliding glass door. “We can all hear you, you dumb fuck! Where do you get off talking to her like that?
” Shooter watched as Hayley skirted past him and out the front door of his house, crying. Hawk loomed in the back door with his arms crossed over his chest.

  ***********************

  It took the better part of an hour to apologize to his friends, especially Jimmy, who mostly only grunted his responses and then asked for a ride back to the assisted living center. Chris had never felt like a bigger ass in his whole life. The ride back to the center was uncomfortably silent, so much so, that Chris blurted out, “She thinks you’re hot.”

  Easy was shaken from his reverie out the passenger window and glanced at him. “What?”

  Chris rolled his eyes. “She said you were hot and it…may have tweaked my temper. A little.”

  Easy stared at him until he finally snorted. “Yeah, right.”

  “No, that’s what she said. That you’re easily the hottest in a group made up of only hot guys. And I guess I should be grateful just to be lumped in as a ‘hot guy’ but still…”

  Easy grinned. “I am the hottest.”

  “Well, no shit, Sherlock, but she doesn’t need to be rubbing my nose in it!”

  Easy’s grin widened. “You got jealous.”

  Chris’ grip tightened on the steering wheel. “Negative. I do not get jealous. Especially not jealous of a grunt who needs a shower and a shave, and needed it like two months ago.”

  Easy sat in silence for a moment. “So you’re saying if I cleaned up I could steal your girl out from under you?”

  Chris’ head snapped toward Easy and Easy laughed out loud at the anger on his former lieutenant’s face. “She’s not my girl,” he declared.

  “Awesome. So there’s no reason I can’t nail her. Since I still have my dick and all.”

  “Stop busting my balls over that. I was pissed.”

  “Grateful I have both balls, too.”

  “Oh my God!” Chris yelled. “Let it go. It’s bad enough you stole that blond from me that time at that bar in Germany.”

  Easy smiled knowingly. “You said you weren’t into her.”

  Chris glared at his squad mate. “Fuck you.”

  “Maybe I’ll steal two girls from you,” Easy mused. “One for each of my balls.”

  “God damn it!” Chris bellowed, the boom reverberating in the cab.

  **************************

  Hayley turned the doorknob lock on the front door and quietly slipped out, shutting the door behind her.

  “So I’m an asshole and you just run away?”

  She shrieked, spun around and clutched her duffel bag to her chest. When she regained her composure, she said, “What are you doing out here? It’s the middle of the night!”

  “Waiting for you to do something stupid. Which you are.”

  She bristled. “I’m not ripping you off,” she snapped. “I left money and the key on the kitchen table!”

  “I didn’t think you would rip me off.”

  “No. You just think the scumbag con artist is ‘shopping’ your friends, trying to get her hooks into one of them!”

  Chris blinked at her. “What?”

  “I’m not running some kind of scam on your friends. I mean, I wasn’t- It’s not like I was going screw one of them so I could steal from them or something.”

  Chris ran a hand through his hair. “Well. Good to know I’m an even bigger asshole in your head. That’s comforting,” he muttered. Louder, he said, “Sit down,” indicating the porch steps.

  Hayley didn’t move. Chris grabbed the bag from her. “Hey!” she protested but he was able to wrestle it from her easily.

  He pointed to the steps. “I’m used to having my orders followed, remember?” He sat down.

  Hayley took a seat on the top step, as far away from him as she could get. He eyed the space between them and sighed. “Hope you’re over there ‘cause you’re mad at me, and not because you’re scared of me.”

  She glowered. “I’m mad,” she said quietly.

  “Good,” he said, setting the duffel down on the step in front of them. “Slick, you have every right to be pissed at me.”

  “I thought we were friends,” she replied.

  He sighed. “We are.”

  “Just so long as I stay away from your real friends, with my money grubbing hands and my questionable morals,” she grumbled.

  He laughed suddenly and for some reason that angered her more than anything. She pushed off the step but he grabbed her arm and pulled her back down, and closer to him. “Sit,” he commanded. “Slick, I didn’t lose my temper at you because I think you’re a gold digger.”

  She shuffled her feet on the step to avoid looking at him. “Yes, you did.”

  “No, Hayley, if you think back, you’ll recall I lost my temper approximately 2.5 seconds after you called Jimmy the hottest guy ever.” Her heart knocked in her chest and she immediately tried to pull away, but Chris caught her hand and held it. “Sit, and listen, and let me finish. Nothing can happen between us. For a lot of reasons. I know it. You know it. But that doesn’t mean I like it when I catch you thinking about other guys, my guys, that way.”

  She chewed on her bottom lip. “I didn’t. I wasn’t really. I was just…” she sighed. “I didn’t have a lot of friends in Denver. Or…any. And I forget sometimes that some stuff is better off staying in your head and not said out loud. I only wanted to know about Tex. And only because he said more than once that I wasn’t his type. And I’ve seen him at the bar. The girls he goes home with, well they don’t seem to have a lot in common with each other except for being really pretty. And I know it’s stupid, but I kind of thought maybe he was saying I wasn’t his type because I wasn’t pretty enough. Not that I want to date Tex.” She snorted. “Especially not now.

  “But…it still kind of hurt my feelings to think that he thought I wasn’t good enough. I don’t know why I asked him. I don’t know what I would have done if he’d actually said I was beneath him. It’s not like I don’t know it. I mean, I may not be his type because he’s…into stuff. But I’m also not his type because I’m not good enough. I used to be good enough for a guy like Tex. Now I’m not. It still pisses me off sometimes.”

  “Hayley-” Chris began but she cut him off.

  “And that’s another thought that should’ve stayed in my head where it belonged. I didn’t mean to dump a bunch of shit on you. Sorry.” She sighed again. “I gotta go. Money’s on the table. For the rest of this month and next month, too. To give you time to find another tenant.”

  Chris still didn’t let go of her hand. “Slick-”

  “You don’t like me, Chris. Maybe you think you do. Or maybe you’re one of those guys who nails everything in a hundred foot radius and it irritates you that we’ll never…whatever.”

  “I didn’t say I liked you,” he said abruptly.

  She flinched. “So you don’t. Then why…”

  “I didn’t say I liked you. I didn’t say I didn’t like you. All I said was I don’t like you thinking about my guys. They are not serious guys, but you are a serious girl.”

  “No,” she protested, “I’m not looking for-”

  He squeezed her hand. “But if you were looking, you are not a casual girl. I may not know much about you, Hayley, but I know that you don’t do casual.”

  She chewed her lip again. “I can’t do anything,” she admitted.

  “Okay. So you don’t need to get twisted up with one of my guys. Because they’re good guys, really good guys, but they are not serious. Only Tex would be open to settling down and we’ve already established that you are not capable of giving him what he wants.” He grinned. “Slick, you couldn’t call a man ‘Sir’ if your life depended on it.”

  Hayley pushed her hair out of her eyes with her free hand. “Maybe I could. I know I definitely do not have bedroom sass. Whatever that is, I don’t have it.”

  Chris smiled. “You will. Someday. And when you did, Tex would paddle you for it every night and you’d never sit down again.”

  Hayley grimaced.
“Ouch. Yeah, maybe not.” She paused, looking up at the sky. “Doesn’t matter. I’ve got too much in my head. I’ll stick to my books. They’re safe. No paddling allowed.”

  “That’s not a life, Slick.”

  “Yes it is,” she said firmly. “It is a life, Chris. May not be a perfect one, but it is a life. And I’m grateful to have it, such as it is.”

  Chris suddenly leaned over and planted a kiss on the side of her head. “Stay,” he said quietly. “At least for a little longer. You have friends. A job. Good place to live. A stove.”