by Cat Porter
Muttering rose up behind me, the sheets were tugged and twisted at my side. Serena was having a nightmare. I tossed the food back on the dresser and leaned over her.
“Hey, hey, Serena. It’s okay. Shh.”
I slid in beside her in bed and wrapped my arm around her. She gnashed her teeth, her head shaking back and forth, fists curling in the sheet, warding off someone, defensive. Her legs kicked out, her breathing hard and choppy.
I lifted up, smoothing a hand over her taut face. “Serena.”
She jacked up from the mattress, gasping for air over the edge of the bed.
I clicked on the bedside lamp. “Hey, it’s me, Justin. You okay? You were having a nightmare.”
She only nodded, her head turned away from me.
My hand slid up her damp back, arching under my touch. “I won’t hurt you, you know that, right?”
Her head slumped down.
“Look at me, baby. Please.”
She pulled at the sheets and raised her eyes to mine. So tired.
“Can I touch you?” I asked her. “Can I hold you?”
She nodded, her body shuddering, arms curled against her chest. I moved closer and she fell into my embrace, her cool damp skin against mine. “It’s okay. You’re here with me now. It’s over. It’s really over. You want something to drink?”
“Water,” she whispered hoarsely.
“Got bottles right here.”
I got out of the bed and grabbed a cold bottle from the pack Tania had stashed in the mini fridge and opened it for her. She took it, and I watched her throat move as she gulped.
“Slowly, baby. Slowly.”
She pulled the bottle away, her lips shiny and wet, her eyes gleaming. Better.
“You hungry? I was eating a PB and J Tania bought.”
“Okay.”
I handed her the other half and she ate. We sat on the bed cross-legged, facing each other like two kids staying up late sneaking treats in the dark. Only we were naked and my cock was hard as a rock.
Her eyes danced in the half-light. “That’s good.”
I slanted my head at her. “The sandwich?”
We laughed.
“You want something else?”
“No more food.” Her knees grazed mine. “This is nice.”
“Yeah.”
“I haven’t had much of any nice.”
“You got it now.”
She leaned over and planted a soft kiss on the side of my face. “Hold me.”
I lifted her into my lap, wrapped her legs around me, and held her tightly. “Not letting go.”
“Don’t.”
She burrowed into me. My dick was thrilled to be making contact with her body again.
We fell back on the bed taking in each other’s breaths. My hand stroked her sides, and I gently kissed the tops of each soft breast as her fingers slid through my hair. I lay my head on her chest, and we drifted asleep on the erratic rhythm of each other’s heartbeats.
The sweep of something cool whispered up over my naked body, and I forced my eyelids open. Tania. She pulled the sheet up over me and Serena who was asleep on my chest. I let out a grunt as I shifted her bare body to my side under the sheet.
“You okay?” Tania asked.
“Yeah.”
“You sure?”
I rubbed my eyes. “Yeah.”
“Go back to sleep. I didn’t mean to wake you. You two just looked like abandoned puppies for a minute there.”
I wiped a hand down my stubbly face and swung out of the bed, feet planting on the floor. “I’m going to take a shower.”
She cleared her throat at the sight of my morning wood. “Um, I got us some breakfast.” She turned away from me and quickly climbed back into her bed.
“Great.”
By the time I got out of the bathroom, Serena and Tania were talking and spreading the food out on Tania’s made up bed. Tania had gotten us scrambled eggs with cheese and ham on English muffins. We ate and it was so fucking good. Serena looked at my wound and applied disinfectant and gel and wrapped it firmly with a sterile bandage.
“I got you this too.” Tania took out a box from a plastic bag and tossed it on the bed by Serena. Hair dye. Dark brown. “Your red really stands out. I thought you’d want to change it.”
Serena only stared at the box.
I crumpled up the foil from the sandwich. “That’s good, right?”
“I figured you two wanted to stay out of sight,” Tania said. “Or did I get that wrong?” She drained her paper coffee cup.
“You’re right,” Serena said. “Could you help me?”
“Sure,” Tania replied, a grin on her face. The girl liked being useful. “I’ve done it plenty of times with my friends back home.” She cleaned up the food and juice and coffee containers from the bed. “Sorry, I’m blabbing.”
“I like your blabbing. Where are you from, Tania?” asked Serena, her voice steady, her eyes bright. Tania’s friendliness was a good, unusual vibe for her. I leaned back against the headboard as Tania told us about her hometown. Meager, South Dakota.
Meager. Home of the One-Eyed Jacks.
Tania’s eyes skidded over the tattoo of flames that ran down one side of my chest and the other tattoo of a knife over my left hip.
“I went to college in Chicago,” Tania said. “I graduated this past May. I don’t have a job or anything yet. No specific plans, but I know I wanted out of Meager. My best friend just got married to the man of her dreams. Her dreams, certainly not mine.”
I unwrapped the pack of smokes Tania had bought me earlier. “You mind if I smoke in here, Tania?”
“No, go ahead,” she said, shifting herself on the bed, uncrossing her legs yet again. “You’re a member of the Flames, aren’t you? I saw your tattoo.”
“Yeah, I am. You know any Flames?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Keep it that way.”
Her eyes flashed, her brows lifted. “Huh.”
I got the impression, she wanted to say something but swallowed it back down. There was a lull in the conversation, a thick awkwardness hanging between us. I dragged on my smoke, and that tension pulled on my lungs. Shit, I don’t know why I smoked tobacco half the time.
I rubbed a hand over my chest. “What are you going to do in Chicago now?”
Tania refolded her legs the other way. “I just want to get back there. I don’t want to just get any old job, but I will if I have to.” She rolled her eyes, tilting her head. “I’ll figure it out once I get back to the city. Of course, my mother and my sister had a cow over my decision, but I couldn’t sit still in Meager. No way. There’s more to life than...”
Tania continued on in her condemnation of small town life in Nowheresville, South Dakota while I smoked. Serena opened the box of hair dye, taking out the tube of color, another bottle, and the plastic gloves, unfolding the instructions.
The women went into the bathroom and dyed Serena’s hair. I switched channels on the television. Serena came out with a mountain of blackish goo swirled over her head, making faces, and Tania and I laughed. A half an hour later, after a shower, Serena emerged from the bathroom with a brand new look. They’d even cut her hair shorter. She looked sleek. Edgy. Even through the exhaustion and the anxiety she was fucking gorgeous. My dick hardened in my jeans, and I adjusted myself on the bed. Serena stared at me, a sly smile growing on those lips, which only made my cock harder and my pulse race.
“We need to change your bandage,” Tania said gesturing at my arm.
“Huh?” I cleared my throat and sat up. “Oh. Yeah.”
Tania came over with a small plastic bag from a pharmacy and sat down next to me. A whiff of fancy perfume came up between us. She smelled nice. She had nice clothes and used fancy words. I’d never been this
up close to anyone like her before. Her big dark eyes concentrated on dabbing antibiotic ointment over my cut, applying new tiny sticky bandages to keep the wound together.
“You got experience with this shit?” I asked.
“I grew up on a farm. You learn to get the basics of life done on your own.”
“What kind of farm? Soy? Wheat?”
“A little bit of those, but mostly sunflowers.”
“Nice.”
“Yeah, it is nice. It was. Where are you from?”
“Nebraska.”
“Not too far away.” Her cool fingers smoothed over the edges of the bandage and traced along my skin where my flaming arrow tattoo was, next to my own scars from my time at the Smoking Guns. Her gaze snagged on mine. You could lose yourself in those big dark eyes. I took out another cigarette.
“Those are a hell of a lot of scars. They look recent too,” she said.
“They are.”
“You get in fights a lot?”
“Yep.”
“Serena’s got a lot of the same scars on her. Plenty more, though.”
I lit another smoke, inhaling deep. “Her ex did a job on both of us.”
“And your hands?” She pressed her lips together and took in a tiny breath waiting for my answer.
I only nodded.
Tania turned away from me and packed up the first aid material and shoved it back in the pharmacy bag. She rolled up the waste paper from the bandages in a ball and tossed them in the garbage basket at the side of the dresser.
“Don’t leave those there,” I said. “Don’t want to leave anything behind for anyone to trace us.”
“Oh. Right.” Tania grabbed the stuff she’d thrown in the basket and shoved it in another plastic bag and then in her duffle. “So what’s the plan? How long do you think we should lay low here?”
I glanced at Serena who had curled up on the bed behind Tania and fallen asleep. She looked more like a twelve year old than a full grown woman.
“I want her to gain her strength back. She wasn’t eating or sleeping right. For years, I expect. They beat her up bad the night before I went in and got her.”
“They?” Tania’s face tightened. “I thought you said her ex?”
“Her ex is part of a bike club too.”
“Oh shit.” Tania’s face reddened.
“They abused her.” I grabbed another smoke from the pack at my side and clicked my lighter on.
Tania sucked in a breath. “Oh, I forgot, I got you some ibuprofen. I have naproxen sodium too. It’s stronger, if you want, if you—”
“Yeah, load me up, Tania.” I shot her a smirk as she launched from the bed to her handbag and got out two pill bottles. I took one of each and chased them with the soda I’d been nursing all morning. I laid back down on the bed alongside Serena. “I’d like her to get stronger, then I’ll get her out of here.”
“They’re looking for her, right? Why don’t you come with me to Chicago? You two could get lost in the big city or—”
“I can’t leave, Tania. I got to stay around here.”
She laid down on the other side of me. “Your club?”
“Don’t ask me anymore. I ain’t gonna tell you anyhow.”
“I don’t want to know,” she whispered. “What I really want to know is what happened to your face. Sorry, but, it’s pretty brutal looking.”
“I’m ugly, huh?”
She smiled. A gentle smile, a smile that was so unexpected, so relaxed and welcoming, I didn’t know what to fucking do with it.
“You’re not ugly. The scars are, but you aren’t. Not at all.” Her face reddened again.
A flash of heat went off in my chest, and the tension there melted at the gentleness of her voice, the sincerity of her tone.
“Thanks. I guess.” We both laughed.
“Can I have a cigarette?” she asked.
“Yeah, sure.” I lit a cigarette and passed it to her and lit another for me.
“I’ve only smoked a few times before, but what the hell. I’ve done plenty of shit I’ve never done before in the last twenty-four hours.”
We talked, and she told me more about her sister and her baby brother. How she felt guilty leaving them, but she had to leave now or she knew she never would. She didn’t want to end up married and pregnant before she was twenty-two.
Serena woke up, stretching out on the mattress next to me. “I think we need to drink.”
“Let me go out and buy a bottle of whatever you guys want. It’ll cost less than opening those tiny bottles in the minibar,” said Tania.
“Very practical, Tania. I like that.” I tossed a twenty dollar bill on the bed. “Grab us a bottle of Jack.”
“Jack it is.” Tania took the bill, tucked her feet into her hot pink All-Stars, grabbed her bag, and left the room.
“I like her,” said Serena.
“Me too. We got real lucky.”
“See? Our luck has changed. The winds of fortune are blowing us on the right course.”
“There’s a course for good fortune?”
“Destiny always has a course for us.”
“You believe in that shit?”
“A part of me has faith in it. The little girl part of me. Like that part of Tania that wants to believe there has to be something more in her life than just a farm and the same faces.”
“Somewhere, over the rainbow, huh?”
She grinned. “Yeah. The three of us and Dorothy.”
I let out a laugh. “Let’s not forget the scruffy dog.”
“Toto!” Serena squealed like a kid, hands in the air.
“Yeah, Toto. Pity there ain’t no Auntie Em for us to go home to, baby.”
“We got each other.” She pushed the hair from my face, and my heart squeezed at her words.
“Yeah, we do.” I sat up on my elbows. “How you feeling?”
“Better. I keep thinking I have stuff to do, but I don’t.”
“No, you don’t. No more.” I took in a breath. “Get closer.”
She crawled up alongside me like a cat and hovered over me. The heat rising from her skin was palpable, and I craved it all over me, inside me, on me.
“Hi,” she whispered, her breath mingling with mine.
“Hi.”
I pulled on her tresses of dark brown hair and tugged her face toward me, brushing her lips with mine. She kissed me long and slow, our tongues stroking, sliding, exploring. A moan escaped my throat, and my hands cradled the back of her head.
“I’ve been wanting you to kiss me like this so bad,” she said.
“I’ve been wanting you, period, so goddamn bad,” I replied.
Our tongues tangled together wildly, and I held her close. She settled on top of me and rubbed herself up and down over my body. My hands gripped her ass, bringing her tight over my cock, holding her there. My fingers slid over the bare skin of her thighs and under her panties, digging into her soft flesh.
Our breathing grew ragged and short, and I flexed my hips against hers. “Fuck, you feel good. So damn good.”
The key bolted abruptly in the lock, and our bodies stiffened. My hand shot out toward my gun on the nightstand.
“Hey, it’s me.” Tania stood in the doorway, her expression freezing. “Oh, geez, sorry.”
“I thought—”
“Just me. I-I got the Jack.” She held up a paper bag. “But I can go.”
“No, Tania. Get in here.” Serena slid off me. “I’ll get glasses.”
Tania locked the door behind her. She took the bottle of booze out of the bag and threw two bags of barbecue potato chips at me.
“Good choice,” I said, sitting up and ripping into the chips.
The girls drank out of the two glasses Serena brought over from the dresser, and I chugge
d straight from the bottle.
A bang on the door made my body stiffen. Tania and Serena froze. I slanted my head at Serena, and she slid soundlessly off the mattress and under the bed. I gestured at the door to Tania, and she nodded, flinging the quilt over the drink glasses. Taking the bottle with me, I went to the other side of the door.
Tania glanced around the room one final time and holding my gaze, put a hand on the doorknob. “Who is it?”
“It’s the police, ma’am.”
Her gaze jumped to mine. I nodded and stepped back against the wall.
“Oh, okay. Do you have a badge?”
“Sure do,” came the reply.
She opened the door a crack. “Hi.”
“Sorry to bother you, but I’m looking for—”
“Your badge?”
“Yeah, right here. “
Tania’s shoulders grew rigid, an eyebrow followed suit. She wasn’t buying it.
“I’m a detective. Looking for a teenage girl.”
“Uh huh. Well, I’m not her, that’s for sure.”
He laughed. “Not too far off, though.”
Tania grinned. A brittle, impatient, get-the-fuck-on-with-it grin.
“Yeah, well, this girl’s a runaway.” He held up a photograph. “You seen anyone to fit that bill?” He shifted his weight, his feet shuffling in the doorway.
“No, but I haven’t been out either. I’ve been holed up here, waiting for my boyfriend. He’s about ten minutes out on his way from Meager. I’m getting ready for our own private party. So, no, I haven’t seen any runaway teenagers. This motel room is all I’m interested in tonight, if you get my drift. We’re out of here first thing in the morning. So, if you’ll excuse me—”
Tania closed the door, but a large hand planted itself on the surface pushing it back. Her face reddened.
“I don’t think you understand, ma’am. What did you say your name was?”
“I didn’t say. And don’t you dare push this door again or I’m going to have to yell for help.”
“Sorry. Look, I’m just eager to find this girl. I mean, this is my first case solo.”
“Okay. Good luck to you. Like I said, I haven’t seen anyone fitting that description.”