by Vivian Ward
With him hanging around our property, things were only going to get harder.
Chapter 6
Damon
No matter how much I pumped iron, drank or fucked the closest chick I could find, I never could get Julie out of my head. I had to keep forgetting her. Every. Damned. Day.
I told myself over and over that time could heal anything, but I was dead wrong. As soon as I saw her standing in my room, it was like a bullet hit my heart when I saw the hurt in her eyes.
I couldn’t throw Sparkles out of the room fast enough, and I could kill Lee for letting her in. His tiny Asian body would fit nicely in a suitcase, and I reminded him of that as soon as his eyes popped open the next morning.
While I was taking a shower, he got a hit on some credit card activity on Mask but it was overseas, and the transactions were still in progress, so we didn’t know exactly what they were for.
“It could be anything,” Lee was telling Mr. Turner as I dried off and started to get dressed. “They could be there, or it could be a simple wire transfer. There’s no telling until the transactions complete and then I can find out what they are.”
He was silent as he listened to Mr. Turner on the other line; I’d imagine he was chewing his ass out. He could be a patient man when he wanted to be, but when he wanted something, he didn’t like having to wait.
“Okay, we’ll call you as soon as we know something.”
After he had ended the call, I asked him what came through.
“I’m not sure. I saw some overseas charges, but they could be anything, and I won’t have a clue what they are until they complete but you know Mr. Turner. He thinks I should know the minute something pops up.”
“Yeah, he does.”
It felt strange being back home and not getting into a fight, and I was itching for one. Everyone in this town has always loved to start shit with me, and I couldn’t shake the overwhelming feeling to snap some bones and smell some fresh blood. I was looking forward to finding out who the hell was fucking around with Julie’s family’s property.
We might not have been on good terms, but that didn’t change the way I felt about her. I could try to forget her and tell myself a million times over that she didn’t mean much to me, but it was all smoke.
She was a good woman, and I had fucked things up; there was no doubt about that. But I’d fight for her and protect her till my dying breath.
And when she came to visit me, I couldn’t shake the feeling that she was holding something back from me. She was so distant, and maybe it was because of the way things were, but if she wanted distance, I’d give it to her in spades because I’d spent the last two years trying to get over her. I never planned on coming back here and I sure as hell didn’t think we’d run into each other.
All that did was stir up shit that I didn’t want to deal with. Shit that I’d fought to make myself forget. I’d rather spend my time drilling screws into my toes than rehash all those feelings I had for her.
As soon as I laid eyes on her, I remembered how good it felt to press my lips against hers and grab a hold of those luscious hips of hers while I banged the fuck out of her tight little pussy.
But fuck, who was I kidding? I could try to avoid her all I wanted while helping out her dad and the car lot, but that perky little body of hers did voodoo shit to me. The kind of shit that’s unimaginable.
I would have to force myself not to think dirty. I’d just have to concentrate on my work. I couldn’t allow myself to think about her lips, her tits or her ass. Just focus on the bad guys.
The bad guys were why I walked out of her life, and then back into it. My world revolved around beating up scumbags and protecting the innocent. It didn’t matter if I was dealing with the boss’s daughter, Bethany, or taking care of things for Julie.
It pissed me off to think about how vulnerable they were and how assholes like Mask and whoever was behind hiding things on Julie’s property could put them in harm’s way.
When we got to the car lot, her dad was in his private office, but I didn’t see Julie anywhere in sight. He showed us out to the area that they had found the hidden stashes of cell phones and buried explosives.
“Julie said you wanted to keep this quiet. How much of this property do you own?” I asked.
I needed to know how much of the property was our problem and how much of it we had control over. If the secret burials lead into someone else’s property, we could have a serious problem on our hands and might have to get law enforcement involved, which none of us wanted to do.
If the local cops saw me around here, they’d have a field day with me and find any reason they could to put me behind bars, and I had shit to do.
“Well, technically we own 21 acres but beyond that, it’s just wooded area that is owned by the county.”
“Okay. We’ve got this, and we’ll let you know what we find.”
“Fine,” he stuffed his hands into his pockets, turning to walk towards the lot before he stopped and turned around. “You know, it was my idea to bring you in. Julie was against it so if I were you; I’d play my cards carefully.”
“Understood,” I nodded. “Like I said, we’ll let you know what we find.”
Lee and I walked the property, finding the unearthed piles of cell phones and pipe bombs; and we also found several buried maps and a few piles of buried cash stored away in lock boxes that we pried open.
Just along the property line we found a disturbing amount of guns and ammunition buried in plastic coolers; like the kind you would take camping to store food in.
“Oh man, this isn’t good,” Lee said, rubbing his temples. “Do you have any clue who buried this shit?”
“I have no clue but we’re going to need to monitor it. We’ve got to find out who’s behind it and put an end to it.”
“This shit’s for the cops, the feds. If we get tangled up in this mess, there’s no doubt someone’s going to end up dead.”
“Yeah, them—not us.”
I could sense he was getting cold feet; not that I expected any less of him. He was a computer genius; he wasn’t equipped for fighting and lacked basic survival skills, but he was already neck-deep in this shit, and I wasn’t letting him back out of it.
“Here’s how it’s gonna go down. We’re going to help them out, but I want you to focus on tracking Mask for Mr. Turner. Once you figure out where those fucks are, you let me know, and we’ll go from there. But for right now? This is our top priority,” he started to open his mouth, but I put my finger over it. “And not a fucking word to Mr. Turner about our extracurricular activity.” I stared into his eyes, “Got it?”
He nodded. “Yeah, but what if we get killed?”
I smacked him in the back of the head, “We’re not going to get killed; I won’t let that happen. Let’s go back and get our stuff from the hotel.”
“Get it from the hotel?” he gulped, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat.
“Yeah, we’re not staying there anymore.”
I thought the dude was going to shit his pants as round as his beady eyes blew up.
“Where—where are we going to stay?”
“In the woods. Damn. Do I gotta teach you everything? How do you think we’re going to catch who’s behind this? By monitoring from the hot tub of the hotel? We’ve got work to do, and it’s not going to get done watching Girls Gone Wild or whatever that porn is that you jack off to.”
His face froze, and his entire body tensed up. I guess he didn’t think I was onto him, but he wasn’t slick, and anyone could hear him fapping to that shit as loud as he was.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yeah, I bet you don’t,” I laughed at him.
I didn’t see her for the first couple of days after we started watching things, mainly because anytime we needed something, I’d send Lee to talk to her dad, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t watching her from afar any chance I got.
Lee would stay gone, sometime
s for hours at a time while he talked to her dad or used their Internet to track Mask and Bethany before he’d update Mr. Turner.
We had learned the international transactions were nothing more than Mask moving around money in accounts and making purchases, but we still didn’t know what he was up to or where they were staying.
The one thing that was keeping us here was that he pulled money from an ATM in St. Louis, so we knew they were still in the general area, which was enough to keep Mr. Turner off our back and from him asking too many questions.
Any chance I could, I stared through the woods, watching Julie like a hawk as her shapely silhouette crossed from the house to the car lot as the sun passed across the sky. For as busy as their family car lot was, she sure made a lot of trips back inside that house, sometimes for a couple of hours at a time before getting back to work.
But whatever. It was none of my business; she’d made it clear that she didn’t want anything to do with me.
My business was buried out in these woods, and someplace in another part of the surrounding area, wherever that may be.
While Lee was up at the house schmoozing with the Bailey’s, I was busy doing dirty work. Since we had found all this shit buried on the property, nobody had been back to claim any of it, and it didn’t feel right. Who the hell would bury all a small arsenal of bombs, guns and phones and not come back for it?
I never said anything to Lee; he was too skittish, but to me, it felt like terrorists were behind all of this. It made sense. There was no reason the U.S. military would bury these things on a civilian’s private property and none of the crew that I used to run with would hide shit like this.
My old friends were dirtbags, but they wouldn’t have any reason to have anything to do with this stuff. I hated to sound paranoid, but it was the only thing that fit.
It was only our fourth day out there, and Lee had been doing everything he could to go inside the house, leaving me plenty of time to explore and discover on my own which was fine by me. The farther I stayed away from Julie, the better.
I know it hurt her when I left, which was never my intention, but it felt like a dull sword ripping right through me when I ran back into her.
I’d had plenty of time to think about her since I had been back. In fact, I was grateful for the times Lee went and talked to her. He would tell me everything they talked about and what was going on in her life.
From the sounds of it, she didn’t have a boyfriend and hearing that put my mind at ease. The thought of another man pawing at what was once mine made my blood boil.
Hiking through the woods, on the far west perimeter of the property line, I found a backpack filled with all black clothing—definitely, something a terrorist would wear so they could roam about the woods undetected.
There were even some pamphlets in the bottom of the backpack, and I remembered reading something about the terrorists using pamphlets to recruit people. They were illegible, but heavy rains had swept through the area for nearly five days before we arrived so it would make sense that I couldn’t read anything on them.
My heart dropped to my feet. With all of these findings, it was clear who was behind this, and there was no telling how much time they had spent on the Bailey’s family property. Had they been watching Julie and her family? Did they know their routine or schedule? Would they hurt any of them? Did they already have plans to kill anyone who stood in their way?
There was no way of knowing what these people were capable of or how many there were—or where they were. I looked around, studying my surroundings.
What if they were watching me right now? What if they’re watching the house or the car lot?
I had to tell Julie and her family. They needed to know what the full extent of everything was that was taking place on their land and what kind of dangers they were facing. Carrying the backpack with me, I set off for the car lot to tell Mr. Bailey first. I wanted to tell him man to man before the women knew what was going on.
“Is Mr. Bailey here?” I asked a man, probably in his late 40’s who came out of the shop.
“I’m sorry,” he wiped his greasy hands on an old red rag; the same kind I used when I worked on cars for him just a couple of years ago. “He had to run up to an auction to buy some more cars, but he’ll be back later this evening.”
Shit. This wasn’t something that could wait.
“Where is his daughter? Julie? Do you know where she is?”
“Who are you?” he eyed me suspiciously.
“I’m sorry, Damon. Damon Miller,” I shook his hand. “Mr. Bailey has me working on some private business for him, and it’s urgent. Do you know where his daughter is?”
He nodded towards the two-story house with blue siding, the same house where Julie had yelled at me the last time I ever dropped her off, and she told me to go to hell. “I’m pretty sure she’s at the house.”
“Thank you,” I left the office and dashed across the grass that separated work and home for the Bailey’s.
I should have known she was home since Lee was at their house. They always go to the house so he can use the Wi-Fi because the router for the Internet sucks.
“Julie! Lee!” I called out, running, taking the steps two at a time. “I gotta show you something.”
I knocked on the door, but it pushed right open. The fuck?
Slowly, I swung the door open and peered around the room. I didn’t see or hear anything; everything was quiet. Walking deeper into the house, I heard something, but it sounded like heavy breathing and a laugh.
Turning the corner as I walked into the kitchen, I heard a wet, smacking sound and immediately knew what it was. It was the only thing that could have been worse was finding one of those terrorist fuckers with a knife sticking out of her belly.
It was Lee sucking face with Julie, his hands cupping her breasts as he pushed her up against the wall and a big, gloating grin plastered across her face as she wrapped her legs around his waist.
The second she saw me, her eyes turned into huge dollar pieces. Fury coursed through every drop of blood in my veins as she continued to lock lips with him and pulled his body into hers with her legs gripping him tight.
I couldn’t believe she’d tease me and think she could get away with it! Had she lost her damned mind?
“Get the fuck away from her,” I grabbed Lee’s shoulder, spinning him around.
I looked at Julie, seething with rage. “How the fuck could you?” I asked her.
“We’re over. We’ve been over, Damon. You can’t just waltz back into my life and think you’re going to start calling the shots again. That’s not how it works; that’s not how it’s going to work. I’m a grown woman, and I can do whatever the hell I please,” she hissed in my face.
What I wouldn’t give to put my mouth on top of her hot lips and shut her right the hell up.
“And you!” I started after Lee. “Who the fuck do you think you are? You knew we had history, and here I was, thinking you’d been coming here to keep our boss updated. You scrawny little shit!” I chased after him.
For him being a little guy, he was fucking fast; I didn’t think his legs would move that quick. He ducked under the table and came out on the other side before he took off again.
I’d deal with him later; I wasn’t chasing him all over the house. We’d have to meet up sooner or later, and when we did, we would be all alone in the woods.
“Do you even know what you just did?” I turned my attention to Julie. “He’s my fucking partner!”
“Fuck off, Damon. You’re not the boss of me, and I’m not dealing with your shit.”
This shit was tearing me up from the inside out.
“Julie, babe. What happened? Where did we go so wrong? I left St. Louis to better myself, become a better person and when I returned, I came back a better man—or so I thought.” I studied her big, beautiful eyes. “You should have never kissed him. We both know he has no intentions of sticking around, he’s just passing through.
”
“Like you? Isn’t that what you’re doing? Just passing through?”
Shit. I had fucked a lot of things up, including us but I wasn’t taking all of the blame.
“That’s not fair, and you know it, Julie. You could have spoken up, said your peace about me leaving before I left but you didn’t. You clammed up, stormed off into the house and I never saw you again. ”
“What the hell was so important that you had to come barging in here for anyway?”
Her eyes watered up and for a minute, I hated myself; she looked so hurt and full of sadness.
“I’ve got something to tell you,” I grabbed her hand and started leading her toward the couch. “I want you to sit down for this.”
“You don’t get to tell me what to do,” she yanked her hand away from mine. “I’m not a child, and you’re not going to treat me like one either. Say what you’ve got to say and then get the hell out.”
The icy stare in her eyes cut straight through my heart. The sweet Julie that I once knew had been replaced with a menacing demon who could grind my heart into a bloody, beating pulp in a matter of seconds with nothing more than her voice and stare.
“I came to tell you that it’s not safe here. The shit that you and your dad found in the woods? That’s just the top of the iceberg, babe. You’re not playing cops and robbers with the local bad boys, and it sure as fuck ain’t military hiding that shit here.”
“What are you saying?”
The look on her face brightened, and her eyes registered. She knew exactly what I was saying.
“You’ve got to get the hell out of here—you and your parents both.”
“We can’t just up and leave, Damon. It’s not that simple,” she snorted, mocking me. “Memorial Day weekend is coming up and in case you haven’t turned on a TV since you’ve been back, we’re running an unbelievable sale. People from all over will be coming to buy up cars.”