For a moment I try to resist to his charme. Actually it doesn’t make sense to do it, in an off-road car, while the rest of the world just want our ruin. It doesn’t make sense, but his hands are going down between my teats, down to the alba line designing its borders, and then further down. I can’t help but open my legs like a flower at dawn.
My thigs now enlarged, ready to welcome Matthew, tremble when he goes in and out, increasingly.
His lips plays with every inch of my excited skin. I put my fingers among his hair, at every stroke I pull the head back, with a low moan. When we join I don’t feel anything else: neither cold and fear. This special sensation I only feel when I’m in his arms.
I feel that his excitement inside me is ready to burst, but Matthew retains and waits to come only when I’m ready too. So, after some skilful strokes and my cries of pleasure, I find myself wrapped in his embrace and recover the sense of what I’m doing. I know why I helped him to flee and understand why I’ll do everything to help him realize his dreams, even though they are in clear contrast with my own.
We stay still and silence for a few seconds, but we both know that is time to go. We dress, then start again, heading toward the main road. As we are merging on it, I see a car going very fast and my heart loses a beat.
«Matthew, that one was Fred.»
«What are you saying, Khyla?»
«I would recognize his car in a thousand. It has the adhesive label of the Australia Road. I gave it to him when we were still together, to celebrate our first week.»
«This is a bad sign. It means he’s on our tail. If we didn’t stop there, they would probably already caught us.»
While we are still thinking about what to do, my phone rings, scaring me.
«Who can it be?» I say.
«Do answer, Khyla. It could just be someone who made a wrong number.» says Matthew reassuringly.
The rings continue while Matthew parks beside the road.
I answer the phone activating the speaker.
«Hello...» I say with trembling voice.
«Matthew, Khyla... Is it you?»
«Who’s speaking?» I ask. I know that it’s not Fred, because his voice is raspy for the cigarettes he smokes.
«It’s José. Excuse me if I didn’t call you before, but the police trapped me.»
«What do you mean?» intervenes Matthew.
«Unless the male was threatening me, I managed to be silent, but then that bitch of the woman threatened to close my business. I was forced to say what car you have and where are you heading.»
A woman? Since when Fred has a woman as work companion? I can’t believe he replaced Jim with a police-woman. She surely is a wonderful girl. He would never accept to work with an old and ugly one. I’m feeling the jealousy of those who, even breaking a relationship, still feel something about the other. It’s not true love, it’s more an indefinite feeling of possession.
Matthew’s voice interrupts my thoughts.
«Where are you calling from?»
«From a phone booth. I was afraid that they had put my cell under control and, as soon as my employee came, I rushed out to call you. Hell! They realized that you took a taxi and forced the driver to tell them the address he brought you to. Sorry Matthew, I betrayed your trust, but I had no choice.»
«Don’t worry. Everyone in your place would had do the same.»
He seems to me too much understanding. If Mary had done such a thing, I would have banned her from my friendship until the end of my days. Fortunately I know that I can trust on her more than on me.
I decide to intervene.
«Ok, you did well to inform us, but what are we going to do now? All the roads leading to Nevada are full of block roads. Our only salvation was trying to escape through the Yosemite Park.»
A moment of silence full of tension then José speaks again.
«Listen, to go to Nevada now, it’s out of question. They would catch you for sure. I have a plan. Change your course and head for Tioga Road.»
«What the hell are you saying? In winter that road is closed, up to three thousand meters!» Matthew protests.
«I’m not saying that you should go through it with the jeep. In the last few days it was snowing a lot and it is impossible even with an off-road car like yours.»
«And so what?» I ask annoyed.
«As soon as you see the sign indicating the closure of the road, continue on foot. A couple of miles away you will find a small mountain house, you can take refuge there. The owner is a friend of my girlfriend. She spends the summer months there, and sometimes she and her husband invited us for the weekend. I know for sure that there is a fireplace, enough wood and a good supply of long-lasting food. I have already warned Bart and he assured me that he and his friends are going to set up a network of false sightings, so they can mislead the police. As soon as the situation has calmed down, you can resume your trip to Hawthorne.»
Matthew and I look in each other eyes. There’s no need to speak to understand that this is the only possible solution, at the moment.
«Ok, thank you for the advice. Just one more thing. How can we get in without breaking the lock?››
«Don’t worry. You’ll find the key in an umbrella stand at the right of the door.»
So, after clarifying the last doubt, we finish the conversation and resume our journey. At the junction Matthew turns right to return on the main road.
«What if Fred is hiding somewhere, ready to arrest us?» I ask oppressed by fear.
«I don’t think so. I think he is heading toward the entrance of the Yosemite Park and he can’t suspect that we are going toward Tioga Road. Wait and see. This time again we are going to be lucky.»
I really hope that. Yet, why can’t I be so optimist?
CHAPTER 29
FRED
While I’m driving fast along the main road, Raven has the duty to carefully observe every car we pass, so that the fugitives can be intercepted right away.
«Is it possible that we didn’t reach them yet?» I ask more to myself than to my companion.
«What if the guy at the garage lied to us?» asks Raven too to herself. «We did wrong to trust him. We should have looked for some clues in his house.»
I don’t agree on this point.
«I can understand your perplexity, but my sixth sense tells me that he was sincere. The problem is where they can be now...»
«I told you to ask for reinforcements. At this time, must likely, we would have had them in the fists. I don’t understand all your anxiety to capture them by yourself. Are you trying to get a promotion?»
Raven’s objections doesn’t surprise me. If I was in her place, I would have thought the same. This is the reason why I decide to tell her the truth.
«I know Khyla. We lived together for some months.»
«Really? That’s why you want to save her! You are still in love, aren’t you?»
And as she says this, I perceive some annoyance in the tone of the voice. Very well! It seems that my charm started to have some effect on my beautiful colleague...
«No, I don’t feel nothing anymore. She left me because I wanted her to do so.»
«How?»
I can’t tell her more. If I told her that to finish my story with Khyla, I made her find me in our bedroom fucking with Fanny, my chances of getting her in bed when this adventure came to an end, would be nil.
«I only showed her my defects clearly. Without the need to leave her, she suddenly decided that we couldn’t live together anymore.»
Raven shakes her head. Does she suspect something? She could understand that there are untold truth, moreover she’s a good police-woman. Anyway she doesn’t replicate and, while looking at the sides of the road, her attention is captured by a sign.
«We are near a service station. Do you mind stopping there? You might ask someone, while I’m going to ask the manager to show me the CCTV recordings.»
I would like to keep on going, but actually her
idea is reasonable. It could be the quickest way to understand if Khyla and her kidnapper already passed from there and when.
We get off the car and she walks boldly toward the manager’s office, while I move among the customer in the bar and those at the gas station, showing them Matthew and Khyla’s photos.
«I know them!» someone exclaims making me deceiving that maybe I can catch them soon.
«I saw them on tv!»
Asshole! I step over the stupid joke and go on asking if they saw them in the roundabout or if they saw their car, but nobody knows. Not even the managers. How is it possible? They can’t have evaporated.
I sit on a stool at the bar’s counter. The capuccino-boy gives me one, in the vain hope of comforting me. I accept it with a smile and sip it, but I’m not serene at all. Even though I’m doing what I can to intercept them, they are always one step beyond us.
Raven reaches me shaking her head.
«Nothing at all. They didn’t pass through here. Do you have any news?»
«Do you mean in addition to that asshole that told me that he saw them... on the evening news? No, we came here on a wild goose chase.»
«Do you know what, Fred? I think it is time to desist from the idea of capturing them by ourselves. Now we are going back in the car and tell our colleague about the track we are following. They’ll send us renforcement and a couple of elicopters.»
My pride shouts, inside me, that it doesn’t want to surrender, but my reason is giving way under the blows of the failures accumulated until now.
«Ok, let’s do it» I agree.
I finish to drink my capuccino, Raven has an expresso and we go back to the car. As I start the car and go away from the service station, she takes the phone to call the colleague, but I stop her.
«Look there, in front of us.»
«What is it, Fred?»
«Can you see it? It’s an off-road vehicle, the same model of the two fugitives. I can’t read the number plate, it’s too dirty. But that’s better... the fact that it’s not visible, is a sufficient reason to justify a pursuit, in case they were not them.»
I say to Raven to put down the phone and push the accelerator. The pursuing is resumed, and this time I will win.
I drive off at top speed. The more we get nearer, the more I become sure that I won the jackpot. The model and the color of the vehicle match perfectly to what we know about it. Moreover, there’s no doubt that there are two persons in it. On the back-seat there’s nobody and near the driver I can see there’s a woman with blond hair, very different from Khyla’s, but by now I understood that they used a lot of different disguises and stratagems.
One more accelerating and I’ll catch them, this time I’m sure about it. As I’m overtaking an old car that moves at snail’s pace, I hear Raven screaming.
«Careful! Swerve to the right! There’s a motorbike coming at full speed!»
Without even reasoning I do as she said and, thank to her, I can avoid a rider on a Dodge. But maybe I slightly touched the motorbike because it starts to skid dangerously and goes to crash with a dull sound on a Chevrolet. The driver of the car ends up crossing the roadway, blocking us. Forced by the situation we get off showing the badge and run to see how the rider is. I was expecting the worst, we find him bad but alive. Raven calls the 911 and informs the state highway patrol.
Damn! Because of this fatality, we’ve lost them again! Thanks to the straight road and clear sky, I can see them going away and follow their route. So I can notice ...
Raven touches my shoulder and disconsolately whispers: «This is not what we needed today. Just when we were about to stop them.»
«Don’t worry, my dear. I know exactly where they’re heading to. Can you see that junction on the right? It only leads to Tioga Road.»
«But that road is closed during winter...»
«In fact. They’re going to trapp themselves. This time they can’t escape...»
CHAPTER 30
KHYLA
While Matthew is intent on driving and I look at road sign to indicate him the exact point where to turn, a thud catches my attention.
I look behind and see that a car accident has just happened. A rider just crashed into a car. The impact must have been very strong. He was probably going high speed...
«My God! Someone should call for aid» I murmur worried.
«That won’t be us, Khyla. It wouldn’t be cautious.» only says Matthew.
I know that he said the sacred truth. We aren’t in the condition to warn anyone. Still, it makes me sick the idea that someone needs me and I don’t care, but most of all I don’t like Matthew’s indifference. I hope with all my heart that that boy is ok, otherwise we’ll have him on the conscience throughout our lives.
I come back to my senses just in time to see the right junction.
«Matthew! You have to turn here for Tioga Road!»
He does it without getting infected by my agitation. It’s a pity that we can’t enjoy this wonderful scenario. The Yosemite Park is marvelous, immersed as it is in the whiteness. The magnificent trees modeled by the ice in complex designes and the white sky that is promising snow. While I’m looking out of the window, I think that I really would like to walk through that silence with Matthew, like a normal couple wanting to enjoy the beauty of nature. Instead we only are an escaping non-couple, two accomplices that only share a strong alchemy. Actually, on my part, is far more than just physical attraction. But what’s the sense in showing him my love? He’s not interested in my feelings toward him. Every time I make him understand my feelings, he pretends not to see or hear. Moreover his perfect plan it’s at a step away from failing. All because of his obstinacy to go to Nevada. Fortunately the all-wheel car allows us to move forward without any problems. At least remains a microscopic opportunity to save ourselves.
He drives silently and I am silent too, even though my inner side is crying. Why am I not enough for him? Why was not me to conquer his heart?
Matthew provides to make me come back to my senses.
«There we are, Khyla. From this point the road is closed. We have to change our clothes and walk on foot.»
Matthew parks the off-road vehicle in a side street. He carefully chooses a place partially hidden by big trees, gets out of the car and takes the bag where José had put the mountain clothes and throw it inside. We quickly undress and get dressed again because of the cold air that entered the cabin. Yet, although the uncomfortable situation, I can manage to look at his well defined pectoral muscles before he covers them with a blue jumper and a very warm down jacket. I do the same also with trousers and trekking shoes.
Ready for the long walk, we start to move forward in the snow. Each step we sink in, leave a track of our passage. Fortunately we could mislead Fred, otherwise it would be very easy for him to find us in this climatic condition. I think it snowed short ago and another snowfall is about to come. If we were to be in the middle of it, it would be difficult to orientate. There’s no time to lose.
FRED
What a shit! The rescurers took ten minutes to arrive. As I was walking nervously, thinking about all the time lost because of that cretin on the motorbike, Raven didn’t leave him for a second. She kept asking questions to him. She wanted to know everything about him. When I asked her why she was so interested about his life, she told me that she did it to control his vital parameters, waiting for the ambulance. Could be, but I think there was no need to do so. Even though he was in a bad way, I saw the way he was looking at her cleavage. We males always are true to form.
Finally the ambulance arrived and the EMT placed the injured in it. The agents arrived in the same time and, in the crowd, we managed to create a gap between the cars and to resume the pursuit. What a luck! If we were questioned as witnesses, we would have to tell the whole truth with disastrous results. It isn’t normal to carry out an investigation like ours, alone. We could have been indicted for insubordination. Instead we managed to escape the agents when they were
occupied with the driver of the other car... he was faint because of the accumulated stress. So we left at high speed. With one thing and another, we lost about twenty minutes. But it doesn’t matter. I know where to find them and there are not way out from there. This time we have them in fist.
As we turn in Tioga Road, I hear Raven swearing. Wow! I had never heard a woman like her swearing like a sailor!
«What’s the matter, dear?»
«Never call me like that, otherwise I’ll force you to call me agent Smithson, right?»
«Why are you so angry for so little, de...Raven?»
«Look. It started snowing. It will certainly erase the traces of the fugitives. I was just counting on the tracks. We have nothing else, to find them.»
Yes, in fact it’s a hassle, yet it’s just a small hiccup that won’t annoy the end result. Sooner or later we’ll be able to put in the bag the two fugitives.
We arrive where the road is interrupted and look for the Jeep along the road. It’s not there. That bastard hidden it, continuing by foot with Khyla. We could keep looking on the side narrow roads looking for the car, but it would be an unnecessary loss of time. It’s better to try to intercept them directly.
«Which way do we go?» asks Raven.
I take a few steps forward on the main road, that is submerged by snowdrifts. It’s seems unlikely that they have chosen the main route. Who would be so stupid to escape by taking the most obvious way?
Observing the trees I notice that, between them, there are alternations of subsidences and heaps. So I understand. The cold snow is coming down fast, hiding the traces of Khyla and the kidnapper, but not so fast to erase them completely. Following this road I must draw them out.
«What are we going to do, then?» insists Raven.
And so I decide. I look at her and adopt the most doubtful expression that I can. I shake my head as if I couldn’t solve a big problem.
«They could be everywhere. We’d better get separated. Assuming that they didn’t take the main road to avoid being caught by some helicopters, they would go in the middle of the vegetation. Let’s divide us. You go to the left, I go to the right. The first who see them will contact the other by phone.»
I Don't Belong to You Page 13