I run to the door and open it right away, calling his name aloud. I don’t care to be heard by the agents that still could be nearby. I have to express my pain aloud.
I look everywhere checking for traces of their passage, but the house seems ok. There are no signs of fights, nor wet footprints on the floor. What happened, then? Then I see Matthew’s leg from behind the couch and a mix of terror and relief takes me. He’s still here, no one took him away from me. Why is he lying on the floor? Maybe he felt bad...
I go behind the couch and see him with inert arms and shiny eyes.
«My God! Matthew, are you ok?» I ask, shaking him in the attempt to resume him.
Then, beside the couch, I see a bottle of Bourbon nearly empty.
«What did you do? Don’t tell me you’re drunk.»
He tries to get up but falls down with a thud.
«Why did you come back so soon? I was expecting you by three or four.»
«Oh! Now I understand. You were feeling alone so you thought to spend the night with a bottle of good whisky» I comment ironically. He turns his face to avoid my gaze full of disapproval.
«You shouldn’t have done it. Come on, now. I’ll help you to get up, Matthew.»
I put my arms under his armpits and I use all my strength to raise him and then let him lie down on the couch.
«Why are you here, Khyla? I thought you were going to spend the night with Alan» he whispers looking in my eyes.
«You are thickheaded. Didn’t you understand yet? You are the only one for me.»
He laboriously approaches his fingers to my face and slowly caresses it, provoking a good sensation. I close my eyes to enjoy his touch.
«Khyla, tonight you are even more beautiful.»
«This is because you are so drunk that you see me blurry» I say trying to be witty, but even though Matthew is drunk, his admiring gaze looks sincere and I’m feeling the most lucky woman in the word. At least tonight...
He leans on his elbows to push himself on to me. He hurls on my longing lips with impetus and passion. At first he bites them, then sucks them ravenous and these little assaults cause me the typical torment caused by unsatisfied senses. I’m feeling overflowing with love for him and now it’s clear to me why I’m here and not somewhere else. I cannot compare what I feel for him and the sympathy I feel for Alan. Matthews subdues both my body and soul and has the ability to do it even with his Bourbon’s flavored breath and the senses dimmed by alcohol.
«Let’s go to bed. I want you for me the whole night.»
I’m not going to let him say it twice. We undress and go straight under the blankets. This time I want something more. I wish to make love with Matthew, I can’t be contented with just sex.
I tell this to him and he kisses me languidly, as if he wanted to validate my request. While his caresses are becoming more and more white-hot, I breath his perfume inside me, listen to his moans, lap upon his statuary body, then open my legs to let him make me his, once again, even more deeper.
But Matthew still waits. He caresses my thig, goes down to play with my nipples, tangles with me as if I was the only salvation for him. Then he takes me with sweetness and passion, whispering my name without hesitation, as if I was really special to him. He’s not with me just to take all the pleasure he can afford. He’s giving himself to me, putting me in the center of his world.
I’m so excited that the tears come along with the lustful moans. He pushes me to high peaks and dries my face with his hands. When we finally get both to the culmination, we cling to ourselves as if there was nothing and no one beside us.
«Khyla, I love you...» he whispers before getting asleep in my arms. And a sense of peaceful takes me. He loves me, he just confessed it. I recall his obsessive jealousy about Alan, the unsuspicious sweetness that he gave me since we are in this house lost in the Sierra. Did I really managed to break his armor and win his heart? But I can’t be totally happy with this. I’m beginning to be victim on doubts. The bottle of Bourbon near the couch is sending me messages that I can’t avoid. Matthew was under the effects of alcohol. Words said under the effect of alcohol couldn’t even be used in a court, let alone if they could be valid as a declaration of love.
CHAPTER 45
KHYLA
I half-open my eyes. There no time to waste, but I want to smell and print in my memory the spicy perfume of Matthew for one moment more. He’s still clinging to me, like ivy at a trunk of a tree. I wouldn’t get up, but there’s not much time before the police arrive. We have to make a new plan to escape.
I call his name, but he mutters something and goes back to sleep.
«Matthew, I have to talk to you. Wake up!» I shake him vigorously to wake him up. I hope he can stand alcohol, because if we don’t move on, we are fucked.
«What is it, Khyla?» he asks barely conscious.
«We are in danger. Now that the storm is over, the police want to search our bodies under the snow slide.»
«How did you know it?» he asks suspiciously.
«Alan told me.»
«Alan? What Alan has to deal with the police? He’s an undercover agent, isn’t he?»
«What are you saying! He was contacted yesterday morning from San Francisco Police Department. They were inquiring if he noticed something suspicious in the last days.»
«Did he betray us?»
«Of course not! But he’s afraid that they could check in all the holiday houses and find us.»
Matthew sits leaning his back against the headboard of the bed. His sculptural muscles emerge from the blankets provoking to me a hormonal shaking up. But now it’s time to find a inning solution in the short time possible.
I go to look the grandfather clock.
«It’s five o’clock. There’s no time to lose, Matthew.»
«There’s not much to do. I’m feeling better, but I can’t walk for many miles and our off-road was probably confiscated by the police. Maybe we should surrender.» he proposes disconsolate.
I don’t like his surrender tone, but I understand his fears.
«Alan proposed to escape in Mexico with him, but he doesn’t want to save you too. He believes you are a criminal» I say, though fearing his anger.
«Does he love you so much? So, I was right, in the end» he answers strangely quiet. «Khyla, if you ask for my passionate advice, you should accept his invitation, at least you could save yourself.»
I’m very angry. Doesn’t he understand what I’m feeling? Without looking at a mirror, I can feel blood flow to my face. I think I’m red like a pepper.
«Don’t you make me angry, Matthew. I’m not going anywhere without you.»
«I’m just telling for your good. You tried in anyway to help me, we have to be aware of our defeat and try to obtain a more honorable capitulation. I believe that your ex boy-friend realized that you were my accomplice and he doesn’t seem the kind that intended to defend you.»
«Of course he wouldn’t. He’s just a shit.»
«This is why I want you to start a new life in Mexico with Alan. You deserve it.»
I notice the deep sadness in his voice, the tears in his disconsolate eyes, and I’m feeling like I’m dying. Me to leave Matthew in moment of needing? No, I could never do it. I take his hand and pretend to use a certain tone of voice but I actually feel as if I was exploding inside.
«Listen, this time is me to have a plan. Dress yourself, I have to show you something.»
He looks at me interrogatively for a few seconds, then obeys without saying a word. I lead him right away to the woodshed, pull up the plastic tarpaulin and show him what was hidden under it.
«A motorized e sledge? Where does it come out from?» he asks surprised.
«I think it belongs to the owner of the house. I found it by accident when I collected the firewood.»
«So your plan is to flee with this thing?»
«Why not? It seems the only solution, at the moment» I retort sure.
«You know that
we need diesel oil to make it work, don’t you?»
I nudge him. Does he think I’m totally inexperienced? I open an iron cabinet and pull out a tank oh naphtha.
«We also have fuel, cretin!»
He laughs, finally reassured.
«Very well. Then we just have to go home and take the necessary for the new escape.»
We fill two backpacks with the necessary to change and some supplies, then run hand in hand to the woodshed. We push the snowmobile and fill it with the naphtha. Matthew tries to start it. At first it rumbles noisily, but it shuts off almost immediately.
«If it doesn’t work, we are fucked.» he says worried.
«Let me try.»
I push him aside and take the driving place. Turn the key, push the starter and, after a few more rumbling, it finally starts. I go to sit back to let him drive.
«Hold on tight» he recommends.
There’s no need to make him repeat it twice. I put my arms round his waist and lay my head on his back, then we go at full speed. As we get away, escaping from a destiny that seemed marked, I can feel hopes raising up in my heart.
Nevertheless, as I turn to look at the house getting smaller, I’m caught by a doubt. Since it finished snowing, the police could find the traces of the snowmobile and chase us. We are still in danger... Anyway we don’t have time to remedy. It’s better to flee and hope for the best.
FRED
Raven and I are walking in the fresh snow. Differently from the last time, we wear winter clothing. San Francisco’s department provided us all we needed to move nimbly without getting wet. But I’m really sorry to be here. I preferred much more the hotel’s room where Raven and I granted ourselves four or five pretty good sex sessions. I already assumed that my colleague, behind that perfect air, concealed the sado-maso dominance. She invented a few games with the whip, that just thinking about it, my friend in the boxer shorts stands up.
As I’m trying to push away the accumulated testosterone setting the marble sack, my detective’s sixth sense make me notice something. Around a hut in the brush I see tire tracks. I approach them trying to understand the reason of these crossing traces. It seems that someone went back and forth several times.
Looking the chimney I notice that there’s a wisp of smoke. Very strange... I knew there was only a vet living here, in wintertime. Could it mean something? Does it has something to do with the two runaways?
What a bullshit! They can’t be still alive. No one could be safe in the situation I left them. But my profession thought me to always keep eyes and ears opened, never lowering the awareness.
I’m looking around stealth, as if at any time my Khyla could come out from behind a tree, in a zombie version, wishing to eat my brain. Raven touches my arm and makes me notice an off-road car coming out from the back of the house and heading toward us in the snowy heaps. I wave my arms about ordering the driver to stop.
When it’s at one step from me, I can see there’s only one person in it, so I understand.
«Is it Alan Greenwater, the vet we contacted by radio?»
«Yes, it’s me. What can I do for you?»
«I’m Alfred Valentines, from Los Angeles department, she is Raven Smithson, from San Francisco.»
I ask him to get out of the car. He obeys and joins us.
«As I told you by radio, we want to retrieve the bodies of the two fugitives, dead because of a snow slide. Half an hour ago we started the researching activities with the canine unit specialized in mountain operation.»
«If you’re so sure they’re dead, why are you questioning me?»
«I’ve already explained to you. It’s a routine action. You’re the only inhabitant of the area at this time. You just should confirm that you didn’t see them and we’ll leave you in peace.»
«I didn’t see them» he replies firmly.
«Good, thank you for your help. Out of curiosity, mister Greenwater. I know that you are the only one living in this area and that your house is adjacent to the clinic.»
«So?»
«I noticed some smoke coming out of that chimney, as if somebody was in the house.»
«Keen power of observation, detective.» he says speaking in unnatural way. I suspect he’s taking time. I don’t like it at all.
He is silent for a while, then he smiles self-confident and says «There is smoke because Ted and Victoria, the owners, asked me to take care of the house. Once a week I come here to control and I usually light the fire not to get cold.»
«Why all these traces on the snow?»
«I went exploring with the off-road before going in the house. I wanted to be sure there were not wild animals in the roundabout.»
«I see... Open the door, please. We want to give a look inside.»
He nods with a strange smile, approaches the door and pulls out the key from the umbrella-stand. Opens and step aside to let us go in.
I go first, looking around and notice that, beyond the fire still lit, there is nothing strange.
«Good, thank you for your collaboration. Please, write down your cell phone number on this sheet, in case we should ask you something more. Raven, you go to advise the others that we already questioned Mr. Greenwater.»
She goes away sensual and I can’t help but look at her apple shaped ass.
«You know what, doctor? I thought that this story could bring to me success and money» I confidentially say to the vet «Instead, more than anything, it has caused me troubles. But it has a positive side. I’ve been able to touch the graces of my beautiful colleague by hand.»
«Good for you» he replies.
As he’s getting in the car, my cell starts ringing. I check who it is looking at the display and prepare to speak with the most sensual tone.
«Fanny, my dear. I’m missing you so much... I’m looking forward to see you, I feel alone in the big bed of the hotel, without your company. However, this is a matter of days. As soon as we retrieve their bodies, I’ll rush home and you can do whatever you want to me.»
CHAPTER 46
KHYLA
I’m on the edge of the National Road wearing a blond wig, tight leggings and thumb raised up. Like in a B-movie of the worst kind, I’m hitchhiking with revealing clothing, while Matthew is hidden behind some bushes for not being seen.
Travelling on the snowmobile filled my heart and my eyes. Tioga Road is a wonderful panoramic road. We crossed through Yosemite Park between colored lakes, snowy sequoia woods and strange shaped mountains. And now we are in Nevada, a few kilometers away from Lee Vining, looking for someone to bring us to Hawthorne. We hid the snowmobile in the wood, safe from prying eyes. We just have to wait for someone to bite. Unfortunately, in half an hour, no one passed through this road.
Then I can hear the noise of a car. This is our opportunity, so I lean forward with arm and leg, trying to appear as sensual as possible. Matthew insisted on making me do this farce, but who can say if the driver of the food truck coming at full speed is drove by a man?
Actually, when it is nearer, I can see that the driver is someone with long curly red hair. No hope she’s going to pick up us. I close my eyes exasperated. How long will it take to find someone to accompany us? I’m really tired and Matthew can’t walk too much with that leg. If the events didn’t rush so suddenly, we would never venture to undertake a trip with him in these conditions.
«Hey! Where are you going?»
I open my eyes again and see that the food truck stopped and the driver is looking me curiously. As I had guessed, it’s a woman of about forty years carried pretty badly. The wrinkles around the mouth create a sort of branched spider web, when she talks.
«I should go to Hawthorne.»
«Good. Jump on. I’m just going to pass through the area.»
«Thank you, very kind of you.»
«I didn’t stop because of you. I stopped because of that nice guy you hid in the bush. He thought to be well hidden, but I spotted him and found him almost touching. One can see that he�
��s still a rookie in the facts of life. If he was hiding from police, they would have caught him right away. I can teach him some tricks if he wants.»
I laugh for the strangeness of this situation. If she knew about us, she would never talk like this.
«John, come out! This lady is going to give us a lift.»
During the travel by snowmobile we agreed to continue pretending to be brother and sister because we still have those fake documents.
I see in the eyes of the truck driver a baldness of desire that I don’t like at all, but I can’t be so pretentious.
«Hey, Muscle Lips. Sit down next to me.»
Matthew, doesn’t speak, and climb with fatigue on the truck. I push him from behind to help him, then sit beside him. The cockpit is not too large, so we have to stuck to one another, to make place for the three of us.
«My name is Annie. Yours?»
«I’m Laura and he’s my brother John.»
«So you’re brother and sister! Very interesting...»
While changing the gear, she touches Matthew’s leg and throws languid glances at him. Fortunately he is looking down lost in his thoughts and doesn’t seems interested on her courtship. Otherwise I could react badly.
«John, what are you going to do in Hawthorne?»
«We have a family meeting.»
«Why did you decide to travel by hitchhiking?»
Matthew remains silent, so I decide to intervene.
«Our car broke down some miles away. As the tow truck we contacted would have taken too long to arrive, we had to find another solution right away.»
«You’ve been lucky to meet me. This time of the year, the road is not very busy. I’m here because I’m coming back from a public protest in a small village of this county.»
The journey continues and Annie doesn’t stop talking all the way long. She talks about everything comes to her mind and to each word she says with that very acute voice, my head is aching more and more. Matthew and I try to intervene some time, but it is the typical monologue of whom doesn’t want to listen other’s point of view. Moreover she continues to joke with Matthew. When we finally see the sign that indicates Hawthorn, I immediately feel relieved.
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