On Deadly Ground (Dan & Chloe Book 2)

by Flamank, Nathan L.

  Dan had seen pictures of the wife in the local paper and she was a very attractive woman. Dan had been shocked to realise that the photographer and his wife were also from England and Dan had felt a brief flutter of something like recognition but it had passed and he had been so busy remodelling the porch that his brief moment of discombobulation had quickly been forgotten.

  Dan raised his hands to Chloe’s face; she rested her left cheek against his strong hand and kissed his fingers.

  ‘We’re safe Chloe, but I’ll take a ride out on Weiser this week, check on things, make sure.’

  ‘I’ll go with you, we’ll pack for a couple of days and camp out, there’s a lot of country out there.’

  ‘That’s a good idea, but seriously Chloe, I think we’re fine.’

  ‘So do I, really, most of the time I think I’m just being silly but...’ Chloe let the sentence hang unfinished in the air. She had no reason to complete it, Dan knew what she was thinking. It was the same thought that was rattling around inside his head.

  Better safe than sorry.

  Dan pulled Chloe close and she snuggled her petite frame in against him.

  Cocooned within his strong embrace she felt safer than she had in days.

  *****

  CHAPTER THREE.

  The township of Rockspur saw its 1,289 population soar to almost 5,000 during the ski season and even though the winter was still many months away the summer brought its own people with it.

  Sportsmen and women flocked to the area for the natural resources on offer to them: climbers took to the nearby mountains where sheer cliff faces tested even the most skilled of climbers. The thundering river that wound down the nearby mountain range was ideal for white-water rafters seeking adrenalin fuelled thrills and then there was all the various hunting activities.

  Dan had always felt sorry for the various government personnel that maintained the parks, checked permits and basically kept the peace.

  When city dwellers finally got to get away to the wilds there were always tensions and flair-ups with the local all-year round residents and today would be no different.

  Dan pulled in to a vacant parking space and switched the engine off, as the Volvo 4x4’s engine ticked and cooled, Dan looked out of his window along the high street. He saw two sheriff deputies bracing a couple of out-of-towners, even at a hundred yards or more Dan could tell that the party-goers were drunk and he felt some empathy towards the two young lawmen trying to honour their vow to protect and serve.

  Dan buzzed the windows up and turned to Chloe. He smiled at the sight of her bare thighs, the short red summer dress that she was wearing was gathered at her waist.

  Chloe wasn’t flashing the flesh for no reason. Dan watched in silence as Chloe secured the Velcro strap of the thigh holster that she had just slipped on to her thigh. She adjusted the strapped holster until it sat high on her left thigh.

  Chloe opened the glove box and removed the small but powerful pistol, it was an untraceable Sig-Sauer. With practiced ease Chloe ejected the clip, she checked that it was loaded and then palmed the clip back in to the grip of the pistol.

  Chloe racked the slide so that a round now rested in the chamber; the pistol was now ready to be fired. Chloe thumbed the safety on and slipped the small pistol in to the holster, the grip facing forwards so that when she drew the weapon, reaching across her body, she would be able to draw and fire and all in less than five seconds.

  Chloe had spent many hours practicing the cross-body draw and Dan, who had watched her repeatedly draw on many occasions, was impressed by the speed in which she could pull, unsafe the pistol and bring it to bear on a target. He also had to admit that it turned him on watching his wife practice.

  Satisfied that the holster and strap were secure Chloe began to pull her dress down and then she stopped. Chloe ran her hands beneath her dress, with a smile aimed at Dan she tugged the red lacy thong that she was wearing down her thighs.

  Chloe raised her knees, she fed the thong over her knees before working the lacy garment down her calves. She slipped the thong over her tanned cowboy boots and tossed the frilly garment in to the open glove-box.

  Chloe straightened her dress and smiled at Dan. She raised her left hand to his chin and closed his mouth.

  ‘You’ll get bored one day baby, one day you’ll wake up and you’ll be tired of constantly seeing my body.’

  Dan kissed the back of her hand before she took it away from his chin and he shook his head in the negative.

  ‘I’m one of those lucky men.’

  Chloe pushed her hair back from her face and she formed a loose ponytail, she secured it with an elastic band.

  ‘What men?’

  ‘Those lucky few who have a woman in their lives that just absorbs them fully and continually.’

  ‘Absorb?’

  Dan pulled a Glock from the glove-box. He checked the clip and racked a round in to the chamber, he safetied the weapon and leaned forward in his seat. Dan slipped the automatic in to the small of his back, he adjusted his jeans until the gun felt comfortable and then he smoothed his sweater down over it to hide it from passing eyes.

  Chloe had picked the sweater out for him, telling him that the colour matched his eyes, really she’d chosen it because it was tight and thinly layered and showed off his tight, sinewy muscles.

  Even now as she watched Dan adjusting the back of it she could feel herself getting wet.

  ‘Yeah, absorbed, you’re one of those women that just entrance whoever is lucky enough to snare them.’

  ‘Is that what you did?’ Chloe laughed. ‘Snared me?’

  Dan closed the glove-box and opened his door. He snagged the keys from the ignition and climbed out. Chloe threw him his cowboy hat and he caught it and slipped it on to his head and tipped the brim at Chloe.

  ‘Thank ya ma’am.’

  Chloe laughed and opened her door.

  Chloe met him at the front of the 4x4, she had a small leather bag over her left shoulder and she slipped in close to Dan. She wrapped her left arm around his waist, her hand on his hip. Dan put an arm around her shoulders. He could caught the scent of her perfume and his eyes went straight to her plunging cleavage.

  Chloe tilted her face up towards him, even in her boots Dan was still a good eight inches taller than her diminutive 5’5” frame. Chloe stuck the tip of her tongue out of her mouth and laughed as he squeezed her right breast.

  ‘I need to pop in to Suzanne’s, you coming?’

  Dan said that he had to pop in to Harry’s.

  ‘Okay, I’ll come to you when I’m done,’ Chloe said.

  She parted company with him outside of “Suzanne’s City in the Country Clothing Boutique”. Dan waited until she had opened the store’s door before heading across the road to “Harry’s Hardware”.

  *****

  Dan popped the rear door of the Volvo and loaded his purchases in to the spacious rear compartment. Chloe slipped her bags next to his and Dan closed the door. Chloe stepped in to his open arms and reached up. She linked her hands behind his head, even his neck was tight with hard tendons and Chloe smiled up at her husband.

  Over the last three years Dan had grown very strong. For a while there they had been concerned that the wounds he had suffered at the hands of his brother would have a long-term effect on him but even the limp in his leg had all but gone and now it only showed in the coldest moments of winter.

  Chloe raised herself up on to her toes and tilted her face up to Dan’s. He kissed her softly and she felt his strong, elegant hands caressing the small of her back through the almost-gossamer material of her summer dress.

  Chloe pushed her tongue between Dan’s lips and flicked the tip of her tongue against his.

  Dan’s hands roamed lower, down over her buttocks and finally beneath the hem of her dress. Chloe smiled in to the kiss as Dan’s hands caressed her bare buttocks. He squeezed her ass hard and Chloe groaned; she loved it when Dan got a little rough and his firm grip on h
er naked ass jogged her memory and she realised what day of the week it was.

  Chloe broke the kiss but didn’t pull back from Dan’s face. She grinned at him.

  ‘I just remembered what day it is, you do know what that means don’t you?’

  Dan chuckled.

  ‘I hadn’t forgotten: “date-night” right?’

  Chloe groaned louder still as Dan turned them so that Chloe’s back was to the Volvo. She growled when she felt Dan’s right thumb pushing against her puckered ass-hole. Dan’s thumb went away and he continued to squeeze and caress her naked buttocks.

  “Date-night” was a monthly ritual that they had come up with, it was the one night where she would give herself over to any and all of Dan’s sexual desires. A day never passed where they didn’t fuck or fool around but Chloe really looked forward to their monthly “date-night”.

  On “date-nights” Chloe would relinquish her sexual aggression and she would submit herself totally to Dan. The last couple of “date-nights” things had got very interesting as they explored the world of bondage and submission.

  Chloe especially liked it when Dan would spank her ass until she was almost crying. Pushing themselves to explore had also helped Dan lose some of his everyday sexual inhibitions. Until recently Dan would never have groped her so openly in public, hidden by the Volvo or not, it still carried the risk of them being caught by some passing resident.

  Dan raised his left hand and caressed Chloe’s breasts. Her nipples, which were already hard, grew larger and harder and pressed against the dress. Chloe had to bite her bottom lip to prevent her squeal of delight. Dan pinched her right nipple through the dress and Chloe grunted.

  ‘Fuck!’ Chloe whispered.

  Dan kissed her softly on the mouth and then released her. He took a step back and Chloe sighed in disappointment. She leaned back against the Volvo.

  ‘I know I once told you that you could do whatever, whenever you liked to me, but I do so look forward to “date-night”, they make me feel naughty.’

  Dan laughed.

  ‘Baby, you’re always naughty.’

  ‘True, but you know what I mean.’

  ‘I know,’ Dan checked his watch. ‘Do you want to get some lunch here in town or do you want to head home?’

  ‘Let’s get some lunch here, we still have plenty of time to get everything ready before our friends start to arrive.’

  Chloe was referring to the weekly barbecue that they held every Friday evening. It was a ritual that had come about by accident but they had enjoyed the first one so much that it had soon become a weekly tradition. The friends that they had made in Rockspur would descend on the ranch and everyone would have a good time. It usually lasted until around eleven and Chloe (who enjoyed the barbecues a lot), couldn’t wait until eleven o’clock had come and gone.

  She wanted “date-night” more than the companionship of their small circle of friends.

  *****

  CHAPTER FOUR.

  They never did get to the diner that they had chosen for their lunch. As they walked hand-in-hand along the sidewalk enjoying the hot summer day they saw a youth running towards them. The runner was in his late teens and he appeared to be running from someone or something.

  The young man was fast and was quickly closing on Dan and Chloe. A young mother with a pushchair stepped out from the pharmacy directly in to the path of the young man and she yelled out as the teenager knocked her and the pushchair over on to the sidewalk.

  The woman’s cries were joined by the toddler that she had been pushing. Dan was relieved to see the little two year old kid getting to his knees and the mother, now crying, swept her child in to her arms.

  Alerted by the young mother’s cries people turned to stare and traffic on the street came to a halt.

  Dan could now see a uniformed deputy chasing after the youth; the deputy was a good fifty yards behind the athletic youth. The deputy was out of shape and quickly losing ground.

  ‘Hey stop,’ someone yelled but the youth had no intention of stopping, he barrelled in to a male pedestrian who had stepped out from the cafe to intervene.

  The youth’s momentum and athletic build sent the would-be hero staggering backwards where he crashed in to, and then through, the glass front of the café. Glass shattered and the man cried out as shards of glass cascaded down over and around him.

  The young man saw Dan and Chloe up ahead and Dan could see the look in the youth’s eyes. Dan had been around enough addicts in his time to know that the runner was high on something and would not be stopping for anyone.

  Dan placed his left arm against Chloe and they both took a step to the side leaving the sidewalk clear.

  Dan and Chloe stepped back out of the young man’s path and the youth snarled in victory.

  Chloe looked up at Dan and he offered her a brief nod.

  Dan stepped back out on to the sidewalk just as the young man reached them. Dan braced himself and snapped his right arm out. The young man’s upper chest connected with the solidity of Dan’s forearm.

  Dan had never watched wrestling but if he had he would have right then known that he had executed the perfect “clothes-line” manoeuvre.

  The runner was flipped cleanly from his feet and nanoseconds later he face-planted on to the cement sidewalk. Dan clearly heard the sound of the runner’s nose break as it impacted with the hard ground.

  Dan stepped to the side of the downed man, ready to restrain the teenager but he quickly realised that the youth was out cold.

  Chloe joined Dan on the sidewalk and smiled up at her husband. All along the high street store owners and shoppers began to applaud Dan’s intervention and moments later the deputy arrived.

  The deputy was red faced and panting heavily, sweat dripping from his forehead, the brown shirt of his uniform was soaked through. The deputy dropped his hands to his knees and leaned over. The deputy took an age to get his breath back.

  ‘Th-th-thanks mister, I’ve been chasing the l-l-little fucker for almost a m-m-mile.’

  ‘No back-up?’ Chloe asked.

  The deputy glanced up at Chloe, and even though he was exhausted from the chase, he did a double-take before straightening himself.

  The deputy tried to look rugged and every inch the lawman in front of Chloe but he made for a pitiful sight.

  Dan was used to this sort of thing from men when they came in to contact with Chloe; she had that kind of effect on the male of the species.

  ‘No ma’am, they’re all t-tied up, or so dispatch informed me.’

  Right then sirens were heard and a Sheriff’s car turned on to the main street and seconds later the vehicle screeched to a halt at the kerb. The driver’s door swung open and Dan watched as the sheriff climbed out. The sheriff was overweight and Dan saw the man hoist up his pants. The sheriff adjusted his weapon and slammed shut the patrol car’s door before joining his fellow law enforcement officer on the sidewalk.

  Dan made brief eye contact with Chloe and she nodded her head once. Dan knew that she’d had the same thought as him; that they were both carrying concealed weapons, weapons that they were not licensed to carry. Dan noticed Chloe tug at the hem of her dress and he smiled reassuringly at her.

  ‘What happened here Lee?’

  Dan watched the deputy stand fully erect and he cleared his throat.

  ‘I was out on my routine patrol when I saw this kid dealing up at the high school, in the south car-park, near the football field.’

  The Sheriff nodded his head and toed the unconscious youth with his right boot. The drug-dealer was still out cold.

  ‘You recognise him?’

  ‘No sir, I’d say he’s an out-of-towner hoping to make a little extra on the side.’

  The Sheriff nodded his head in agreement. ‘We see that every year up here, so what happened?’

  ‘The minute he saw my car he ran. The group of kids around him scattered too, and he headed in towards the football field so I had to take to my feet. The lit
tle bastard ran me ragged for a damned mile before this fella here intervened.’

  The Sheriff looked from his deputy to Dan and after a cursory appraisal he returned his attention to his deputy.

  ‘Intervened, how’d that go?’

  ‘Clothes-lined him, just like The Undertaker.’

  ‘Undertaker?’

  The deputy reddened.

  ‘Wrestling boss.’

  ‘Ah right, well I can’t say as I watch it but I think I get what you mean.’

  The Sheriff turned back to Dan, this time the officer held Dan’s gaze for several moments before offering up a small smile.

  ‘I know you, y’all bought the old Madison place right?’

  Dan nodded his head and held out his left hand.

  ‘Daniel Constantine, and yeah we bought the old Madison ranch, going on four years now.’

  The Sheriff shook Dan’s hand, he noted Dan’s solid grip and he offered up a more sincere smile. He liked that Dan’s handshake was firm but not aggressive, his daddy always told him that you could tell a lot about a man from the way he shook your hand.

  ‘The Englishman, I’ve heard Harry mention you on occasion.’

  ‘Yes sir, he’s coming out to the ranch for a barbeque later today.’

  ‘I’ve heard about that too, seems quite a few folk around here like you.’

  Chloe stepped out from the front of the antique store and stood beside Dan.

  ‘Why don’t you join us today Sheriff, ‘bout time we got to know our local officers of the law.’

  Dan flicked his gaze to Chloe and she smiled at him playfully.

  The Sheriff released Dan’s hand and turned his attention to Chloe.

  ‘Ma’am, and you are?’

  ‘Chloe,’ she held her left hand out.

  The Sheriff took Chloe’s hand in his meaty paw. He was surprised by the strength in her grip, he looked her up and down, for such a petite thing she had as firm a handshake as any man’s.

  ‘Chloe Constantine, Dan’s my husband.’

  ‘Sheriff Lawson.’