Jake’s eyes were wide with surprise. “Wow.”
“So what are you waiting for?”
Jake suddenly didn’t care. He pulled at the button of his jeans and shook himself out of them, feeling self-conscious standing there in nothing but his undies. He was about to strip those off too, when he paused. A thought had occurred to him. “If I’m going to skinny dip, you should do the same.”
“I am, idiot.” Taylor kept her arm over her breasts. “You have my bikini right there.”
“I only have the top.” His heart was beating a mile a minute.
“No way.” She shook her head. “I’m not taking my bottoms off.”
“Oh I see, it’s one rule for me, and another for you. You haven’t even taken your arm away from your boobs.”
“I’m not taking my panties off.”
“Suit yourself.” Jake sat back down on the blanket.
“Fine,” Taylor said. “Will this make you happy?” She dropped her arms to her sides, a warm blush spreading across her face as she exposed herself.
“It’s a start.” Jake hopped to his feet, his eyes never straying from Taylor’s naked chest. He could feel himself growing hard. “I still think you should go the whole hog.” He was pushing it, he knew. If he went into the water now he would be right there, next to her, and those small, perfectly rounded breasts that taunted him and begged him to come closer.
“Come on in and maybe I’ll let you take them off.”
“For real?” He could hardly believe his ears. This was just too good.
“I said it, didn’t I?”
That was all it took. Jake reached down and hooked a finger into his briefs, yanking them down and off.
“Oh my god.” Taylor exclaimed, a grin plastered on her face.
Jake knew where she was looking, at the hardness that throbbed between his legs. “Come on. Quit it.” He felt uncomfortable, but a tingle of excitement pulsed through him.
“Well, are you getting in or what?”
Jake didn’t need to be asked twice. He ran to the edge of the swimming hole and waded in, gasping as the frigid water hit his skin. He ignored the throbbing chill and pushed forward until he was submerged past his waist.
As his body adjusted to the temperature he moved further in, until he reached Taylor.
“See, it’s not too bad.” Her eyes flashed with mischief. “Isn’t this better than standing around on the bank?”
“I guess.” He ignored his chattering teeth. “So how about it?”
“What?” She was so close he could feel her breath on his neck. It gave him Goosebumps.
“The other half. You said I could take them off.”
“I did, didn’t I?” She met his gaze. “So what are you waiting for?”
11
DECKER PULLED INTO THE parking lot of the Wolf Haven sheriff’s Office, easing the cruiser into the reserved space next to the main door, and killed the engine. He leaned over and reached inside the glove compartment, retrieving the claw he’d pried from the bed of Floyd Benson’s truck earlier that day.
He inspected it through the clear plastic of the evidence bag. It was long, about three inches, and curved down to a sharp, needlelike point. The inner edge was serrated, reminding him of a steak knife. Decker did not want to meet whatever animal had lost this.
He pulled on the door release and climbed from the cruiser, then headed toward the office.
When he entered the building, Carol Lawson, Wolf Haven’s full time dispatcher, and de facto desk sergeant, looked up with a smile. “Good morning John.”
“Morning Carol.” He’d spent a year trying to get her to refer to him as Sheriff Decker, at least in the office, figuring it sounded more professional. It did little good and he just gave up in the end. “Any other calls?”
“Nope, just the truck.”
“Good.” He skirted the front counter and made a beeline for the coffeemaker, throwing the evidence bag on his desk as he went.
“Coffee’s fresh not twenty minutes ago. Figured you’d want some caffeine when you came in given how I ruined your morning cup of joe earlier,” She said, referencing her call that sent him up to Floyd’s abandoned pickup.
“You’re an angel.” He picked up a coffee cup, inspected the inside to make sure it was clean, and filled it with the dark aromatic liquid.
“What’s that?” Carol was eying the evidence bag.”
“Don’t know. Some type of a claw I found stuck in the back of old man Benson’s truck.”
“Well that’s weird.” Carol scooted her typing chair across the office and picked the bag up.
“You ever saw anything like that before?” Decker sat on the edge of his desk.
“Never.” She peered at the claw. “Damn thing gives me the creeps. Did you find Floyd?”
“Nope. Not a hair. Found a whole bunch of his moonshine all over the road though.”
“That should save a few people from going blind.” Joked Carol.
“No doubt.” Decker took a sip of coffee. “You couldn’t pay me to drink that stuff. I found his distilling equipment up in the woods. Can you believe he’s actually using an old car radiator as a condenser? Damn fool will end up giving someone lead poisoning. Chad’s impounding the thing right now.”
“So what about this?” Carol was eyeing the claw again. “You think it has anything to do with his disappearance?”
“Maybe, maybe not. For all we know Floyd got on the wrong side of another moonshine outfit and they decided to put him out of business.”
“That still doesn’t explain where he is.”
“No, it doesn’t.” Decker admitted. “He could have gotten scared and hightailed it into the woods, tried to walk back to his camp and gotten lost.”
“Or maybe whatever lost this claw got to him.” Carol picked the evidence bag up and made a slashing motion. “Do you think he came across a bear?”
“Maybe, although bears are pretty rare in these parts. I can’t remember the last time I saw one. If he did, then why would he get out of his truck and confront it in the middle of the night?”
“Maybe he’d been sampling a little too much of his own hooch.”
“Maybe.” Decker was not convinced that Floyd would go head to head with a three hundred pound animal on its own turf, even if he were drunk as a skunk. “If this is a bear, more likely it came across the truck after it was abandoned and decided to check it out. It might have been foraging for food.”
“So what are you going to do with it?”
“Beats me. I’m not even sure it has anything to do with whatever happened up on Route 16, assuming anything at all happened and this isn’t just a case of Floyd going batshit crazy on his own whisky.” He put the coffee mug to his lips and took a gulp. “If nothing else it will make a great conversation point at the next town meeting.”
12
JAKE BARLOW STOOD facing Taylor Cassidy in the cool waters of the swimming hole. He could hardly believe what he was hearing. She was actually going to let him remove her bikini bottoms.
“If you don’t hurry up I might change my mind,” Taylor said, wondering if he would have the nerve to actually do it, hoping he would, and at the same time hoping he wouldn’t. A tingle of excitement coursed through her. What had she gotten herself into?
The words shook Jake from his stupor. He pushed his hands beneath the water, feeling around until he found her hips. Her skin felt soft and smooth.
He located the strings that held the bikini on, and pulled at the knots, his hands trembling as the flimsy garment came undone. When he lifted his hands from the water he was holding the prize.
He grinned and threw it toward the water’s edge. It missed the bank and landed in the water with a faint plop.
“Good going genius.” Taylor scolded him, although from the tone of her words, she didn’t sound too mad. “You’d better go and get that before it sinks. I don’t want to have to ride back to town bare assed.”
“You woul
dn’t be bare assed, you still have your shorts.” Jake interjected, pointing out the obvious. He put his arms around her waist and pulled her toward him, his hands snaking lower down her back. Her breasts brushed against his chest, nipples hard. He wondered if it was the cold water or their mutual nakedness that was affecting her. He decided it must be the latter. It sure was affecting him.
“Hey, you’re supposed to be rescuing my bikini.” She pushed at him playfully.
“In a minute.” Jake protested. If the bikini sank he’d fish it out later, there were better things to do. He leaned in and kissed her.
“Hmmm. That’s nice.” Taylor mumbled. She ran her hands down his back, across his bare rump where they lingered. “I still want my bikini though.”
“Come on. Seriously?” He could feel her crotch pressed against him under the water, furry and ticklish. The thought of it only aroused him more.
“Just go get them, and hurry. I’ll make it worth your while.” Taylor pushed a hand down into the water, feeling around until she found what she was looking for.
Jake froze. No one had ever touched him there before. At that moment he would have climbed Mount Everest if she’d asked him too. Her hand lingered for a moment, teasing him, and then it was over.
“Now go get that bikini,” she said, pushing him backward toward the shore.
“Alright, I’m going.” Jake turned and made his way toward the bank. “You’re a tease though, you know that?”
“Am not.”
“Are too.”
He reached the floating garment, plucked it from the water and tossed it onto dry land. “Happy now?”
“Yep.” Taylor ran her hands through her hair. “Grab the wine while you’re there.”
“What?” All Jake wanted was to do was get back to Taylor. “I’ll have to get out of the water.”
“So what?”
“You just want to see my naked ass.”
“Maybe I do,” Taylor agreed. “But I also want the wine, so I can kill two birds with one stone.”
“Fine.” Jake splashed to the edge of the swimming hole and stepped out of the water. He shivered. It was funny how the water had felt so cold when he’d gotten in, but now the water seemed warmer than the air. Worse, he really needed to pee.
“Hurry up.” Taylor waded closer to the shore, the water lapping just above her hips.
“I need to take a leak.” He headed toward the woods. “I’ll be back in a second.”
“Don’t be long.” Taylor watched him disappear between the pine trees.
The sudden silence was eerie. She hugged her chest and waited for him to return.
A minute passed, then two.
How long could it possibly take him to relieve himself? She moved toward the bank and scanned the tree line, but there was no sign of him.
“Are you done yet?” She called out, but there was no reply. “Jake?”
She waited another minute and still he had not returned. A stab of fear gripped her. What if he’d fallen and hurt himself, or been bitten by something. She knew that there were all sorts of poisonous snakes crawling around out here, spiders too. But surely he would have called out if he’d been bitten by something, unless he couldn’t for some reason.
Maybe he had stumbled and cracked his head on a rock. He might be bleeding to death right now. Or maybe he had just wandered further back into the woods so that she wouldn’t see him peeing. He was probably on his way back already, and she would look mighty silly panicking over nothing.
“Jake. Are you alright?” She suddenly felt very alone and vulnerable standing waist deep in the swimming hole.
She listened for a moment, but there was no reply.
That left only one option. She paddled to the water’s edge and stepped out, wishing that Jake would reappear so that she didn’t have to go and look for him. She reached her bikini and was about to pick it up but she didn’t get that far.
“Help me.” The voice sounded distant.
“Jake?” A cold knot of fear clutched at Taylor’s stomach.
“Oh god, help me.”
Taylor ran to the edge of the forest.
“Where are you?”
“Over here. Please hurry.”
“Where?” She could not locate which direction the voice was coming from. She had thought he was off to her right, but now it sounded like he was left of her.
He didn’t respond.
“Jake. What’s wrong?” She pushed through a gap in the undergrowth and looked around, but there were so many trees, so much scrub, that she could walk right past him if he was two feet away. “I can’t see you. Where are you?”
A flock of birds took to the air, the sudden flap of their wings making her jump.
“Jake. You have to tell me where you are.”
“I’m right here.” Jake lunged out from behind a fat pine tree.
She screamed and stumbled backwards.
Jake collapsed laughing. “Oh my god, you should have seen your face.”
“Not funny.” Taylor’s heart was beating out of her chest. “You really scared me.”
“Come on, it was funny.”
“No, it wasn’t.” She punched him, the blow landing on his shoulder. “What were you thinking?”
“It was just a joke.”
“Well it was stupid.”
“Sorry.” He looked her up and down, his eyes lingering on her breasts before they fell to the triangle of soft matted hair between her legs. He grinned. “It was worth it though.”
She suddenly remembered she was naked. “Hey, stop that.” She covered herself as best she could with her arms.
“I was just fooling around. I didn’t mean anything by it. I just wanted to get a good look at you,” Jake said. “Why don’t we get back into the water?”
“I don’t want to.” Taylor turned toward the clearing, her cheeks burning. He just had to go and ruin everything. “I’m going to get dressed and then you can take me home.”
“Really?” Jake sounded disappointed. “Is it because I was checking you out?”
She stomped off, ignoring him.
“I’m naked too. Look, you can check me out if you want.”
She didn’t respond, but instead returned to the blanket they had spread out on the ground earlier, and picked through her clothes. The bikini bottoms were much too wet to wear, but she could still put the shorts and blouse back on for the trip back to Wolf Haven.
She pulled the shorts up and buttoned them.
There was no sign of Jake. She turned and scanned the darkness between the trees. “Jake, come on, quit fooling around. This isn’t funny anymore. I want to go home.”
“Oh god, oh Jesus. No.” The scream came from beyond the trees.
“Really?” Taylor shook her head in disbelief. “This again? I just want to go home.” She reached down and picked up his pants, fumbling in his pocket and pulling the car keys out. “If you don’t come out I’m going to leave you here and you can walk back to town.” She jangled the keys in the air.
“Help me.” The cry was desperate.
“Alright, that’s enough.” She marched toward the woods. “You just don’t know when to give up do you?” Any hope he had of ever getting her naked again was diminishing fast. She wasn’t even sure she wanted to keep dating him at that moment.
She pushed the brush aside, cursing as a thorn snagged her, drawing blood from her bare arm, and entered the forest once more.
It was dark and cool under the canopy of trees. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the gloom. When they did she saw why Jake hadn’t followed her back to the swimming hole.
She stopped dead in her tracks and screamed.
13
CHAD HARDWICK PULLED a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped away the beads of sweat that were accumulating on his forehead. He wished, not for the first time, that the sheriff would hire another deputy so that he didn’t have to do all the grunt work himself.
He hefted a large metal
boiling pot into the back of the cruiser and slammed the door. It was going to take several trips to disassemble the entire still at this rate. He wondered if he could requisition a truck for the job. It would sure cut down on time. Maybe the sheriff would even let him use Floyd’s old beater to haul all the junk out of the moonshiner’s camp. It wasn’t like it was being used for anything else, sitting down at the impound lot like it was. He’d have to get it running first.
He leaned against the car, took a swig of bottled water, and surveyed the clearing.
The place was a dump that was for sure. The cabin nestled near the trees looked like it might collapse in at any moment. The roofline sagged in the middle, and one of the panes of glass in the only window was broken out. A board had been nailed over the hole from the inside. Had Floyd built it? He didn’t think so. It looked like it was probably an old hunting shack. Regardless, it had seen better days.
Opposite the cabin a bunch of worn out tires were piled precariously one on top of the other like some sort of redneck Tower of Babel. He pondered this for a moment, wondering why people like Floyd kept old tires around like that. Were they hoping that the treads would miraculously come back and render them useful again, or was it just that the number of tires you had on your property was a sign of status?
Aside from the still, the only other thing in the camp was a latrine made from rotten tarpaulins. The foul smell emanating from the makeshift toilet, carried in his direction by the breeze, did little to improve Chad’s demeanor.
He polished off the water and threw the bottle into the car. It landed on the passenger seat. He would dispose of it later. No point in littering, not that one more bottle would make much difference up here given all the other trash laying around. Obviously Floyd wasn’t paying his maid enough.
He chuckled to himself and turned back toward the still. He could probably fit three or four of the empty alcohol jugs in the trunk, and then he would be able to get out of here and head back toward town. His stomach growled, reminding him that he hadn’t eaten in hours.
What Vengeance Comes Page 4