by Tara Rose
“Hey…there it is again.” Nash’s words snapped him back to the present, and Knox narrowed his eyes as the Grand Am drove past again. “Who the fuck is that?”
Knox stood and watched the car drive away this time. “That’s a Wyoming plate.”
Nash shaded his eyes. “Are you sure?”
“Positive. We have mountains on ours, not a cowboy on a bucking bronco in the middle of it.”
“How the fuck can you see that kind of detail from here?”
Knox shrugged. “I don’t know. I just can.” A cold shiver ran through his body. Just because someone from Wyoming was driving through town didn’t mean anything. It was only an hour north to the state line, after all. It could be anyone. Maybe they were looking for an address?
“Earth to Knox. Where’d you go just now?”
“Nothing. Just thinking about something Phil told me a while ago.”
“About?”
Knox shook his head. This wasn’t the time to spill his cousin’s secrets. “I should get back to this.” He shook Nash’s hand again. “Thanks for shooting the breeze with me, Nash. It was nice.”
“Sure thing.” Nash looked like he was going to say something else, but then he walked to his car and drove away. Knox watched him go, wondering if he should even bother Phil about seeing the Grand Am. More than likely he was with Eve, since he rarely worked Saturdays and she had weekends off. They were probably both at the house they’d shared for the past six months, when Eve had moved in with Phil.
Knox pushed away his jealousy. He was happy for his cousin, just as he was happy for Nash and Ian. But right now, it was important to let Phil know that one of the gang of serial rapists he’d helped put away in a Wyoming prison might be in Passion Peak, even if doing so interrupted his day in bed with Eve.
Knox had never seen the men that Phil had told him about, so he couldn’t say for sure that one of them had been driving the Grand Am. It was more of a feeling he had right now as he recalled one of the pieces of news he’d heard last night while flipping through the TV channels in search of a movie to watch.
The newscaster had said a man named Clay Martin was out on parole after serving only five years of his fifteen years sentence for rape. His brother, Griff, was still in prison, having been convicted of multiple counts of rape, plus murder of one of his victims. The hair on the back of Knox’s neck had prickled as he’d listened to the story. It couldn’t be true. He remembered wondering if Phil had heard, and would have called him, but it had been two in the morning. Now, he wished he had, although there wouldn’t have been anything that Phil could have done about it.
As Knox dug out his cell phone, a cold breeze blew from the northeast. Knox glanced up at the twin peaks visible above the town, wondering if it was Clay Martin driving that blue Grand Am around the town that those mountains overlooked, searching for Phil. It couldn’t be true. Who would be so fucking bold? Knox shook his head. What the hell was he thinking? These men had raped and terrorized dozens of women in southwest Wyoming. Clay had only been convicted for doing it to one of them, although from what Phil had said, everyone believed he had been in on all of them. A man like that wouldn’t have any reservations about driving through this picturesque town to find the local cop who had helped put him away.
He had to tell Phil what he’d seen, even if it turned out to be nothing. Maybe someone at the station could keep an eye out for the car and run down the plate? That was harmless enough, and it would make Knox feel as if he’d done something useful.
Chapter Three
Phil groaned as his cell phone rang. Whoever it was had better be calling to tell him he’d won the fucking lottery, or they were dead. It was his only day off this week, and he wasn’t giving up his time with Eve for anything. “What?”
“Sorry, but this might be important.” It was Knox, his cousin. What the fuck? He should know better. Phil sat up and crawled out of bed as quietly as possible so he wouldn’t wake up Eve. As he stepped into the hallway and closed the bedroom door, he recalled the way he’d teased Eve about asking Knox to come over and watch him spank and fuck her. Would he actually do it? Should he ask him now?
“Phil, you there?”
“I’m here. What’s so fucking important?”
“You heard that Clay Martin got out on parole, right?”
Clay was supposed to be serving fifteen years in the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins, but he’d somehow made parole three days ago. Phil knew. Tommy had heard from a friend of his on the Rawlins police force, and had passed the information on to Phil. But there was nothing he could do about it, so why was Knox calling him to tell him? “I heard.”
“Any clue what kind of a car he drives?”
“Excuse me?” Had Knox started drinking on Saturday mornings?
“It’s probably nothing, but I spotted a Grand Am with a Wyoming plate this morning. It drove past here no less than four times.”
“Okay.” A shiver ran up and down Phil’s spine. Having grown up across the street from him on Ponderosa Pine Lane, Phil had been listening to Knox’s premonitions come true all his life. Phil’s brother Jack, two years older than him, used to make fun of Knox whenever he would get a funny feeling about a specific situation. The thing was, Knox had always been right. So, what was he saying now? That Clay Martin had had the balls to drive into Passion Peak? No fucking way…
“I didn’t get a long enough look at the letters or the numbers to memorize any of them, but it was definitely a Wyoming plate.”
Phil padded into the kitchen and opened his desk drawer, then cradled the cell phone against his ear as he took out a pen and a sticky note. “Okay. Give me as much detail about the vehicle as you remember. I’ll have someone run it down and see if anything comes up. But Knox, I don’t believe that Martin would come cruising into town.”
“Okay.” Knox’s tone didn’t make it sound as though he thought it was okay, but Phil was afraid to ask, so he didn’t. After he took down the information that Knox could recall and disconnected the call, he phoned Tommy and left a message with the details Knox had given him. It would turn out to be nothing. Phil was sure of it. His life was finally perfect. Nothing was going to ruin this with Eve. Phil wouldn’t allow it.
He grabbed some bottled water and took it back into the bedroom. Eve was still asleep. His dick grew hard just looking at her, and his first instinct was to wake her back up. They’d planned this day all week, and he didn’t want to spend any of it sleeping, but as he watched her, he was struck as always by how far she’d come in the two years since her divorce. Eve was always telling him that he’d saved her life, but what she never grasped was that it was really the other way around.
He’d spent ten years in the Marines and never made a higher rank than Gunnery Sergeant for a good reason. No one had liked him. He’d kept to himself and didn’t hang out at titty bars with the guys or brag about how much sex he was getting on the side. He hadn’t been getting any sex on the side, or at all for that matter, and he knew why. Phil Parkwood scared the hell out of women.
After four frustrating years of high school during which he hadn’t even been able to persuade Becca Rawlings, one of the biggest sluts in school, to go to prom with him, that’s the conclusion he’d come to. He scared women. Knox had always told him it was the combination of dark hair and angry eyes. Well, how the hell was he was supposed to change what his damn eyes looked like? And he certainly wasn’t going to dye his hair lighter.
So, instead of going to college like his parents had pushed him to do, he’d joined the Marines because they were badass. His father had constantly told him that he’d never accomplish anything close to what Jack had done, so Phil enlisted to prove his father wrong. Jack was the CEO of some up-and-coming software company out in LA, and Phil’s parents had pushed for him to earn an MBA like his big brother. Phil had thought that sounded about as exciting as watching paint dry. Give him a rifle and combat boots any day over spreadsheets and endless meetings about
nothing.
Eve stirred in her sleep, so he perched on the edge of the bed and brushed his fingers along her left thigh. She had the sexiest body he’d ever seen. Lush curves and full hips—just the way he liked them. Phil liked to have something to hang on to.
Her left hand swatted at his arm. “What is that? A mosquito? A fly? Go away, bug.”
“A fly, eh? Maybe that’s what I should spank your ass with. A fly swatter.”
She giggled and turned her head to gaze at him. Every time he looked into her eyes it was like seeing her for the first time all over again. That night, on the sidewalk in front of the condo she’d shared with Darrin, her big, expressive, dark eyes had been filled with fear and mistrust at the cops, including Phil, who had answered a domestic violence call on the north end of town.
Darrin had been one of them at the time, but then while investigating the domestic abuse charges, Phil and Tommy had discovered he’d not only been abusing Eve, but had been on the take. As a fellow ex-marine, Phil had been particularly disgusted with Darrin on both counts, and he had made sure that Darrin went down for being a dirty cop, and that he’d never lay a hand on Eve again.
“Yuck. Not a used one, I hope.”
He chuckled. “No. I’ll buy a clean one, just for playing.”
She sat up and gave him a thoughtful look. “Something is different. What did I miss while I was asleep?”
Phil had to avert his gaze for a second. She and Knox were both like that. They were able to look at a person’s face and sense when something was troubling them. He didn’t want to burden her with Clay Martin and that whole mess. It wasn’t her issue to deal with, and Phil didn’t believe that Martin had simply driven into Passion Peak and was now cruising the streets. There was no point in giving her something to worry about that didn’t even exist. “I was thinking of the first time I met you, but I don’t want to bring up painful memories by talking about it.”
Her smile sent his heart soaring. “It’s all right, Phil. I can talk about it now.”
That was true, and he knew it, but most days Phil thought of Eve’s progress since that night as a tightrope act. One little wobble and she could fall right off into the abyss again. He brushed a finger against her left cheek. “I remember seeing a bruise coming up already, right here, and I remember wanting to take Darrin out behind the condos along your street, into the woods where no one could watch, and beat the shit out of him for hitting you that hard.”
She swallowed visibly, and Phil was afraid he’d gone too far already. But the look of love in her eyes remained steady as she held his gaze. “Do you know how long it took me to screw up the courage to finally call the cops? He was one of you, after all.”
He nodded. “Yes, I do. I talked to all your neighbors. And cop or no cop, we don’t cover up for one another when someone does shit like that.” He pulled Eve into his arms, inhaling her scent. “When I first came home from Afghanistan, I almost didn’t go back. My friends all thought I was nuts to sign up for a second tour. Do you know what sent me back, and then kept me in the Marines for eight more years?”
She shook her head. “No. I don’t think you ever told me. What was it?”
He’d never told her this because he believed it would be too uncomfortable for her to hear. He hoped his instincts in telling her now were right. “The first month I was there, we were on a routine patrol just outside of Kabul when we came across a girl of no more than eleven or twelve, rummaging through garbage cans. She said she was looking for food, and she walked with a limp. I thought she’d injured one of her feet or legs, but when we got her to the base hospital, the doc who examined her found out she’d been gang raped.”
Eve pulled out of his arms and looked up into his eyes with an expression of sympathy and grief. “That’s horrible.”
“I soon found out it wasn’t unusual. Women over there are treated so poorly, we can’t even imagine. I’m not saying we don’t have incidents here in the US that are unspeakable and deplorable, but it’s such an everyday occurrence over there that it’s easy to become bitter and jaded. It’s why the guys drink so much and come home shell-shocked, even if they never see actual combat.”
“So why did you return?”
He cupped her face gently. “Because we saved only one. I knew we couldn’t save them all, but just knowing I saved her was enough to send me back. Does that make sense?”
Eve nodded as her eyes filled with tears.
“And when I answered that call three years ago, and I looked into your eyes for the first time, I was reminded of that hot afternoon all over again. I had to save you, Eve. I had to.”
“You did,” she whispered.
He shook his head. “You saved yourself by making the call. All I did was set things in motion from there.”
“Is that why you joined the force when you came back home? Because of that young girl?”
“Partly. But what I told you before is also true. Tommy and I were friends before I left. He told me I’d make a great cop, so I went to the academy.”
“You are a great cop.”
“It’s a tight bunch. We work well together. And not much happens in this town. I’m not complaining, mind you.” His mind wandered to the image that Knox had described of the Grand Am cruising up and down Pioneer Lane.
“I feel safe with all of you now. I didn’t when I was married to Darrin, but I do now.”
“No one was on his side, Eve. If we had known, we would have done something about it.”
“I know that now. You’re all my knights in shining armor.”
Phil grinned, and then shivered at the look in her eyes as he did. He lived for that look of anticipation and submission. “What about just one of us? I’m the only cop here right now.”
“I already know you can protect me, Sarge.”
When she spoke to him in that sexy, smoky tone, his cock grew hard in seconds and his heart skipped a beat. “I don’t know. I think you might need one more man around, just in case.” He loved teasing her about asking Knox to join them. Not only because he knew that she loved the idea, and that in turn made him even hornier for her, but because he would love to watch her get spanked and fucked by his cousin. If anyone had asked Phil to explain why the idea of that aroused him so much, he wouldn’t have been able to. He didn’t question things like that. He simply went with them.
Her face flushed, and his dick twitched. He was so ready for her again it was ridiculous. What was Knox doing right now? If he called him and told him to close down the garage for the afternoon and come over, would he do it?
“Who did you have in mind, Sarge?”
He chuckled and pulled her over his knee, loving the way she yelled and squirmed, as if she hated it. He knew she loved it, and that only fueled his excitement. He caressed her ass cheeks, sliding his hand underneath to massage her wet pussy. The woman got slick at the drop of a hat. He could fuck her for days and never grow tired of her body, the look in her eyes, or her soft, sexy moans.
“Sarge…please….”
“Please what? Tell me what you want.” He knew what she wanted, but he loved to hear her say it. As he slid a finger into her soaking wet hole, she moaned louder and squirmed again. “Should I call Knox right now?”
“Stop teasing me…please…”
“Are you talking about my finger or asking Knox to come over?”
He held his breath as he felt her body tense just enough that he knew his words had an effect. They’d danced around this issue for months, and while part of him really got off on mind-fucking with her like this, it was time to find out if simply the mere thought of fucking Knox aroused her, or if she really would do it.
He pulled his finger out and rubbed her clit, eliciting more moans from her. “What’s your answer, Eve?”
“Both.”
Phil smiled, and then he took his finger from underneath her and wrapped that arm around her waist, pinning her against his body. As he began to swat her lovely ass cheeks, alternating
them, he told her to count. She giggled and did as he asked, but soon her groans and the tone of her voice told him she was slipping into subspace, and he stopped.
When he rolled her onto her back and looked down at her, he was treated to the state of bliss on her beautiful face that rendered him useless. He’d give this woman anything she wanted for the rest of her life. All she had to do was ask.
He slid his dick into her pussy and had to fight with every ounce of self-control not to come in two seconds. Men reached their sexual peak at nineteen? He didn’t think so. He was closer to thirty-eight than thirty-seven, but Eve made him feel like he was fourteen again. Back in those days he got horny looking at a hole in a tree trunk.
She wrapped her arms and legs around him and pulled him close. When he felt her climax start, he let go, and by the time they both finished, they were each covered in a fine sheen of sweat and the room smelled like sex again. Phil was almost asleep by the time he pulled his cock out of her pussy and gathered Eve into his arms.
Chapter Four
After he got off the phone with Phil, Knox worked on the Chevelle for a while longer, but when his stomach began to growl, he decided to walk down the street to Doli’s Diner and grab some lunch. Normally, he called Kasper Nakos, Doli’s brother, and ordered pizza delivery from Kasper Pizza, but he wanted to get out and enjoy this gorgeous October day. There wouldn’t too many of them soon.
He glanced up at the twin peaks as he walked, inhaling the pungent fragrance of dead leaves. Passion Peak was named for the species of passion flower that grew along its slopes, but the flowers weren’t in bloom right now. Snow capped the peak, and it wouldn’t be long before it made its way down the sides and into the town. Knox didn’t mind the snow, but business slowed down so much during the winter that he usually took a seasonal position at the Belle Meade Hotel, which catered to the skiing crowd each year.