Bones by the Wood

by Johnson, Catherine

  The sight of the body had persuaded Thea’s stomach against food, so she poured herself a cup of coffee for sustenance. Someone, blessed be that person, had put a fresh pot to brew so it wasn’t thick, hours old sludge, that she poured into her mug. Thea felt as though she’d lived a week in this building rather than a weekend.

  As more people worked themselves into motion, the noise and movement woke Josh. He shuffled off the mattress and blearily stumbled over to the bar. Thea helped him up onto a stool and found some toast and juice for him. She looked around for Dizzy. He was by the door with Samuel and the other Louisiana visitors. It looked as though they were taking their leave. The big man that she hadn’t seen before had disappeared.

  Dizzy was looking around the room; when his eyes landed on her, he waved her over. She murmured a question to Josh to make sure that he was settled, and received an incomprehensible grunt in response.

  She hopped off the stool and crossed the room. The visitors were watching her as they filed out into the day. She wasn’t sure whether it said more about her or about Dizzy that their interest was so piqued by any indication of a relationship between the two of them.

  By the time she reached Dizzy, only Samuel and a couple of the others were still lingering. As she reached the knot of people, Dizzy slid his arm around her waist and tightened it until she was snug against his body. Thea didn’t mind, it was a good place to be.

  “Will we see you at my daughter’s wedding, cher?”

  She’d agreed days, was it only hours ago, to go with Dizzy if he came back to her. It looked like she and Josh would be finding a way to take a road trip to Louisiana. She glanced up at Dizzy, needing to check that he hadn’t changed his mind. He seemed calm, content; he nodded.

  She turned back to Samuel. “Yeah, I guess you will.”

  “Good.” His smile was warm and genuine. “It won’t be a formal affair, cher. I think you’ll get along with my old lady. I know she’ll be just dyin’ to meet you.”

  Chiz, standing just behind Samuel, was sporting a wide grin in her direction. “You can join the coven.”

  Samuel sent a caustic glance over his shoulder. “My brother here is referring to my wife, her friend and my daughter.”

  Samuel’s tone was pointed, but Chiz appeared to be completely unapologetic. He turned his wit on Dizzy. “You watch out for her and that catchin’ the flowers shit, bro.”

  “Chiz, I think it’s about time you got your ass on your bike. You’ve not long since got the use of that leg back.”

  Thea had no idea what Samuel was referring to, but it didn’t diminish Chiz’s humor. “Catch ya in a couple’a weeks, bro.” Chiz stepped forward, and he and Dizzy clasped hands before Chiz headed through the door.

  After Chiz left, Samuel and Dizzy repeated the gesture. “Safe travels, brother.” Dizzy said while their hands were still locked.

  “Take care, son. You too, cher. I’m lookin’ forward to seein’ you and your boy again.”

  Thea stepped outside with Dizzy to see Samuel and his men on their way. There was a black van with the legend “Green Pastures Funeral Home” scrawled in white cursive script along the flank, parked but with its engine running. Thea put two and two together. The van was where they had carried the body to. She figured whatever somber farewells Dizzy and the others had needed to say had already been said.

  There was a vehicle recovery truck parked next to the van. A black Harley, more modern looking than most of the ones Thea had yet seen was strapped down to the bed. A tall, thin man with an impressive handlebar moustache and shoulder length hair that were both silver white with age was in the middle of climbing into the cab of the truck. His bushy eyebrows, which were perversely as vibrantly black as his hair was grey, climbed up high onto his forehead as he spotted them. She felt, rather than saw, Dizzy nod in response, and squeezed herself a little closer to him. It simply felt like the natural thing to do.

  They watched without comment until the bikes and trucks trundled out of sight in a cloud of dust, fumes and noise. Without separating, they returned inside. It was all noise and friendly commotion again now. The pall of gauzy smoke had been rebuilt. Laughter and conversation rebounded round the space. Annelle and the girls were working to clear the mattresses. Even Reba was tripping around with armfuls of bedding.

  Dizzy gave her waist a squeeze. “I’m goin’ for a shower, sweetheart. Think even my skin’s about ready to crawl off me, never mind these clothes.”

  Until he’d mentioned it, Thea hadn’t noticed how grimy her own skin felt in her rumpled clothes. Now, immediately, she could feel the past twenty-four hours clinging to her like a visible layer of filth. She’d wait her turn, though. “Okay. I’m going to pitch in here.”

  Dizzy gave her an odd look, then shook his head and chuckled. “Okay. You do that.” He kissed the top of her head and with a final squeeze he left her to it.

  After she’d helped the others to clear the floor, deflate and repack the mattresses, sort the bedding for a trip to the laundromat and move the tables and chairs back into place, Thea returned to Josh. It didn’t look like he’d moved during the upheaval. He was running his hands though his hair, which was sticking up in all sorts of different directions.

  Thea was trying to mentally figure out a plan of action to get them both clean when Shaggy interrupted her planning. His blonde waves were hanging wet on his massive shoulders.

  “I saw the boss headin’ back to his room. I take it your shower’s occupied?”

  “Yeah, but we can wait.” Thea replied.

  “There’s no need.” Shaggy spoke directly to Josh. “Heya li’l bro, you wanna use my bathroom to wash up?”

  Josh blinked up at Thea. She nodded her consent.

  “Yes, please.” Josh was already jumping down from the stool as he accepted the invitation.

  “I’ll get your clothes and stuff, bud.” Thea pushed away from the bar and followed Shaggy as he led them down the corridor to one of the dorm room doors. He pulled on the chain that was hooked from his belt to one of his pockets. His wallet was attached to it, along with a small bunch of silver keys. Shaggy selected one and unlocked the door. As he led Josh into his room, Thea continued down the corridor to Dizzy’s room.

  She tried the door, and was happily surprised that it opened freely. She found their bag of belongings and rummaged through it for clothes and toiletries for Josh. She could hear the shower in the adjoining bathroom. She stacked the items that Josh would need, trying to ignore all the while the imagery running through her mind that accompanied the sound of the running water. The click of the corridor door opening caught her attention. Shaggy stepped into the room.

  “I’ll get those to the little guy.” He held his hands out and Thea handed him the pile. He winked at her before he turned and left.

  Thea stood, looking dumbly at the door that Shaggy had shut behind him, belatedly wondering if there wasn’t some sort of subtext going on that she should have been aware of.

  “Hey.”

  She spun at the sound of Dizzy’s voice. She hadn’t noticed that the shower had been turned off. She hoped her jaw wasn’t sagging as badly as she feared it was, since Dizzy was standing there wearing nothing but a small, white towel wrapped around his hips. Water was beading on his skin, dripping over his shoulders and down his chest from his wet hair.

  “Uh, hey.”

  Dizzy held his hand out to her. “Your turn.”

  “Say what now?”

  Dizzy laughed, deep and full-throated. “It’s your turn to shower.”

  “Oh.” Thea felt herself blushing. It was quite possible that the majority of the blood in her body was currently pooled in her face. “I thought....”

  Dizzy took the short steps that brought him across the room, up close. Considering he was practically naked, up close was very close, very close indeed. Some of the blood from her face started flowed away to heat other parts of her body. “Oh you weren’t wrong, sweetheart. Not at all.”


  She looked down dumbly as his fingertips traced over the lace edge of her bra, just visible over the neckline of her top. She wouldn’t normally show off her lingerie like this, but the top she’d grabbed hadn’t been the one she’d thought it was, and she hadn’t had a great deal of time to fret about her ensemble as she’d dressed. Those worries seemed to be days away now. Now she couldn’t think past the electric tingles that followed Dizzy’s fingers across her skin.

  “Damn thing’s been distractin’ the hell outta me. Time you got out of it.

  Thea wasn’t in the least bit virginal, but she felt like she’d just been cornered by the Big Bad Wolf, and that was making her a little shy. She dropped her eyes, but that didn’t help at all, because that put her gaze directly in line with Dizzy’s crotch, and that part of his anatomy definitely wasn’t feeling shy. If it got any less shy, he’d have to readjust the towel.

  He hooked a finger under her chin and tilted her head up. “If you don’t want this, sweetheart, I ain’t gonna keep you in here and force you.” He said gently.

  “No it’s not that. I do. It’s... just...” Thea’s brain had hit a brick wall, and being face to well-defined, dripping wet chest wasn’t helping her to find words.

  “Arms up, sweetheart.”

  Her limbs automatically complied with his command. She let him catch the hem of her beater and peel it up her body and over her head. He flung it into a corner of the room, somewhere in the vicinity of the desk. His fingertips barely touched her skin as they ran over and along her shoulder, and down over her lace-covered breast. It was only an almost touch, made more so only by the metal through her nipple. By instinct alone, Thea’s body arched, seeking more. Impatient now, she twisted her arms up behind her back and unclipped the fastening of her bra. She pulled it off and flung it in the general direction that her top had taken. The fierce light in Dizzy’s eyes only increased her irritation with her clothing, and she quickly rid herself of the rest of it.

  “That’s it, sweetheart.”

  He seemed determined to torture her. Instead of moving closer, he stepped back, but he caught her fingers with his own, pulling her with him. He walked backwards to the bathroom, and she let him lead her. She’d play his game, for now.

  Once inside the smaller room, still damp with humidity, Dizzy turned and switched the shower to a hot spray.

  “In you go, sweetheart.”

  “You’re not joinin’ me?”

  “No. I don’t got any special massage or hairdressin’ skills. You’ll do better by yourself.”

  “You want me to put on a show?” Thea popped her hip, teasing a little herself now.

  Dizzy returned her grin. “If you wouldn’t mind, sweetheart. Besides, it’s too small to fuck in there.”

  “You know.... ahh, of course you do.” Thea’s spirit fell a little. “Look, I don’t know how to say this. So I’m just gonna come straight out.” She couldn’t do it while looking at him, though. She dropped her eyes to the tiled floor. “If this is just... if you’re not serious... just... I don’t want the other guys....” Nope, she couldn’t say it out loud.

  Dizzy caught her chin, but this time in a much firmer grip, tight, bordering on painful. He forced her head up again until he could look into her eyes. His own eyes were flashing with anger now.

  “I don’t know what gave you the idea that I was gonna treat you like a piece of ass. But you can knock that fuckin’ silly thought right outta your head. You and your boy, both of you, you’re not just a diversion for me. One of those other gorillas lays hands on you, he’s gonna havta answer to me.”

  A weight that she hadn’t known she’d been carrying lifted, and with it, she found the completeness of her courage, and her desire. Thea wrenched her head from Dizzy’s grasp and stepped forward. For the first time she pressed the length of her naked body against his, only that small towel still in their way. She twisted her fingers into his hair, holding his head still, not caring if she caused him pain, and rose up onto her toes to kiss him.

  Dizzy grunted at her boldness, and took the kiss over, wrapping his arms around her waist, crossing his forearms across her back, and bending her backwards beneath him until she almost lost her footing and had to trust her stability to him. Thea heard the carnal noises growling from her throat as their tongues tangled, as they nipped and licked at each others mouths, but she didn’t care. Dizzy matched, exceeded, them, and that in itself caused her body to weep.

  Thea broke the kiss by bringing her hands between them and pushing against Dizzy’s chest.

  “Take a seat, cowboy. I need to get clean.”

  “I’m only gonna dirty you up again.” The anger was gone now. The fire was back, and the towel was wholly inadequate to its task.

  “Then I’m gonna make sure you have your work cut out for you.”

  Thea pulled the elastic tie from her ponytail and dropped it to the floor as she prepared to step into the small shower cubicle. Dizzy stopped her with a hand around her arm. “Wait. I wanna see.”

  “Huh?”

  Dizzy coughed to clear his throat, but his voice was till a harsh rasp. “Your back. Your ink.”

  “Oh. Sure.” She’d had her tattoos so long that she didn’t ever think about them. She’d almost forgotten about the dragon and the tiger locked in eternal combat on her back. The dragon, her symbol of strength and new beginnings, curled from her spine over her left shoulder blade, bearing down on the dragon, her symbol for her dignity and courage, as it sprang from her left thigh, over her ass and up her ribcage. It had been designed so that you had to look twice to see that the tiger had its claws to the dragon’s belly. The first impression was always that the dragon was winning, on closer inspection, it was clear that the fight was well matched.

  Dizzy traced the lines of the piece, depicted only in shades of black and grey, until Thea was impatient for him to either leave her to shower or to throw her down on the bathroom floor. He shifted his attention from her back to her shoulder.

  “These roses. You and Josh?”

  “Yeah.”

  Dizzy pressed a kiss to each red bloom, then swatted her on the ass. “Go on in with you.”

  Something in Thea melted and gave way at that tender gesture. She stepped into the shower, under the steaming spray, and immediately almost forgot that Dizzy was watching. It had been more than a day since she’d last washed. She hadn’t had the chance to change clothes, she’d barely slept, she only felt half human. The scalding water restored her. She luxuriated in the feeling of the shampoo cleansing her scalp and the soap dissolving the dirt from her body. She closed her eyes and knew nothing more than the feeling of her own hands over her skin until she was sure that the worry and the fear and the confusion of the past day had been washed away.

  When she finally turned the spray off and stepped from behind the misted glass screens, she found that Dizzy had completely dispensed with the inadequate towel and was entirely naked, save for the larger towel he was holding out to her. She stepped into it and allowed him to wrap it around her body, trapping her arms against her sides, as he pulled her close.

  “Feel better?” He whispered, before capturing her lips in a ferocious kiss that completely prevented her from answering with speech. Instead, as her response, when they broke for air, she ducked her head before he could kiss her again, and sucked at the water that had dripped from her hair onto his shoulder and chest. He sought her mouth to rekindle the kiss, and somewhere along the way the towel was lost and ignored. The kiss was a thorough exploration, an overture.

  “Thea.” Her name from his lips was barely more than air.

  “Fuck me, Dizzy. Jesus, I need you to fuck me.” She gasped.

  The responding sound that loosed from his chest was bestial, and Thea felt it down to her core. She’d thought they might at least make it to the bed; it didn’t look like that would be the case now. Dizzy spun her. She caught herself as she landed against the wall, but the harsh impact stung her palms and jarred her wrists. />
  He kicked her ankles further apart and pushed his palm down in the center of her back, telegraphing his intention for her to bend over. She complied and he grabbed her hips, his fingers bruisingly tight. His cock nudging at her entrance should have erased rational thought from her mind, but it didn’t.

  “Fuck. Condom, Dizzy. We need a condom.” Even as she gasped out the words she pushed backwards, her body seeking to be filled by his.

  There was no maybe or doubt about it, the sound that ripped from him was more animal than man. “Not helpin’, Thea, not helpin’.”

  Dizzy slammed his flat palm against the wall, once, hard. The violence of it made Thea jump almost completely out of her skin and she felt a thrill of real fear. A cold draught brushed her skin and she realized he was no longer behind her. Well, she wasn’t going to stay there like some passive offering. She followed him to the bedroom. He was in the process of shutting the drawer of the nightstand by the bed. She walked up close behind him, wrapping her arms around his torso, resting her body along his back, her cheek against his shoulder blade, and allowed her palms explore the ridges of muscle that crossed his chest and abdomen.