“Right, right,” he said, shaking his head. “Of course not. Well, good luck. I hope you find the guy. Takes a sick fucker to murder a woman like that and bury them in the middle of nowhere.”
“Thank you, Mr. Alton,” I replied, turning back.
I got back in my car and stared over at Alton’s property.
I’d never mentioned the victims were buried.
I pulled out my phone and called Randolph.
“I’m going to stay at a motel not far from the God’s place tonight,” I said. “Keep me posted if anything else pops up.”
“You find something?”
“I’m not sure yet. Maybe. I wanna stick around, get a feel for the place, maybe talk to a few locals.”
“Alright, call me if you need me.”
“Will do,” I said, hanging up the phone.
I’d spotted a small motel not far up the road, with a bar and restaurant across the parking lot. There’s one thing I know about locals in small towns — they like to talk and they like to keep secrets. The trick was getting them to talk about the secrets, and I was willing to take a stab at just that.
Within thirty minutes, I was unlocking my room for the night and pulling the pins from my hair. I hated wearing my hair up, but it was necessary.
Most women pulled off their bra as soon as they got home from work, but for me it was the hair. I shook out my waves, rubbing my head and letting my scalp breath. It felt almost as good as an orgasm, and I laughed, musing to myself that it was probably the closest I was going to get to that anytime soon.
All this work makes Donna a very unsatisfied woman.
I’d decided long ago my career would come first, before all those womanly desires and maternal urges were allowed to be fulfilled. Everything else took a back seat to my cases, and this was no exception.
I had a lot of work to do if we were going to catch this murderous asshole and I wouldn’t stop until we did. Unfortunately, my body reminded me I hadn’t eaten all day, so I threw on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, brushed out my hair and headed across the parking lot towards the bar in search of food and beer.
I’d be working long into the night and I couldn’t do that without fuel.
CHAPTER 20
NATE
“What a fuckin’ day,” Eli said, as he and Fury sat across from me at the Roadhouse. We’d left the stresses of the day behind and escaped to the bar not far from the clubhouse. “Can you believe this shit?”
“I know, it’s crazy,” I replied, taking a swig off my beer. “Why the fuck they gotta dump the bodies at our place?”
“And Riot said nothing showed up on the surveillance cameras,” Fury said.
“None of it makes sense,” I replied.
I’d spent the last couple of hours in a daze. I felt like I’d been run over by a truck. A very sexy, very blonde truck with an ass I could bounce quarters off of.
I’d not stopped thinking about that damned woman since she drove off.
“What the hell was going on with you earlier, Nate?” Eli asked. He definitely acts like my twin. He’s protective and nosy as hell. And he never leaves well enough alone.
“I told you it was nothing,” I repeated.
“What happened?” Fury asked Eli.
“He was looking at that FBI lady like he was going to pounce on her,” Eli laughed. “She did have a nice ass.”
“Shut the fuck up!” I barked. “Don’t you have any respect?”
“For law enforcement? Not very much,” Fury said. “Sure, she was hot, but dude — did you see the way Grace squared off against her? I thought we were gonna have a catfight on our hands for a minute there.”
“I know,” Eli said. “That’s why you best not get any ideas, brother. She’s not worth the wrath it would bring down on you if you hit that.”
“Listen to you assholes,” I growled. “I’m not doing anything. Give me a fuckin’ break.”
“You sure about that?” Eli asked, his tone changing instantly as he lowered his voice. My eyes snapped over to him and I saw his gaze was trained on the front door.
“What —?” I asked, as I turned towards the door.
Like they’d summoned her with their words, Agent Parrotti appeared under the threshold of the Roadhouse looking like she’d walked in from another dimension.
Eli whistled under his breath and Fury broke out into a raucous roaring laughter that made me want to punch him right there, because it caught her attention and she turned, spotting us right away.
“Fuck,” I muttered, as she stepped towards us.
“Fuck is right, what an improvement!” Eli said.
She looked like a completely different woman, but that confident, purposeful walk was all her. With her hair flowing down around her shoulders in big, thick waves of spun yellow silk, and her dark green t-shirt and blue jeans fitting like a second skin, she’d transformed into something else entirely different than the woman I’d experienced earlier.
“Good evening, gentlemen,” she said as she approached, giving us a friendly nod and a smile.
“Agent Parrotti,” Eli said, nodding back.
“Please, call me Donna,” she said. “I’m off the clock.”
“In that case, would you like to join us, Donna?” Fury asked.
“I’d love to, thank you,” she said, sliding into the booth beside me, her denim clad thigh brushing up against mine. Fury kicked me under the table and the urge to punch him soared. I glared at him across the table.
“What can I get you to drink, Donna? I was just headed to the bar,” Eli asked, always eager to show the ladies what a gentleman he was. They may have been my two best friends, but at the moment I wanted to murder them both.
It wasn’t that I was disappointed to see Donna, not at all. It was the fact that they were both there. I’d never wanted to see them go away more in my life. Hopefully, the daggers I was shooting their way would communicate that desire clearly.
Donna’s image had haunted me for hours.
But this? This vision sitting beside me? This oasis of hair and softness, all wholesome and sexy at the same time? Well, this was an entirely different game.
How the fuck did anyone expect me to sit there — with her fucking thigh snuggled up against mine like that, no less — and not fucking explode?
I made a point to keep my hands on the table, clenching them together tightly.
“Whiskey. Neat, please. Oh, and a dinner menu?” she replied, smiling sweetly. Who the fuck was this woman? Where was the uptight, all-business chick from earlier?
Eli disappeared and she turned back to us.
“What brings you to the Roadhouse?” Fury asked.
“I’m staying at the motel,” she said. “Easier to work if I’m closer to the scene.”
“I thought you were finished,” Fury said.
“You know what?” she asked, her voice saccharine. “Do you mind if we don’t talk about the case? I’ve been going at it nonstop for over forty-eight hours and I’m still not finished with work for the night. I only stopped in for a bite to eat and a quick drink. I need a break from thinking about it.”
“Sure,” Fury nodded. “That’s cool.”
“Thank you,” she said, flashing that sweet smile again.
“Just so you know, none of us did it,” he said.
“I don’t think you did,” she replied.
“Cool,” he replied, chugging on his beer and leaning back.
Eli returned with a menu and a goblet filled to the rim with whiskey.
“I got you a double,” he said, sliding back into the booth across from us. She moved to pull the whiskey closer and her thigh flexed, sending shocks of electricity straight to my groin. I grabbed a napkin and shoved it in my lap quickly.
“I can use it,” she winked at him. She fucking winked. I hid my shock and swallowed hard. First me, then Slade, now Eli? Was she going to flirt with everyone?
I gotta be imagining things, I thought. It’s because I h
aven’t been laid in over two months. And the fact that she was fucking hot. And that thigh…
I tried to forgive myself, to laugh off this bullshit and took a deep breath, allowing myself to be human. But then she moved again, her butt scooting over towards me ever-so-fucking-slightly, but I know I wasn’t imagining it.
Or was I?
Fuck. She had me so tangled up I couldn’t fucking see straight.
I contemplated my options as she made small talk with Eli and looked over the menu. I could press my thigh back into hers. Up till now, I’d stayed as frozen in place as Michaelangelo’s David. It was possible she wasn’t even aware of our thighs touching, but if I did that, it would certainly send a clear message.
I have no fucking idea what that message is, though.
Shit.
If I really wanted to silently scream ‘let me fuck you’, I’d just be bold and put my hand on her knee. Simple as that, right?
I imagined what it would feel like to touch her knee. To have the heat of my palm sliding up the inside of her thigh, to see the look on her face as I inched higher…
“Dude!” Eli shouted, slamming me out of my fantasy.
“What?” I said.
He looked at me with unfettered disgust, shaking his head.
“Donna asked you a question.”
“Oh.” I turned to look at her, bracing myself for the impact of full facial contact. “Sorry.”
Her smile was fucking dazzling.
I feel like an ass using that word. But that’s what it was. Like last summer when Eli and I climbed up to the top of the highest hills in West Salem and watched the eclipse. It was the first time either of us had experienced totality and when the moment first hit, it was downright fucking dazzling.
That’s Donna’s smile. Like a fucking eclipse. Magical. Epic.
I could fucking go on forever, but it’s goddamned killing me and she’s asking me a question, but all I can see is her lips moving — and holy fucking shit, those lips — but I’m so dazzled that I feel like I’m in a dream or drowning or maybe dying, but all I know is I’m not here, I’m there — lost in that ecliptic smile.
Fuck.
“I’m sorry, it’s loud, what did you say?” I ask, finally pulling myself out of complete moron mode.
“How’s the beef?”
I blinked. The beef? What!?
My cock twitched and I’d never been so happy it couldn’t speak.
“Um…” I muttered, apparently unable to speak myself.
“The steak, brother,” Eli said quietly, throwing me a bone and throwing a look of pity my way, all at the same time.
“Right,” I nodded. “The steak is great. I’ve had it several times.”
“Thanks, I’m starving,” she said, staring at me with such an open expression I wanted to crawl inside and stay there awhile.
I nodded, swallowing hard. She looked back down at the menu and I took a deep breath, turning to send a glance Eli’s way. He flashed me a half smile and nodded.
“So where are you from, Donna?” he asked.
“I grew up in Oregon,” she said.
“Do you like working for the FBI?” he asked.
“I do,” she said. “Most of my family are agents, too, so it’s in my bones, I guess you could say.”
“I get that,” Eli said. “I guess that’s why Nate and I are bikers.”
“Makes sense,” she said. “Nate told me about your father. I’m so sorry.”
“Oh, he did, did he?” He raised an eyebrow my way and I glanced away.
“Yes,” she replied, smiling over at him affectionately. “It must be hard not to be allowed to visit.”
Shit.
Now I’m in big fuckin’ trouble.
You see, Eli is a private guy. He doesn’t like anyone knowing our family business and he gets really pissed at me when I tell people personal shit. The fact that our old man won’t let us visit is a real sore spot for Eli and I knew I was going to catch a ton of shit for telling Donna about it.
Eli glared over at me and nodded.
“It is what it is,” he growled. I tried to give him the ‘I’m sorry’ look, but he wasn’t having it.
With a low growl, he stood up, threw some bills on the table, and walked away.
“Eli!” I called after him. He threw up his hand, flipping me off as he walked out of the bar.
“Shit,” I muttered.
“I got him,” Fury said, pouring the last half of his beer down his throat and sliding out of the booth. “Don’t worry. See you back home.”
“Yeah, man, thanks,” I said. “You know how he gets.”
“I sure do,” he said. “Donna, it was nice to see you again. Have a good night.”
“Bye, Fury,” she said, waving, before turning back to me. “Looks like I opened up a can of worms. Sorry about that.”
“He’s sensitive. And private. It doesn’t matter. He’ll get over it.”
“You two are twins?”
“How can you tell?”
“You move the same. You’re absolute polar opposites in shape and coloring, but you have the exact same face. Same eyes. And your hands…”
She looked down at my hands, still clenched on the table, her thigh still pressed against mine. The seats across from us were now empty, but she’d made no move to relocate herself.
Trapped against the wall, I had nowhere to escape to, even if I wanted to.
Which I absolutely, without a fucking doubt, did not want to do.
In fact, I threw caution to the wind and made a move.
I flexed my thigh muscle, slowly applying pressure to the outside of her leg.
She didn’t flinch, just gently sipped her whiskey as she smiled at me.
Fine, I thought, pressing a little harder. She blinked. Took another sip.
And then she abruptly stood up.
“Excuse me,” she said, heading towards the lady’s room.
“Shit,” I muttered. I fucked that one up. I waited, wondering what she was thinking, wondering if I’d been too forward, wondering if I should just get up and leave while she was gone, to save whatever pride I had left.
Who was I kidding? I’d left it all on the floor.
I stood up and headed for the exit.
CHAPTER 21
DONNA
The woman staring back at me had become a stranger.
I’d been working so much lately, I forgot how to be a woman. My days were spent fighting to conceal any evidence of femininity I possessed. Just the mere act of smiling at a guy felt foreign and I realized with a start that I’d done a hell of a lot of smiling at guys today.
It was hard to deny all that testosterone, especially accumulated all in one place. It was like going to a male strip club and not looking. How could I not notice?
Still, I felt weak. As if I was going against everything I’d fought for, betraying all the times in the past I’d fought off sexual advances. From Randolph on up to the tops of the ranks of the FBI, I’d refused offers of promotions that I knew came with a price I wasn’t willing to pay. I’d worked hard to get here, without using my feminine wiles to do so.
In order to do that, I had to stuff all that womanly stuff away, compartmentalize it in some deep recess of my soul and forget about it.
I was doing just fine, too. Until today.
I’d thought I was holding it together pretty well, even when I was surrounded by them all.
But that thigh? Nate’s thigh pressed up against mine like that?
It broke me.
As soon as I sat down next to him, I realized I’d slid into the booth a little too far. I’d been aware of his flesh against mine from the very first second. But I left it there, which was my first mistake.
The second mistake was leaning in a little.
But I was counting on safety in numbers, at that point. I figured it was harmless, just like the smiles I’d thrown their way.
But then the other guys left and there we were all alone
and pressed up against each other like slices of bread and then he pressed back and I knew where the whole thing was headed and I panicked and fled to the bathroom like a scared virgin.
Now what? I asked the woman in the mirror.
I knew what the right thing to do was.
No matter how great my hair looked tonight, no matter how lonely I was, or how much my stomach fluttered when Nate turned those dark eyes my way, I absolutely, without a doubt, should not even entertain the idea of getting involved with him. Not while this case was ongoing.
Sure, it’d be easy to take him to my room and throw caution to the wind, spend a night in sweet ecstasy and give in to every urge that was currently pulsing through my core.
It’d be more than easy, it would be divine, I’m sure.
I’d be left satisfied and satiated, no doubt. He certainly seems like the kind of man who knows exactly how to give a woman what she needs. And judging by the answer of his thigh pressing into mine just now, he was definitely willing.
All I had to do was walk out there and say the word.
My bed was waiting just across the parking lot.
Easy…
So damned easy…
I took a deep breath, my heart racing as temptation washed away all sense of right and wrong.
“Fuck it,” I muttered to the woman in the mirror. She smiled a devilish smile back at me and I shook my head. “Life’s short…”
I strolled out of the bathroom with renewed confidence, a woman on a mission and a swing in my hips. I stopped cold in my tracks when I saw the empty booth. My head swung around as I searched for him in the crowded bar, but Nate was nowhere to be found.
I exhaled, deflated and disappointed for a split second, before I realized it was for the best. I shook my head, bemused at my momentary lack of judgement.
I’d almost screwed up royally.
I would have been so angry at myself afterwards.
Laughing, I walked out of the bar and decided to order dinner in my room instead. There was way too much work left to do for the night.
It’s not like I had time for amazing sex with the hottest biker I’d ever seen anyway.
CHAPTER 22
FALLEN GOD_GODS OF CHAOS MC_BOOK EIGHT Page 7