Broken Wings

by Sweet, Izzy

  “Yes?” I sigh, half-expecting him to ask me to go back to the toy aisles.

  Levi drops his voice to a whisper and looks up at me, his expression worried. “There’s someone following us.”

  Every bit of exhaustion I was feeling evaporates in an instant.

  My first panicked thought is that Mikhail has somehow found us.

  We need to run. Screw the cleaning supplies. We need to get the hell out of here.

  Hands shaking, I’m about to push the cart away, pick up Levi and bolt for the door, when logic suddenly prevails.

  It’s highly unlikely Mikhail or anyone associated with him would find us here. If there is someone following us, it’s probably that lady I pissed off earlier.

  Dropping my own voice to a whisper, I ask Levi, “Where are they?”

  Hugging my side tight, Levi turns his head to the left and I follow his line of sight.

  There, a couple of aisles over, I spot the top of a man’s blond head. His face is tipped down as he examines something in his hands.

  I watch him for a few seconds, waiting for his head to pop up so I can get a look at his face, but he seems focused on whatever he’s looking at.

  I can’t tell if he’s purposely not looking up because he doesn’t want to get caught or if he’s completely innocent and I’m being paranoid.

  Either way, it’s better safe than sorry.

  “Okay, sweetheart, let’s go home,” I say to Levi and head for the registers, still determined to buy everything in my cart.

  I don’t really have a choice at this point. If I leave without it and that guy is nobody, then this entire trip will be for nothing.

  And I really need all this stuff so I can clean up the house or we won’t have somewhere to sleep tonight.

  Heart still beating frantically from the spike of adrenaline I got earlier, I find the one checkout lane that’s open and get in line.

  There’s two other people in front of me but thankfully they only have a few items.

  Every so often I cast a glance over my shoulder but see no sign of the blond man.

  Once we’ve paid, have everything bagged up, and I still haven’t caught another glimpse of him, I push the stranger completely out of my mind.

  It was probably just a coincidence.

  After starting up the minivan, I help Levi buckle up in his booster seat then load everything into the back.

  Hitting the button to close the hatch, the exhaustion starts to creep back in.

  In fact, after that little freak out I had, I feel even more tired.

  My feet drag as I push the cart over to the corral.

  I’m so wiped out, sleeping in the van for a few hours once we get back to the house is starting to seem like a good idea.

  At least it’s clean.

  Pulling open my door, I slide behind the wheel and start rubbing my eyes when I spot the blond man again.

  Coming out of the store, he scans the parking lot with a phone pressed up to his ear.

  Even from here, I can tell he’s big. Big and entirely too handsome for his own good.

  I don’t immediately recognize him, but there’s something about him that puts me on edge.

  Throwing the minivan into reverse, my tires almost squeal as I back out of our spot.

  The drive to Walmart may have taken us fifteen minutes, but I manage to make back to the house under ten.

  Ten long minutes of checking the rearview mirror.

  Parking next to the house, I’ve seen neither hide nor hair of blond guy the entire drive here, but I’m far from relieved.

  His face… The longer I think about it, just like the house, his face bothers me.

  Have I seen him somewhere before?

  Again, I could almost swear…

  A headache begins to build behind my temples as my brain struggles to find a missing piece that may or not be there.

  “Mommy, can we go in now? I need to go potty,” Levi asks, cutting through my thoughts.

  I give my head a sharp shake and try to push away the irritation and frustration I feel over this whole ordeal.

  The more I try to figure things out, the less anything makes sense.

  And I seriously don’t have time to waste on this stuff right now.

  There’s still so much to do…

  I help Levi out of the minivan and start carrying all our stuff into the house.

  It takes me four trips to get everything inside, and I don’t know if I’ve finally gone completely batshit insane…

  Maybe it’s the lack of sleep and all the trauma catching up to me?

  But, as I carry the last of the bags inside and shut the door behind me, I hear the faint, unmistakable sounds of a motorcycle in the distance.

  And I’m overwhelmed by this intense sense of impending doom.

  Chapter Seven

  Coy

  Snowbird’s lips slowly slide up my cock, her tongue ring trying its damnedest to make me nut in her mouth. When she reaches my head, she swirls her tongue around and around, coating it with her spit. She’s going to try and deep throat my dick again. She’s going to try and shove my long shaft down her throat till her nose touches my pubes.

  Won’t happen though, she doesn’t have the skill or throat for it.

  Ever since Pappy had to bring up the house, I’ve been on fuckin’ edge. And none of the fucking tails that hang around are helping me out today.

  But fuck it, if Snowbird needs to try to reach her goal in life, who am I to stop her?

  Putting my hands on the back of her head, I start pushing her down onto my cock. I can feel her gag reflex starting up when I hit the back of her throat, but I push down even harder.

  Sex is a necessity; I need the release. It goes against my normal touching limits, but she ain’t gettin’ a fuckin’ cuddle and hug after this shit. She probably wants one, but taking my load is the furthest I’m willing to go with any chick.

  At least nowadays.

  “Don’t you fuckin’ puke on my lap, Bird,” I bitch at her when I feel drool and spit coming out of her mouth, dripping down to my balls.

  She’s struggling not to. I can feel the air gasping out of her as she tries to adjust to me forcing her farther than she’s able go.

  Coughing and a retch has me pulling the sweetbutt up and away from my cock.

  A long tendril of spit connects us both.

  Taking my hands off the back of her head, I let her pull up and away from me. She’s got those black mascara tears running down her face from her eyes waterin’.

  It could be sexy watching a chick tryin’ so hard to bring me pleasure even if it makes her miserable, but it isn’t.

  She’s not the fucking drug I need to get my mind to shut the fuck up.

  “I’m try—" she pants at me. “I’m trying, baby.”

  “You’re making a fucking mess,” I growl. “Can you even give a simple fucking blowjob?”

  “Baby, I just wanna make you smile. You’re so stressed. All the other girls are saying how mad you are because—"

  She goes on and on with her stupid fucking babbling as I tune her out.

  Looking at the bottle of whiskey on the desk, I debate slamming it up against her head just to shut her the fuck up.

  Grabbing a handful of her hair, I lean down close to her face instead. “Did I ask you to be my fucking shrink?”

  Her mouth opens and closes like a fish a couple of times before she shakes her head. “No, Coy. I’m so sorry.”

  “Then use that hole in your head for its intended purpose,” I say before shoving her mouth back down on my cock.

  Fuck.

  I just want to bust a fucking nut and relieve some of the fucking rage building in my body. I want to find some semblance of fucking peace.

  What I don’t want is to hear some sweetbutt fucking talking to me about how stressed I’ve been.

  Leaning back in the chair, I close my eyes and try to let the tension in my shoulders ease up a bit.

  That
fucking house is emptying out again, and it’ll be yet another issue I gotta deal with.

  Allie’s been gone for five fucking years and that house still stands in my mind as her home.

  She’s not here and I’m still fucking suffering.

  The feel of Allie’s lips caressing my own floats through my mind. They were so soft and plump. Fuck, she could kiss.

  Just the thought of kissing her has my balls tensing up.

  I remember the way she would thrust up against me, taking my cock into her tight, wet pussy. I remember the moans next to my ear as she would tell me how good it was.

  For five years I’ve used her memories to get off. I’ve sullied her mental image with skanks and sweetbutts just so I could feel alive again even if it’s for the briefest of moments.

  A loud, blaring wail blasts from my desk, next to the open bottle of whiskey. The sound letting me know I’ve got a fucking call.

  Motherfucker.

  “God fucking dammit!” I shout at the ceiling as I slam my hand on the back of Snowbird’s head. “Don’t you fuckin’ stop.”

  She struggles against my hand for a few seconds before she makes a gagging sound of acknowledgement. She’ll keep going if she doesn’t want to be kicked out of the club on her scrawny bleach-blonde ass.

  Snatching the phone off the desk, I see it’s Poster Boy before I push the connect button. “What the fuck is it?”

  “Hey, boss man. I’ve got an issue I thought you might want to know about,” Poster Boy says quietly into the phone.

  I try to keep the sigh of annoyance out of my voice as I lean back into the chair again. “What’s goin’ on, brother?”

  Snowbird keeps sucking on my cock, but she might as well be sucking a fucking doorknob. This is going to ruin my mood. I can just tell whatever he’s calling about is not conducive to me getting my nut off.

  “I’m at the Walmart…” Poster Boy says, and he’s still being so quiet I can barely hear him over Snowbird’s slurping.

  “What? They have a fucking twofer on toilet bowl cleaners?” I snap.

  If this is something fucking stupid, I’ll have his ass on prospect-watching duty for a fucking week.

  “Funny, boss man. No. I’ve got eyes on a chick walking around right now. She looks an awful fuckin’ lot like Allie.”

  My heart skips two beats and I swear from the pain that lances throughout my entire body I’m about to have a fucking heart attack.

  Just the name Allie… That name.

  “You better be fuckin’ sure about this, Poster Boy,” I cough into the phone when the air finally returns to my lungs.

  “Let me see if I can snap a picture for you. Not sure if she’s picked up on me followin’ her yet.”

  Grabbing Snowbird roughly by the hair, I yank her off my cock. “Get the fuck out of here.”

  “What?” she asks, startled.

  “Get the fuck out of here!” I roar at her as I stand and start dragging her stupid fucking ass to the door of my office by her arm.

  Dropping her by the door, I yank it open and then put my boot to her naked ass before I give her a hefty shove.

  Slamming the door closed, I put my cock and balls back in my jeans and start zipping my shit up.

  “Text incoming with the pic,” Poster Boy says over the phone. “Kid must have spotted me, but I still got the pic.”

  “What the fuck do you mean kid?” I ask.

  “She’s got some kid with her who noticed me skulking about,” he says.

  Kid?

  “How old?” I ask with a snarl.

  “How the fuck would I know? I don’t deal with kids,” he chortles.

  “Alright,” I say as I pace back and forth across the office.

  As soon as I hear the chime, I pull the phone away from my ear and look at the pic.

  There, in vivid color, is the woman I’ve dreamed and thought of for the past five fucking years.

  Putting the phone back up to my ear, I say, “Follow her and call me when she lands. I don’t give a fuck where.”

  Chapter Eight

  Allie

  I don’t know why, but it hurts more to stop and rest than it does to keep moving.

  So I keep moving.

  First, I help Levi pee outside in a bush because the bathrooms inside are so filthy we’d need hazmat suits to avoid catching a disease. Then I start tackling one of the upstairs bedrooms.

  The one that looks like it used to be a little kid’s room.

  The mess here isn’t as bad as the rest of the house, mostly dirty clothes and little toys left behind, but there’s enough garbage that it pulls at my heartstrings.

  I hope the child that lived here is somewhere better now.

  Picking up a broken lightsaber, I glance over at Levi.

  He’s standing quietly by the window, watching me with a frown. Unhappy I wouldn’t let him help.

  I shove the broken lightsaber into my half-full garbage bag and ask, “Do you need me to hot spot you?”

  He shakes his head and his frown deepens. “I’m sick of the iPad.”

  God, I hate when he frowns at me like that. I know he’s not doing it on purpose, but it always makes me uneasy.

  Like he’s judging me…

  He’s only four, but when he looks at me the way he is right now, I swear I can picture exactly what he will look like when he’s older.

  I can picture it so clearly in my mind, it unnerves the hell out of me.

  The sharp lines of his cheeks… the scruff he’ll let grow on his jaw…

  Eyes so dark and intense they cut as much as they burn.

  Blinking away the image, I nod my head and bend over to pick up another broken toy.

  Working as quickly as I can, I get everything picked up off the floor then start sweeping up all the dust and dirt.

  A vacuum would be awesome right now, but I’m grateful the floors are hardwood and not carpet. I don’t even want to imagine what carpet would look like given what’s been done to the place.

  Outside, the mid-afternoon sun burns bright, so bright it shines right through the thin floral sheet still covering the window. But by the time I pull out my mop, I’m ready to fall over from exhaustion.

  I’ve never been so tired in my life. So tired that if I close my eyes for a second too long I start to drift off.

  I push myself to finish half of the room though before I stop to rest, squeezing the handle of the mop in my hands.

  I only need a few seconds… Just a few seconds and I can keep going…

  Thunder rolls in the distance and I jerk awake, my heart leaping in my chest.

  That impending sense of doom I felt earlier returns.

  Great, a storm is coming. Just what we need when we have to use the bathroom outside.

  Levi twitches the curtain to the side and peeks out the window. A bright shaft of sunlight hits me directly in the face. Blinking away the sting, I turn my face away from the light and hear the thunder in the distance still rolling, growing louder.

  Once my eyes have readjusted, I walk up to the window to investigate. Leaning my mop against the wall, I peek out the window over Levi’s head.

  Looking right then left, I expect to see storm clouds rolling in on the horizon.

  What I don’t expect to see is three motorcycles coming down the road.

  One of the reasons I decided to come to this house to hide is because of the isolation it offers. Our closest neighbors are more than a mile away. There’s literally nothing around us but grass, bushes, and trees.

  But mostly trees.

  Maybe they’re just passing by, I hope as I watch them grow from small figures in the distance to big, life-sized threats.

  The bikes begin to slow as they near the house and then they turn up the driveway.

  Shit.

  “Get away from the window,” I hiss at Levi and grab him by the arm, pulling him back.

  “Mommy?” he squeaks and looks up at me with fear in his eyes.

  “Sssh
hh, be quiet, honey,” I whisper and press my finger against my lips.

  Levi nods his head, his lips trembling as I lead him to the middle of the room. Squatting down, I wrap my arms around him as he throws his little body at me and hold him tight.

  The motorcycles are so close now the house practically rattles with the sounds of their rumbling engines.

  Then the engines shut off and everything is quiet.

  Heart racing, my ears strain for any little sound that would give me a clue of what’s going on outside.

  Maybe they’re here to visit the people who used to live here, I try to reassure myself, fighting off the urge to give into panic.

  Panic will get us killed. My nerves are frayed, my entire body aches, and I went beyond exhausted hours ago, but I still have to be smart and level-headed.

  I don’t think Mikhail ever worked with bikers. The people he surrounds himself with, his circle, are more… upper crust. The type of people that look down their nose at anyone with a net worth under a million.

  And it’s highly unlikely he has any connections out here in Kentucky, of all places. Even if he did, the odds that he could find us so quickly, especially out here in boonies, has to be astronomical.

  Heavy footsteps thud against the porch.

  The people outside… it’s most likely simply a coincidence. Bad timing. If we’re quiet, they’ll probably go away.

  Unless they’re the very people that used to live here.

  My stomach churns at that thought and my arms tighten around Levi.

  The locks were changed, but if they used to live here and want to get in, there’s no bars on the doors or windows to stop them.

  I hear deep, male voices but can’t quite make out what they’re saying.

  Then there’s a loud, booming knock on the front door.

  Levi jumps in my arms and I keep holding him tight.

  “It’s okay,” I whisper, pressing my mouth close to his ear, “if we’re quiet and pretend we’re not here, they’ll go away.”

  Levi nods his head but now his whole body is trembling.

  I pray that I’m right, because if I’m not…