Chapter Six

Chase

It was a grueling few days in the wilderness. I found myself looking around feeling like somebody was watching me waiting for the right time to strike. It could’ve been my overactive imagination, but I had learned to follow those instincts honed into a razor’s edge.

There were a few washouts, but also some surprising candidates rising to the challenge. I had thought I had seen it all, but these few made me see things differently. I’d given them one knife a piece and dropped them into the middle of nowhere. They had a compass and their wits. Four cried Uncle on the very first night. There were two more unprepared for the elements, but giving up wasn’t part of their vocabulary. Their bodies shut down, but they deserved a second shot to redeem themselves. They would return from a hospital stay well rested and ready to tackle the training I had in store for them.

I was home on solid ground and the only person I could think about was Gail. Her eyes followed me from my waking thoughts into my dreams.

I got off the plane and went directly to the bar. I had a couple of beers while watching sports net with the bartender absentmindedly wiping down the bar and stocking the shelves.

I’d gotten a few disturbing text messages over the last few days with the image of the same scorpion lying upside down in the snow. I thought getting back to basics would make it easier to forget. Whoever was mocking me made sure I was never going to forget Operation Scorpion. I couldn’t even tell my best friend in the world without raising the alarms. The details were classified. Mason didn’t have the right type of clearance.

I gave the bartender a $20.00 tip and I felt bad for keeping him open after he was ready to close. I walked down to the parking structure where it was like a ghost town. It was a good thing I was good with directions and knew exactly where I had parked.

I found my Jeep Wrangler in matte black sitting in long-term parking. I was going back home, but my hands had other ideas. I brought up her file and found her address being punched into my GPS. This was the hundredth time I had gone through her file.

I was driving aimlessly through the city at midnight when the streets were barely recognizable. Cars lined the side of the roads sitting dormant while their owners slept comfortably in their beds.

My jeep was one of the few on the road and the streets had become too slippery to hazard taking my bike. The four-wheel drive easily navigated the slick surface. I was feeling the effects of the last few beers.

I rolled to a stop at the curb and I was surprised to see her light on. A man wearing a tweed coat with elbow patches emerged from the doorway. I was making too much out of it. There was probably an innocent explanation to explain his presence. I was about to get out, but then she came into view wearing only a man’s shirt. It stopped me in my tracks and made me reconsider what I was going to do next.

They shared an embrace, but their lips never touched. It was the only thing preventing me from racing across the street and pummeling this guy into the ground. I didn’t have any designs on her. We hadn’t made any promises. My reaction was somewhat startling and scary at the same time.

A taxi pulled up within minutes of his departure and they separated with their fingers touching until he was safely in the cab. It wasn’t Henry. At this hour the only reason she would have visitors would be for physical comfort. I was about to drive away, but my curiosity held me by the throat until I couldn’t breathe.

I ran across the street and onto her stairs almost stumbling and breaking my neck on the ice that had accumulated. I was using the liquor to give me the courage to knock on her door. The light over the door was barely extinguished before it went back on.

“Stephen, I told you I would give you a call in the…Chase…what are you doing here at this hour?” She was holding the shirt in a defensive posture to stop me from seeing even one inch of exposed skin. She didn’t take into consideration her long and luscious legs.

“I know I shouldn’t ask, but who the hell is Stephen and why is he coming out of your house at midnight?” I wasn’t going to take her cheating on me even though we hadn’t done anything to warrant being jealous.

“I don’t want you to catch the death of cold. This is a night not fit for man or beast. Come in and take your coat off. I have some hot water on the stove. Can I offer you some tea or coffee?” I heard the freezing rain and the roads became impassable within seconds of the downpour.

“Don’t change the subject.” I flung my jacket over the partition separating the doorway from the living room.

“I don’t know why it matters to you. It’s not like we’re ever going to be together. And it’s not like we are going to. You’re married.” I went into the kitchen and sat at a black marble island in the middle. I had a bird’s eye view of her reaching for something in the top cupboard.

The way the shirt came up a few inches had me seeing the faint outline of her golden globes. I wanted nothing more than to tear the shirt off her body. My fingers were itching to touch her porcelain skin and to make her tremble to my touch.

“My wife died. I wear this ring because…He’s not right for you and you can do a whole lot better. I feel I need to watch out over you.” I’d found out perusing her file that she was the one that Colby was talking about with love in his eyes.

Colby was always bragging about his accomplishments. He never did mention her name. It was only when he was under the influence that he told us she was his sister. They were twins. I was his best friend and yet I didn’t know much about his personal life.

He took me aside and made me promise to take care of his sister if anything happened to him. Thinking nothing of it, I made my assurances not realizing a few months later my words would come back to haunt me.

“Chase, I don’t need a man to take care of me. I’ve been doing that on my own for as long as I can remember. I want you to sit there and tell me what this is about. It’s late and your accusations are getting on my last nerve.” Her hair was in disarray like she had just been physically incapacitated in the throes of ecstasy.

“I’m sure you heard about my training program. I just got back and the first person I wanted to see was you.” It was a bit of a shock to learn of her connection to Colby.

The file was very illuminating and had me shaking my head in disbelief at how small the world really was. I made myself a promise. I was going to tell her the truth. I had neglected my duties to get in touch with her when he died. I still wore the scar where the bullet tore through my chest. I jumped in front to save Colby, but it was for nothing. The bullet had somehow changed trajectory by hitting my rib cage.

I fell on top of him to shield him from the bullets flying in all directions. He was already dead before he hit the ground. I’d come home carrying the weight of his death on my shoulders. I didn’t want to be reminded of my shortcomings. It was the reason I didn’t get in touch with Gail. I didn’t even know her name or her connection to Colby until two days ago.

He had left me a letter in his belongings. It mocked me with his death following me like a black cloud. I finally had the courage to open it during the one-year anniversary of his death. It was enough to bring a tear to my eye.

“That’s sweet but doesn’t explain the reason for your impromptu visit. This could have waited until morning.” She placed a coffee cup in front of me with the insignia of a gold scorpion etched in the black glass. It was just another reason not to get too close.

“I don’t really have a good explanation.” She reached across and grabbed me by the collar until her crimson lips were right there for the taking.

“I’m calling bullshit and I don’t use that term loosely. I know you have feelings for me, but we need to remain strong. Coming here was wrong. Go home before you make a mistake.” I could only stare at her transfixed by her beauty and the way the tip of her tongue circled the oval shape of her mouth.

“I know being here is unconscionable, but I feel like a moth drawn to your flame.” She still had me in her grip and she wasn’t letting go.

“I’m going to have to ask you to leave. We can’t resist when we are in close proximity to each other. Distance will help us avoid making things messy.” She grabbed me by the hand and pulled me from the stool.

I abruptly stopped short and pinned her up against the stainless steel fridge. She struggled in vain with no real conviction.

“I can’t see you with another man. It drives me crazy thinking about someone else touching you.” One of her buttons had come undone.

The swell of her breasts and the pointed end of her nipples poking me in the chest was causing me to act recklessly. I was soon kissing her neck with my tongue circling the very spot. Hearing her moan was my own personal aphrodisiac. The signals coming from her delicious looking body was making the temperature rise between my legs.

“I won’t be able to stop you if you insist on taking me up those stairs to the bedroom. Be sure this is really what you want.” I made her squeal when I swept her off her feet.

I bounded up the stairs like she weighed nothing in my arms. She was a fragile doll and I was afraid to break her. It was my first impression of her by Colby’s words, but she was stronger than I gave her credit for.

“Gail, I can only hope you will respect me in the morning.” She punched me lightheartedly on the arm while giggling underneath her breath at the same time.

“That’s supposed to be my line.” She was inserting a bit of levity into a sexually charged moment.

This was my time to use what little strength I had to pull back before it was too late.

I stood at the threshold to where the magic happened. The bed was a work of art made to take a pounding. It hovered a few feet off the floor with a huge mattress. The pink pillows were not the only feminine touches in the room. There was bouquet of wildflowers on the nightstand with the gauze-like white curtains billowing from the breeze coming through the open window.

I was taken back by how the bed was made. It meant what happened with the mystery man was either perfectly innocent or there was a flat surface somewhere in the house imprinted with their bodies. She didn’t wear the marks of any hickeys on her neck.

The evidence was in perfect contrast to what I believed in the moment. It didn’t matter. I had already come too far to turn back.

I took a few steps into the forbidden zone of her bedroom and laid her carefully on the pillowy softness of the mattress. I stood back and watched her stretch her limbs over her head making her chest arch in the process.

I frantically went after the delicate buttons on my starched white shirt. In my haste, a few of them came undone and landed on the floor at my feet. I took off my shirt exposing my scars and my muscles in one flamboyant move. Gail had her fingers locked together with the fingertips touching. She looked like she had evil intentions in her eyes.

She wasn’t very subtle about how she took a hold of my belt and pulled me closer to the bed. I heard the leather flying from her fingers to land on the nightstand. Her fingers made short work of my zipper. The bulge of my excitement caught her with her eyes bugging out of her skull.

“I’ve been dreaming about this. You know sometimes fantasies are better than the real thing. I can say with some degree of certainty this isn’t the case.” Gravity did the rest with my pants falling to my ankles leaving me in my red boxer briefs.

“Gail, I don’t even know what to say. Actions speak louder than words.” I used the strength of my hands to render the shirt she was wearing into nothing more than a memory.

Her shocked expression made me take a step back like she had hit me with a rolled-up newspaper. It was anger and then something I could only describe as acceptance. She let it fall over her bare shoulders. I leaned down to nip at the skin exposed to my eager and hungry eyes. There was no stopping what was going to happen. The train had already left the station.

“We need to live in this moment where nothing matters outside those bedroom doors. I need you to be here with me physically and spiritually. There can be no doubts in your mind. I want to say this will get you out of my system, but I know nothing will.” She was making it sound like I was daring her to cross the line in the sand.

With a flourish of a magician, I stripped my last line of defense by dropping my boxers to join my dark pants.