Lucy
“TIME TO BUCKLE up,” Sully announced over the loudspeaker.
I closed my laptop and smiled at Mary, who was my flight attendant for the day. I’d borrowed the band jet to surprise Bam, and booked me and Sully in at an historic bed and breakfast hotel in Montgomery. It was quite a distance from Bam’s hometown, but I just couldn’t stay in a dive motel that only charged twenty bucks a night. I shudder at the thought. I knew it would probably be filthy and the bugs… ohmigod, the bugs in the south were bigger than most toddlers, so, ew… no. I couldn’t do it. I needed a place with air-conditioning and clean bathrooms.
I really hoped Bam would be happy to see me. He’d sounded tired on the phone, which just didn’t sit well with me. He was like the Energizer Bunny… always “on,” but on the phone he’d sounded drained.
I sighed and shook off my worry. Instead of dwelling on the negative, it was time to put my plan in motion.
* * *
Bam
We pulled into the parking lot of Cumming’s Motel which the locals called the Cum Motel due to the fact that the last letters of Cumming’s had once burned out and stayed that way for several months before the owners bothered fixing it. After that, kids would chuck rocks at the sign to try to break those letters. Despite the motel’s name and rough exterior, it proved an adequate enough place to hole up for a couple days while we grilled the locals.
The whole thing felt like a waste of time to me, but Jaxon was undeterred and actually seemed pleased with the results we were getting. I’d hoped we have some answers by now, but all I had was more questions.
“You’ve gotta let me know what you’re thinking,” I said to Jaxon as he parked.
“About what?”
“About all of this? Do you have a theory? Do you have any idea who actually killed her, or is this just a big fishing trip?”
“I told you, there’s only so much I can tell you, and that you’ll need to be patient.”
“I get that, but we got chased away by a crazy old man with a shotgun. He didn’t tell us jack shit and yet you seemed pleased as punch.”
“He told us plenty.”
“See, that’s the shit I’m talking about!” I snapped.
“Bam, you’re going to have to trust me. The puzzle pieces of this case are starting to come together, but the picture is much bigger than you think. There are a lot of agents working this case, and we have to be careful to preserve its integrity. The Dixie Mafia is no joke, and we have to be careful.”
“Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, and I really appreciate you taking an interest in my mother’s case―”
He stopped me. “It’s not just an interest, Bam. I believe your mother’s killing might be the piece of the puzzle we’ve been missing. I think I’ve got exactly what I needed from this trip and I’m flying back to the Portland office in the morning. I appreciate your help and will keep you posted on any new developments.”
“Keep me posted? You’ve barely told me anything at all so far!” I exclaimed.
“I understand and I promise I’ll get you up to speed as soon as it’s appropriate.”
I could tell Jaxon was being straight with me, but I wasn’t happy. It was hard enough for me to tear this wound open again, but now he expected me to sit here bleeding? Fuck that.
“What the hell am I supposed to do while you’re back in Portland?” I asked.
“Nothing. You do absolutely nothing. Go back home, get back to your life and I’ll reach out to you when the time comes. I know you don’t really know me, but I need you to trust me.”
Since I couldn’t speak without eviscerating him with my words, I gave him a curt nod. I knew that he was doing his best, and that I was being an asshole, but the weight of all of this on top of everything else that I was dealing with was starting to crush me. I needed to sleep. I needed to stop thinking, and most of all, I needed Lucy. I exited the car and leaned into the open passenger side window. “Call me as soon as you have something.”
Jaxon nodded and pulled out of the driveway. As his tail lights faded into darkness I headed for the motel’s main office. My head was pounding and I needed ice in order to make an icepack.
As I approached the office I could see the soft blue flicker of a TV screen inside, but no sign of the night manager. The light above the front door was off and the door was closed and locked. I rapped on the door a few times to no avail so I headed back to my room. The entire motel had an eerie calm about it and I found myself looking over my shoulder several times.
As I neared my motel room, my high alert status shot to code red. I could see light pouring into the walkway from my slightly ajar door. I closed and locked that door when I left, so the fact it was now open wasn’t right.
I passed a large dumpster in the parking lot and grabbed the first potential weapon I could find; the board from a broken palate which had two nails sticking through one end.
The sound of footsteps behind me spurred me to walk faster, and I took a deep breath wildly swinging the door open as I raised my makeshift weapon over my head.
I heard a scream, just as my body was hit like a Mack truck from behind and thrown to the ground… my weapon landing nail side down…barely out of reach.
“Stop fightin’,” the familiar sound of Sully’s voice growled in my ear.
“Sully?” I rasped, unable to fully expand my lungs with his knee in my back.
“Ohmigod, Bam?”
“Lucy! What the hell are you doing here?” I demanded.
“Apparently, I’m about to be murdered by a maniac with giant board,” she retorted. “Sully, let him up.”
“Is that an order?” Sully challenged.
“Stop being ornery, Sully,” Lucy snapped. “Let him up.”
I took a deep breath once Sully stood and pushed myself off the ground. Sully stood and I snapped to my feet, our faces now inches from one another.
“That one I can let slide, but if you ever put your hands on me again—”
“Bam,” Lucy admonished.
Sully scowled, his hands fisted at his sides.
“Let it go… both of you.” She addressed us like we were kids fighting on the school yard. She grabbed my face and turned it toward her sharply. “Bam, tell me you understand.”
I nodded slightly and let out a short grunt of acknowledgement.
“You too, Sully. As a matter of fact I want the both of you to put an end to your… your… penis measuring contest, or whatever this thing between you is.”
Sully and I looked at each other, paused, and then started laughing. Hard.
“What’s so funny?” Lucy demanded, but I was unable to respond. My lungs and stomach were on fire. I couldn’t remember the last time I had laughed this hard.
“Goddamn it you’re adorable,” I wheezed out once I was able to compose myself.
“I am not. I’m serious. You both need to back off in the protection department. I can take care of myself. I also need the two of you to stop fighting over me and start getting along. You’re both very important to me, but you’re both being jackasses.”
“You’re right,” I said smiling.
“Miss Haddon, I apologize,” Sully said, now fully recovered and back to his factory settings.
Lucy cleared her throat and motioned toward my hand.
Taking the hint, I extended it to Sully. “No hard feelings, man.”
Sully shook my hand, saying nothing but giving me a reassuring nod. With some men that’s all it took. A hand shake and a nod and we’re good; it’s just that simple. It’s that way with good, honest men and I could tell Sully was a good man and that Lucy was like a daughter to him.
Sully finally broke his silence. “I’ll be out in the car, Miss Haddon.”
“Thank you, Sully,” she said.
“What are you doing here?” I asked once again.
“You sounded so sad on the phone I thought I would surprise you.”
“Well, I’m surprised. I think we were all surprised.” I laughed.
“What the heck is going on here? Why did you charge through the door with a board like that?”
“I saw that my door was open and the lights were on. I thought maybe someone had broken in to my room.”
She blushed. “I told the manager I was your girlfriend and wanted to surprise you, so he let me in.”
I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close. “You’re not my girlfriend, Lucy.”
Her body locked. “What?” she squeaked.
“You have girlfriends when you’re sixteen, baby.”
“Oh, really?”
I leaned down and kissed her. “My woman’s more accurate, don’t you think?”
She giggled placing her palms flat against my chest. “Your woman, huh?”
“Damn straight. You got a problem with that? ’Cause we might—”
She kissed me and her hands moved to the sides of my head, her fingers sliding deep in the tangles of my hair. She broke the kiss and sighed. “I love being your woman.”
* * *
Lucy
Bam kissed me again, his hand sliding under my shirt. As much as I couldn’t wait to get naked, I wasn’t prepared to do it in a dive motel.
“Wait, honey,” I rasped, forcing myself to break the kiss.
“Seriously?”
I smiled, tapping his chest gently. “I can’t get naked in a gross motel room. I just can’t.”
He chuckled. “What if I fuck you on the desk?”
“What if…” I licked my lips, “… we head into Montgomery and we make love in the really nice bed and breakfast room I have booked?”
He tugged one of my bra cups down and worked my nipple into a hard bead. “Or, I can fuck you up against the wall right now, then fuck you again in the bed and breakfast.”
I leaned into his touch. “Bam,” I whispered.
His hand moved to the waistband of my jeans. “Yeah, baby?”
“I―”
Bam’s fingers slid under my panties and between my legs. “You, what?”
I swallowed and tried to catch my breath as he cupped my mound. “I―”
“Wall?”
“Ohmigod, yes, the wall,” I managed to pant out.
I kicked my shoes off and Bam pushed my jeans and panties off my body, shoving me up against the wall and lifting me so I could wrap my legs around his waist.
He unbuckled his belt, unbuttoned his fly, and pushed his jeans low enough to free his cock. Before I could relish the sight of his gorgeous body, he slid into me and I whimpered with need.
Holding me steady, he pushed my shirt up so he could get access to my breasts. Since I didn’t want to fall, all I could was grip his shoulders and hold on as he slammed into me over and over again. My orgasm washed over me and I screamed out his name, dropping my head back against the wall.
Bam gave my nipple one last suck, then kissed my neck and my lips before smiling and stroking my cheek. “Better?”
“So much better,” I rasped. He pulled out of me and started to lower me to the ground. “No.”
He chuckled. “You want more?”
“No… I mean, yes, but I really don’t want my bare feet to touch the nasty floor.”
He rolled his eyes and set me on the bed instead, handing me my discarded clothing before righting his own.
“I’m gonna pack real quick, then I’ll drop my key in the dropbox and we can go.”
“That sounds good,” I said.
He grabbed a duffel and opened one of the dresser drawers. “You know, I have a place in Montgomery.”
“You do?”
He nodded. “I haven’t been there in a few weeks, but I know my cleaning lady came less than a week ago, so it can’t be too bad.”
“I can leave Sully at the B&B and we can go to your place if you like.”
“Sounds good to me.”
I waited while Bam finished packing, then he dropped the key at the front desk and we headed to Montgomery.