Chapter 10 – Carl
I was lying on the couch in the dark cabin while Virginia was in the bedroom. All I could think about was how hot she definitely looked asleep on the bed right now. I knew her naked body and I couldn’t get the image out of my head. Her perfect soft breasts, her rosy nipples, her small tight warm pussy.
We had spent the rest of the day in the cabin in silence. While Virginia had remained in her room reading a book, I had remained in the living room trying to not think about her.
The night was dark, and every time I looked out of the window for the moon, all I could see were dark clouds in the sky. It was pitch black.
Why did Mike have to call when he did? The guilt was eating me up like a deadly disease, and all I could think about was how I had betrayed my best friend. I had taken his daughter’s virginity: I had her lips in my mouth, my finger in her pussy . . . fuck!
I sat up with a jerk on the couch, just when I heard something like footsteps outside. I could have been imagining it, given the state of my mind, but I rushed to my bag on the floor. Virginia had guessed right, I only had a couple of t-shirts in there, but I also had my gun.
I took it out, threw my jacket over me, and stepped outside. I was holding my gun in position as I walked around the porch of the cabin to the back where the pine trees were.
“Damn the moon!” I muttered to myself because I could barely see anything.
I had to take small steps around so that I didn’t knock into anything. There was no movement here, no sound other than the strong wind speckled with frost that was blowing into my face.
I stood there a few more minutes with my gun in hand, ready to shoot if anything even rustled. Nothing did. I had imagined it.
I looked at my wrist watch – it was three in the morning. I really needed to get some sleep before I started hallucinating even more.
***
When Virginia woke up the next morning, she found me in the kitchen cooking eggs for breakfast. I had managed to catch a few winks the previous night, and I had woken up with the resolution in my head—that I wasn’t going to punish myself or her for what had happened between us.
Whatever measures needed to be taken to rectify the wrong that I had done would have to wait until I had taken her safely back home. Until then, I was going to just have to suck it up and deal.
She had appeared in the kitchen in a pair of shorts and an oversized t-shirt. I glanced at her endlessly long legs, the very ones that I had parted that night. I looked away from her and plonked some scrambled eggs on a plate and brought it to her.
“I’m not the best cook,” I said, and I tried to smile. She had been staring at me nervously like she didn’t know what to say, but she smiled, too, now.
“Next time, just let me make the breakfast?” she suggested as she pierced her fork into a mouthful of rubbery eggs. I smiled and brought myself a plate as well.
We were sitting at the kitchen table, and eating in silence. There was an elephant in the room that I was hoping she wouldn’t address again. I didn’t want to hear about how she had enjoyed herself that night. I didn’t want anything else tempting me.
“How about we go for a walk? The fresh air will do us some good,” I suggested, and even though I wasn’t looking at her, I could sense that she was staring at me.
“Both of us?” she asked and our eyes met.
“I wouldn’t want you going alone anywhere,” I told her and continued eating.
“That would be nice,” she replied and there was silence between us again. How were we going to spend the next few days like this? Mike was killing me! I needed to take her back to the safety of her own home, and get as far away from her as possible. Even in her old sleeping clothes, with her hair ruffled and no make-up on, Virginia was hot as hell.
“And I found a lake on the map. If we’re lucky, it might not be entirely frozen over. There’s some fishing gear in the storeroom at the back. We could go fishing if you like,” I continued and looked up to find her smiling at me. I was afraid of what she was going to say, but she only nodded.
“That would be very nice, I would like that,” she said.
I could feel my heart racing in my chest. I didn’t know why it gave me so much joy to see her happy. It was like everything that Virginia did or said made me weaker and weaker. I was losing all my senses. This girl had me wrapped around her little finger and I had no control over myself.
“Okay, eat up then, we’ll go fishing and hopefully have a fish for dinner,” I said. Virginia clapped her hands with joy.
“We could cook it over the fire in the fireplace!” she exclaimed, and I couldn’t help but laugh along with her.
How crazy would it be if we could spend all our mornings together like this? But that thought was insane. We were living in a fantasy world here, and very soon it was all going to shatter into nothing. We were both going to go back to our normal lives and business would continue as usual.
***
We had the perfect day. Back on the couch at night, I couldn’t stop thinking about how nice it had all been. Just like Virginia had predicted.
We’d walked through the snowy woods, and this time she hadn’t attempted running. We’d talked a lot too. She was filling me in on the subjects that most interested her in college. She said she liked studying sociology, and the more she spoke about what she was learning, the more convinced I was that Virginia was way smarter than I had assumed.
I was wrong in my perception of her. She was a strong, independent, and well-read woman. She wasn’t the girl in pigtails anymore who drew with crayons all over Mike’s walls. She had grown into a beautiful specimen, both inside and out, and the more I got to know her, the more I realized that it wasn’t just her body that I was attracted to.
She got me talking too. I was telling her about my childhood – how after my brother fucked my ex-girlfriend, I hadn’t spoken to him in over a decade. I told her about my business and the kinds of clients we usually got. Virginia listened carefully, asked questions, and nodded her head. She was a good listener and I was quickly realizing that I enjoyed talking to her. I couldn’t remember the last time I had spoken about myself at length like this. I had always considered myself to not be much of a talker.
She had looked as beautiful as always. Her tight sweater accentuating the shapes of her body that I knew by heart. I had spent that whole night and the morning when I’d woken up staring at her body. Her chestnut hair fell like a waterfall around her shoulders, and her cheeks had turned a rosy red in the cold. It had been difficult to keep my hands to myself, but I was determined not to fuck up the day.
We did manage to fish, and Virginia had laughed and followed my instructions as I helped her bait the hook and cast. She was a fast learner, and even though she didn’t actually catch anything, she had come very close to it. I’d caught two and we carried them back to the cabin and cooked them over the fireplace like I had promised her.
She’d found some wild rice in the pantry and boiled it for us, and we had sat in front of the fire on the carpet and eaten our dinner together. Neither of us had dared to bring up the subject of what had happened between us that night. The casual air that had settled between us told me that she had managed to move past it.
Even though I still couldn’t stop picturing her naked or stop imaging the scent of her pussy on my fingers, I was back to becoming a functional man again. I enjoyed spending time with her, and I had barely noticed the fact that she was more than two decades younger than me. She was mature for her age. She was a woman with opinions and there was something so fucking sexy about that!
Eventually, she was yawning and I suggested that she go to bed. She seemed hesitant as she stood up off the carpet, but she did eventually go. I was relieved when I was alone in the room again. I would have some time to think again. Despite how much I’d enjoyed the day with her, I couldn’t stop imagining how great it would be if this could all be real.
On the couch again, I was still awake. I was trying to listen to the sounds of her breathing, but all I could hear was the freezing wind outside and the pine trees rustling.
I heard those footsteps again.
I lay still on the couch for a few seconds. Could I really be imagining it two nights in a row? It wasn’t until I heard the scraping of shoes once again that I jumped off the couch and rushed to get my gun out.
I was still in my jeans and t-shirt, so I just threw my jacket on and like the previous night I stepped out of the cabin with my gun. Was I going crazy? Was it the lack of sleep? Why was I hearing footsteps in the night?
I walked off the porch and took smaller steps this time as I walked around the cabin to the back. It was pitch dark, just like the previous night, but my eyes were adjusting quickly.
The place was empty. Nothing but me and the pine trees swaying in the wind. I could feel my face freezing in the cold, and there were no other sounds.
I was just about to stuff my gun into my belt when I heard her scream.
“Virginia!” I shouted and ran around the cabin to the front. I was too late. There was a man dragging her into a car that was parked at the end of the driveway. I hadn’t seen it in the dark before. I shot my gun, and Virginia screeched again.
She was in her shorts and t-shirt. Her bare legs were writhing and flailing while the man dragged her, trying to keep her under control. He was a big man and she had no chance of getting out of his grasp. I could see the glint of the metal of a gun in his hand too.
I was running towards the car, afraid of shooting because I could hit her, but the man had thrown her into the car. It was the same man. Bald with a white beard. He had jumped into the car, too, now and the headlights came on. I shot at the tires but the car was speeding off.
“Shit! Shit!” I barked in the dark, as I ran towards my rented car. He was already halfway down the main road, and Virginia was in the back.
***
I had failed everyone that was important to me. It wasn’t just Mike and the promise I had made to him to keep his daughter safe that was important to me; but it was Virginia too. She was more to me than just my best friend’s daughter. She was someone I now had feelings for, and she was trapped in the backseat of a car that was speeding away from me.
I was driving at top speed chasing after the car and it was snowing and dark. I couldn’t catch up with them and they were disappearing out of sight around every bend in the road.
I was growling and cursing as I drove. This had never happened to me, never happened to my security firm. I had trained each and every employee of mine to maintain absolute vigilance. To never let a client out of their sight, to put the client’s safety first over drink and water and taking a piss. Nothing else mattered on the job.
And yet, despite all the training I had given my men, I was the one who had allowed Virginia to slip right out from between my fingers.
I had my foot down on the accelerator, just like the car in front of me. I was speeding dangerously close to exploding and yet he was faster than I was. He was going to get away with this. He was going to escape with Virginia in the backseat.
I didn’t even want to imagine how afraid she was. He had pulled her right off from her bed. He’d distracted me and waited until I was out of the cabin before he went in. That motherfucker! I growled again as I drove. I wasn’t going to give up. I was going to chase him until I got to where he was going. I was going to find him and strangle him to death if he even touched her. I could still hear Virginia’s screams in my head, and all I wanted was for her to be safe again.
I shouldn’t have allowed myself to get distracted. I should have been better at my job! I punched the steering wheel as I drove. The tires of the car she was in screeched as it took another turn and I narrowed my eyes, honking loud so that the bastard knew that I was after him.
The rear left tire of his car banged at the same moment that I stuck my head out of the window and pointed my gun at it. I couldn’t believe that my aim had been good. The bullet had drilled a hole in the tire.
It was still far from me, but it was slowing down now. The guy was losing control over the vehicle as it swerved right and left. He kept driving and I did too, but I was gaining up on him now. His car was out of his control with the rear tire gone flat.
“Yeah! Give up motherfucker!” I growled and laughed, as the car turned 360 degrees and came to a standstill in the middle of the road. I drove up right behind it and screeched to a halt. Even though the snow, I could see the guy get out of the front seat and run.
I had just about managed to get out the car before I took a shot at him. He kept running, till he had disappeared into the darkness and snow.
I would have chased after him. I would have outrun him and pounded his head right into the concrete road, but I was worried about Virginia.
I ran up to the car and threw the back door open, where she was lying slumped on the floor of the car.
I could see the bruise on her temple. Her body seemed limp and she had lost consciousness.
“Virginia! Hey, look at me, open your eyes, c'mon!” I was screaming in the darkness, as I slid into the backseat and hauled her up. She was dead weight in my arms, and I ran my hand over her body. There were no other wounds, nothing was bleeding and nothing seemed broken.
“Virginia, hey, c'mon, wake up,” I could hear the panic in my own voice as I started dragging her body out of the car. She could be internally bleeding or concussed.
She didn’t open her eyes or flutter her eyelids. Instead, she lay draped in my arms as I ran with her to my car. Her lips were beginning to turn blue from the cold. Her skin was covered in goosebumps and her eyes remained shut.
The car had spun out of control and she had no doubt banged her head against something. It was also possible that the man might have hit her across the head with his gun, and she had fallen unconscious. Whatever it was, she needed to be back in the warmth of the cabin.
I deposited her on the seat next to mine and drove at full speed again.
“Virginia, look at me. You’re safe,” I was shouting at her in the car as I drove. She remained slumped on the seat, but at least she was breathing. At least she was breathing!
Back at the cabin, I carried her into the living room and started the fire. She was lying on the carpet, and I wrapped a blanket around her while I worked on securing all the doors and windows in the cabin.
When I returned to the living room, I saw that she was beginning to flutter her eyelids. She was coming to!
I rushed towards her as she blinked her eyes open. I hovered over her stretched out the body, and I had to do everything I could to stop myself from kissing her. I was smiling, laughing, holding her cheeks as she opened her eyes and saw me.
“Carl? What happened?” her voice was hoarse, but she was speaking! She was going to be okay.