A Trip Down South 2
Part 2, I'm still writing this so I've got plenty to put up.
I woke up a couple of hours later and it was dark outside. I rolled over onto my side with a groan. Wakey, wakey, time for a drink.
“Drink sounds good,” I mumbled to the voice in my head.
I dragged myself to my feet and wandered to the bathroom, tugging at my hair. The mirror was not my best friend this evening. I looked like I had been out all night drinking and had just woken up with a monster hangover at six in the evening. It’s ‘cause you dragged me to that damned place. Ah, of course. I knew I would get some sort of punishment for that small adventure. I ran the cold water for a moment before splashing it thoroughly over my face to wake me.
Upon closer inspection, I noticed some blood vessels under my eyes had burst. I sighed. “You could at least leave my face alone, as if it didn’ look bad enough.”
You still look gorgeous darling!
I rolled my eyes. “I need a shave.”
I think we should go to a bar before you kill my minions.
“That, Dae, sounds like a magnificent idea.”
With this whole missing-in-action thing I had going on right now, I found myself agreeing with Daemíron more often than not. He - if it was male - had a freeness I had never possessed before. It felt good but it also left me feeling guilty occasionally. Like right now, instead of helping the church, I was wasting precious lives by indulging in a few more beers.
It was close to nine before I began to feel any impulse to move.
Of course, that was before the door opened and my attention was snapped out of a hazy dream. Even Daemíron tingled with anticipation.
“Hey Sam, can I get two beers?”
The woman had called across the room from the door to the barman and the strangers in the bar had looked up to stare at her, myself included. I rubbed the label of my bottle with my thumb and smiled to myself as she stepped two feet away from me.
Smell her, chief. She smells like cinnamon. “Cinnamon?” I murmured with a grin. “Someone’s a bit sentimental today, found a soft spot?”
Shut up.
“You know, people who talk to themselves generally don’t give off a good impression.”
“Oh really?” I raised my eyebrows and glanced at her out of the side of my eye.
“It usually encourages people to call the men in the white coats,” she continued with a small smirk at the corner of her lips. “I’ve never seen you in here before.”
“That’ll be because I’ve never been in here before,” I replied smugly, taking a sip of beer.
“Smart ass, are we?” she commented and turned round to face my side.
“Maybe just a little,” I flashed a lop-sided smile. “Got a name?”
“Damned if I’m telling you,” she smiled sweetly.
I whistled lowly. “Now who’s bein’ a smartass?” I twitched an eyebrow up slightly. “I’m Logan, in case you were curious.”
This woman was typically attractive with short, white-blonde hair and bright blue eyes that seemed to be undressing me already. It was almost painful having her look at me that way. I got the impression that she could see the taint on my soul and it intrigued me a little. She held out a slender, tanned hand and said, “Sienna but don’t bother getting any ideas.”
I held my hands up in defeat before shaking hers. “So who’s the other beer for?”
“A friend,” she answered.
“Would this be a male or female friend, Sienna?” I asked with a glint in my eye.
“Female, and don’t get any nasty little thoughts. I know that look,” she warned but it was far from being a serious one. It was more like an invitation.
“I wouldn’ even dream of it sweetheart,” I angled my head so I could look at her with faux-inquisitiveness.
Sienna looked at me with a small smile. “So what are you doing in town?”
“Some...missionary work,” I looked down at my knees for a moment.
“Missionary work?” she arched her eyebrows sceptically. “A guy like you doing missionary work?”
“What is that supposed t’ mean?” I demanded. “Looks can be deceivin’.”
“So it appears,” she clunked the bottle down on the bar-top and leaned heavily on her forearms. Her back arched in such a way that I was nearly forced to check out her curves - which were few and far between. “Still, I can’t picture you with the choir boy robes on.”
“You and me both,” I murmured low enough so that she couldn’t hear it. I tapped the edge of my bottle of beer lazily. Time was getting on and I still hadn’t even considered leaving yet. If I was being honest, I wasn’t in the mood for anything. I frowned. “What can you picture me in then?”
Sienna made a throaty sigh that was supposed to get me a little hot under the collar. It wasn’t as if she wasn’t a good looking girl, because she was, but for some reason I wanted to be picky tonight. I was up for a chase, not for a girl who would jump in my lap as soon as I sat down. “Preferably nothing, sweetie,” she gazed at me through her dark eyelashes and placed a hand on my thigh.
It did nothing for me.
“I gotta go,” I excused, moving as if her touch was like acid on my leg. I jerked away from her and got to my feet. “Got things to do, you know...stuff,” I downed the last of my beer. “See you around.”
I didn’t even give her a chance to protest before I was far enough from her that I couldn’t hear unless she shouted. I began to feel nauseous and the cold sweats had started. They were like the shivery chills you got when you had the flu or were ill except I got them when I hadn’t taken my pills in too long. I pushed my way towards the door and clattered into a female figure.
We both stumbled back out through the doors; I tripped on the doorstop, crashed into her a second time and we both tumbled to the ground. She landed heavily on top of me. “Offft,” I grunted as I felt the air being punched out of my lungs.
I heard a small yelp as I protectively put my forearm against my stomach and tried to regulate my breathing again. A piece of hair fell into my eyes and I blinked, meeting a pair of stone grey orbs for a split second before they were gone. I felt a knee pressing dangerously tight into the top of my inner thigh and a hand on my shoulder. “Are you okay?” There was some fumbling above me; hands trying to grab onto something for balance. “Jesus, I’m sorry I completely landed on you there.”
“Just ...a little...winded,” I gasped.
The woman on top of me pushed herself to a sitting position as I sat up. Her thighs tightened around my legs and groin as she straddled me. As if the position wasn’t erotic enough, I was eye-to-eye with her cleavage. “Hey are you okay?” she asked again, placing both hands on either of my cheeks and forcing me to look at her. “Hey?”
Snap out of it, chief! She’s hot!
I nodded. “I’m fine,” I took a few deep breaths as I assessed our situation, and then I looked up. My heart stopped dead in my chest. “God, Rae? It’s so good t’ see you...”
“Logan?” her silvery grey eyes flashed with shock. “Oh my God,” she stared at me as if I wasn’t real.
I coughed again. “Mind gettin’ up sweetheart?” I asked.
Rae jumped to her feet and gave me a hand up. “Don’t call me sweetheart.”
“Of course,” I rolled my eyes. “What the hell are you doin’ here in the middle of nowhere?”
I noticed that she kept her distance and it came back to me all-too-clearly the last time that I saw her. She had told me that she had chosen Gregg. I had learned she was moving from the city through Lincoln and by the time I had tried to stop her, she was gone. God, she was still stunning. Her eyes were unlike anything I had ever seen in my life, they were like liquid mercury. Her dyed black cherry red hair cascaded down to her shoulders in soft waves that I felt myself aching to run my fingers through again and those curves - God; they were already teasing me and reminding me of what I had once held onto.
“Logan, you’re staring,” Rae sighed, placing her hands on her hips. “I moved here a couple of years ago. What are you doing here? I thought you only worked elite jobs because you’re such a bastard,” she smiled sweetly but it did nothing to put me off of her.
I shrugged, following her as she stepped a little towards the wall so as to avoid obstructing the doorway. “Just passin’ through sweetheart, mind if I smoke?” I didn’t even give her a chance to protest if she wanted to because I tapped a cigarette up to my lips and lit it in one swoop. It also made me laugh inside to see her evident anger at being called sweetheart with such emphasis.
“Where you headed to?” she demanded, folding her arms across her chest and watching me with interest. I felt like every movement I made, she was noting in her head. Hopefully for later fantasies when she was with Gregg.
I laughed to myself, drawing cancerous smoke into my lungs until they filled. “Wherever the job takes me until something - or someplace, makes me stay.”
RAE
Why was I standing here with my mouth open listening to Logan Chase talk about jobs so haphazardly and smoking obnoxiously in my face? Maybe because he was kinda sexy...I say, kinda but he really was smouldering hot. If it was anything to go by, he was even better looking than the last time I saw him and by the mischievous glint in his eyes, he still knew it too and I definitely knew he was aware of how to use it to his advantage.
Any other guy with an attitude - even if he was hot - wouldn’t get a second look from me but Logan Chase; he always broke down every girl’s self-enforced rules. No, he had those eyes; green and bottomless. Between the eyes and the smile, he could get anything he wanted...except a loving wife so far. Shauna was always an absolute bitch who didn’t deserve him. Now that was saying something since I considered Logan to be close to the scum of the Earth.
“So what brings you here?” I asked again, expecting more of a proper answer and hoping he didn’t notice me staring at his mouth and those lips.
He looked down at his boots and tapped ash from the end of his cigarette to the floor. “A job, but I’m startin’ t’ think it might be a woman,” his eyes met mine and I felt my breath catch in my throat at the connotations in that statement. No, no, I couldn’t even consider going down that road again. I had just got over leaving him. I didn’t even trust myself to open my mouth and actually produce coherent words that he wouldn’t look into so I just nodded mutely. “You got a man t’ keep you safe at night, Rae?” he asked suddenly. His tone projected innocent but that look in his eyes screamed wickedness. He was fishing for information about Gregg.
I shook my head and laughed sadistically at him, “Is this what this is about Logan? Did you hunt me down to find out if I’d left Gregg or not yet?”
His expression didn’t change, it didn’t even move. He just shrugged.
“For your information, Gregg’s been gone for a long time and I’m just peachy flying solo,” I told him, hoping that my tone was full of confidence.
“Good,” Logan answered simply and huskily, without once taking his electric eyes off of mine.
One look and that voice invoked all sorts of dirty, dark memories. That low, gruff tone was so very similar to the one that uttered guttural curses during his most vulnerable, erotic moments. Once you experienced them, he haunted you and as soon as you heard him speak that way I just knew he was thinking about sex. It was his way with words and the way he spoke them that always pushed me into bed with him. “What’s that supposed to mean?” I furrowed my brows at him.
He grinned again. “We’ll talk another time,” he nodded. “Got that job t’ finish I was talkin’ about.”
“Hence your rather timely collision,” I nodded knowingly. Damn. “Hope you aren’t staying here too long to mess up my life again.”
“I’ll make sure of it,” he promised and walked towards the east side.
“Hey, I’d watch yourself on that side of town,” I called to him.
He glanced back round at me, turning his body and grinned again. “Thanks sweetheart!”
I watched him walk away for a moment longer just in case he looked back. It was stupid of me, I know, but part of me sought a sign that he felt the way he used to about me.
He was ruggedly handsome. It was the only words I could ever come up with that would even come close to describing him. Logan couldn’t be classically handsome because he looked like he’d been through the wars and had the scars to prove it.
The one thing that got me was that his eyes looked more apologetic than was needed for a small bump. It was as if he felt guilty for me leaving. He looked sad deep down in there. Maybe it hurt him seeing me again after such a rejection?
I sighed but allowed myself one, single guilty pleasure of checking out his backside in those dark jeans before turning inside the bar. “There you are! Where have you been? You missed the hottest guy in existence by literally two minutes!” my best friend Sienna exclaimed.
I laughed as she grabbed onto my arm in frenzy. She always was a sucker for a hot bad boy. “Did he happen to be wearing a red flannel shirt and a grey t-shirt...? Brown hair and to die for green eyes?” I asked with a smirk.
“Oh my God! You saw him,” she grinned. “He’s delish.”
“He ran into me at the door,” I told her, sitting down at the bar and taking a deep swig of the beer she’d bought me. I didn’t dare share with her that I could’ve had him all to myself a few years ago. “Fell right on top of him.”
Sienna’s face was deadpan and it made me laugh. “Are you serious? God, Rae, you always get all the luck. I have to say though - he looked very interested when I mentioned I had a female friend.”
“Don’t even try it,” I warned carefully, glancing at the clock. It didn’t surprise me that the thought of two women would intrigue him, it was Logan after all. Ah, if only she knew. “Is that the time already?”
“Don’t tell me you need to go do all that church-y stuff again,” Sienna moaned but suddenly stopped as if she remembered something else. “That guy, Logan, said he was in town doing missionary work.”
I frowned with genuine confusion. “He didn’t strike me as the type,” I said slowly. Logan never worked with churches.
“Me either,” she shrugged. “Aw well, beggars can’t be choosers,” she winked. “Call me when you get in.”
“Will do,” I kissed her cheek swiftly and headed for the door, pulling out my phone as I went.
I dialled the number of Pastor James and patiently waited for him to answer. “Hello?”
“Pastor, it’s Rae, I was just wondering if you got anyone to help with that...problem on the east side?” I asked hastily, crossing the road to my car.
“Oh yes, I’ve been promised it’ll be done by midnight,” he replied with a relieved tone to his voice.
“Is his name Logan Chase?” I turned the ignition and the engine sprung to life.
“How did you know?” he asked darkly. “He’s got demon taint in him, running A.W.O.L from Hemingway. He gave me a card with where he was staying and what room...let me get it for you...”
God, so Logan was the fugitive that had warnings being delivered to every place connected to Hemingway. I chewed into my bottom lip as I waited. I could tell right away that there was something...more tragic about him. He looked battered and worn as if he had seen a dozen battles and gained nothing from them. He didn’t look like the murdering psychopath Hemingway had made him out to be, however. “Thanks Pastor.”
No, Logan would never murder anyone. He just didn’t have it in him.
“Rae? He’s at...”