Make You Mine by K.T. Quinn

34

Jayce

For all of Sid’s shortcomings, the man knew how to spread fear.

If the leader of the Copperheads had wanted to cripple me, he could have had two of his goons hold me down while he pummeled my kneecaps with his crowbar. He’d had plenty of chances to do it already. It would only take a few minutes.

But there was no fun in that. No anticipation, no growing sense of dread. Booby-trapping my bike with a grenade, on the other hand, created an environment of danger. He was telling me that I wasn’t safe anywhere, not even at home. That an attack could come at any moment, even when I thought I was alone on my bike.

And it worked.

The whole drive back to Charlotte’s motel, I felt cold. Like I needed to put a jacket on despite the humid Georgia morning. The grenade might not have gone off, but it didn’t need to. The fear it created was almost stronger when I discovered and disarmed it.

I was glad to have Charlotte’s arms around me, her body pressed tightly against mine. Even though she kept reaching down to scratch her legs, I felt safer with her here. Less alone.

She would probably laugh at me if I told her that.

We didn’t see anyone on the road until we reached the motel, where the sheriff’s cruiser was parked in front of the lobby. I cursed under my breath. “The fuck is he doing here?”

“I… I don’t know,” Charlotte said.

Rather than turn into the motel lot, I drove past it and around the next bend in the road. When we were a safe distance away, I pulled over and stopped the bike. “You’ll have to walk from here. The sheriff is in Sid’s pocket, always feeding him information. If he sees me drop you off…”

“I understand,” she said as she got off the bike. “What, um, should I tell him if he asks where I was?”

“Tell him you couldn’t sleep, and went for a walk. Rehearse what you’re going to say as you walk back there, all right?”

“Okay.” She threw her arms around me, gave me one last kiss, and then began walking.

I watched her until she had disappeared around the bend in the road, then I turned and drove in the opposite direction, taking the long way around town to get back home.

The thing about Sid’s booby trap was that I’d been expecting it. I’d seen him do shit like that plenty of times when I was a Copperhead. In the last two weeks, I’d been as careful as I could be. I always checked my truck before climbing inside, and when I got home I walked the perimeter of my barn for signs of entry.

Except I didn’t walk the perimeter of the barn last night. As soon as I found Charlotte in the bed of my truck, I brought her inside immediately. That, plus almost starting my bike without checking it… Being with her was making me careless. I was so busy worrying about her safety that I wasn’t worrying about my own.

That was a good way to get killed.

Last night was a mistake.

It was hard to accept while Charlotte was in my barn, in my bed, and in my arms, but I could see it clearly now. We shouldn’t have slept together. No matter how good it had been—and it had been good, world-shatteringly good—it was a reckless risk to Charlotte. If Sid found out she was more than just my community service partner…

Last night had to be a one-time thing. I needed to keep it in my pants from this point on. Not just for her safety, but for her grief, too. Even if we managed to keep our relationship secret from the Copperheads, I couldn’t let her have feelings for me. Because that was the ultimate truth in all of this: I was still a dead man living on borrowed time. The grenade on my bike was proof that Sid was toying with me like a cat. And like all cats, eventually he would get bored. He’d roll up to my barn while he was especially strung out and impatient, put his crowbar to my head, and beat me to death.

The closer I got to Charlotte—and the closer she got to me—the more that eventuality would crush her.

As I rode through the early morning twilight, I wished I was strong enough to just keep riding and never stop. To leave town, riding away from danger the way Charlotte had suggested.

But even just entertaining that thought filled me with pain. Leaving would be abandoning Theresa’s memory. It meant accepting that Sid got to do whatever he wanted without consequence. I couldn’t leave until I’d made Sid pay.

Even if it killed me.

I got home and laid in bed for a while. The remnants of Charlotte’s smell still lingered on the pillow and sheets. I closed my eyes and inhaled it again and again until I could no longer detect the wonderful scent from the normal smells of the room.

Finally I got up, took a shower, and left. I checked the underside of my truck before getting in, but I still cringed as I turned the keys in the ignition. No bomb exploded underneath me.

This time, a voice whispered in my head.

Charlotte was waiting on the bench by the community center with two coffees. “Mornin’,” she said with her normal smile as I pulled up. “Got you a coffee.”

“What a coincidence,” I said casually. “I accidentally made an extra sandwich for lunch.”

“Well isn’t that lucky?”

She smiled, and we shared a nice secret moment. Just the two of us. I wished I could pull her inside the truck and kiss her. Being unable to made me feel like I was back in the sheriff’s jail cell.

Charlotte lingered outside the passenger door. “You gettin’ in, or what?” I asked.

She held up a sheet of paper. “Mindy gave me today’s marching orders. Weed pulling all along main street.”

I squinted over at the diner. Mindy was taking someone’s order in the window. “Is that legit, or is she trying to get us to clean up the ratty yard around her diner?”

“I made the exact same joke to her when I read it,” Charlotte said. “But it’s legit.”

I looked both ways suspiciously, then lowered my voice. “Why was the sheriff at the motel this morning?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I just went into my room. When I left to come here, he was gone.”

A squirrel jumped off the roof of the community center and scurried past us, making both of us jump. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

“We have to be careful. The sheriff might be snooping around.”

“Yeah, maybe so. Let’s get to work.”

I sipped my coffee while Charlotte gathered the trash bags, gardening gloves, and weed killer from the community center. Then we walked along the street pulling weeds from the side of the road. The ones growing just off the road weren’t bad, but the main street had been paved so long ago that the edges were frayed and cracked. Those weeds were a huge pain in the ass to yank out.

One of us pulled weeds while the other held the trash bag in one hand and sprayed herbicide with the other. Since the weed pulling was hard on the back, we alternated jobs. Charlotte was wearing cut-off shorts this morning, which gave me a wonderful view of her ass whenever she bent over. I didn’t know if she was doing it on purpose or not, but it was tough to look away.

When we switched again, she grinned knowingly at me. Yep, definitely on purpose.

It was slow work, but the sun was blocked by the clouds which kept the temperature bearable, if humid. We moved up one side of the street to the north, one weed at a time, until we reached the “Welcome to Eastland” sign. Charlotte paused to take a selfie with the metalwork art statue next to the sign, joking that she would print it out and get me to sign it. I laughed it off, but deep down it was kind of nice having someone appreciate what I did. Sometimes I didn’t know if I appreciated it myself.

By the time we returned to the community center, it was time for lunch. We ate our sandwiches quickly in case the sheriff or Judge Benjamin happened to come by, then got started on the southern part of the road leading toward the motel.

The public aspect of our work helped keep things platonic, but just barely. If we were in private, on some abandoned road, I wouldn’t have been able to keep my hands off Charlotte. Now that I’d been with her, ripping her clothes off and fucking her until my cock ached, I was struggling to resist pulling her into a kiss every five minutes. Depending on what the worksheet dictated, tomorrow might be tough.

When we pulled up the weeds in front of Flop’s bar, I tried not to look at the building. It only reminded me of what had happened last night, of how close we’d come to getting caught. We still might get caught if Sid suspected I was involved with Carl’s sudden disappearance. Hopefully not, since tweakers like him vanished as quickly as they appeared in Eastland, but the fear still rolled around in my gut.

Flop usually didn’t open up the bar until four, but he drove up and parked beside the building while we were pulling up weeds right after lunch. He shared a long look with me before going inside. I hoped he and his ex-wife would keep their cool if Sid came around asking questions. A few swings of that crowbar could weaken even the strongest resolve.

Along those lines, I expected Sid to come around today looking for me. Especially after booby-trapping my bike. He would want to gloat about it. But the afternoon passed without event as we picked weeds all the way south along the road, then back up again. We made idle chit-chat, but no topic that was particularly deep. I think we were both waiting for the other shoe to drop after our night of unrelenting passion.

“You want a ride back to the motel?” I found myself asking when we were done. “Sky looks like rain.”

Charlotte looked around and then lowered her voice. “That won’t arouse suspicions?”

“It might,” I admitted. “Might also raise suspicions if I made you walk.”

She tapped her long fingers on the edge of my window while she thought about it. After staring at her all day, I couldn’t help but imagine those fingers wrapped around my cock, grinning as she stroked me…

“I think I’ll walk,” she finally said. “Probably best.”

“Yeah, probably,” I said.

As she walked down the road, I wasn’t sure if I was disappointed or relieved she’d turned me down.