Fracture (2 page)

“Tell me what you’ve been up to.”

So, he complied and talked as he filled up on the
best food he’d had since he left this place. Chase helped her clean
up then went next door to the trailer he’d come back to. Digging in
his pocket for the key, he unlocked it and swung open the door.
Stale air smacked him in the face, and he frowned. The floor was
filthy. Then again, so was the rest of the singlewide. He walked
through and opened all the windows to help the stench escape.

He tried to locate a phone book but was
unsuccessful, so he headed back over to Candace’s house. When she
called for him to enter, he did.

“That bad?” she asked when he walked in the
kitchen.

“Worse,” he said. “May I use your phone book?”

“Under the phone. Don’t you have a cellular
device?”

“Dead.”

“Are you charging it?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She grunted, and he went to look up the number for
the garage. When the pickup of his broken down truck had been all
arranged, he hung up. A noise behind him had him turning around.
Mrs. Candace stood there a leather jacket in her hands.

“Here.” She held out the item.

“What’s this for?” He accepted the black leather
from her.

“You and Jason were similar in size. Use it. And
come with me.”

He accompanied her to the small garage beside the
house. It was new; she’d not had it when he’d lived next door. She
opened it up and walked in. When she stood beside it, she gestured
for him to remove the tarp. Yanking off a cover, he found himself
facing a motorcycle.

“I reckon you can drive one of these things?”

He could. “I can’t use that, Mrs. Candace.”

She frowned. “Why not? He’s not coming back for it.
I won’t use it, and Sarah has her own. You need something to get
around while your truck is being fixed. Take it.”

He hugged her and kissed her cheek. “You’re too good
to me, Mrs. Candace. I love you. Are you sure you don’t want to
ride on it? I’ll take you.”

She smacked him in the arm. “A woman my age doesn’t
need to be straddling something like that.”

“You haven’t aged a bit. Come on. Come for a ride
with me.”

“No.”

He batted his lashes at her. “Please?”

“Chase Ellery, I’m far too old to be on one.”

He slipped the jacket around her shoulders then
straddled the bike and turned the key. It rumbled to life with
ease. With a grin, he crooked his finger at her. Even when she
shook her head, he did it again.

Chase balanced on it and kicked up the stand then
rolled it to her. “Come on.”

“I’m not getting on that thing.”

“Just put your leg over and hold on to my waist.
We’ll take a short ride. You’ll love it.”

“All that sweet talking may work on younger women,
Chase, but not me.”

“Imagine how shocked Sarah will be when you tell her
you went riding on one.” He beckoned to her again. “Just a short
ride.”

She smacked him in the arm as she shoved on the
jacket and swung her leg over.

“Hold on to me, Mrs. Candace.”

“What will people say?”

He revved the engine and laughed. “That I am out
riding with not only the most beautiful woman in Cottonwood Falls
but the world, and I’m one lucky bastard.” Chase got them going
before she could change her mind.

Chapter
Two

Vicki did a double take and pivoted on the soles of
her shoes to follow the passing motorcycle with her gaze. “Was that
Mrs. Mallery on the back of that bike?” she asked her lunch
companion.
I never thought I’d see the day when that woman got
on a motorcycle.

“Looked like her,” Toby replied. “Who was that
driving?”

“Chase Ellery.”

A grunt. “He’s been away a long time.”

She faced her friend, eyebrows up in amazement.
“Really? You’re going to talk about being gone so long?”

He grinned. “This isn’t about me. And, how did you
know it was him?”

She finished her drink to buy herself time. “I had
him in my cop car last night.”

Toby paused, fries almost to his mouth, and raised
his brow. “Did you now?”

“Mind out of the gutter, perv. I gave him a ride to
town. His truck broke down.” Even as her mouth delivered the
information to Toby, her mind happily skipped down the road she
didn’t need it to traverse. Being in Chase’s—
No way, I won’t do
this.

“I see that look in your eye. You want to fuck
him.”

“Toby,” she said, glaring at him.

“Was I not supposed to speak so bluntly?”

“Don’t you have your own sex life to think
about?”

“I do, thank you. Mellie and I have a great sex
life. If you were getting some, you may be happier.”

She scowled. “I’d be happier if you would drop the
subject.”

His grin was unrepentant. “I’m sure
you
would.”

“Have you and the good doc set a date?” She prayed
he would take the bait and change topics. Thankfully, at the
mention of his fiancée, he swiftly latched onto it.

“Not yet. With her father still suffering from the
chemo, she is staying focused on helping as much as she can, as
well as running the clinic.”

“I understand. Is Dr. Glazer any better?”
I need
to stop by and see him.

Worry leached into Toby’s gaze. “No,” he said,
sobering. “The cancer has spread.”

“Damn it.” She stretched out her legs. “I’d hoped he
was improving.”

“We all did, but this is a very aggressive strain.
It’s starting to weigh on her.”

She squeezed his arm. “She’s very lucky to have you
in her corner, Toby. Give her my best.” She stood. “I have to go.
Are you okay?”

Toby gave her a grin. “Fine here. Meet again soon,
yes?”

“Definitely. I’m glad you stuck around.”

“Me, too. Now, go on. I’m calling Mellie, and you
don’t need to hear our convo.”

“No argument here.” She walked away with a wave. At
the grocery story, she meandered through the aisles, plucking
things from the shelves and depositing them in her cart.

A high feminine laugh had her rolling her eyes as
she walked around a corner. Chase and one of the Anderson twins.
Vicki wasn’t sure which one from the back. Whichever, or whoever it
was, leaned close to Chase, no doubt showing off ample
cleavage.

He glanced up in that moment, piercing her with
those stormy eyes. Her belly tightened as her heart rate
accelerated.
What’s wrong with me?

His expression was mocking and cold until he
dismissed her. When he returned it to the woman before him, his
features morphed into raw sexual promise. A look that made Vicki
think of nights of unbridled passion.

The jealousy coursing through her shocked her.
Okay, it’s official—I need to get some dick because, in no
world, should I be jealous of attention another woman is
getting.
She pushed her cart by and kept her focus on the shelf
to her left.

“Hi, Vicki,” the woman said.

She stopped and angled back to the couple standing
there. “Hi, Jen.”

“How’s being a cop this week?”

Pasting her patient smile on her face, Vicki
replied, “Same as it was last week. The best job I could ask
for.”

“Can you believe our Vicki Boshay went and became a
cop?” she asked Chase, leaning closer still to him.

Why don’t you just hump him here in the store, so I
can arrest you for a public display?

“Nope,” Chase said, voice deep. Once more, he
allowed his gaze to meet hers.

Infusing steel into her spine, Vicki held his
judgmental stare. “People change.”

“And, sometimes, just the outside does, but the
inside remains just as rotten as before.”

She wanted to smack him but nodded. “Very true. Have
a good day, you two.” Vicki walked off before she snapped off
something inappropriate. Pausing in the cracker aisle, she searched
for her craving.

The warning up her spine wasn’t nearly enough. Not
even close. She turned her head to see Chase standing there behind
her. The hunger that poured through her nearly took her to her
knees. Under the artificial light of the store, he appeared even
harsher and harder than he had last night. Worn jeans clung to his
legs like a lover who never wanted to let go. His cotton tee molded
to muscles that didn’t seem to end.

“Something I can do for you, Mr. Ellery?” She flexed
her fingers along the Wheat Thins box.

“Just curious as to what your father thinks about
you being in the uniform.”

She replaced the box and faced him fully. “Not that
it’s any of your business, but the day I joined the academy, he
disowned me. Does that tell you what you want to know?”

He stepped closer, bringing with him the pure scent
of man and a light hint of sandalwood. “No,” he whispered along her
ear as he reached for the box she’d just returned. “What I really
want to know is what your pussy tastes like. How loud you scream
when your orgasm. And how your pussy will feel around my cock.”

Her knees trembled, but he had put a respectable
distance between them before she could even recover or respond. His
expression blank as he read the box.

She closed her eyes briefly and opened them to find
she was alone in the aisle. Chase had gone. She looked around but
couldn’t see him, at all.
It had to have been my mind playing
tricks on me. Had to have.

Whether it was or not didn’t matter. Her body wanted
it. She wanted him between her legs, licking and sucking until she
came. Wanted him fucking her until she couldn’t move. Craved his
cock deep inside her.

“Shit,” she muttered. Swiping two boxes of crackers,
she made her way to the checkout line. After she paid, she pushed
out to her Jeep Patriot and loaded the bags into the back. She was
being watched. She closed the hatch and did a slow perusal around
the parking lot.

At the far end sat a man on a bike. Chase. She knew
it was him as she knew the back of her hand. He straddled the bike
that rumbled beneath him. Glasses covered his eyes, but she knew he
had focused on her. She looked away from him and climbed behind the
wheel.

As she passed him, he pulled out after her. Her
brain had a moment of weakness, wondering if he would follow her
home and make good on what he’d said in the store. When he went the
other direction from her, she shook off her fantasy.

Had to be a figment of my imagination.
She
latched onto that explanation, for it was her reason for not
smacking him for being so forward.

As she unloaded her groceries and began putting them
away, his words—or hers if she could ever fully convince herself of
that—rattled around in her mind again. She wasn’t a prude nor was
she the same young woman who had used the Boshay name to get what
she wanted. The one who would have told her brothers to get the
person beat up or jailed.

“No, now, I’m a slut who wants him to put action to
words and fuck me.” She folded up the reusable bags and stored
them. “Not a slut, okay, a woman who knows what she wants. And, she
wants Chase.” She stared at her reflection. “Okay, Boshay,
admission is the first step. Now, what are you going to do about
it?” She wasn’t sure yet, but she’d figure it out.

☼

Chase opened a beer and drank half of the bottle
before lowering it. Sweat drenched his clothes. But, the house had
been cleaned out, well, about seven-eighths, anyway. He looked
across the yard to the neighboring property. Mrs. Candace had gone
back in her house to make dinner.

“I’m pathetic,” he said. “She’s twice my age and not
sweating half as much as I am.”

It had been two days since he’d run into Vicki at
the grocery store. Unsure what had possessed him to say those
things to her, he figured he had best stay away from her. Part of
him had an idea. It was to take her mind off the statement she’d
made about her father disowning her.

That information had been a shock. She’d been the
apple of Victor Boshay’s eye. Even her brothers hadn’t been doted
on as much as Vicki had.
Perhaps she has changed.
He drained
his beer and tossed the bottle in the box holding all the broken
glass.

“Doesn’t matter.” He couldn’t forget the days of
growing up here. Vicki had been his weakness in school. He’d wanted
her to notice him. He’d been willing to take the beating her
brothers delivered for talking to her; that hadn’t bothered him.
When she asked him to meet her beneath the bleachers, he knew, just
knew
, the ass-whooping had been worth it. So, he’d snuck out
to do as she’d requested. Despite his father smacking him around
and telling him to stay away from the girl.

She and her girlfriends had been there, and she’d
informed him he wasn’t worth soiling herself for. A boy like him
was only good for being a pool boy or a gardener. Perhaps, one day,
he could be a chauffeur. Her brothers had arrived and proceeded to
beat him once more. Sarah had followed him and helped him home to
her house where her mother had patched him up.

When his father had come looking for him, Candace
had not allowed the drunk bastard into her house. When Chase had
made it back home, his father had forgotten and had found something
else to yell at him about.

A truck pulled in the drive. Another guy he’d grown
up with, Harry Sizemore, was at the wheel.

Bending to swipe the box of glass, Chase stepped
outside and down the two steps. “Hey, man,” he said.

Harry hopped out and clapped him on the shoulder.
“Good to see you, man. Let me take that.”

“Thanks for helping out.”

“No problem.” He carried the glass to the bed and
placed it there.

After a few more trips, they had all the recycling
out and in Harry’s truck. Chase took the passenger seat while Harry
went back behind the wheel.

“So, how long are you here for?” he asked.

Chase rolled down the window and waited for the hot
Georgia air to flow over him. “Not sure yet. A while.”