On Deadly Ground (Dan & Chloe Book 2) (19 page)

Without being conscious of it she had placed her right hand flat against the swelling of her stomach.

‘I know it makes me a despicable parent, but I can’t. How can I bring a child in to this world without Dan to guide her, to see her grow, to see her find love.’

Weiser snorted, the air pluming white vapours around his head.

‘I’ve tried, I really have but I can’t do this without Dan.’

Weiser shook his head again and stamped his front legs.

‘I’ve made my decision, I’m sorry, I’m sorry for everything.’

Chloe let the tears fall.

Chloe turned and walked back to the ranch house, she waddled up the wooden steps and across the porch and in through the open front door.

She closed it behind her, the heavy door slamming with a finality all of its own.

Today would have been “date-night” and Chloe spent an hour getting ready. She showered and washed her long black hair (she’d had the pink rinsed out before the funeral) and she spent a further ten minutes beneath the powerful shower spray shaving her legs. When it came to the area between her legs she’d had to sit on the tiled floor of the shower, it had been a mission but she’d managed to finally make the area around her labia as smooth as marble and there was not a trace of pubic hair by the time that she was done.

Chloe struggled back to her feet and rinsed off before switching the shower off and carefully stepping out of the cubicle, she had no desire to break a leg on the slippery surface, which if she’d thought about it would have made her take pause. What she had in mind was far worse than a mere fall but her thoughts were on other things.

Chloe was in that zone that she always went in to when she was getting herself ready for Dan. Her thoughts were on nothing but how to make herself look as sexy as fuck.

Chloe started to dry herself.

‘What was it you used to say Dan?’ Chloe said to the empty bathroom.

‘Oh yeah,
make yourself
fuckable
, well baby I think you’ll love what I have in mind.’

In the bedroom Chloe looked out of the expansive windows towards the ridge. She could see the low and heavy snow clouds scuttling closer, when the storm hit she knew that it would be a bad one.

Chloe went through to her walk-in closet-cum-dressing room, a room that she had designed herself. She sat down at the antique dressing table and looked at her reflection in the mirror.

‘You can do this,’ her doppelganger said.

Chloe nodded her head.

‘I know.’

Chloe spent almost an hour fixing her hair, brushing the lush blackness up from the nape of her neck and securing it all in a swirling design high at the back of her head. Numerous hair pins were needed to hold it all in place.

Chloe attached thick, long false eye lashes to her eyes, she blinked several times and she smiled as she recalled how Dan would always get hard watching her put on the lashes. She had asked him once where the attraction in false lashes came from and Dan had just laughed.

‘I have no fucking idea Chloe, all I know is that watching you do your make-up always gives me a thrill.’

Chloe cleared her throat and chased the memory away. She applied eye-shadow and then her lipstick, the deep plum colour of her lipstick emphasised the fullness of her lips.

‘
Scarlett Johansson has nothing on your lips baby
,’ Dan’s voice said. Chloe looked at the image of Dan in the mirror and she smiled at the ghost of his memory.

His image faded.

Chloe next applied glitter-effect nail varnish, the plum colour matching her lip-gloss and as she waited for the varnish to set she walked over to the dress hanging on a wooden peg and she smiled.

‘
Fuckable
I can do,’ she said to the empty room.

                                                        *****

The month before when Chloe
had actually come to terms with what she had planned she had visited Suzanne’s boutique. She had ordered certain items in preparation for her final “date-night”.

Suzanne had called a couple of days ago to say that her purchases had been delivered and were ready for collection. Chloe had driven in to the town with Tile and while he was off getting some groceries she had popped in to see her friend and to collect her purchases.

And now, as she performed a very slow pirouette in front of the mirror she had to admit that the lingerie was stunning. She’d had no idea that there was a company like “HotMilk” out there. Chloe had discovered the company on-line. Their range of maternity lingerie was simply stunning and the black set that she was now wearing was exactly the sort of lacy combination that Dan would have loved. The bra managed to push her heavy breasts up and together (a feat that amazed Chloe) giving her a cleavage that would have had Dan salivating and she could just picture his cock sliding between her twin mounds.

Chloe chuckled as she turned and looked back over her shoulder at her reflected ass. She nodded her head, the lacy knickers clung to the curves of her ass like a second skin. The suspender belt and its straps added to the sexy look and she knew that the black sparkling stockings would have been an instant hit with Dan. Chloe’s legs sparkled beneath the lights and she smiled knowing that Dan would have been putty in her hands.

‘
Fuckable
achieved,’ she stated.

Chloe walked (actually she waddled but it was still the sexiest waddle imaginable) over to the dress. She slipped it from the peg, it took her a few minutes, but she eventually managed to get it on.

Chloe turned to face the mirror. She adjusted the shimmering black dress, and as far as maternity dresses went it was damn sexy.

Chloe loved how it emphasised her swollen belly before flaring out around her ass. It was short, so short in fact that her stocking tops were clearly visible, as was a lot of each suspender strap.

Chloe didn’t care about how revealing the dress was, when Tile or whoever found her, she would be long past caring what they could or couldn’t see.

The dress was rippled in horizontal folds and the plunging neck-line showed ample cleavage, breast and bra. Chloe knew that Dan would have been all over her (and her breasts) like a rash.

Chloe found the black jewelled necklace, a gift that Dan had bought for her on her last birthday. She ran her fingertips over the black diamonds, the gems sparkled beneath the lights. The black diamond was a rarity, some said they were a myth, but here she was with a necklace full of them. She adjusted the necklace until it sat deep between her breasts.

Chloe sprayed her throat and the exposed slopes of her breasts with Dan’s favourite perfume. She picked up her engagement and wedding rings and slipped them on to the correct fingers.

Chloe walked over to immense shoe closet and she chose a pair of black sparkling high heels. Chloe walked across the room in her stockinged feet and switched the lights off.

Chloe headed down the hallway, her high heels were still clutched in her left hand, in her condition walking in the five inch heels was out of the question. She would slip them on to her feet once she was seated and ready.

Chloe reached the hidden arsenal, she opened the door and stared at the security keypad.

A strange sensation washed over her, she felt the stirrings of doubt, and she quickly forced those feelings down.

Chloe entered the code and the hidden door opened, she stepped inside the small room and walked over to one the cabinets. She pressed her right thumb against the fingerprint scanner and the drawer slid open.

Chloe chose a Glock and removed the gun from the foam lining. She put her heels down on top of the cabinet. Chloe looked down at the Glock in her hands. She ejected the clip, it was fully loaded and she slapped the clip back in to the Glock’s grip. She worked the slide and chambered a round. Chloe safetied the weapon and closed the drawer.

Chloe picked up her heels and exited the room, she closed everything behind her. Chloe headed down the sweeping staircase, she walked through to the expansive living room.

Chloe switched on the expensive sound system. She quickly located Neil Diamond’s “Home Before Dark” album, she slid the disc in to the machine and pressed play. She walked back out in to the hallway, she opened the front door and as Diamond’s husky voice filled the air she stepped out on to the porch.

Chloe left the front door open and she sat down on the swing seat that she and Dan had always favoured. They would spend hours watching the landscape before them, the vista never got tiresome.

Chloe smiled when she tried to count the amount of times that they had fucked on this swing seat – she had to give up, there were far too many occasions for her to recall.

Chloe managed to set the high heels down on the wooden flooring. She could feel the under-the-floor heating system warming her stockinged feet. She spent a troublesome two minutes slipping her feet in to the high heels. Chloe was grateful that her ankles hadn’t swelled during her pregnancy, she put this down to her genetics, her mother had great genes.

Chloe wiped a tear from the corner of her left eye.

                                                        *****

Snow had recently started to
fall.

The ranch’s heating system kept her warm but the chill in the breeze hardened her nipples. Despite the terrible thing that she was about to do she had to smile, she knew the effect her hard nipples would have had on Dan.

Chloe picked up the Glock and thumbed the safety switch off. She could feel tears brimming in her eyes.

Chloe held the Glock in her right hand, her trigger-finger at rest. Chloe hadn’t realised until she felt her unborn child kicking that she had placed her left hand on the hugeness of her belly.

Chloe’s tears flowed down her face.

Chloe felt her child kick again.

Chloe heard a strange distressed screeching sound, it took her a moment to realise that the sounds of anguish were coming from her.

I’m going to burn in Hell for this!

I just can’t, not without him. He’s all I’ve ever loved, all I’ve ever wanted.

If you go, we go.

I’m so sorry Dan, I’m so sorry Grace!

Oh my God, that would have been her name, such a pretty name. If Dan had lived, we would have named her Grace.

Oh Jesus, I can’t do this, not on my own
.

Chloe blinked as more tears poured down her face.

Chloe thumbed back the hammer.

Chloe lifted her right hand. She pressed the muzzle of the Glock against her right temple.

‘I’m so sorry Dan. I told you that I wasn’t strong enough. I told you that without you I was nothing. I hope you can forgive me.’

Chloe pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened...

‘I can’t let you do that Chloe.’

Chloe snapped her head around. She could see a tall stranger standing at the far end of the porch. Chloe’s breath caught in her throat.

The stranger’s physical appearance was like nothing that Chloe had ever seen before.

The stranger radiated
light
.

The stranger radiated
love
.

Chloe raised her right arm and extended her hand out towards the stranger. The Glock came to bear on the stranger. Chloe didn’t fear the stranger but her aim remained on him.

‘Who are you?’

The stranger chuckled.

Chloe had never heard such beautiful
music
.

Chloe opened her hand and the Glock slipped from her fingers. It clattered beneath the table and bounced off the porch, it disappeared in to the snow gathered against the porch’s front.

Chloe could hear the Glock sizzling as the heat from its recently fired barrel melted the snow.

But that’s not possible, it never fired
!

‘Who are you?’

‘My name’s Archie.’

Chloe wiped the tears and snot from her cheeks.

‘Am I dead? Are you an angel?’

Archie chuckled.

Chloe was moved to tears by the sound of innocence captured in Archie’s chuckling and she felt her head slowly clearing. Chloe realised that she could no longer hear the sound of Neil Diamond’s raspy tones.

Chloe cast a furtive glance out towards the paddock and gasped. The world around her had come to a complete stop. She could see individual flakes of snow paused in the air, in the distance she could see Weiser captured in a moment of rearing up on his hind legs.

Chloe turned back to the stranger.

‘No, you’re not dead Chloe, and no I am not an angel.’

‘Then what are you?’

Archie smiled.

‘I’m an architect.’