Rising Bounty (8 page)

Chapter 14

She gasped when she felt his hand slip into her panties. His fingers stroked her pussy lips, and then they entered her. She couldn’t hide her response to him; she opened herself further.

“Abe.”

“Did ye think about me, what I did to yer body?”

“Yes.”

“I haven’t stopped thinking about ye. I had to stroke myself several more times after ye left my bed and I’m still hard. Can’t ye tell?” He took her hand and moved it over the front of his swim shorts, where his cock was full and hard.

“I can feel.” She wanted more than to hold him in her hands; she wanted to feel him deep inside her. She reached inside his waistband and stroked his long, thick length. She was always amazed at how large he was. She wasn’t sure if that was a bazinoid thing or just an Abe thing. She didn’t care.

“I want ye so much,” Abe growled, snapping her panties off.

She was ready. She clutched his shoulders as he lifted her up and wrapped her legs around his waist.

“I’m sorry, Roxanne, I seem to have no control when it comes to ye. I should wait, take my time to romance ye—”

She kissed him to make him stop talking. “No waiting, no romancing needed. I want you.” She was the one to reach down and line up his tip with her entrance, and then she used her feet and knees to help lower down on him. All the way down until he was fully sheathed inside. They both tilted their heads back and moaned in pleasure.

He gripped her hips and moved her up and down on him. “So good, lass.” Abe pulled her close so that her breasts were rubbing against his chest.

“Abe — I’m not going to last. I need—”

“Take what ye need.”

Something inside her unleashed that she hadn’t realized she had been holding back. During all the years she was married, even with the few boyfriends she had been with, she always kept something back. Not now, not with Abe. He brought more out of her — no, he
demanded
more out of her. Then he did the most amazing thing — he gave her control to take what she needed. That trust was amazing, and she could do no less than give him the same in return.

She opened herself to him fully, rode him hard, enjoying the feel of every stroke. He hit her spot on the inside each time. He gripped her a little harder and she knew there may be some bruises, but she didn’t care. It felt too good to stop. She was close, really close.

He sensed that about her. Abe was good at knowing exactly what she needed when she needed it. He reached between them and pinched her nipple through the wet fabric of her bra. The slight pain followed up with the building pleasure was all that would finally take her over the peak.

“Yes!” Her inner walls squeezed him as she experienced her orgasm. She felt his hot semen shoot up, coating her as he came too.

“Roxanne—mine!”

They held each other as their bodies cooled. Abe pulled out of her and they moaned. He dipped them to shoulder level to rinse them off. She was silent as he carried her to the shoreline. He lowered her to her feet and then she followed him out of the lake. She reached for her t-shirt and shorts. They hadn’t spoken, she was feeling so many emotions she didn’t know what to say.

“Is there something wrong?” Abe asked with concern.

“Um, we didn’t use protection.”

He paused to look at her with a surprised look on his face. “That’s — not like me.”

She looked down at her hands, not sure what to do. The thought of having Abe’s child was so very appealing, but she didn’t want to make him feel trapped. She felt his finger under her chin, gently lifting her to face him. Their eyes locked. She couldn’t tell if he was angry with her or not.

“I should have taken precautions but ye make me lose all common sense. Would it be a bad thing to have a child with me?”

She shook her head. “No, I would love it. You’re a good man, Abe, and you would be the best father. The timing isn’t the best though.”

He seemed to be thinking about what she said. Then he cupped her face with both his hands and kissed her. She could tell he was going to say something different than what he actually said. “I — whatever comes, we’ll handle it together.”

“Okay.”

“Let’s head back to the cabin. I need to check in with Vic.” They packed up the picnic items and walked hand in hand.

She wanted to say something to him, but wasn’t sure what to say. If she knew how he felt about her, it would help so much. Doubts filled her mind. What would happen when all this stuff with Darryl was over? Would Abe still want to see her? Were they drawn together out of necessity? What if she was pregnant? She couldn’t trap him, no matter what — that wasn’t the kind of woman she was. If he didn’t want her afterward, she would have to find the strength to let him go. Until then, she would appreciate every precious moment she had with him.

*****

“No, I don’t like it.” Abe paced back and forth on the front porch outside as he talked on his cell phone to Vic.

“Look, I understand how you feel, but Lauren says that her federal contacts are willing to put Roxanne and her family in the witness protection program if she comes in to give a statement against her ex-husband.”

“How can we trust that? What if they are only trying to draw her in to arrest her?” Abe looked in through the window to the living room at Roxanne as she laughed at something Cici said.

“They’ve been gathering evidence against him for several years now. They’re going to get him, but until then they can put her in a safe location. She’ll be protected.”

“She’s protected here.” Abe didn’t want her to leave; he wanted to keep her with him. He wanted to keep all of them, it was the first time he felt what it was like to have a family and he didn’t want that taken away.

“Be reasonable Abe, talk to her about the offer. Let her make up her own mind about what she wants to do.”

He ran a hand through his hair, worrying that Roxanne would take the offer and leave him.
Damn it!
Vic was right. He didn’t have his head on straight when it came to her.

“What would ye do, Vic, if it was Lexi?”

“I would at least talk to her and let her make the call. What is it that is really bothering you?”

“Besides sending Roxanne and her family to a bunch of strangers to protect them and never seeing them again?”

“Ah crap, you’ve fallen for her, haven’t you?”

He sighed. “I’ve fallen hard. I don’t think I could take it if something happened to her or her family. I care about all of them.”

“You’re falling in love, man, that’s new for you.”

“I — don’t know what to do.” Was this Vic he was having a personal conversation with? His boss, the strongest man he knew and the guy who grew horns from his head when he got pissed off? Even more surprisingly, Vic was giving him really good advice.

“Talk to her, see if she wants to meet with the agents. We’ll make sure she is kept safe no matter what.”

“Thanks, Vic, I’ll call ye back.”

He looked out as the sun was setting on the lake. This might be his last night with Roxanne. If she wanted to meet with the agents, he could be taking her tomorrow and she may decide to leave with them. If she did, he knew she would be taking his heart with her. She had snuck in the cracks and filled him with joy, and now she may be taking that same joy with her if she decided to leave. Vic was right though, this was Roxanne’s decision to make.

Chapter 15

“Is everything all right?” Roxanne asked when he came inside. He had been outside on the porch talking to his friend for a while on the phone. She could see that he was tense.

Abe smiled at her but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Aye. I thought I would grill steaks tonight. Does that sound okay?”

“Yeah. Do you need help?” She followed him into the kitchen.

“Abe, what’s wrong?” she whispered.

“After dinner, when yer mother and Cici go to bed, I need to talk to ye about something.”

“Okay.” She wanted to ask him more but if it was bad news, she didn’t want her mom or Cici overhearing it. She tried to put her questions to the side and focus on helping him get dinner ready. She went to the refrigerator worried that this was it — he was going to tell her that she was too much trouble and send her away.

Now faced with the possibility of never seeing Abe again, she realized just how much she didn’t want to leave him. She probably started falling for Abe the first time he strutted into the club wearing his kilt. He flirted and winked at her and then he called her lass. After that she looked for him to come in each night.

Her feelings for him grew even more watching how kind he was with her mother and with Cici. He was gentle and funny but always supportive. She fell even faster and harder. She loved him and the thought that she may never see him again was tearing her apart.

Steering her thoughts on a mundane task, she fixed baked potatoes and a salad while Abe grilled steaks for her, him, and her mother and grilled hot dogs for Cici. It was a pleasant dinner. They all laughed at Cici’s description of her teacher’s stern demeanor.

“Cici, you’re exaggerating.” Roxanne laughed at her daughter’s antics.

“No I’m not. She has these permanent worry lines on her forehead. Some of the students call her Mrs. Worrywart behind her back.”

“I hope you don’t, that might hurt her feelings.”

“I don’t think it would because she called herself that the other day and made the whole class crack up.” They laughed when Cici tried to demonstrate how many lines there were on her teacher’s forehead.

Before long, it was time for Cici to be put into bed. Abe said he would do the dishes so she took Cici upstairs and put her pajamas on, and then tucked her into bed.

“Good night, my little angel, have sweet dreams.”

“Good night, Mama.”

She turned the lights off and left the door open, just a crack. Her mother was waiting for her out in the hallway.

“What’s going on?”

“What do you mean?”

“Ever since you and Abe came back from the lake, there’s been a distance between you. Did you have a fight?”

She shook her head and felt the heat rise to her cheeks thinking about the naughty things they did at the lake. “No. We — had a good time at the lake.”

“Then what is it?”

“I don’t know for sure but I think it has something to do with the phone call he had earlier with his friend. He wants to talk to me but wanted to wait until Cici went to bed.”

“Well, go on then. Oh, and honey…”

“Yeah, Mom?” She stopped before going down the stairs.

“If you want Abe, you need to be willing to fight for him. A good man like Abe is hard to come by and it would be a shame to walk away.”

She nodded her head and went down the stairs. She wasn’t sure what she would say if he wanted to end things with her. How could she fight him on that? She looked around the room and found him standing by the fireplace, adding a log.

She took a seat on the sofa. “What’s going on Abe?”

“Vic heard from Lauren Clay, our attorney.”

“What did she find?”

“A lot, actually.” He turned around, and instead of sitting next to her, sat down in a chair across from her moving it closer to her. He had a serious look on his face which made her think, this was going to be bad.

She took a deep breath and braced herself for the worst. “Just tell me, Abe.”

“At first none of Hadley’s witnesses that testified against ye would talk to Lauren. She turned her investigation to his financial records and discovered that funds were transferred from his political campaign donations to offshore accounts. She found that a lot of the transfer dates were around the time of the custody hearing. He’d been misappropriating the money for years and his backers were demanding a full inquiry and audit of his financial history. Lauren wasn’t able to question the judge who presided over the case because he went off world. She believed that one of those offshore accounts belonged to him. She’ll continue to search that out.”

“If they can track the account down, find the judge, then that’s great.”

“Here’s the problem. While Lauren and my people were looking into all this, it stirred up a whole other investigation that we didn’t realize was already taking place. Galactic Federal agents are already hunting down the judge but they believe he may be on one of the planets, like Bazin, that has non-extrication laws. They, also, are taking over control of looking into the bank account records so it’s making it hard for us to pinpoint people that he may have bribed.”

“So we’re back to square one then, unable to prove Darryl is guilty.” She felt like someone had pulled the rug out from under her. She felt him move and looked to find he was kneeling in front of her.

“The thing is, all those witnesses that refused to talk to Lauren at the beginning were suddenly calling her up and wanting her help. They don’t want to go down with Darryl when the Galactic feds get him. She got some of them to come in and give their confessions to the agents in exchange for being placed in the protective witness program.”

She smiled with excitement. She moved forward to sit on the edge of the sofa. “That’s great. If we have their confessions and will testify against him, it’s what we were hoping for.”

“There’s more. Lass, the agents want to question ye and take yer statement. In exchange, they agreed to place ye, Sandy, and Cici in a protective witness program too.”

“Oh.” She should be thrilled. After all these years on the run, she had prayed for an opportunity that someone would listen to her side of things and believe her. She couldn’t take Darryl on herself, which she found out the hard way. She needed others with more power and influence than her to do that. However, the thought of leaving Abe and never seeing him again bothered her, and the fact that it almost sounded like that was what Abe wanted hurt more than Darryl’s betrayal did.

“It’s a good deal. Ye’ll still have to stay in hiding until after the trial is over with Darryl, but the feds promised to make sure that wherever they send ye, they will also provide security just in case. I warn ye, nothing is forever. Eventually their protection will run out.”

She nodded her head, feeling kind of numb inside. “What do they need me to do?”

“They asked that ye meet them tomorrow morning and give your statement.”

“Okay.”

Abe stood up and went over to the fireplace to adjust the logs. “Ye don’t have to if ye don’t want to.”

“I want to give my statement at least. I finally have someone who will listen. I need to do this so that we can all have a chance at a normal life. I won’t have to drag Cici around from place to place uprooting her every time she gets settled. I won’t have to dye our hair or try to explain when one of us slips up and calls us a different name in front of something.” She watched him keeping his back to her. She couldn’t tell how he was feeling about all of it. “You can finally have your place back to yourself and get on with your life.”

He looked at her for a moment. “I’ll make the arrangements for tomorrow. I’ll take ye to meet with Lauren and the agents. I’ll have two of my co-workers stay here with Cici and your mom for protection.” He didn’t sound happy about it.

She stood up to approach him. “Abe, I don’t know how to thank you or repay you for all that you have done to help us.” She gasped when he turned away from her angrily.

“Ye don’t owe me anything.”

“Did I say something wrong?”

“No. Go on upstairs to bed. I’ve got to make some calls about tomorrow.” He walked away heading for outside.

Tears threatened to spill from her eyes. That was it then, they were over. He seemed anxious to get her out of his hands. She had hoped that he would want her in his bed again. She wanted to convince him to give her a chance, but it looked like he wanted her to take the offer with the feds. Maybe that was better for everyone. She didn’t go straight to bed. She headed to the bathroom to cry, covering the sound with the shower. Just when she thought she had found someone she was willing to open up to, he was throwing her away.

*****

Abe couldn’t go to bed. Everything in him wanted to storm up the stairs and bang on Roxanne’s door. She was planning to leave him and he had just said nothing to convince her otherwise. What was wrong with him?

If she didn’t want to stay, he couldn’t make her. He punched the side of the log cabin. The pain of his hand only temporarily distracted him from the pain he was feeling in his heart. He took out his phone and dialed Vic.

“Yeah?”

“She wants to meet them and take the deal.”

“Sorry, man, I really am. How do you want to play this?”

“I won’t go to them in their hotel suite. They can come to us and it needs to be a public location with multiple exits to escape.”

“There’s that new tri-story mall. We’ve scouted people there before. Isaac has a backdoor entrance to their security system.”

“Perfect. Get it set up before I bring Roxanne. I’ll need Shy to come here to guard Sandy and Cici.”

“Okay no problem. I know that Lexi will want to stay with them, too, at the cabin. We’ll keep her safe, we’ll keep them all safe.”

“Thanks.” Before he hung up he added, “One more thing Vic.”

“What?”

By the time he got off the phone his nerves were about shot. He was trying to keep it together but nothing had ever been this hard or hurt this much. He was facing the possibility of losing the love of his life just after he had finally found her. He was willing to fight tooth and nail to keep that from happening.