RUNNING GAME (A SECOND CHANCE SPORTS ROMANCE) (93 page)

“Oh fuck, Sarah! Fuck – just –
FUCK!
”

He stiffened up completely, his cock thrusting in as deep into my wet chasm as it could possibly tread. Luckily, I was already descending into an orgasm, and his last push threw me over the edge…

As our bodies seized up together, I felt a successive wave of multiple orgasms strike down every last ounce of cognizant thought that I could muster.

My mind went blank with pleasure.

Emptied of thought, emptied of self, I was merely a strained, tightened ball of pleasure, wrapped around the body of this amazing man. The sensations I felt assaulted me from deep inside as I felt his hot seed pump into my body.

As I felt my tightened muscles uncoiling, releasing their grip on his flesh, I rode out the last few orgasms while he panted in exhaustion. It must have been six, maybe seven in a row…

Hunter gradually slid me to my feet on the floor. Gasping, groaning, and clutching his head with a single hand, I could see how his chest heaved.

He was completely spent.

“Did we… did we just come together?” He groaned, one eye closed as he watched me. “I think we did…”

Fighting my clumsy legs, I strolled over to him and placed my palms against his hard chest. He was slick with a thin layer of sweat, and I wanted to lick every salty drop of it off of him.

“Do you see why I can’t give you up? Even if you try, you can’t make me pass on this… I need you too much… And you need me.”

Hunter nodded, pulling me into a deep embrace. I could feel his racing heart beneath his skin and bones, pumping against my cheek, and it only reminded me of how fast my own was beating…

We wound up together on the sofa. It was always so easy to curl up with him. My body fit the contours of his so easily, and his skin was like a furnace – putting out enough warmth to soothe me with something as simple as a cuddle.

My head had stopped pounding, and I was looking at the world with renewed eyes… renewed vision.

That meant him as well… and these silly ideas of leaving me behind.

“Hunter,” I told him, guiding his face to regard my own. “If you’re going to do this – if you’re going to join this world… I’m coming too.”

“Sarah…”

“No, don’t. Don’t tell me that I’m naïve, or that I don’t know what I’m getting myself into.” I nestled a little closer to him. “Look into my eyes… I know what I’m doing.”

He turned slightly, our eyes separated by a couple of inches and nothing else. He regarded me calmly, and then resigned himself.

Hunter knew that I was right.

“Okay,” he finally answered.

I felt the warmth of Hunter’s chest against mine, and comforted myself in the rhythmic rising and falling of his lungs. Nestling closer to him, I nuzzled my face into his neck, preparing to nip his skin and slip into sleep…

S
omething felt wrong
.

My eyes flashed completely open.

Wait.
I twisted my neck, gazing around at the room. Panic began to seize at my chest.

Oh fuck. We fell asleep!

What time is it?

I extracted myself up from Hunter’s slumbering body. He shifted slightly in his sleep, turning inward to the sofa as I fumbled around in the semi-darkness, whipping on my panties, jeans, and what was left of my shirt. Quietly but quickly, I crept over to the blackout curtains on the other side of the small, private room…

Ripping open the drapes, I gazed upon the clear sign of my own damnation. My strength left me as I dropped down to my knees in defeat. The bright sun filtered in, casting its infernal glow across the entire room.

“Mmf…” Hunter groaned, moving to cover his face in the sofa’s seam. He lazily called out to me: “Hey… Sarah, can you… turn out the light?”

“The light’s not on,” I groaned.

There was a pause.

Suddenly, there came the sounds of quick and panicked rustling. I felt the warmth of Hunter’s form as he stopped behind me, rubbing sleep from his eyes with a terrified look on his face.

“What fucking time is it?”

“I don’t know,” I moaned, scrambling around the floor for my phone near the sofa. It must have fallen out of my jeans pocket during the festivities the night before.

“Maybe your father hasn’t noticed that you’re gone,” Hunter spoke optimistically, taking a quick look at the window.

Before I could retort, there was a sound of commotion from deeper into the strip club. Apparently, there were still some people from the night before…

My spirits crashed further down when I heard the distant shout… “
Police!
”

Hunter groaned, covering his face with his hand. “I guess that was a tad optimistic, now that I think about it..."

All of a sudden, another noise joined the fray… Louder… Vicious… Deadly.

BANG!

I turned to hunter feeling as pale as a ghost.

“Was that a
gunshot?”

“No,” Hunter replied as I listened to the hissing sound on the other side of the door. “That was pepper spray.”

H
unter rushed across the room
, his posture completely changed.

“Babe, we’ve gotta go.”

As Hunter threw his jeans on, I finally put my hands on my phone. A million missed calls, of course, and all of them from my father. I glanced back up and could see coils of smoke drawing into the room from outside the door. My eyes had already started to water.

“What are we going to do?” I said with panic in my voice.

Another muffled call came from down the hall somewhere. “
Police! Drop the guns!
” That one sounded familiar enough to strike terror down my spine…

“It’s war,” Hunter hissed. “Your father is coming for you and it sounds like he brought half the police in the damn city. The
problem
is this club isn’t going down without a proper fight…”

“The club?” I asked, confused. “Are you talking about the strip club, or your motorcycle club?”

Hunter didn’t skip a beat as he threw his shirt on, straightening a quick crick in his neck. “Yeah, Sarah, at this point I don’t think that there’s really a difference…”

The commotion had slowed in its progress, but it was still conspicuously advancing down the hallway towards us… And it had intensified. The sounds of
actual
gunfire were now filling the club as Hunter ran to the window, fiddling at the latches.

“Dammit!” He hissed when they wouldn’t move. “Stupid goddamn thing must be locked… guess I’m just gonna have to do this the old-fashioned way…”

I was frozen to the spot as I heard the violence going on outside this little room. Every part of me wanted this to be a dream… I just wanted to wake up in Hunter’s arms with the whole world set right again.

But this was no dream. My father was outside that door, and he was coming…

Hunter put his hands on a bar stool beneath the small bar along the far wall. Carrying it across the room, he steadied himself beside the window and raised it up to the glass, shattering the window. With quick reflexes, he used one of the bar stool legs to break out the glass along the edges of the windowpane, securing a safe passage out – so long as I didn’t touch the sides.

More smoke poured under the door, my throat burning as I locked eyes with Hunter.

He could read the terror on my face.

“Princess… we need to go.”

I couldn’t move.

“
This way!”
Another muffled shout: this time, it was undeniably my father. “
Give me back my daughter, you sons of bitches!”

His response was given in gunfire.

Hunter’s gaze shifted from me, to the door, and then to me again. He was hesitating, one boot already on the crunched glass outside, the other on the carpet. I could see him evenly split between a world of freedom, and a world with me… even if only for a few fleeting moments.

He was calling out to me, saying something. I could barely register his syllables. Everything was moving in slow motion, and I was struggling to maintain my grip on the world.

I swallowed slowly. It was the first motion I’d made in what felt like years.

He was even more pained now.

Still saying something. Maybe even shouting.

I tried to speak the words to him, “I’m coming, Hunter.” When I parted my lips, I tried to tell him, “Please just take me away from here.”

But those weren’t the words that came out.

“Just… go…”

The world came to a complete stop.

As blurry and disconnected as everything felt, the next image burned into my mind. It was the striking pain plastered across his face. I met his heartfelt gaze and watched his heart completely shatter.

All this time, he had been afraid he would hurt me. Hunter had feared that taking me into the life would corrupt me. I had whittled at his conviction, convincing him that I was ready for this. I had promised him my complicity, my place at his side, supporting and nurturing him in the fire that he was about to tread.

The truth was now all too apparent. He shouldn’t have feared hurting me. He should have feared being hurt
by
me.

I had broken my Hunter.

His jaw set, and he lingered for a second that felt like an eternity. If that door burst open before he disappeared from sight…

And just like that, he was gone.

Not a moment too soon, the door to our room broken open, and a strong, familiar arm squeezed around me, pulling me into its embrace as a gas mask was forced over my face.

“Oh, thank God…”

It was my father, backed up by two of his deputy officers. They fanned out around the room as he let loose a barrage of questions:

“Did he hurt you? Sarah? Are you okay? What the fuck did they do to you?”

All I could do was sob, the weight of these last few minutes descending upon me, breaking me down into a husk of my former self. I choked on the words as much as the pepper spray I’d already inhaled. I was robbed of any coherency.

I couldn’t breathe.

“He’s not here,” I heard one of the officers declare. As I turned my strained, tear-soaked gaze, I saw him glancing out the shattered window. “Looks like we found his escape route, though.”

“Do you want us to try to apprehend him on foot?” The other deputy asked, turning towards us.

I could see the irritation in the deputy’s eyes as his stare lowered upon me – to him, I must have just been the wayward daughter, getting into the wrong kinds of trouble.

Every ounce of my body feared my father’s next words, but he surprised me:

“…No. I have what I came for.”

I shuddered in his embrace.

The first deputy again: “Are you sure, sir? He couldn’t have gotten far. We can intercept him if we leave now.”

My father looked down at me again.

“Sarah, I need to know… are you hurt?”

Trembling, I shook my head.

With a heavy, shuddering sigh, he answered: “No, McAddams… we need to get our wounded to a hospital and process the assholes we’ve already handcuffed. Let him go. Let him understand the cost of crossing me…”

“And the others?”

“If they know what’s good for them, they’ll skip town. This is the last day that the Devil’s Dragons prowl Phoenix. I’m going to call on some friends in the other precincts, just to be on the safe side… we’ll drive them out east. We can force them to fend for themselves in the fucking desert.”

He rose up, pulling me to my feet beside him. That’s when I noticed the strain on his face, and how he hissed with his movements. I saw how his free hand clutched at his side, the red stains already soaking his uniform…

Blood?

I felt nauseous. I felt fear. I felt loathing and fury, my stomach churning violently with a cacophony of building, whipping emotions. But most of all… I felt guilty.

What the fuck have I done?

I
clenched
and unclenched my hands, lost in thought as I gazed down at them.

In my peripheral vision, a shambling form came near. I turned my attention, smiling as my father approached with a limp in every step.

I kept up the beaming smile, hiding how guilty I felt every time I saw him. As always, the sight of his cane drew back the painful memories of that fateful morning…

The morning that changed my life forever.

“That’s one hell of a promotion…
Detective,
” he grinned back. “I’ve never been prouder of you, Sarah. If your mother could see you now…”

He pulled me into his heavy, hearty embrace.

The retired sheriff was right. I’d worked
hard
for this career move, putting in as many hours on the street as I possibly could. I’d put myself through the ringer because I wanted the world to know I’d earned this.

It was worth it.

I’d proven my mettle, coming out from under my father’s shadow as the sheriff’s daughter. A transfer here, a big case there… I had worked myself to the bone for every precinct I touched. Desperate to rise above, I put in more overtime than any damned officer on the force. My endless nights pounding the street and hitting the books in the academy were being validated.

I could finally make him proud.

He released his grip on me with satisfaction beaming in his eyes. “How about we celebrate with some grub? Your favorite steakhouse is calling my name…”

“Actually, Dad… I was kind of thinking we do something small, at home. Maybe I can cook?” I asked, fighting the urge to tear up every time I saw his fingers clasped around the hook of his cane. “Unless you’ve been lying about how much you enjoy my chicken lasagna…”

He smiled softly, the happiness evident in his eyes. “If that’s what you want, Sarah…”

Unfortunately, the celebrations couldn’t last longer than the evening. I let my father out just a bit past ten o’clock and was in bed before eleven. I was expected at my Sergeant’s office bright and early the following morning, and after everything he had done for me, I had no intentions of displeasing him… After all, Sergeant Thompson had practically mentored me himself. He’d seen me as more than just the Sherriff’s daughter… he saw the perceptive and detail oriented officer I’d become. He was steering my path towards this promotion for years now.

That’s why it was a surprise when I found his office locked up tight the next morning. It wasn’t like my boss to be late. A warm, churning pit developed in my gut.

Something was wrong.

“You’re looking for Thompson?” One of the other Sergeants asked, passing by towards his area of the precinct. His friendliness was matched only by his impeccable record. “He’s out on sick leave.”

“Sick leave? But Thompson’s never sick!”

“Broke a leg,” he clarified. “Slipped in the shower right in the middle of budget cutbacks, too… For the next few weeks, you’ll be reporting directly to Lieutenant Crabbe.”

He added with a wink: “Good luck with that.”

“Thank you, sir,” I nodded politely, turning towards the opaque glass that marked the Lieutenant’s office in the back of the room.

I’d only encountered the man a few times, and none of those instances had been what I’d call
pleasant
. The Sergeants usually positioned themselves between him and us for a reason that rose above simple matters of hierarchy.

A shiver went down my spine. This morning was
not
getting off to a good start.

“And, by the way?” The Sergeant smiled, extending his hand. “Congratulations on the promotion. You deserved it.”

“Much obliged, Sergeant,” I smiled, shaking his hand. “If you’ll excuse me…”

“Carry on,” he nodded.

Holding my chin high, I crossed between cubicles towards Lieutenant Crabbe’s office. Each step forward sent an uncharacteristic impulse to my brain:

Turn back. Turn back. Turn back.

No,
I thought to myself.
I’ve come this far. I’m going to make my father proud and no asshole Lieutenant is going to stop me.

I knocked on the door, and heard an ambiguous grumble from inside. Unsure how to proceed, I hesitated for a moment before giving another brief, louder knock.

“I said ‘COME IN!’”

Great.

As I let myself into the room, Lieutenant Crabbe was perched behind his desk, twiddling his finger to indicate that I close the door.

The Lieutenant was a slovenly man: obese, sweaty, and perpetually fueled by anger that bordered on hellfire. His shitty attitude and unsightly physique was tolerated because he had an unblemished record of producing results, but his penchant for coming down
hard
on his subordinates was legendary on the force.

“I didn’t
ask
, Jones!” He shouted down the desk phone that was jammed against his ear, his thick, Cheetos-stained fingers wrapped around it like undercooked sausages. “I said
do it!
I don’t care
how long
your men have to stake out that fucking bowling alley, you
do it
and you
do it with a fucking smile!
Do you
hear me?!
”

Without waiting for a response, he slammed the phone down on the receiver, wiping his fingers off under his chair.

I hid my revulsion.

“So…
Detective
…” Crabbe muttered, gazing at me with his beady little eyes. Apparently, he’d already made an assessment, because those eyes were filled with contempt. “Out of the kiddie pool, eh? How’s it feel to be at the big kid’s table?”

I was taken aback, but thought quickly.

“This promotion is everything that I wanted, sir. I’m willing to put in whatever’s necessary to–”

“Don’t bother,
Detective
,” he sneered, leaning back in his chair. I heard it audibly strain beneath his weight. “Your boss says you’ve got the chops. Says your record speaks for itself. He doesn’t fuck up often, so I’m inclined to believe him… for now. I know that you’ve earned your spot here. Don’t piss me off by trying to butter me up.”

From the looks of it the only thing he needed buttered was a thick basket of greasy rolls sitting at the edge of his desk.

“That said, everything that landed you in that chair in front of me? It’s in the past. I couldn’t give a flying
fuck
about your previous work ethic. This little promotion of yours? It’s a clean fucking slate. You’re back to square one, but now you’re on a higher rung, you understand?”

I nodded respectfully.

“Good. Glad you’re hearin’ what I’m sayin’,” he grunted, shuffling a few papers around on his desk. “With that said, I looked into you. Work ethic notwithstanding, I don’t appreciate having some snot-nosed little sheriff’s
daughter
shoved onto my plate.”

And there it was.

It was always one reason or the other: the suggested nepotism, or the gender implication. Apparently, my temporary boss was one of the bigger misogynistic fuckers on the force, but went ahead and just struck for both sides anyway.

“You wanted this so bad?” The lieutenant grunted. “You’ve got it. Now keep it up, or else I’ll have you back out there scribbling out parking tickets so fast it’ll make your head fucking spin.”

“I understand, sir.” I chose my words carefully: “I’m not asking for your respect… I’m willing to earn it.”

He took a cold, hard look at me, but I didn’t waver in my conviction. After a moment, he finally nodded, apparently satisfied.

“That’s what I like to hear.”

He pulled open a drawer beneath his desk. Before I could pat myself on the back for learning the first steps in playing the game, he was tossing a thick folder in front of me.

“What the hell is this?” I asked.

“Your first case, Detective,” he answered with a gravelly grunt. “Missing persons. Let me know if this rings a bell: three cheerleaders disappear from a football game in Tucson.”

I inwardly groaned.

“Of course I know this case,” I answered.

It had been national news for months. Three pretty teenage girls vanish from pleasant little suburbia, and the whole country goes crazy. The department had tied up resources for almost a hundred days on this thing, bearing the brunt of media scrutiny.

Every loose end had been a
dead
end. They had vanished without a trace.

“We’ve thrown everything we’ve got at this thing, but nothing came up green. I can’t spare that kind of manpower anymore, but we can’t walk away from this either. You want to earn my respect,
Detective
?” He sneered. “I’ll make it easier for you than most. Find these girls.”

While he spoke, I flipped through the folder. My eyes glanced across the mountain of evidence: credit card statements, eyewitness interviews, phone records, last known locations, mapped out sheets of friends and family – and then, something I would have never expected…

It was simple, really. I’d spotted a photo: a man beside his motorcycle. The Lieutenant’s words drowned out as I realized what I was looking at… The lines on his face had hardened and his leather cut was looking battle-worn.

Hunter.

My breath caught in my throat as I pulled the photograph from the sleeve sheet. Absentmindedly, my fingertips ran along his face, bringing back feelings long since buried.

Flipping it over, I spotted an inscription on the backside: the words
Devil’s Dragons, El Paso,
with the current year.

“What’s the matter,
Detective?
” Lieutenant Crabbe chuckled. “Got a thing for bad boys?”

I glanced at him with a smile that wiped the snide comment from his collection of chins. “I enjoy putting them behind bars. Don’t you worry, sir. I’ll find these girls.”

His expression turned stern as he leaned forward in his chair, groaning beneath his weight.

“I don’t want you working on anything else, Detective. This is your primary focus until we know what happened. I want you to eat, drink, shit, and
piss
this case, understand? Get us a new lead on this thing and I’ll provide whatever resources you need to see the investigation through.”

His jaw set as he summed me up once more: “Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes sir,” I smiled confidently.

“Very good,” my superior replied, still unsure what to do with my change in demeanor. “Now that you grasp what is expected of you … leave my sight and get your ass to Tucson
immediately
.”

I rose, shaking his hand, and closed the door behind myself. I passed by my new office; I hadn’t even taken the time to get settled into the room, electing to go straight for my Sergeant. All I’d done is placed my box of belongings on the edge of the desk…

Taking the moment to pause, I stroked my fingertips along the edge of the desk, glancing around the small room. It lacked a view, or art, or anything that made it anything less than a small cog in the machinery that ran this precinct… but it was mine.

It was mine for right now, at least.

There was no telling what was going to happen with this case. The Lieutenant had put me on a dead end and he knew it. I was going to be the scapegoat to compartmentalize the damage when the department failed to find those girls. It was a way of quietly shoving me out of the way.

If I even
found
them, it would just make him look that much better for putting the new girl on the case.

Damn you, Sergeant,
I groaned to myself.
You and your stupid fucking leg…

Tucson had been tread and retread time and time again. There wasn’t anything new that was going to turn up there. It was a dead end… but it was as good a place as any to start.

I strolled down the stairs and out the front door of the precinct, the case folder tightly under my arm. Pulling out a pair of sunglasses in the hot Phoenix sun, I felt the slight breeze in the air. The wind flowed over me, caressing my skin – the very elements comforting me, pushing me onward.

The drive was only three hours even after fighting a few miles of morning traffic. I suspected that I wasn’t going to be
staying
in Tucson, so I saw fit to appease my Lieutenant while the window of opportunity was available. I phoned him moment that I arrived in the city.

“Glad to hear you can follow basic orders,” he snarled in response. “Where exactly are you starting your investigation?”

“I need to pour over these case files,” I replied truthfully. “Familiarize myself with the inner workings of this thing. Put some fresh eyes on it. If I’m going to dig something up, it’ll probably have to be from there.”

“A boring answer, but the right one,” he grumbled. “Take a day and get the lay of the land. Study that shit like your life depends on it. Figure it out from there. Oh, and
Detective?
”

He sneered out the title, as always. Good to know that he still questioned my capabilities. “Contact me when you’ve actually
got
something, and not a fucking second sooner.”

With that, he hung up loudly.

I had parked outside a small diner to make the call, and I gazed over at the case file on the passenger seat. If I was going to find these girls, the answer was going to be in that folder… and I sensed that the path forward was already clear.

For late morning, the diner was only half full. This suited me just fine, and I requested a big table in the corner. While the waitress returned with my coffee, I was already up to my ass in paperwork. The case file had plenty of dirt on the Devil’s Dragons MC, and even more on Hunter. The club had arrived in town a few days after the girls went missing and started asking questions… the right questions.

For their efforts, they wound up with a great, big target slapped on their backs. Police attention was the last thing those guys wanted, but they collectively became prime suspect number one for several days. After all, they had a well deserved reputation. Half of the files scattered on this table came from the Devil’s Dragons. Arrests, statements, stakeouts, and a thick manilla folder full of details about the raid on their strip club base of operations eight years ago.

That brought back some memories…

I turned the page, shaken as I saw the pictures of the aftermath. Men lay in pools of blood, and the club was absolutely riddled with bullets. It seemed like they’d pulled every single file related to the Dragons during this investigation. The police raid on their former base in Phoenix had
definitely
raised some eyebrows in the Tucson jurisdiction. Half the club was killed in the shootout, and most of the others were rotting away in a prison just outside Florence. From the looks of things, less than half a dozen men avoided being charged, and they’d spent the last handful of years bolstering their numbers out of a new clubhouse in El Paso…