Tomorrow’s another story.

  I pop the trunk to get a blanket and a lighter for fire. I got a small flashlight in my duffle bag that should last a few hours, but a fire will keep the creepy crawlies away. Piper leaves Bandit in the trunk.

  Then I glance at the three bags of money.

  “What?” Piper says.

  “Hold this for me,” I say, handing her the flashlight.

  Johann has been damn lucky tracking me down. When I was driving around the streets of San Antonio, he always located me after a day or two. And now out here? How lucky can a man be?

  “Keep the light on those bags,” I say.

  I open the heavy-duty canvas bags one by one, flipping through the banded bills until I find what I’m looking for in the third bag. One bundle feels lighter than the others, the green shade of the cash slightly different. I rub one bill. It’s ordinary paper, fake money.

  There’s a cut-out hollow inside the bundle.

  “Son of a bitch.”

  “What is it?”

  I dig out a black box the size of a quarter with a blinking red light. And I remember that gadget Johann had been waving around in the parking lot.

  “It’s a transponder. A tracking beacon.”

  “He’s been following you?”

  “Johann must’ve put this in as insurance. I should’ve checked when I grabbed the money.”

  I smash the thing to pieces under my boot heel.

  Piper sighs. “So we’re safe?”

  “Tonight at least. The only thing he can follow now are our tire tracks, and he can't do that in the dark.”

  “Good.”

  We find a spot twenty feet away from the Escalade where Piper spreads the blanket. It takes me another thirty minutes to start a fire with some dry branches and bramble. As the flames crackle, she takes her clothes off and leans back on her hands, spreading her legs. The light of the fire casts a warm glow over her soft skin. Her pink folds glisten.

  My cock swells and I tear my clothes off.

  I get the animal urge to bite her again. Just sink my teeth into her while her body is wrapped around mine.

  “You want me to get on all fours?” she says.

  “No, darling. You keep those legs spread and I’ll do the moving.”

  Her blush deeps. “This counts as marriage, Luke.”

  “More than that,” I say through my teeth.

  Then I’m on her, my hips between her thighs. Her slick pussy folds massage my cock as I tongue that soft neck, kissing her chin, her mouth. I grab a handful of her breast and a handful of her plump hip.

  “You tell me if you’re hurting,” I say in her ear. “I’ll go slow, but you’re taking all of me.”

  Piper moans as her legs rub on my flanks.

  Her folds peel apart and the hot wet of her walls slide around my cock. Adding more pressure, I feel her pussy clench and a burst of heat. The scent of her virginity reaches my nose.

  She holds my shoulders while tiny whimpers leave her mouth.

  I squeeze the muscles at the base of my balls as I thrust into her heat, hot juices seeping out around my shaft.

  She tenses, her nails in my shoulder. “Yes,” she gasps.

  I reach down to strum her clit for a while, letting my girl adjust. Her pussy lips flutter around my stalk.

  “Almost there, baby.”

  “Do it,” she breathes.

  I plunge to my balls with one swing, squeezing my ass muscles, and Piper cries out with her legs clamped around my hips.

  “Right there, baby girl.” I kiss her hairline.

  She feels so tight. She looks so beautiful. It takes everything I have to bite down my cum, to keep myself from pounding at her body like a beast.

  Her walls stretch around me, the heat gripping my cock burning hot.

  I give her slow, full thrusts, watching her face closely so I can focus on the best angle. Her eyelids flutter as she sinks her teeth into her lower lip.

  “Open your eyes,” I say. “Look at me, darling.”

  Her big eyes pop open.

  “Perfect,” I groan. I’m making love to her, but I’m gonna fuck her at the same time. She’s too good, too perfect, to get anything less. I want my girl to cum her heart out, and I want her to remember forever the first orgasm she has on my cock.

  The swings of my hips pick up speed as she writhes. I hit different spots in her channel that make her body twist. With every thrust, I grunt. With every thrust, she cries out.

  We slap together, the full length of my shaft squelching in and out, pumping between her walls that suck at me with clenches. I frame her face in my hands, not even kissing, because I want to see her when we make love.

  “I'm going to cum inside you.”

  It's not a question. It's a statement.

  I’m gonna cum inside her no matter what. Nothing can stop me. I’m claiming what’s mine and giving mine what’s hers.

  She tosses her head back. “Yes.”

  My mouth finds her neck, my tongue grazing across her skin. Shifting down, I pull on her nipple with my teeth as my cock pumps in her juices.

  The tingle in my balls sharpen in pulses. I’m so close, but not yet.

  Not yet.

  Her walls clench tighter than ever. They ripple up and down my shaft, the heat surging as her body shakes so hard I have to hold her down. She cries out my name before I cover her mouth with one hand. Tears of raw pleasure stream down her cheeks.

  “I’m coming,” she gasps.

  I keep my cock in her until she lets out a long sigh as her climax falls. I grab her by the waist and sit back, straddling her on my cock.

  She stares at me in shock before she starts to bounce, riding me like a cowgirl rides a stallion. The sight of her swollen pussy impaled on my shaft has my balls boiling. I watch her folds clinging to my shaft, greasing me with her sweet juices.

  “That’s it, little girl.” I slap her ass. “You keep on riding.”

  She cums again. I can’t resist the hot clench as she rips the cum from my balls. I shoot my seed on the roof of her pussy, and sticky wetness overflows before we grind to a shattering stop.

  I set Piper on her back and very slowly pull out. I catch my breath while she grins like she’s in a dream. But this is no dream. She’s mine and I’m keeping her forever.

  “I’m thirsty, Luke.”

  “Be right back.”

  I stalk to the trunk of my Escalade and return with one of the last two bottles we have. The other I leave for Rose.

  “Drink your fill.”

  “What about you?”

  “I'll be fine,” I say, rubbing her clit very gently. “If I get thirsty I'll drink from your pussy.”

  She rolls her eyes but drinks only half the bottle. “We’ll save it for later.”

  “Don’t worry about water.” I’ll dig a fucking well if I have to.

  She smiles that sweet smile of hers.

  “Tomorrow,” I say. “I’ll handle business. Then we’ll get all the water we can drink.”

  She knows what I mean by business. “Hold me,” she says.

  I do.

  We drive through the next morning following one direction, but nothing appears on the horizon. No towns, no roads, not even a damn hare. Places like these remind me how big America really is.

  The terrain gets bumpy, one hill after another. I can see the tracks we leave behind in the rearview mirror, a winding trail in the sunbaked earth visible for miles. There’s no cover in this open country, nothing but clumps of yellow grass and scrawny trees under a scorching sun. A man with one eye could follow the path we’re leaving.

  Sheriff Rose groans in the passenger seat. She sips the last bottle of water until it’s gone. The bandage around her shoulder has dried, but a piece of something has lodged in her shoulder. She needs a hospital soon.

  I pull over and we get out.

  The sheriff’s face is a gray mask. “What’s the plan, Alvarez?”

  “Johann won’t stop coming, and we’re running low on gas. We can’t go on like this. We have to take him out.”

  Rose, leaning against the side of my Escalade, checks her hefty gun. “I got no ammo left. What do you have?”

  “Five shells, plus one in the chamber.”

  “Only six shots.”

  “I would’ve brought more shells, but I didn’t want trouble with the law.”

  “Don’t get smart with me.”

  “Yes ma’am.”

  “This Johann stupid enough to walk into a trap?”

  I haul out the bags of money from my trunk, setting them on the ground. Piper watches me from nearby with Bandit in her arms.

  “He’s not stupid,” I say. “Not without a reason. So I’ll give him three million reasons.” I flick on my lighter. “He won’t be able to resist.”

  Chapter Eight

  Piper

  Rose and I lie on our stomachs on a low hill, peeking down at Luke’s SUV below. He’s standing in front of the hood with the three bags of money at his feet. He holds his shotgun.

  We’ve been waiting for an hour.

  Bandit’s on her belly beside my elbow, her ears flattened. She senses danger.

  “I hope your man knows what he’s doing,” Rose says.

  “My man?”

  The sheriff glances at me. “That’s what he is, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Burning money is a felony,” Rose mutters. “One more thing I can arrest him for.”

  I glare at her.

  “Don’t worry,” she adds. “I ain’t gonna arrest him. Consider our current situation extenuating circumstances.”

  “I love him,” I say quietly.

  “Sweetheart, you’ve known him less than a week.”

  “It doesn’t matter. I can’t ignore what I feel.”

  “Your mother told me something similar once,” Rose says. “Right after one of her boyfriends gave her a black eye.”

  “Luke isn’t like those men. He’s not.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “I can’t explain it, but I know what he is. Who he is.”

  Rose sighs. “It doesn’t matter now anyway. If we ever get out of this jackpot, we’ll worry about it then.”

  I nod, staring ahead, my heart skipping in vicious beats.

  I think again to what Mom used to say about falling in love. But her men would always turn out to be the worst losers, whose only talent in life is acting like something they’re not. As much as I’m sure of Luke, as much as I love him, a splinter of doubt nags my mind.

  I ignore it.

  What is love anyway?

  A feeling. Like anger or sadness or trust. Especially trust. You either trust someone or you don’t. You can’t force yourself to trust. I haven’t seen many years, but I learned that one early on.

  I know I love Luke.

  The only reason he’s standing there getting ready to fight is because of me.

  “Here they come,” Rose says. A cloud of dust appears behind the next hill.

  Two men on bikes crest the hilltop, pausing when they spot Luke. It must be Johann and Romo.

  The sheriff sticks a switchblade into the ground. “If this party goes south, I want you to run for it. I’ll fend ‘em off long as I can.”

  “Sorry, but I’m not leaving my man and I’m not leaving you.”

  “Piper—”

  “Look, I know you’re a badass lady and everything, but I ain’t running. I’ve done enough running. I’m tired of it.”

  Rose looks back to the unfolding scene in silence.

  Johann and Romo come no closer, watching Luke from the top of that hill.

  Luke sets the first bag on fire.

  I’m surprised how easy money burns. He lights the second bag before the bikers scramble down the hillside.

  Shooting starts.

  Luke ducks to the SUV’s rear as Johann and Romo reach the bags. While Romo keeps his weapon raised, Johann throws dirt on the money. But the flames only grow.

  I watch, sweat pouring off my face.

  Luke leans out from behind the SUV. Romo sees him.

  My hand goes to my mouth. I want to cover my eyes, but I force myself to watch.

  They fire at the same time.

  Romo misses. Luke doesn’t.

  Johann tears himself away from the money to take on my man. They shoot at each other with the big Escalade between them until their guns stop working.

  “Stay here,” Rose yells. And then she sprints off with that switchblade while Luke and Johann wrestle each other to the ground.

  Bandit hisses.

  I scoop her into my backpack and run after Rose, pumping my legs as fast as I can.

  Johann pins Luke under him.

  Rose reaches them first, slashing her knife across Johann’s back before she collapses against the SUV, clutching her shoulder. The run has taken her last strength.

  Johann howls as Luke kicks him off.

  I reach the fight just as Johann swings out his own knife. Seeing the sheriff down, he focuses on Luke, who dodges every swing and uses his empty shotgun like a club.

  He forces the biker back step by step until Johann stumbles into the burning bags of money, and he catches fire too.

  I gape at his thrashing form before Luke turns me away and covers my ears. The shrieks cut off soon after.

  My mother has her faults, but she always did say greed can kill.

  “I’m fine,” Luke grunts out for the fourth time, even though he walks with a limp.

  We’ve unscrewed the gas tanks from the motorcycles. The tanks are bigger than normal, Luke explains, because each tank has a hidden compartment filled with bullets.

  Johann had been crafty.

  Not crafty enough.

  We make a funnel of sorts from half a water bottle. Using that, we refill our SUV using Johann’s gas while Sheriff Rose rests in the passenger seat. The Escalade is shot up, but the engine still runs.

  I avert my gaze from the bodies.

  Luke has a gash on his thigh that’s bleeding slowly.

  “You’re not fine,” I say.

  “Finer than this morning. You’re safe, that’s all that matters.”

  The third bag of money hasn’t been burned. It sits there on the ground. Luke follows my gaze before he stows it in the trunk.

  “We’re still millionaires,” he says.

  And despite myself, I laugh and wrap my arms around him.

  We spend the rest of the day driving, and with Johann gone, we use a simple solution to find our way back to the highway. We follow our own tracks. The bikers had left theirs too.

  By nightfall, we’re on Route 349 heading toward Iraan. It takes us another fifteen minutes to arrive at the emergency room entrance of Iraan General Hospital. Paramedics rush Sheriff Rose away on a gurney.

  Police cruisers arrive.

  Luke is slapped in handcuffs and taken by deputies of the Pescos County Sheriff’s Office. One of them holds me back as I kick and scream my throat hoarse. Then a paramedic gives me this shot that turns my legs to jelly. Drowsiness washes over me in waves, impossible to fight, lulling me to sleep. I feel my body belted onto another gurney before I black out.

  Chapter Nine

  Luke

  I’ve been sitting in jail for two days. They won't let me see Piper and I'm bouncing off the walls.

  I touch the bandage on my thigh. A nurse from the hospital dressed my wound after two deputies had brought me here. It’s only a flesh wound, nothing compared to the pain in my chest at Piper’s absence.

  Yesterday I asked the guard if there’s been any news about Daisy Rose, but he ignored me. The guard said Sheriff Hotchkins of Pescos County would see me today, and we’d have a lot to talk about.

  No doubt.

  I have no idea what to expect. Fact is, even though I spent most of my life skirting the law, this is the first time I’ve been arrested.

  My guard arrives. “The sheriff’s ready for you.”

  I stick my hands through the slot in the bars. This part I figured out quick. I’m cuffed and steered down a sterile hallway to a corner office, where Sheriff Hotchkins tells the guard to uncuff me.

  “You can leave, Lawrence. I’ll have a private word with our guest.”

  There’s a metal chair in front of the Sheriff’s desk.

  “Do sit down, Mr. Alvarez. How’s your leg?”

  “I can walk.”

  “That’s good.”

  “Where’s Ms. Ginn?” I say.

  “Just hang on a second. Let’s get to know each other.”

  “What’s the charge?”

  The sheriff stares at me. He's a ponderous man with a white mustache, and the star on his chest gleams from the lights. Twenty years older than me, give or take.

  “This ain’t my actual office,” he says. “I drove out here all the way from Fort Stockton to see you. On the one hand, we got a wounded sheriff up in the hospital, and it always aggravates me when a fellow sheriff gets shot. And then we got you, our special guest.”

  “I’m nobody.”

  “Oh no, you’re somebody or I wouldn’t be out here. That colossal goatfuck you brought down in my county has my deputies shaken. Most of them have never seen such goatfuckery their whole lives. This county is about the size of Connecticut. You know how many people live in Connecticut?”

  “No.”

  “3.5 million thereabouts. Know how many people live here?”

  “No.”

  “Just over 15,000.”

  “Is that good or bad?”

  “It depends on your perspective, doesn’t it?”

  “Perspective matters,” I say.

  “I’d like to understand yours. You got no record to speak of, Mr. Alvarez. So either you’ve been a law-abiding citizen all your life, or you just never got caught.”

  I look at Hotchkins in silence.

  “Nothing to add?” he says.

  “No.”

  “Well, Johann Schmidt has fifteen outstanding warrants in four states. He’s wanted in multiple homicides. A whole family of six down in Dallas. Two parents, four kids—five, eight, seven, and nine.” The sheriff scowls. “I won’t get into the particulars with those other two, it’s more or less the same. These scumbags were your associates?”

 

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