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“I’m great, Mom.” She wanted to scream,
No
I’m not all right. I’m falling hard for a guy who obviously has a
dark side.

“If you say so.” Ellen cut her eyes down at
Julie and gave a little disbelieving nod.

“Mom, life is great, promise.”

How could she explain her fears to her mom
when she didn’t understand them herself?

Ellen kissed Julie on the head and went back
to her bed. Realizing it was going to be hard to go to sleep, Julie
got out her
iPhone
and old, outdated laptop. She knew what
she wanted to listen to and went straight to the
iTunes
store. She typed in
Sarah Brightman, Music of the Night
in
the search box. She needed to know what made Trucker tick. Maybe
something in that song would give her a hint about him. She grew
more confused as to why he found solace in that particular song.
The lyrics alone were unnerving:
darkness stirs, open your mind,
let your darker side give in, and only then can you belong to
me
.

She put it on repeat and let the music blare
in her ear. She concentrated on the words. Something told her there
was a message there, and she was determined to find it. She
eventually drifted off to sleep, never realizing what danger was
right outside her window.

*******

A thunderstorm had rolled in that night, and
the steady patter of raindrops lured Julie into a fitful and broken
sleep. She exhaled deeply as hands slowly started gathering the
hair at the nape of her neck. She was convinced she was dreaming,
yet it felt so real. She recalled her mom trying to wake her for
early service at church. However, she had to still be dreaming. The
only thing that confirmed that it wasn’t a dream, were lips pressed
firmly to the back of her neck.

“Good morning, my sweet Angel,” Trucker
whispered against her skin. “I wondered when you were going to wake
up.”

After hearing his voice there was no doubt in
her mind that it was Trucker lying beside her. She melted into his
body, still unable to open her eyes. She laid there, motionless, as
he stroked her stomach and trailed the lightest kisses along the
side of her neck. She wrapped her leg around his as he started to
hum. Slowly the hum turned into words.

“To really love a woman, let her hold you,
Till' you know how she needs to be touched, you’ve gotta breathe
her, really taste her, Till' you can feel her in your blood, and
when you can see your unborn children in her eyes, you know you
really love a woman,”
Trucker crooned in her ears.

As beautiful and raspy as his voice was in a
normal everyday conversation, it was nothing compared to his voice
singing. Julie wasn’t so ready to forget everything she saw and
felt. He told her himself she should run. She should listen to her
head and not her heart. Her body curled tighter into his, unwilling
to listen to anything but the sound of his voice. She wasn’t going
to give up the little moments. No matter what she had to
overlook.

“That’s beautiful. I didn’t know you could
sing.”

“It’s all part of the perfect facade. It’s
only skin deep,” Trucker whispered and trailed a line of kisses
down her neck and across her shoulder.

“
Hold her tight, A little tenderness, you
gotta treat her right, She will be there for you, taking good care
of you, You really gotta love your woman, And when you find
yourself lying helpless in her arms, You know you really love a
woman.”

He sung so lightly it was the perfect mixture
of singing and humming. His grip grew painfully tight. Julie turned
her head, her nose tapped against his.

“Have you ever loved someone?” Julie
asked.

Trucker kissed the tip of her nose. “No, I
haven’t. I never really believed in the whole concept of love. But
I believe I might’ve found the one girl who could teach me
something about it.”

Remembering where they were, she pushed off
his body and jumped up out of bed, startled. “My parents?”

He propped himself up and laughed. “They left
for church about an hour and a half ago,” he answered. “They told
me I was welcome to wake you up.”

“What?” she asked, confused. “What time is
it?” She reached for her cellphone to check the time when he guided
her back onto the bed beside him. He cocked his head to the side; a
deep crease formed on his forehead, and he started tracing his
thumb under her eye.

“What happened to your eye?” he asked,
sternly but with a voice still too enchanting to be real.

She wondered why it seemed to make him mad.
It was really no big deal. It did hurt a little, but the mark had
to barely be noticeable. “I got in a fight with my diary and lost,”
she answered as she slid his hand away. “I can’t believe you
noticed it.”

“I notice everything when it involves you.”
His eyes softened. He kissed the tip of his finger before placing
it over the mark. His sudden and frequent mood changes left her
dazed and often confused.

“I should really get ready for church,” Julie
said and held her head down, letting her hair fall around her face
like a veil. His stare left her feeling insecure with herself.
Trucker tucked her lose hair behind her ear.

“Julie, you’re my girl. Don’t ever hold your
head down again,” he demanded. Julie’s head snapped up. It still
dumbfounded her how her body automatically responded to his
commands.

“Trucker,” Julie started to say.

He pulled her over onto his lap and nudged
his nose across the base of her neck. She could’ve sworn he took in
a deep breath. She wondered why. She didn’t smell half as appealing
as he did. “Yes,” he said and smiled.

She cleared her throat and continued, “You
said so yourself that I should be scared of you.”

“Yes,” he said and roughly rubbed the side of
her hip.

“I know you have secrets, and I can’t start
to comprehend what happened to you last night. All I know is, I
went to sleep in your arms but when I woke up . . .” She shook her
head and her body followed. “All I know is . . . I don’t care.” She
cut her eyes up and met his. “Whatever it is or whatever you’re
hiding is your business.” She laid her head on his hard chest. “I
just want this.”

Julie couldn’t denied it after what she saw
the night before, Trucker was no ordinary man. She shouldn’t had
been excited about snuggling in his lap, his arms wrapped tightly
around her. Yet, she was. There was nowhere else she would rather
be.

“Oh, Angel, you have no idea what you are
saying.”

She did know what she was saying and knew it
was a lie. She cared too much. The future was close and that future
brought a world of unknowns. She would face it as it came but right
then she only wanted him. “I don’t care.”

“You don’t care?”

She nodded her head and buried it in his
chest.

“Baby, I’ll take care of you, and you have no
idea how much you mean to me,” said Trucker.

“I’ve got to get ready for the late service
at church. Do you want to go with me?” she asked, more to change
the conversation than anything.

“My sweet Angel, I would follow you to the
ends of the earth, but no church.”

“Why?”

Taking in his clothes, something she had
never done before; honestly, it was hard getting past his face to
concentrate on anything else. He appeared to be already dressed for
church. He had on khaki pants, a pale pink button up shirt, and a
dark brown blazer that perfectly set off his amazing complexion.
She assumed he had already been to church or was planning on
going.

“One of those you don’t care issues,” he
answered.

She did want to know what was really going on
with him, but decided she wanted to be with him more. She would
focus on the very human, very loving Trucker. Maybe it was nothing
more than an extreme case of bipolar disorder.

She heard her parents coming in downstairs.
“Truck, we need to go.”

“Okay, babe.” He gently pulled at one of her
curls. “Julie, I’m trying.”

“Try harder.”

She got up with his hand in hers and headed
downstairs. Julie went to touch him and he twitched. “Does that
hurt?” she asked.

“What, baby?”

“My touch,” she answered.

“Nothing hurts worse than not having your
touch.”

Julie noticed he didn’t answer her and was
not ready to let it go either.

In the kitchen, her dad was putting away the
groceries; he had picked up on his way home from church. Trucker
stepped in and started helping. Julie grabbed a can out of the bag
and tossed it across the room to Trucker. He caught it in midair
with a lightning-quick grasp, never taking his eyes off of hers and
smiled. Trucker and Julie were lost in the moment when Dan started
rattling on about work. It dawned on Julie that Trucker and Dan had
already formed a bond. She wondered how much Dan knew about
Trucker. More than anything she was curious how much he might know
about the part of him, she said she didn’t care about. Trucker
winked at her, tossed the can in the air, and started stashing the
groceries away, knowing exactly where they went.

“Oh, my gosh,” Ellen said across the room.
She had the laptop perched on her lap, and reading some kind of
article. She rubbed the back of her neck in obvious distress.
“Didn’t you two go to the movies last night?”

“Yeah, why?” Julie answered and moved closer
to her mom.

Ellen flipped the computer screen around, and
flashing on the screen was a picture of a girl who could have been
Julie’s twin. Her curls were looser than Julie’s, but her upturned
nose and wide set eyes were spot on.

“They were talking about it at church. A girl
was found dead behind the theater last night,” Ellen explained.

Julie took the laptop and read the short news
snippet:

At 1:07 am while emptying the garbage cans,
the cleaning crew at Regal 8 in Franklin found the body of a young
girl. She appeared to have been attacked by an animal. She had
numerous bite marks on her body, especially around the neck area.
At this time no further information is available.

Update on the Leading Headline: The body has
been identify as 17-year-old Jodi Moore of Nankipoo, TN.

“Ms. Mary at church, her grandson was one of
the poor souls who found the body. She said the body was savaged,
but the oddest thing was the absence of blood. It was as if she
never had any running in her veins,” Ellen said.

Trucker stared in disbelief over Julie’s
shoulder; his body heat was boiling. Julie’s skin had the same
painfully alert feeling she’d had the first day she met him. He
reached for the laptop and Julie swore she saw a vein slither in
his hand.

“May I?” he asked.

Trucker read over the article, slammed the
computer shut, and headed to the bathroom. The house rattled as he
flung the door shut. Julie sat for only a few minutes, but it
seemed like hours, waiting for Trucker to emerge.

“Would it be okay if I took Julie somewhere?”
Trucker asked Dan and gave him a superior smile. He was not normal,
but was not anywhere close to what she imagined either.

“You might want to ask me if I want to go,”
Julie said and stormed off to her room. No matter how much he was
used to controlling, she was not going to be his puppet. Who was
she kidding? She stomped up the stairs, knowing she would do
anything he asked her to.

*******

Julie felt his eyes on her before she heard
him. But she often felt his eyes on her without ever seeing
him.

“Angel, I'm sorry, but the thought that it
could've been you scares me,” Trucker said as he entered the
bedroom.

Julie had changed and was brushing her hair.
She sat her brush down on the vanity. She was getting ready,
knowing that she would go anywhere with him.

Sitting down beside her, he manually turned
her body to face him. “I’m sorry I acted like that.”

“I was with you. I may not have all the facts
on everything. But I have no doubt in my mind that as long as I’m
with you, I’m safe from anything.”

“You weren’t always with me, you left me.”
The look, that made her very core cry, rung strong from him.

“I’m with you now.”

He gazed at her as if hypnotized. Her heart
pounded violently. It was as if he spoke to some part of her that
was buried deep within her soul, and that part was screaming
‘Danger, he knows what happened to that girl. Be careful.’
Some instinct older than time was telling her to flee, but she
didn't move. The same force that terrified her was drawing her
closer to him. Even though frightened
,
she had never felt
more alive. She saw his eyes grow darker and felt the wild leap of
her own heart as he slowly stretched out one of his hands and
trailed his fingers down the base of her neck.

“Where are you taking me?” Julie asked.

“The pond,” he answered.

“In case you didn’t realize it, it’s
raining.”

“I’ve got you covered.”

“You can’t control the weather, can you?
You’re not God, are you?”

He laughed a very genuine and happy laugh. “I
am most definitely not God.”

*******

Trucker had left her bedroom dazed and numbly
confused. He walked outside, holding her hand. The night before
slapped him with such force, it stopped him dead in his tracks. He
wasn’t quite sure why but something about hearing the rain hitting
the umbrella he held over her head, the way his hand ever so
lightly touched her lower back, him guiding her to his car,
whatever it was, he realized the girl laying in a cold morgue
somewhere was supposed to be Julie. He let the umbrella fall to the
ground. Standing there in the rain, he had the strongest yearning
to fist his hands through that massive mound of her silken curls,
pull her tight against his body, and press his lips against her
throbbing temple. Above all, his greatest urge was to hide her from
all that was around him. The rain stung as it pelted his face, but
he couldn’t register the pain. His life was falling apart, and he
couldn’t do anything about it. Stopping it would mean he had to let
her go, and that was not an option. He examined her face, making
the color red creep across her cheeks.