The One Girl (10 page)

Welcome Home, Talie.

While she was busy reading, I pulled the ring out of my pocket and got down on one knee.

Her eyes flitted up from the paper to find me lower than she expected.

Her lips parted and her eyes widened in surprise.

“Talie. I know I didn’t ask you to marry me, but that’s only because I couldn’t allow there to be a possibility of a ‘No’. I can’t wait for you to be my wife and build a family with me. I wanted your ring to be something special in more ways than one, so it’s my mother’s engagement ring.”

Her eyes started to glisten and her hand went to her nose, gently pressing inward to try to stop the sting from the tears.

“Marry me, Babe. Period. No question mark. Be my wife, and I’ll love you like no one else ever could. That I can guarantee.”

She smiled at me but sat silent.

I raised an eyebrow at her, and she raised one of her own right back at me.

After several seconds of our silent standoff had passed, she finally gave me something.

Attitude.

“Oh, did you want an answer? Because it wasn’t a question. You made that clear.”

“Babe.”

Reaching forward and grabbing the ring, she slid it onto her finger. Newly adorned finger included, she put her palms to my jaws and looked deep into my eyes as she murmured, “Of course, Tuck. Nothing in the future sounds quite as good if it doesn’t include me being your wife.”

I scooped her into my arms and practically ran for the stairs.

As I climbed, her mouth found mine and she shoved her tongue inside. She caressed the inside of my mouth with her tongue before nibbling on my bottom lip and then sucking it in between hers.

When we got into our bedroom, I put her down on the bed and lifted her shirt off over her head. She reached for mine and did the same, so I unsnapped her bra, pulled it off, and took a minute to revel in being skin to skin.

Our mouths found each other again, and moved in tandem as our hands reached for the other’s pants.

We moved quickly to get the rest of our clothing off, and when we finally got it all off, I pushed inside of her immediately.

She was wet and ready and accepted me easily, a breathy moan escaping her lips.

I set a languid, long-stroked, feeling-exaggerating pace and pulled her face towards me so that she would be looking directly into my blue-green eyes with her blue ones.

“I love you, Talie.”

“I love you too.”

That was all we said. Normally sex was about making it interesting or trying new things. It was about connecting but in fun, wild, inventive ways.

Tonight was different. It was all about the bond between us and the depth of our affection for one another. About the beginning of a life long commitment to one another.

And it was absolutely, undoubtedly, undisputedly the best sex I’d ever had.

********

We walked into the Lizard later that night to the cheers of all of our friends.

It was kind of unbelievable that we had gotten together so quickly and this old fashioned town still approved of it, but I guess they could see we were right for each other just like we could.

As we approached Jace, Ruth, and Kayla, I heard Kayla mumble, “Well, there’s a ring on her finger and she looks rumpled from sex. I’d say it went well.”

When we stopped in front of them, she leaned forward, took a whiff of the air, and finished, “Yep. They smell like sex too.”

Talie leaned her head toward me and groused, “I thought I missed her. I really did. But I’m really not all that sure anymore.”

Ruthie stepped away from the crook of Jace’s arm to add her thoughts. “I know. She’s a bitch. An even bigger one than you.”

Talie and Kayla shouted an annoyed, “Hey!” in unison.

“Don’t worry. You’re only bitches by comparison to my sweet, mild demeanor.”

I’m pretty sure four sets of eyes rolled after that comment.

“What? I’m sweet!”

Talie patted her arm and responded, “Yes, sweetie, you are. Most of the time. It’s only about ten percent of the time that you show your other side.”

Jace smirked, took a pull off of his beer, and voiced, “I personally really like it when she gets bitchy. God, it makes the sex unbel-”

Ruthie elbowed him in the stomach, and she did it hard. As a result, he spewed beer everywhere, including all over us.

As I wiped the spit and beer off of my face, I thanked them for their sentiments. “Jesus. Thanks for the congratulations guys.”

All three of them clattered and mumbled half-heartedly, “Oh yeah”, “Yeah, congrats.”, and “Whatever”, their responses blending into one another.

I excused myself to go get drinks from the bar and did a scan of the room as I went. I didn’t see Drew and no one seemed to be paying attention to me or even our group as a whole, but I still felt eyes on me.

I just could not figure it out. It wasn’t like psychosis was normal for me. I had never felt this way in my entire life.

As I was ordering, I was slammed into from behind. When I turned around, I saw that it was Talie. She had apparently come toward me at a full run and then jumped on my back.

It was crazy and most likely completely unnecessary, but I liked that she had come running at me like a lunatic just to be close to me again.

“I thought I would help you with the drinks. Besides, you left me alone with Kayla!”

I smiled and shook my head. “Talie, she’s your sister. And you weren’t even alone. I left you with Jace and Ruthie too.”

She pouted and responded, “Yeah, but did you see them? They’re like a real couple! Which is fucking awesome! But it also made them an ineffective buffer against all the crazy that is my sister.”

I raised an eyebrow, and she kept going. “I’m serious! She’s bonkers. I honestly don’t remember her being like this before.”

“She’s funny, Babe.”

She scrunched her nose, but agreed with me. “Yeah, she’s funny, but I can only take so much. And I’d rather be with my future husband anyway.”

I started to smile, but she quickly amended her statement. “Well, closer to you and the alcohol.”

“Well, if that kind of sentiment doesn’t make me feel all warm and fuzzy, I don’t know what will.” I let out a few chuckles and then finished my thought. “You don’t even drink a lot.”

“Yeah, but tonight I feel like celebrating. You and me. Jace and Ruthie. All of it.”

“Ok, Babe. Sounds good to me.”

I called out to Jaimie behind the bar. “Hurry with that drink for my future Mrs., Jaimie! She’s kinda impatient.”

Talie answered me with a pronounced fake laugh. “Ha. Ha. Ha.”

I had my attention on her, but all of a sudden, I felt the eyes snap off of me. Such a weird feeling, but I didn’t feel like I was being watched anymore. At least, not by whatever thing had been the source of my paranoia for the past few weeks. I looked around, but everything looked the same.

It felt strange, but it also felt amazing. Like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders.

The night only got better as we laughed, drank, and sang along to great ‘80s songs. The girls flitted between us and the other women in the bar, including Jezzy, and Jace and I hung mostly to ourselves, talking to a few men when they occasionally approached us.

Luckily, none of my past women bothered me anymore, and they most certainly didn’t bother Talie. Word spread pretty quickly, her reputation built at equal speed, and it was well known Talie could handle herself in a pack of wolves. I mean women.

She had absolutely no problem throwing any amount of attitude that was needed, and the conquests of my past were no match for her. My guess is that if they were, I might have noticed them in more than a sexual capacity.

There just weren’t many women out there like her. She was special, and she was going to be my wife. I felt like one lucky bastard as I stared at her dancing on top of the bar along to Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like A Wolf”.

She was carefree and happy, and I hoped I could give her that for the rest of our lives.

We lived up the rest of the night and even closed down the Lizard, staying until last call. I did stay sober enough to drive us home though, and did just that at three o’clock in the morning.

Talie was way passed drunk, so I got her undressed and into bed where she promptly passed out.

I took off my clothes, plunked down into bed, closed my eyes, and fell into sleep close behind her.

********

I woke up to find myself already hard with Talie’s mouth around me.

Holy mother, that was a good way to wake up. Since I almost always woke up ahead of her, waking up to this was a treat. I was sure she hadn’t had any trouble getting me hard, since I was already having sex with her in my dream.

Like a rubber band snapping, a realization popped into my head. This was the first time in the last few weeks that I had had a dream about anything other than Jenny, and it was fantastic.

Talie was moving up and down, sucking hard, and she had added her hand wrapped around the base. She was stroking in rhythm with her mouth and, my God, it felt good.

“Shit, Baby.”

My voice came out hoarse from the combination of sleepiness and arousal.

She moaned around me, and I felt the vibrations from her throat straight through my cock.

Jesus. “Jesus, Babe. Ah, Fuck.”

She was adding some special attention to the top by flicking her tongue and then licking circles around it. Man, the tip was sensitive.

I reached down and entwined my hands into her hair. I was trying not to, but I couldn’t stop myself from putting a little pressure on her head, helping her to take me deeper with each downward stroke. “
Babe
.”

I was getting close and she seemed to sense it. She reached with her other hand and cupped me at the same time that she increased the speed of her mouth and original hand. “Talie, I’m close, Babe.”

I always gave her the option to get the hell out of there before it happened, but sweet mother of God, it felt way better when she stayed. Which she always did. I think it turned her on for me to like it so much, which was the same as it always was for me when I went down on her.

Not wanting to be the only one getting something out of this impromptu love session, I reached down and shifted her body so that I could reach between her legs. I dipped my hand between her legs and put my fingers to her core to find her soaking wet.

God, that was the best. She was always just as ready for me as I was for her, without fail.

I started stroking through her folds, and then pushed two fingers inside and started massaging, my fingers curling and rubbing just the right spot inside.

It wasn’t much longer before she worked me right over the edge. I pulsed and throbbed, giving her everything I had to give, and called out, “My Talie.” It seemed like she had been working hard for it, trying to get me to finish in record speed. Maybe she was hiding a stop watch somewhere. Practicing for the head olympics or something. Though, who knows how long she had been at me in my sleep.

As soon as she felt me finish in her mouth, I felt her contract violently around my fingers that were thrusting in and out of her. I had touched her for a total of about five seconds, and she fucking lost it at the same time that I did.

God, that was so fucking hot.

After catching my breath, I looked down at her and murmured, “I love you, Babe.”

I took a deep gulp of air and rested my head on my pillow as I repeated, “God, I fucking love you.” Then I added, “And I seriously love waking up to that.”

She looked me right in the eyes with her beautiful, sparkling blue ones and whispered, “I love you too, Tuck. You’re everything I could have ever dreamed of and more.”

She crawled up the bed and touched her lips to mine before pushing back and heading for the bathroom to take a shower.

There was no way I wasn’t joining her in there. What we had just done was great, but I wanted to make love to my woman for real. As I heard the shower kick on, I hefted myself off of the bed and went to show my woman just how much I loved her.

Chapter 11

Later that day, I was out on the back corner of my property repairing some fence when my phone rang.

After our shower, I had taken Talie and dropped her off at work and then come back home to get the farm work done that I had been putting off.

Howie had broken through the fence again, in the back pasture this time, and while I had other places to put him for now, I wanted to get it fixed and done.

I pulled the glove off of my hand, pulled the phone out of my back pocket, and hit the screen to answer it.

I was immediately on edge when I saw that it was John’s number, being that he was the kind of friend I saw all the time but rarely spoke to on the phone, and even more so when I heard his voice.

“Tuck, have you seen Natalie?”

Something was wrong. Really wrong. The foreboding feeling was imbedded there, inside of me, deep in my bones.

My throat tightened, my chest constricted, and I didn’t delay in barking out a harsh, fear-filled response. “What do you mean? She’s at work with you! What the fuck is goin’ on John? And you better talk fast!”

“Ok, calm down Tuck. She went down to the pharmacy on her break-”

“You let her leave there alone?” I yelled.

“Well, yeah. You haven’t given me any specifics to the situation.”

“There’s a reason I drop her off and pick her up everyday, John!”

This really wasn’t his fault, but he was the one delivering the news and I had no time to rein it in, so he got my most organic aggression. As much as they say ‘don’t shoot the messenger’, that’s still the usual knee-jerk reaction to any bad news.

“Ok, ok. I get it.” He paused for a second, and it didn’t take me long to get aggravated with his slow delivery. The situation may not be his fault, but the speed with which he relayed the information definitely was.

“Fuckin’ talk!”

His voice was shaky, the reason I would surmise being that I never snapped like that at people, but he started talking immediately. “She went to the pharmacy on her break and she didn’t come back. I thought maybe she went home to you. You know an engagement celebration lunchtime quickie or something.”

Fuck! Everything had been calm, and I had relaxed too much. I had let my guard down when we hadn’t had any problems from Drew, but, of course, he would have been biding his time, waiting for me to relax.

Un-fucking-believable. I played right into his fucking hands. Now she was gone, going through God knows what, after going to the stupid pharmacy on an errand for some shit she probably didn’t need anyway.

Finally wrangling in my mental whining long enough to form the beginnings of a plan, I gave John instructions.

“You get everybody outside and you start lookin’ for her. I mean everybody in that fuckin’ diner, John. You got me?”

I didn’t wait for his answer before I ended the call.

I couldn’t believe this was fucking happening. Jesus Christ, my heart was pounding and my ears were throbbing. My breathing was akin to having just run a marathon.

Taking several deep, measured breaths, I tried to restart my system. It was beyond question that I had to get it together before I completely lost my shit, and completely starting over seemed like the only way that was going to happen.

Eyes closed and fists clenched tight, I imagined Talie safely in my arms. The tension started to seep out of my body, and I reminded myself that the way to get that feeling back for real, that wonderful, all encompassing, peace-filled happiness, was to keep a somewhat level head and piece together information until I found her.

I lifted my phone up again and dialed Jace in a hurry.

When he answered, I didn’t even let him get a word out before I started talking. “Ruthie with you?”

Jace, God bless him, read my tone and didn’t waste time by asking me why. “Yes.”

“Good. Talie’s missin’. Just got a call from John. Didn’t think to ask how long she’s been gone because I was so pissed. Get Ruth and get down to the diner. I’ll meet you there. Get everybody you know lookin’ for her and get people lookin’ for Drew. I want that asshole, and I want him fuckin’ now.”

Jace’s answering tone was all business. “You got it, Tuck.”

Disconnect.

I had never fucking loved Jace more in my life. His no-questions-asked efficiency was just what I needed right now.

Keeping my head and piecing together information didn’t mean my volume had to be low or that I suddenly had to talk like a member of the clergy. Talie always said my language got colorful when I got worked up and now was no
fucking
different.

I took off running for the house at the same time that I started making more calls. I was going to call every person I knew, and we were all going to be looking for my woman. And we were going to fucking find her.

********

I had grabbed Kayla from the house, tossed her in my truck, and driven like a bat out of hell to the diner.

She gabbed and asked questions like a fucking fly buzzing in my ear, but I only managed to give her the minimal answers. It was undoubtably rude, but people skills weren’t exactly in the top ten of my priority list right now.

When we got there, most everyone from town had already started to gather. Jace and Ruth came screeching to a stop in his truck behind me, just as I was kicking my door open with my workboot clad foot.

I hadn’t even noticed him behind me on the way here. Seems that calm I had worked so hard to achieve before was already taking its leave.

I was normally good at keeping my calm. But not with this. This situation was just too personal. Not only did Talie mean more to me than anything else on this Earth, I also didn’t have any family left other than her, and the idea of her making it a perfect ten in the murder of all my loved ones department tore me apart.

I had promised her I would protect her and failed. I hated to fail normally, but when that failure meant that Talie’s life was in jeopardy, it was an even bigger pill to swallow. One of those huge horse pills that you choke and sputter on no matter how much you try to concentrate on other things.

Shit
. My thoughts were running away whining again, and that was wasting time that could be used to do something effective.

I had to fucking find some way to calm myself down. I had to find some place in the recesses of my mind where I could focus. I was of absolutely no use to her if I couldn’t fucking focus. Not to mention, I was finding this version of myself to be really fucking annoying.

My eyes scanned the crowd, I found John in the sea of people, and I immediately approached him.

“What do we know?”

John’s eyes held sympathy, and apparently his words carried more of the same.

“Tuck, man are you alright?”

I couldn’t see myself, as I wasn’t a fucking magician and didn’t have a mirror, but I was sure I didn’t look good. However, I didn’t have time to worry about myself or have other people worrying about me. We all needed to be worrying about her. If Drew had her, there was no telling what he had already done to her.

He had to have known that he wouldn’t get many opportunities to do anything and when he did he wouldn’t have much time. I intended to make his fears a reality and give him as little time as possible. I couldn’t go back and stop him from taking her, but I could sure as hell find a way to get to her quickly.

“I said, what do we fuckin’ know, John?”

Toni stepped forward and took over. Believe it or not, she looked like she might be the most on point of the whole group. Her smoker’s voiced rasped and crackled as she spoke.

“She left about an hour ago, Tuck. She was headed down to the pharmacy to pick up a few things. When she didn’t come back after half an hour, I went lookin’ for her. When I didn’t find her I came back and had John call you.”

I gave her one nod so that she knew I was following her. I didn’t have it in me to give her any more than that. He’d already had her for too long.

“We were just gettin’ everybody organized to start canvassing. Tommy and Jimmy already took off to start lookin’.”

I looked to my left to see Jace beside me. Kayla and Ruthie were back behind us, both of their faces as pale as ghosts.

Focusing back on Jace, I addressed him directly.

“What’s goin’ on with the Drew situation? We got somebody lookin’ for him?”

He nodded. “So far no luck, though. I’m about to call the Locks, see if they’ve seen him.”

I gritted my teeth, choked the tears back, and nodded. I hated to involve Drew’s parents, but I needed all of the resources I could get. I was working against a tight deadline.

It was a hard decision to bring them into something like this because his parents weren’t him. Everybody always wondered how I could be fine with them, but to me the explanation was simple. You didn’t have to be a monster to produce one. Birthing an evil child does not a monster make.

For the Locks, that description couldn’t have been more accurate. They were always nothing but sweet and kind to me. In fact, they had lost their son just like I lost Jenny those years ago. They must have thought it was Christmas when he came back a few weeks ago.

Of course, they didn’t know what he was capable of. Unfortunately, they were about to find out.

By the time I finished my train of thought, Jace had stepped back and was already on the phone.

Kayla stepped forward and put a hand to my arm, but I shook it off. I knew it was an asshole thing to do. She was Talie’s sister for Christ’s sake. I should have been comforting her, or at the very least letting her comfort me, but I didn’t have it in me. I had to keep things numb if I was going to survive the next few hours.

Sweet Jesus
, I hoped it was only a few hours.

Steve came jogging over from the direction of his store.

“Steve, you seen anything?”

“No, Tuck. I’m sorry.”

God, how was this possible. These people saw everything you ever fucking did, and nobody had managed to see Drew grab Talie and take her somewhere. I couldn’t fucking believe it.

I clenched my fists at my sides and gave him a chin lift.

Jezzy came running over, her boobs bouncing the whole way. A true manifestation of how upset I was: I didn’t even look.

“Tuck, I gotta tell you somethin’, and it might make you angry.”

That was not a good fucking start.

“Spit it out, Jezz.”

“Drew’s been stayin’ at the hotel, not with his parents. I didn’t think it mattered to be honest with you, but everybody told me that you were lookin’ for Talie
and
Drew, so now I’m thinkin’ it might’a mattered.”

I took two seconds to take a deep breath before I responded because I wanted to rip Jezzy’s head off, but it wasn’t her fault. She didn’t know the details of what we were dealing with. Nobody did. They all knew I had problems with Drew, but they had no idea the extent of his issues.

While I was breathing, Jace inserted himself back into the conversation. “That’s alright, Jezz. Glad you told us now. The Locks just told me the same thing. Now when was the last time you saw him?”

“Last night. But I wasn’t really lookin’ for him this mornin’, so he could’a left without me knowin’.”

Gathering all of my strength, I made a decision. It was time that I got back involved in this full force. I needed to turn off my negative thoughts and go get my woman. She trusted that I would be there for her, and it was time to fucking do it.

“Take us to his room. That’s where we’re gonna start.”

Jezzy didn’t bother giving me a verbal response. She just turned on her wedge heel and took off running for the hotel. Jace and I took off right behind her.

I shouted to John and Toni to keep the search for Talie organized and going and that I would be in touch. At the same time, Jace speared Ruthie with a look, she linked her arm with Kayla’s, and they followed close behind us.

We waited outside as Jezzy ran into the office to grab the key to his room.

Everything inside me screamed to just bust the door down, but I talked myself into sparing Jezzy the trouble of having to replace a door.

She nabbed it quickly, ran back out the door, and turned left.

“Come on, this way. Room 15.”

I took off at a sprint and left the rest of the group behind. When I approached the door that had a gold plated number fifteen hanging on it, I raised my closed fist and started pounding.

“Open this fuckin’ door Drew or I will fuckin’ open it for you!”

Several seconds later everyone else caught up, but I was done waiting.

“Give me the key, Jezz.”

Jace tried to be the voice of reason. “He may not be here, Tuck. And he may not have Talie.”

I shook my head and screamed, “Give me the fucking key, Jezz!”

No one had ever seen me like this. Even when I was pissed it was usually a low, quiet growl that came out of me. I don’t think I had ever screamed. I had never felt
this
helpless before though. She was the one girl for me. And consequently, the one girl who could turn me into an absolute mess.

I jammed the key in the lock, my hand shaking with unrestrained rage. I turned the knob and then kicked the door the rest of the way open. And then I froze.

Drew was there.

And he was gonna be there until somebody moved him. Probably the medical examiner.

He was face up on the bed- a bed that was coated in blood, and there was a bullet hole in his chest.

He was dead.

I knew what he had done to all the people I loved: Jenny, my parents, and Talie. Thus, I didn’t even waste a second feeling sorry for him.

Speaking of people I loved, where the hell was Talie? If she wasn’t with Drew, I didn’t know where she would be. A few minutes ago, I had at least had a direction in which to focus my efforts. Now, I had not one fucking clue.