Asking For Trouble (33 page)

"Home, sweet home," Cole said in a sing song
voice, then pulled the car to a stop near the door. "Ya'll get out,
and I'm going to hide this heap, so nobody knows we're here."

Susan, Beau and Carlos piled out of the car
that slightly resembled Swiss cheese from all the bullet holes in
it, and Beau helped Jazzie out.

"Ouch!" she said and stood on her tip toes
looking down. "Stickers!"

Beau hadn't realized until now she didn't
have shoes on. Running through those woods earlier with Cole,
must've been sheer hell for her, he thought. Her feet were probably
torn up. He leaned down and scooped her up in his arms, and she put
her arms around his neck to help steady herself. Beau fought the
urge to kiss her silly, and walked to the porch with her instead,
then put her on her feet.

"You doing okay, baby?" Beau asked gently
and she nodded, then stepped forward and threw her arms around his
waist. He put his arms around her and suddenly, her body started
shaking violently. Beau could even hear her teeth rattling.

"You cold?" he asked with concern, realizing
that she didn't have any pants on, and it was getting a little
chilly out as the night progressed closer to morning.

"N-n-no, not c-cold...don't kn-know why I'm
shaking..." she said through chattering teeth and hugged him
tighter. Her snuggling into him felt so damned good, he swallowed
down the instant lust that slammed into him.

"Adrenaline dump," Susan informed flatly,
then walked past them and flung open the cabin door, her gun held
at her side. She reached down into the tool belt at her waist and
pulled out a small cylinder then clicked it on, and Beau realized
it was a flashlight.

"Were you a Girl Scout by any chance?" Beau
asked her with a chuckle.

Susan snorted. "Hell no, Girls Scouts were
for the good girls...I was a survivalist...I had to be," she
replied mysteriously, then flashed the light around the single room
cabin, before walking inside after she was evidently satisfied it
was safe. She walked over to the table and he heard matches rattle
in a box, then she struck one and lit a coal oil lantern on a
table, and the room was bathed in a soft glow.

Beau pulled away from Jazzie and walked in
behind her, then Jazzie followed. Carlos staggered in behind them,
and he immediately headed for the single cot against the wall with
a sketchy looking mattress, then stretched out on it and
sighed.

Jazzie went over to him and sat down on the
cot too. "You okay, Los?" she asked with concern and ran her hand
over his cheek.

He turned his head to the side and kissed
her palm. "I'll be fine..." he assured her.

"When I see Frankie, I'm going to kill
him..." she said fiercely.

"Not after us going to all this trouble to
save him, but I can guarantee you before he takes another job,
we're
all
going to check out the company," he told her with
a soft laugh.

Cole walked in the door and shut it behind
him then looked at Susan, and asked, "How bout we go see if we can
find a phone somewhere?"

"Sounds good, it's gonna be daylight in a
couple of hours, and I'd like to be outta here before then," she
agreed with a sigh.

"You got it under control here, Beau?" Cole
asked with concern.

"Yeah, we'll be fine..." he told Cole, then
went and sat down in a chair at the small table against the wall.
Cole nodded and he and Susan left, and some of the tension in him
abated. That woman kept him so keyed up, he thought he might snap
at any minute.

Beau looked over at Jazzie who was talking
quietly with her brother, and noticed her blood soaked shirt and
bare ass. No wonder she had been cold, he thought, she was half
naked. He pulled off his windshirt then loosened the Velcro
closures on his body armor and slid out of it, then pulled his
t-shirt over his head, and tossed it to her. "Here, baby, put this
on..."

Jazzie looked over at him and gasped, then
got up off the cot and ran over to him. 'Oh, god, Beau, look at
your chest," she said in a shocked whisper, then put her palm over
the large dark purple bruise on his chest caused by the bullet
impact on his vest. "My god, you would have died," she wailed then
tears filled her eyes and she threw her arms around his neck and
hugged him tight.

He wrapped his arms around her and hugged
her to him then flinched when her breasts rubbed against the
bruise. "Easy baby...I'm fine, it's just a bruise. That's what the
armor is for."

"It's was too close," she whimpered and
hugged him tighter then he felt wetness on his cheek and pushed her
back from him.

He wiped the tears from her face with his
thumbs then cradled her face and said, "I'm not going anywhere,
Jazz...you're right, we have unfinished business."

Beau couldn't resist the temptation of
kissing her, he lowered his lips to hers and sampled her sweetness
and teased, until she opened for him. He put his hand behind her
head and pulled her to him and deepened the kiss. She moaned then
straddled his lap and sat down, clasping her arms behind his neck.
The feel of her against him, with nothing more between them than
the scrap of her panties and his jeans, rocked him and he groaned
then put his hands on her butt to hold her more firmly against him.
If she moved, it would be all over and he knew it.

Carlos cleared his throat from across the
room, and Beau pulled back from her breathing hard, his heart
pumping inside his chest like bellows. He put his forehead to hers
and said, "Carlos is here, darlin'."

Jazzie leaned forward and whispered hotly
near his ear, "I want you so bad, I
need
you Beau..." then
she nipped his earlobe.

With a strangled moan, Beau pushed her off
of his lap, then asked, "How're you feeling Carlos?" trying to
defuse the situation that nothing short of an ice bath was going to
help.

He grunted and said, "Like I've been
mule-kicked."

"You kinda look the same way," Jazzie said
with a laugh, then chided, "All those cows you've been trying to
get free milk from are gonna have a hard time looking at you
now."

"Nah, they'll be lining up to take care of
me when I get home," he said smugly with a chuckle, then groaned.
"God, it hurts to laugh."

"Then don't...get some rest, take a
nap...we'll be out of here soon and take you to the hospital,"
Jazzie chastised him, then walked over and picked up Beau's shirt
from the floor where it had landed and put it over her head.

Beau let out a relieved sigh, because if he
had to look at her like she was much longer he wasn't going to be
responsible. His stomach rumbled, and Beau remembered he hadn't
eaten anything since around noon. Nerves had made eating an
impossibility after that.

Pushing up from the chair, Beau walked over
to the kitchen counter, which consisted of a deep sink with a
old-fashioned well pump and a set of double door cabinets on either
side of it, and another set on the wall above the counter. There
was an old black iron wood stove with a couple of cooking plates on
top. This cabin could've been right out of an old western movie
set, he thought, and stifled a laugh. Like those movie set line
shacks, he was hoping this one had some canned goods in case weary
saddle bums chose to occupy it for the night.

The knob on the knotty pine cabinet came off
in his hand when he pulled on it. Shaking his head, he ran his
fingers along the bottom and pulled it open. A mouse scurried along
the shelf then disappeared into a hole in the corner, and Beau
shivered...he didn't like mice. He could handle snakes, bullets and
the boogey man, but mice gave him the willies. After his little
friend departed, he stepped back and surveyed the contents of the
cabinet.

Surprisingly, there were ten or so cans in
there, and a pack of probably stale saltine crackers. He inspected
the cans and found baked beans, Spam, a couple of cans of Vienna
Sausages and a can of fruit cocktail. A regular buffet as far as he
was concerned. His luck was running, because when he opened a
drawer below the counter, he found a can opener. After washing the
cans under the well pump in the sink, he carried them to the
table.

"You hungry, sweetheart?" Beau asked Jazzie
with a smile and set the cans on the table.

"Famished...they didn't feed us at all. I'm
more thirsty than anything though," Jazzie told him.

Beau walked back and looked in the other
cabinet where he found a couple of chipped mugs and one plate. He
filled the cups with water and went back to the table with them and
the plate. "Carlos, you hungry, man?" Beau asked loudly.

Carlos stirred on the bed and moaned. "Yeah,
starving...but thirsty too," he seconded Jazzie's statement.

Jazzie picked up the mug and walked over to
the bed and helped him lean up, then held it to his lips. He drank
the whole thing and she ran back to the sink and refilled it, then
drank a cup herself.

"Man, that's good," she said breathlessly
then refilled it again and walked back to the table.

Beau's phone rang in his pocket surprising
them both. He reached inside and pulled it out. "Yeah?" he said
quickly, glad to hear anyone's voice right now.

"Hey, bro...how's the mission?" Gabe asked,
then snorted, "Bri is worried and made me call to check on
ya'll."

"A goat fuck, man...we need help," Beau told
him honestly. "Talk fast, my phone's probably gonna die."

"Where are you?" Gabe asked quickly and Beau
related the information as best he could remember.

Gabe huffed a frustrated breath then asked
incredulously, "A narrow dirt road? A line shack in a pasture? How
the hell am I supposed to find you?"

"We need to get out of here quick,
Gabe...they might find us, and we're out of ammo," Beau told him
darkly, then added, "Cole and Susan went to try and find a phone,
but I'm not holding out much hope. We're in a pretty remote
area."

"I can see if Junebug is available...he has
a helicopter," Gabe told him. "He helped out when Sabrina was in
trouble."

"That's exactly what we need. We don't need
to go back up the road, in case those guys are waiting for us...and
our car is out of gas anyway. If someone tried to drive in to get
us they'd probably follow them here." Beau hadn't thought about
that before. He hoped that Susan and Cole thought about it, if not,
they could be in big trouble, along with whoever was coming to help
them.

"I have the general area, so we'll just look
around. You may want to do something, so your location is obvious
from the air," Gabe suggested, and Beau started thinking of ways to
signal them.

"We'll figure out something...bring some
guns and ammo, would you? I feel naked," Beau told him with a
chuckle.

"Why the hell did you go there without
weapons?" Gabe asked angrily.

"All I have is my hold gun, and I'm almost
out of bullets, they took my service weapon, and we left the other
weapons in the van," Beau admitted ruefully.

"Helluva lot of good that did you," Gabe
said sarcastically.

"Look, I've heard it all from Sergeant
Susan, I don't need it from you too...I fucked up. It'll never
happen again, I assure you." Beau's phone started beeping to let
him know it was going to give up the ghost any second. "Phone's
dying, come get us...thanks, bro," he said and then the line went
dead.

"Was that Gabe?" Jazzie asked quickly.

"Yeah, he's going to get someone named
Junebug to fly his helicopter here to pick us up," he said with a
chuckle, then added, "Bet the guy does crop dusting in his spare
time...should be an interesting experience."

"I don't care if they send a donkey cart for
us--I just wanna get out of here!" she said and grinned.

"Gabe wants us to make some kind of sign
they can see from the air, so they can locate us. Got any ideas?"
he asked her looking around the room to see if there was anything
that might work.

Carlos laughed, then wheezed, before he
said, "I bet Susan would have a flare or something in her bag of
tricks."

"I think she has one up her--"

"Beau!" Jazzie yelled then grinned, "Be
nice, she came to help, give her a break."

"I am being nice, and boy would I love to
break something," he teased.

"That's a federal vehicle that we trashed,
it was Hanson's car, so I'll bet there are flares or something in
the trunk," Carlos suggested.

"Knowing Hanson like we do now, there might
be a dead body in there," Beau said derisively.

"You know for them to have known we would be
headed out the front gate, he had to have made it back to the
warehouse, handcuffed and all. He must've gone to warn them,"
Carlos speculated.

"Most likely..." Beau agreed then said with
a huffed breath, "I don't have the keys to the car, Cole has
them."

Jazzie snorted and said, "I hardly think
breaking the lock is gonna ruin it at this point...or get ya'll in
any more trouble than you're already in for stealing it."