Authors: Claire Adams
There
were men who wanted to kill me. The thought lingered for a moment as Sarah
worked. I had always been a decent guy throughout my life. Never getting too
angry or fighting with others. It was odd that there was a man in the world
that genuinely wanted me dead. But I knew for a fact that Frank Gordano would
kill me if he had the chance. He had killed my pilot and without a doubt he
would get rid of me too.
I
knew more than my pilot Thomas had known. The truth was, if Frank Gordano
wanted to kill someone who could hurt him, I was the person to be killed. He
shouldn’t have even bothered killing Thomas. But that was why I had agreed to
testify. I knew so much about Frank’s business and where his supplies and money
were coming and going to. The information I had in my head was enough to put
Frank away for life and he knew it.
A
bit of panic filled me as I again thought about what life would be like after
the trial. I wouldn’t be sitting in a back room with a beautiful woman taking
care of me, I’d probably be hiding out and afraid for my life still. It was a
sobering thought.
At
that moment, I was hiding and I felt safe, but what would happen after the
trial? Would I have to give up my old life all together if I wanted to stay
safe? How would I survive at all if I couldn’t keep my company?
If
I had to sell my company, I could live off of the money for years, but I
wouldn’t be happy. I liked working. I liked being busy. I liked building
something new and exciting. I felt the anxiety as my chest tightened up. I wasn’t
ready to have to testify yet and I wasn’t ready for what my life my look like
outside of the safety of the Miller’s ranch. For the time being, I was going to
enjoy the safety I had and do my best to avoid thinking about what might come
next.
“It’s
a little different job,” I said with a smile. “I saw a picture of you in an
office. Did you leave that job?”
“More
like I was fired.”
“Really?”
“Don’t
look so shocked. I wasn’t shocked; I knew it could happen. It’s a tough world
out there. If you’re not making money for a company, they have no patience at
all and get rid of you. It’s the way of the corporate world. But I was making
money for them and they still took it for granted and let me go. Life isn’t
fair sometimes, but there’s no time for crying about it.”
“Yeah,
money is the root of all businesses and all evil.”
“So
what are you hiding from here?” Sarah asked as she looked straight into my
eyes.
My
stomach sunk as she looked at me. How on earth did she know why I was there?
Sid didn’t strike me as the kind of man who would go back on his word and tell
my story. He didn’t strike me as the kind of man who would expose me like that.
I stared back into her eyes as I tried to evaluate what she might know about me
and my situation.
Sarah
didn’t appear as if she really did know. The nonchalant way she asked me and
looked into my eyes made me think she was fishing for information and didn’t
actually have any of her own. But I was still nervous.
“Um,
I … uh” I started to talk but my words just wouldn’t come. I had no idea how to
respond to her.
“I’m
kidding, jeez,” she laughed. “But with that response, now you have me
wondering.”
“I’m
just a wanderer. You know. A typical guy who doesn’t like commitment,” I joked.
“In
my experience, everyone is hiding from something when they show up here. But
I’ll let you keep your secrets for now.”
Sarah
held my hand in hers as she continued the process of cleaning out each of the
blisters. It was disgusting as the puss, blood, and ooze poured out of my hand.
I had to look away to avoid vomiting up my lunch. But Sarah didn’t seem fazed
by it at all. She diligently cleaned out each one and clipped the dead skin
off; when she was done, my hand was practically one giant open wound.
“I
suppose you’re going to throw some vodka on there and kill all the germs off,”
I joked.
Sarah
reached for a small, white container and a large piece of medical gauze that
was sitting right next to her. I watched as she continued to work and only
looked up briefly to give me a quick warning.
“It’s
alcohol and it’s going to hurt like a bitch; try not to scream.”
“Oh,
I think I can handle …” I started to say as she dabbed the alcohol around my
hand.
I
couldn’t continue talking and avoid swearing and screaming; the pain shot
through every nerve in my hand. She was gentle though, and I knew it was for my
own good. I had so many open sores on my hands that I was sure to get some sort
of infection if they weren’t cleaned out and bandaged up correctly.
I
felt embarrassed that my hands were so destroyed by just a couple of weeks of
work. Perhaps I wasn’t holding the shovel right, or maybe I just hadn’t built
up a tolerance for that level of work; but either way, it was embarrassing to
have my hands covered in blisters and needing the level of care that Sarah was
providing to me.
“Sorry.”
“It’s
okay,” I said through gritted teeth.
“The
rest of the process is easy, if that’s any consolation.” She smiled at me.
Again
with that smile; she was mesmerizing. Even in the midst of horrible pain, I
felt my throbbing member kept rising to attention at the kindest of glances
from Sarah. Luckily I was in jeans and sitting down, because I was certain if I
was standing she would have noticed how my body seemed to love her smiles.
She
smelled delicious too. Not like the women in Los Angeles smelled though. Sarah
wasn’t covered in perfume and she didn’t have a fake tan on, or fake anything
from what I could tell. It was just her natural scent that drove me crazy. I
honestly couldn’t get enough of breathing her in and continued to do it as
inconspicuously as I could manage as we sat there.
“What’s
left? Amputation?” I joked.
“Actually,
after I get you all bandaged up, you will probably feel pretty good for the
next week or so. Hopefully when your hands heal up they’ll be a little more
like man hands and less like little boy hands,” she winked.
I
had to laugh. If only she knew the truth about me. The only blisters I had ever
had were on my feet after running on the treadmill for too long. My life had
admittedly been very comfortable and not physically demanding, but I wasn’t
going to complain.
Safety
was why I was on the ranch and Sid would have let me lessen my load of work if
I had asked him. But I didn’t want less work. Keeping busy was the only thing
that kept my mind occupied and I needed that. If I didn’t have my mind
occupied, I would have been fixated on Frank Gordano and the threats he had
made to my life.
While
I hadn’t seen the crime scene myself, I heard all the details about Thomas’
murder. Thomas had flown a couple of Frank’s people back to Los Angeles from
Mexico. It was a typical flight and there hadn’t been anything unusual that I
could tell. But when they landed at the airport, one of Frank’s men tried to
shoot Thomas. Something must have happened and Thomas had been shot in the
shoulder.
From
the police report and photos that I had seen, it looked like a very bloody
scene on the airplane. Thomas must have tried to run and the he was shot again
in the back. A blood trail led from the front of the plane to the back of it
and then down the stairs to the outside. Finally, Thomas was shot in the head
and his body fell at the foot of the steps to the plane.
A
baggage guy was driving by and saw two men run away from the plane with a
couple black duffle bags. They got into a black, unlabeled car and drove away,
leaving my friend on the ground to die. I was called shortly after that when
the police took Thomas to the station. But when I went out to my car, there was
a bloody message on the windshield that read “Next.” My body went cold and I
called the police. I wasn’t about to end up murdered, if there was anything I
could do about it.
“Well
I hope you’re right because I don’t want to have to go through this again. I
have to keep these baby hands looking good,” I laughed with Sarah.
As
scared as I had been back home, I wasn’t scared at that moment. Being on the
Miller ranch was a relief, and being there with Sarah made it even better. Just
being around a woman made me feel happier than I had been in weeks.
“How
about tomorrow I teach you a little more about the horses and we have someone
else do the shoveling?”
“Now
that sounds like something I can get excited about, but who will do the
shoveling?”
“There’s
a new guy coming tonight; it’s tradition that the newest person does the
shoveling.”
“Well
I’m glad he didn’t take another month to show up.” We both laughed.
I
could already tell that I liked being next to Sarah. She was kind and
knowledgeable. Although, she didn’t seem to be taking to me like I was used to
women doing. Typically if I flirted with them a little and gave them a wink,
they were practically throwing their panties at me. But I figured that Sarah
was only one of two women on the ranch and she was the only single one; she was
probably pretty familiar with men flirting with her.
It
was nice just to have a woman to talk to. Men weren’t much for talking and
hanging out, it just wasn’t a trait that I had found very often in my male
friends. But women loved to talk and spend time together. Even if Sarah was
nothing more than a friend to me, I’d be all right with that. It would be
enough for me. I desperately needed a friend while I was there on the ranch and
couldn’t wait to grow that friendship with Sarah.
“Tomorrow,
try and wake up for breakfast and afterwards I’ll show you how we feed the
horses. It’s much more fun than picking up their shit.”
“I
honestly don’t know how anyone wakes up so early. Is there some sort of trick
to it?”
Sarah
just laughed and then stood up and went back to work. I didn’t know why she was
laughing or why everyone seemed to think it was some sort of joke that I
couldn’t wake up. I had tried over and over again and I just couldn’t get my
body to wake up that early in the morning without some sort of alarm clock.
Then,
like a strike of lightening to my head I finally figured it out. Forest had
offered to take me into town to get a watch and on a watch there would be an
alarm clock. That must have been how all the other guys were getting up in the
morning. But I would have thought that all their alarms going off would have
woken me up as well. Either way though, I was going to find Forest and give him
some money for a watch, although it wouldn’t help me with waking up the next
morning.
“I
have a proposition for you,” I said to Sarah as I stood in the doorway.
“Oh,
that sounds intriguing.”
She
looked wary of me as I stood there. It was clear that she didn’t fully trust me
yet, but that seemed reasonable. I hadn’t been honest with her at all and I
wasn’t who I said I was either. I couldn’t fault her for wanting to keep her
distance from me. Although I wanted her to be close to me more than I wanted
anything else at that moment.
“Wake
me up when you start cooking and I’ll help you.”
“You
just want me to be your alarm clock,” she teased.
“God,
I could only be so lucky,” I smiled and moved a step closer to her.
I
could feel the sexual chemistry between us. There was no doubt that she wanted
me, but she was doing everything in her power to block the signals from her
body to mine. Sarah took a step backwards and looked away from me. If she did
want me, like I felt she did, Sarah was doing what she had to in order to make
sure I didn’t think she wanted me. Oh, the twists and turns of male and female
relationships.
“So
your solution to not waking up on time is for me to come wake you up even
earlier? Did you ever think that your body is just tired and perhaps you should
go to bed earlier?”
“Don’t
go throwing your common sense at me, young lady,” I laughed.
“Yes,
I’ll wake you up. But only this one time; my father would kill me if he found
out I went into the bunkhouse. And he’d kill you too.”
I
could only imagine that what Sarah was saying was true. A bunkhouse full of young
men wasn’t the best place for a young woman to be in the middle of the night.
But I was getting to know the other guys a little and I didn’t think any of
them posed a threat to Sarah. Plus, they would all be sleeping at that hour
anyways.
I
didn’t just want to wake up in time for breakfast; I actually wanted to spend
some more alone time with Sarah. If that meant that I only got a few hours of
sleep, then so be it. I would much rather be tired and happy than just tired.
“I
bet you’re right. Your father would kill me. So don’t go telling him,” I said
as I took one more step closer to her.
She
put her hand out and pressed it against my chest as her big, brown eyes caught
a hold of mine. Sarah was a powerful woman. I felt it in the way she pressed
against me and I felt it in the way she looked into my eyes. She wasn’t the
kind of woman who would give in easily to my advances. Sarah was going to take
some work if I ever wanted to land her. Although that plan still seemed very
dangerous given the fact that I knew her father had plenty of guns on the
ranch. He would probably hesitate a little to actually kill me, since he was
being paid to protect me, but I suspected and accidental shoot to the foot
wouldn’t get him in too much trouble with the feds.