Destiny Strikes (7 page)

CHAPTER 9

Travis drove away from the crime scene in stunned silence.

The captain’s warning as Travis had stood over the young woman’s body consumed his thoughts.

“I can hold the lead investigator off your ass at most a couple of days. If you don’t want people digging into your past, it’s my suggestion you find me a suspect to focus on, other than you.

The smoking gun linking him as a suspect was stored in an evidence baggie. Turned out, the lead investigator had checked the victim’s last-known contacts, and found his information. Somehow, Barbara had acquired his home number and listed him in her cell phone’s emergency contacts, intimating a deeper relationship.

The most damning piece of information came via text message.

After 2nite, Mom. Watch. Travis will be begging me 2 marry him.

The charade was complete with intimate apparel, among other items, contained within an overnight bag. Barbara had probably planned to break into his home. None of which mattered now.

He released a harsh breath. “In other words, I-be-fucked.”

He slammed his palm against the steering wheel, twice.

Every instinct in him fired on all cylinders when it came to where to point the finger.

“If she’s not trying to kill me in my sleep, then she’s doing a hell-of-a job ruining my life,” he swore as another bolt of lightning lit the cab of his truck.

Shutting his engine off, Travis wondered how the hell he’d ended up in her driveway. Fresh from a murder scene, this was the last place he needed to be.

All lights were off. Maybe he’d wait out the storm before leaving. There was a clap of thunder, and the subject of his neurosis came out of her home, naked as Eve in the Garden of Eden.

“What’s the fool woman doing now?”

Travis watched in rapt fascination as she walked sensuously toward the middle of the drive, her head tilted up. Lightning flashed, and cords of electricity came down out of the tempest above and wrapped around her body. Her hands reached at something above her head, and lifted her rounded breasts. Her slim waist and full hips highlighted in a pale blue and purple haze. He couldn’t peel his eyes away from parted thighs that exposed her bare sex. His teeth came down hard on his bottom lip as he stepped from his vehicle with no clear indication of what was happening in front of him. She never acknowledged his presence as he inched closer. In what appeared to be an enthralled state, she locked her wrists and cupped her hands together, then released a white-hot discharge into the uproar above her.

Heedless of the danger, he moved closer. Stray arcs jumped and crept through his body from head to foot. Mesmerized, he watched as a spider web of lightning danced around Fallon, who caught and rolled in the slender hands before blasting it into the sky.

Not half shocked by what he witnessed, sudden pain seared his hand, which woke him from his trance.

Pulled toward her by an unknown force, at some point, he’d made it far enough that his hands had come to rest on her hips. Snatching them back, he shook his hands out in an attempt to relieve the dancing electric sparks that settled for tingling numbness.

When his eyes rose to meet hers, his defenses rose at the intensity of hatred that filled her blank stare.

Her mouth moved but it wasn’t her voice that passed between tantalizing lips. “Do you dare to challenge what must be, one who falsely bears my mark?”

“Look, whoever you are,” he said, “I don’t know why I’m here, and I don’t know why you’re here. However, there’s one thing we share in common.” His hands did a passable Vanna wave over the deliciously nude body before him. “You are invading spaces I’m not comfortable with. So, if you don’t mind, I’m pretty sure when she wakes up, we’d both like to know who’s rooming with her.”

“The only thing you’ve done tonight,” the mysterious voice bellowed, “is delay the inevitable. My children will judge Earth. She weakens more each time I awaken, and soon, I will rise.” Her words reverberated in the air and faded into silence.

Thin whipcords of light crept from her shoulders and moved down and around her body sensuously before striking the ground with the intensity of a percussion grenade. Hands over his ears in avoidance of busted eardrums, Travis waited several long minutes for her to awaken and acknowledge his presence.

Travis knew from the way she rode into town that she was irresponsible and trouble, but what he had seen tonight was downright madness.

He understood when her lids lowered that she would not be coming around anytime soon. When she collapsed, he caught her up into his arms before she hit the singed ground. Further complicating the slippery slope of lunacy, a painful jolt shot through his body again, and this time it brought him to one knee. The unexpected discharge from the cargo in his arms was immediate. Her back bowed at an inconceivable angle, and she emitted the most lustful moan Travis ever heard.

In his current position, her generous breasts, nipples pink as petal points, lay cradled near eye-level. He gazed transfixed by them. They were magnificent.

The second moan that escaped her lips broke the spell her body put him under. He had to release her before he became one of the perverts he put in jail. Other than her moans, she still hadn’t showed actual signs of consciousness. He needed to get her into her house and himself the hell away from here.

Her head drooped over his arm, baring her slender throat. He adjusted her properly for the trip inside and her head came to rest against his chest.

And I thought I had issues,
he thought as he maneuvered her through the door.

CHAPTER 10

Travis stopped by the Erect Gas Station before heading into work the next morning.

Sleep-deprived and baffled by how his world had slipped through the reins of reality in such a short time, he couldn’t muster the energy to get out of his vehicle to go inside. In a way, with everything around him changing, he wondered if anything could match the alternate universe he’d been sucked into. Was it so farfetched he’d think of Fallon as Linda Blair in
The Exorcist
? Then Barbara had been murdered. It all seemed like a bad acid trip if he were so inclined to taking drugs. He pulled down the review mirror and took a good look. Obviously not.

He stepped from his car and performed a habitual quick sweep of his surroundings. Nothing here was out of the ordinary. After filling the tank, he stepped into the store for a few general items.

“How you doing, Travis?” Henry raised his hand, motioning him over. “You haven’t been in the last couple of days, and we started to worry, son.”

The sectioned-off opening behind the checkout counter provided an unobstructed view of the three men sitting at a large round oak table. Every morning it was the same thing: a pot of coffee and gossip. Late evenings filled with listening to the men playing banjos and guitars. Sometimes he stopped in just to hear them swap stories and joke with each other. Almost a year after he arrived in town, each man had offered him their friendship, before grilling him about kin and finding the right woman. Over time, they had begun to treat him like family. He cherished them as well.

Travis took a seat beside Joe. As he eased into a straight-back wooden chair, he tipped his head, acknowledging them all in greeting.

In unison, varying “Good mornings” and mischievous smiles adorned their faces.

Travis frowned.

He knew they anxiously waited to discuss a curvaceous troublemaker. However, he needed whatever information they had on Barbara, as well as whatever passed through the grapevine about Fallon, and if anyone had noticed anything unusual about the two women.

Nothing went on in this town without going through these men first.

They fidgeted in their seats, seemingly anxious to hit him with questions about Seagrove’s newest resident. It did not take long after Donna served his mug of coffee. Travis took his first sip and the questions commenced.

“Heard you pulled over the little lady on the Harley? Was she as purty as old Joe over here claims?” Jacob asked, his wide toothless grin prominent in his mirth. He elbowed Joe in the side, and Joe took the gentle ribbing in stride.

“She’s taken over the old Matthews farm over there on Brower Mill Road,” Henry said. “That place has been empty for years.”

Travis noted how Henry eyed Jacob with a conspiratorial wink before emphasizing, “She’s going to be a might lonely over there, all by herself. From what I’ve heard from Daniel over at the new ABC store, she’s nearly cleaned out one whole shelf of alcohol, all by her lonesome. I don’t know how a tiny thing like her can consume that much.”

“Have you guy’s noticed the crazy weather we’ve had lately?” Henry commented, turning the conversation. “I’ve never seen so much lightning in my life. They sent someone from the United States Air Force Atmospheric Research Center, a Dr. Elizabeth Laconia. She came all the way from Colorado Springs to study the oddity.”

“I hadn’t heard that,” Travis replied with real surprise.

Joe chimed in, wanting to get back to Fallon. “But you did pull that beauty over though, right? I don’t know how she’s coping with that motorcycle of hers though. Those gravel roads are going to be hell on her tires and paint job.”

“Did she say why she moved here, and will she be hanging about long?” Jacob asked.

Travis knew the request for information had nothing to do with him and everything to do with genuine interest.

“No, she didn’t mention that,” he answered honestly.

“Did you get her name?” Cletus asked. “Maybe she has kin around here.”

Rumor had it Cletus’s bossy wife would not let him complete a sentence.

Travis knew if he did not leave now the questions would just keep coming. Fallon was the topic they wanted to discuss, but knew he’d have to give up some information so they could concentrate on something else. “Her name is Fallon Strikes, and that’s all I know for sure about her.” Then, looking each man in the eye, he asked, “Did any of you know about Barbara’s plans for me?”

Each man ducked his head in shame.

Henry spoke for them all as he stated, “We’re sorry, Travis. Yeah. The poor things had designs on you well before this Fallon woman showed up. It’s sad how she ended up. No one in town can understand this happening to her.”

“Don’t worry, fellows, I’ll find out who did this and see them brought to justice. Now, if you gentlemen will excuse me, I have to get to work.”

Properly forgiven, Cletus said, “I heard from the mechanic down at PO Boys’ towing yesterday. He’d picked up your squad car. That car of yours wasn’t more than two years old.”

“It was the strangest thing,” Travis said, pushing his chair under the table. “The entire electrical system was fried. So, you’ll be seeing a lot of the old squad car until mine is fixed.”

Travis headed to his car, but Donna's voice stopped him.

“Hey, Travis, could you hold up a minute?” she asked as she walked swiftly across the tiny parking lot.

Donna was in her late-sixties. The silver lining her hair accentuated her wizened face. Her beauty, despite time, revealed the heartbreaker she must have been in her hey-day.

“What can I do for you, Donna?” he asked. She was a mother hen to everyone, and her concern for him was equally endearing. Because of her kindness, Travis had never missed a meal.

“Did the guys happen to mention that fellow who moved here a few months back?” she asked. “When he first showed up in town, I believed he was a social worker.” Shaking her head, she continued. “Asking all those questions about Dennis, and had we ever met his dad. Then he up and left, in the middle of the night, right before this new woman came to town.”

Travis tilted his head in thought. “No, I never got to meet him.”

“If you don’t know him, you ought to know the place. They put that new mobile home over on Union Road, right where the bridge got redone last month, and a little way up from the Crisco’s land.”

He wondered why she thought this information would be significant to him. “Is there anything important you want me to know about him? Does this have anything to do with Barbara? Or, do you want me to check into his skipping town?”

“No, Travis, it’s nothing like that, I hope. Anyway, he’s already left. He couldn’t have anything to do with Barbara’s murder. What troubles me is the relationship between the McBride boy and that stranger. You know the young man I’m talking about, don’t you? Dennis. Lord knows you’ve been called to their house enough times.”

Travis knew exactly who Dennis was. “What happened to Dennis?”

“Nothing I’m aware of. When his momma came into the store yesterday, she told me she was worried about him. She’s noticing strange behavior and eating patterns that she sees as not quite right about her Dennis these past couple weeks. A mother knows her children, and that’s one thing I know about Lisa. She loves that boy. Especially since he’s the last child living at home now.”

Helpless, and wanting to offer Donna something, he said, “I promise the next time I run into Dennis I’ll have a talk with him. Will that help?”

She gave him a big hug. “You’re a good man, Travis.”

She held on to both of his arms and leaned back to look up at him. “When are you ever without those damn shades?” She had asked the same question for the last six years. “I want to see those eyes that God gave you. The way you wear them shades, you’d lead me to believe you are hiding behind there.”

Definitely true on some level, Travis reluctantly conceded. After another round of goodbyes, he promised to pick up the plate of food Donna made for him twice a week.

Although he loved her like a mother, he’d never revealed his eyes to her. Reactions in his past had taught him valuable lessons of how long a person could love someone they considered deformed. If the love was not unconditional, then the love wasn’t real.