For the Love of His Life (10 page)

Later when they compared notes, both Raul and Jake agreed that the ride back that night seemed to take twice as long as usual. After what seemed like forever, with Jake terrified that one of the bikers would ram him from behind, or come up next to him and try to force him off the road, he finally rounded the last turn and pulled into the resort’s driveway with a sharp turn and sideways skid.

Jake threw open the driver’s side door and ran up to the front porch, where he could see Marie standing in the moonlight, holding her husband’s old hunting rifle. As the bikers pulled up behind the car and jumped off to race after Jake, Marie fired a shot into the woods,aiming over their heads, then aimed the rifle at the people racing toward her grandson.

“I have no idea who you people are, but you just chased my teenaged grandson all the way up here. And now you are on my private property without my permission. My finger is itching to send you all to hell. So please, just move around a little…or twitch. Give me a reason to shoot. I never miss.”

The bikers froze. Suddenly three more police cars rolled up to join the one that had followed them up from town. Four cars worth of cops poured out of their patrols, guns drawn, into the driveway behind the bikers. One of the officers strode forward, keeping his gun in his hand and joined Marie on the porch.

“Evening, Miss Marie. Seems you have a spot of trouble here.” He nodded towards the bikers.

Marie nodded. “They seem to have followed my grandson back up here from town. Maybe you can convince them they’d be better off spending the night as a guest of your hospitality?”

He looked down at the now grumbling bikers. “Yeah, they could spend the night as my guests. Or they could make the wiser choice and just ride the hell out the same way they came in. No one has been hurt…yet. No one needs to be. But you all are trespassing on Miss Marie’s property. The law around here says she has a legal right to shoot anyone she thinks is threatening her and we will back her up in court.” He waited a moment while the grumbling got louder and more directed, with the redheaded woman in the middle of the discussion. “So what’s it going to be, folks? You all leave nice and quiet-like or do I let Miss Marie start to shoot at your asses? This old woman has won the last few years at the county fair in target practice. She never misses. So which one of you wants to be first? Or do I need to throw you all into the drunk tank to sleep it off?”

Still grumbling, the bikers began to disperse back to their bikes. The redheaded woman was the last to leave, glaring at Marie before she turned to go.

“What’s your connection to that asshole actor?” she asked belligerently. “Why’re you protecting his ass? What’s he to you?”

Instead of answering the questions, Marie said, “Ooh, my trigger finger is getting
real
jumpy. I just might shoot someone by accident. Are you sure you want to stick around long enough to hear those answers, girly?”
With a toss of her red hair, the woman spun around and suddenly there was a biker right next to her to pick her up. She climbed onto the back of his hog, turning back one last time to sneer at everyone.

“I’ll bet he’s too fucking drunk to fight his own battles. He’s probably passed out in the car. You tell him that he still owes me one. And I will collect. Someday.”

There was a deafening roar as the Harleys headed out on the road leading back into town. Two of the police cars followed them out of the parking lot. The officer on the porch reassured Marie, “They’ll follow them until they are good and out of town. For at least an hour or so, to be sure they don’t come back. Then they’ll sit in the ranger station at the edge of town and watch to be sure they don’t come back.”

Marie nodded and put her rifle down to shake the hand of the officer who’d spoken to her. “Thanks, Phil. I’m sure glad you all followed Jake up here. I don’t know what I would have done if they threatened him or me. I don’t want to think about it.” She turned to incline her head towards the silent cabins hidden in the dark.

“And I don’t want any of my guests thinking this isn’t a safe place to bring their families. I owe you all, big time. Next time, gentlemen, the pie is on me.”

Officer Phil tipped his hat to her and walked back to his patrol car, talking into his radio set as he got into his vehicle.

Jake walked over to the car and opened the back door. Raul really had passed out in the back seat. Jake shook him to wake him up and pulled him out of the car, letting him lean on the shoulder of his young driver. Every step was an effort, but eventually they got close to where Marie stood still watching the road as if daring the bikers to come back.

Raul grunted to clear his throat, then tried to form coherent words.

“Thanks a lot. For scaring them off. Not my fault. No bodyguards around, so no protection. But you. Thanks…”

Marie strode over to stand directly in front of Raul, forcing Jake to stop his forward motion.

“Don’t mention it,” Marie started sweetly. “I was happy to do it. But this is it. You leave tomorrow. I’m not endangering my guests or my family any longer. Putting up with your shit is too much work, no matter how much I love Jared. He’s just going to have to find some other sucker to take you in. I’m done.”

With that she turned and stalked around to the back entrance to the main building where her apartment was and slammed the door behind her.

Raul was too drunk to comprehend what had just happened, but Jake shook his head sadly. He continued to half-carry the bigger man along the path to his cabin. Jake patted his pockets for the key and opened the door. Raul lurched toward his bed the minute the door was open. He fell face-forward onto it and was already snoring by the time Jake finished using the bathroom, then pulled the locked door shut behind him.

Chapter Eight

The noise of the phone ringing pulled Veronica out of a dream involving hot sex—with a man who had no face because he was taking her from behind—and into reality earlier than she expected.

“Shit!” She jumped up out of bed and ran for the phone in the next room.

How come I never get to orgasm in my dreams? I’m always on the cusp when the alarm goes off or the phone rings! Kind of like my real life…I really need to get laid…and soon!

She grabbed the phone to pant, “Hello?”

“Good morning, favorite granddaughter. I have a favor to ask of you,” Marie sounded so sweet that Veronica was instantly on guard.

“Uh, okay. But Gram-Marie, it’s really early and it’s Sunday! Today’s the only day I ever get to sleep late. Can’t it wait?”

“No!” She modulated her tone. “I got almost no sleep last night, what with listening to be sure the biker gang that followed Jake back up here didn’t return. I had Grampa’s rifle in my hand and I was going to shoot the first one that came close to Jake or me. But four squad cars rolled up and Officer Phil told them that he’d throw the whole lot of them in jail unless they left town. He said the patrol cars would follow them out, then wait at the ranger station to be sure they didn’t come back. But I couldn’t sleep from being so jazzed up…”

Veronica was fully awake.

“Holy crap! What happened?”

“I don’t know, honey. But I do know whose fault it was. I told that low-life creep that I want him off my property today. I’m not going to allow him to endanger me or any of mine ever again.

“You mean Raul, right?”

“Of course that’s who I mean! You don’t think anyone would have been after Jake for starting trouble, do you? That Rall’s been a pain in my ass since I agreed to let him stay here. He’s a drunken drug-addict and he’s a whore-monger. I’ll bet he started it all by trying to take up with one of the biker women. There was this tall redhead who was almost naked except for all her tattoos and she was yelling the loudest. The way I see it, having that man around here is just asking for trouble. I don’t care how much I love Jared, I’m done being nice to that jerk of an actor. I want him gone.”

“Okay, but why call me this early?”

“I want you to go wake him up and tell him he’s got to leave. And I want you to call Jared and tell him why I’m doing this. I’m not feeling well from the excitement and not being able to sleep. I need you to help me with this…”

Anytime Gram-Marie plays her sweet-old-lady-needing-help role, she’s really serious. I need some coffee then I need to make some calls.

“Give me time to have some breakfast and get dressed, okay? I promise I’ll be there soon. Maybe go lie down and try to get some sleep. You know Amy and Laura will be there to wait on any customers, and Jim’s probably already there warming up the stove. Take the morning off and I’ll be there when you wake up.”

“Okay, Ronnie. I don’t always tell you how much I appreciate that you are always willing to help me out. I’ll take some aspirin and lie down for a while. See you soon.”

Veronica stared at the phone for minute before heading into the kitchen to get the coffeemaker going. She took a shower and got dressed, then poured herself some coffee and had a piece of her blueberry glacé pie.

After all, it’s got lots of fruit in it, so it’s a healthy breakfast, right? And I sure need to raise my blood sugar quickly.

When she was finished with her second cup of coffee and pouring her third, she began to make her plans.

I need to find out what really happened last night. No doubt Mr. Famous is still sleeping it off. Even if I could wake him now he’d probably still be too drunk to tell me anything…that is, even if he could remember what he did to cause the trouble. And Jake never goes into the bars with him. He sits in the car and plays games on his phone or texts his friends. So he’s not going to know how it got started. Let’s see…he’s been drinking at every place in town, but seems to like Crossroads the best. I wonder if Tom is awake yet. Only one way to find out.

She scrolled the names on her cell phone until she got to the Crossroads listing, then she checked for Tom’s home phone number. She carried the cell over to her land-line phone and dialed, then sat down with her coffee and waited.

The phone was picked up on the second ring, “Hello?”

“Hi. Is this Mrs. Jenkins?”

“Why yes. Who’s calling?”

“This is Veronica Sorrenson, your husband’s accountant. Is he awake yet? I really need to talk to him.”

“Why? Is there some trouble with the books?”

“No, ma’am. I want to ask him about some trouble he had in the bar last night.”

“Trouble? He didn’t tell me about any trouble. Hold on. He was in the shower, but I’ll call him.”

Veronica sipped her coffee as she heard the background noise of his wife calling to Tom and him walking over to pick up the phone.

“Hello, Veronica?”

“Yes hi, Tom. I sure hope you are wearing more than a towel while you talk to me. Otherwise I can hold on while you get dressed.”

Tom snorted into the phone. “I have my pants on, Ronnie, thanks for asking. What’s this about?”

“Can you tell me what happened at the bar last night? Gram-Marie called me really early this morning to say that a biker gang followed Jake all the way up the trail to the resort and she had to hold them off with Grampa’s old rifle. There were four squad cars involved and Officer Phil told them if they didn’t get out of town he’d arrest them all. Now she wants me to throw Raul out on the grounds that he’s too much trouble and she doesn’t want him around anymore.”

There was silence for a minute, then an audible slurp that let Veronica know that Tom was also having his morning coffee.

“Well, now, if Gram-Marie thinks he’s trouble, she may be right. But not in the way that she’s thinking…”

“Tom, that’s way too cryptic this early in on a Sunday! What the hell happened?”

“I’m just saying that Raul being as famous as he is, is a double-edged sword for him…and for the rest of us. I’ve had more calls asking how to get to my place than I’ve ever had before, once that picture of him ran on-line with the tag-line that he was hanging out with the natives in preparation for his next movie. But publicity can attract the wrong kinds of customers. From what the redheaded biker babe said, that’s the whole reason she had her gang ride in from Ely. She wanted to meet him and…ahem…have sex with him.”

Veronica smiled at Tom’s discomfort.

“Tom, you’ve been making innuendos to me for years. Why sound so coy now? What I want to know is, did he come on to her? Was the trouble his fault? I’m not going to be able to convince Gram-Marie to let him stay on if it was, so I’ve got to know what really went on.”

“Hold on a minute,” Tom said then Veronica could hear him arguing with his wife.

“But honey, just leave the room for a few minutes while I tell Ronnie what happened. I don’t want to shock you with what that woman was like…”

“Tom Jenkins, you stop trying to pretend that I need protection from the whole world. I know what other people think about sex. You know I did read those books that everyone else has, about that BMS that’s supposed to be so shocking…”

Veronica smiled at Mrs. Jenkins’ malapropism.
Hmm, BMS is a little different from BDSM, but what’s a few letters missing…

Tom sighed loudly into the phone, “Alright then. Have it your way and listen.”