On Deadly Ground (Dan & Chloe Book 2) (2 page)

‘What time did you say for tonight?’

Chloe snuggled beneath Dan’s left arm and rested her head against his chest. She looked out over the meadow that stretched for miles and smiled.

‘Mmm, seven thirty. Relax, we have plenty of time before we have to head in to town to gather supplies. Let’s just enjoy that view for a while.’

‘Fine by me.’

Chloe lifted her left leg and let it drop across Dan’s legs. He had to chuckle, if someone happened to see them right at that moment it would have made for one hell of a conversation. Chloe’s attire was not what most women would have opted to wear first thing of a morning.

Or at anytime
, Dan silently amended.

Dan couldn’t resist and he stroked Chloe’s bare thigh, he could tell that she had just shaved her legs; her thighs were as smooth as marble.

Dan glanced down at Chloe’s tanned body. Chloe’s miniscule two-piece crocheted bikini did little to cover her ample breasts, the tiny piece of triangular material between her legs served no real purpose. The bikini’s crocheted design meant that Chloe’s neatly trimmed jet black pubic hair was clear to see (if one was only to look). The small triangular shaped piece of material was held in place by two very thin straps which were tied in bows at each hip.

Dan adjusted his position so that he could look straight down between the curves of her breasts. He noticed his wife’s dark nipples were getting hard and soon both nipples were poking through gaps in the black crocheted bikini top.

Dan laughed at the absurdity of it all. No doubt people would think them an odd couple and he knew that people would be shocked by some of the things that they got up to behind closed doors.

Dan didn’t care though. He truly loved how Chloe was so openly predatory in her sexual needs. Ever since she had come in to his life on a dark and lonely motorway back in England, she had constantly surprised him with her sexual aggression.

Chloe was the only person that Dan had ever come across that lacked any kind of barrier, nothing was off limits as far as Chloe was concerned. She had often told him: ‘You can do whatever you like to me. Whenever and wherever you like, you’ll never have to ask and you’ll never be told no. I’m yours baby, I
belong
to you.’

Chloe pointed her foot towards the porch’s slatted roof, stretching her leg so that the sun’s light refracted and sparkled off of the six inch black stiletto heels that she was wearing. How Chloe was able to walk in them was a constant mystery to Dan. He glanced at her shoes and smiled.

‘You must have two hundred pairs up there in your closet.’

Chloe laughed and she knew without having to look that her husband’s eyes were now firmly on her breasts as they jiggled within the tight confines of her bikini top.

‘Er, actually honey-bee, I’m picking up pairs three sixty four and three sixty five when we pop in to town later.’

Dan laughed again.

‘One pair for every day of the year.’

‘That’s the plan. It’s taken a while. Do you know how hard it is to find shoes, especially sexy shoes, that don’t twist your toes in to shards of agony, and with high-heels it’s even harder, they pinch and nip like a cunt? It’s taken me ages to put my collection together.’

Dan kissed the top of Chloe’s head, just talking about something as arbitrary as shoes felt special. After all they had been through, all the killing and death, it was heaven to be able to talk about such nonsense.

‘I’m not complaining, and besides we have plenty of money.’

Chloe slipped her leg from Dan and sat up in the seat; she turned to Dan and smiled at him.

‘Damn, you’re so handsome,’ she said before kissing him softly on the mouth. She sat back and raised a hand to his face and held her palm to the left side of his face, ‘I love you Daniel Constantine.’

Dan frowned at Chloe, he knew her better than he knew himself.

Is that fear I see in her eyes
?

It was only fleeting but he saw it and Chloe realised that he’d seen it. She quickly jumped up and climbed on to his lap before kissing him hard.

Dan took hold of Chloe’s elbows and pushed her gently but firmly away from him.

Chloe chuffed, she knew that Dan wasn’t going to be so easily manipulated this time. She offered up a “so-you-got-me” smile.

‘What’s the matter Chloe?’

Chloe shrugged her shoulders.

‘I’m not sure, it’s just lately I’ve been having this feeling, not all of the time, but sometimes I feel like we’re in danger.’

Chloe’s instincts had served them very well in the past and Dan didn’t cast her concerns aside now.

‘The “Brotherhood” is destroyed Chloe, we’re safe.’

Chloe nodded her head and she swept her pink hair away from her blue eyes.

‘I know, but with what happened over there,’ she pointed towards the mountains in the distance. ‘I guess it made me realise that just because the “Brotherhood” is destroyed it doesn’t mean that we’re safe.’

Dan knew what Chloe was referring to. The previous year a veterinarian (from one of the towns over the mountains) had been abducted on a country road. The vet’s husband, a famous photographer had contracted a local tracker to help him find his wife.

Dan had recently met the tracker; a local legend named Tile and they had become friends. Dan had tried to discuss the incident with Tile but the old tracker had refused point-blank to discuss what had happened.

From news reports Dan was able to find out most of the story, and it was one hell of a story. The husband had stormed an abandoned camp where his wife was being held captive and he pretty much single-handedly killed a dozen men. It later transpired that a group of men had been abducting women for years.

The story of the rescue had been national news for months. The photographer, Dan couldn’t recall his name (he made a mental note to check his book collection for the photographer’s name), had refused to comment or to tell his story to the media.

Dan had seen pictures of the wife in the local paper and she was a very attractive woman. Dan had been shocked to realise that the photographer and his wife were also from England and Dan had felt a brief flutter of something like recognition but it had passed and he had been so busy remodelling the porch that his brief moment of discombobulation had quickly been forgotten.

Dan raised his hands to Chloe’s face; she rested her left cheek against his strong hand and kissed his fingers.

‘We’re safe Chloe, but I’ll take a ride out on Weiser this week, check on things, make sure.’

‘I’ll go with you, we’ll pack for a couple of days and camp out, there’s a lot of country out there.’

‘That’s a good idea, but seriously Chloe, I think we’re fine.’

‘So do I, really, most of the time I think I’m just being silly but...’ Chloe let the sentence hang unfinished in the air. She had no reason to complete it, Dan knew what she was thinking. It was the same thought that was rattling around inside his head.

Better safe than sorry
.

Dan pulled Chloe close and she snuggled her petite frame in against him.

Cocooned within his strong embrace she felt safer than she had in days.

                                                           *****

CHAPTER THREE.

The township of Rockspur saw
its 1,289 population soar to almost 5,000 during the ski season and even though the winter was still many months away the summer brought its own people with it.

Sportsmen and women flocked to the area for the natural resources on offer to them: climbers took to the nearby mountains where sheer cliff faces tested even the most skilled of climbers. The thundering river that wound down the nearby mountain range was ideal for white-water rafters seeking adrenalin fuelled thrills and then there was all the various hunting activities.

Dan had always felt sorry for the various government personnel that maintained the parks, checked permits and basically kept the peace.

When city dwellers finally got to get away to the wilds there were always tensions and flair-ups with the local all-year round residents and today would be no different.

Dan pulled in to a vacant parking space and switched the engine off, as the Volvo 4x4’s engine ticked and cooled, Dan looked out of his window along the high street. He saw two sheriff deputies bracing a couple of out-of-towners, even at a hundred yards or more Dan could tell that the party-goers were drunk and he felt some empathy towards the two young lawmen trying to honour their vow to protect and serve.

Dan buzzed the windows up and turned to Chloe. He smiled at the sight of her bare thighs, the short red summer dress that she was wearing was gathered at her waist.

Chloe wasn’t flashing the flesh for no reason. Dan watched in silence as Chloe secured the Velcro strap of the thigh holster that she had just slipped on to her thigh. She adjusted the strapped holster until it sat high on her left thigh.

Chloe opened the glove box and removed the small but powerful pistol, it was an untraceable Sig-Sauer. With practiced ease Chloe ejected the clip, she checked that it was loaded and then palmed the clip back in to the grip of the pistol.

Chloe racked the slide so that a round now rested in the chamber; the pistol was now ready to be fired. Chloe thumbed the safety on and slipped the small pistol in to the holster, the grip facing forwards so that when she drew the weapon, reaching across her body, she would be able to draw and fire and all in less than five seconds.

Chloe had spent many hours practicing the cross-body draw and Dan, who had watched her repeatedly draw on many occasions, was impressed by the speed in which she could pull, unsafe the pistol and bring it to bear on a target. He also had to admit that it turned him on watching his wife practice.

Satisfied that the holster and strap were secure Chloe began to pull her dress down and then she stopped. Chloe ran her hands beneath her dress, with a smile aimed at Dan she tugged the red lacy thong that she was wearing down her thighs.

Chloe raised her knees, she fed the thong over her knees before working the lacy garment down her calves. She slipped the thong over her tanned cowboy boots and tossed the frilly garment in to the open glove-box.

Chloe straightened her dress and smiled at Dan. She raised her left hand to his chin and closed his mouth.

‘You’ll get bored one day baby, one day you’ll wake up and you’ll be tired of constantly seeing my body.’

Dan kissed the back of her hand before she took it away from his chin and he shook his head in the negative.

‘I’m one of those lucky men.’

Chloe pushed her hair back from her face and she formed a loose ponytail, she secured it with an elastic band.

‘What men?’

‘Those lucky few who have a woman in their lives that just absorbs them fully and continually.’

‘
Absorb
?’

Dan pulled a Glock from the glove-box. He checked the clip and racked a round in to the chamber, he safetied the weapon and leaned forward in his seat. Dan slipped the automatic in to the small of his back, he adjusted his jeans until the gun felt comfortable and then he smoothed his sweater down over it to hide it from passing eyes.

Chloe had picked the sweater out for him, telling him that the colour matched his eyes, really she’d chosen it because it was tight and thinly layered and showed off his tight, sinewy muscles.

Even now as she watched Dan adjusting the back of it she could feel herself getting wet.

‘Yeah, absorbed, you’re one of those women that just entrance whoever is lucky enough to snare them.’

‘Is that
what
you did?’ Chloe laughed. ‘Snared me?’

Dan closed the glove-box and opened his door. He snagged the keys from the ignition and climbed out. Chloe threw him his cowboy hat and he caught it and slipped it on to his head and tipped the brim at Chloe.

‘Thank ya ma’am.’

Chloe laughed and opened her door.

Chloe met him at the front of the 4x4, she had a small leather bag over her left shoulder and she slipped in close to Dan. She wrapped her left arm around his waist, her hand on his hip. Dan put an arm around her shoulders. He could caught the scent of her perfume and his eyes went straight to her plunging cleavage.

Chloe tilted her face up towards him, even in her boots Dan was still a good eight inches taller than her diminutive 5’5” frame. Chloe stuck the tip of her tongue out of her mouth and laughed as he squeezed her right breast.

‘I need to pop in to Suzanne’s, you coming?’

Dan said that he had to pop in to Harry’s.

‘Okay, I’ll come to you when I’m done,’ Chloe said.

She parted company with him outside of “Suzanne’s City in the Country Clothing Boutique”. Dan waited until she had opened the store’s door before heading across the road to “Harry’s Hardware”.

                                                        *****