“Boy, these hills and mountains are big. They’ve got me awestruck.” English pointed at one of the mountains on the right, its peak so high, it could barely be seen through the veil of thin clouds. It was a cool autumn day, beautiful albeit overcast. Most of the radio stations, except one somewhat, had stopped coming in clear some time ago. Dolly Parton crooned ‘Jolene,’ the static filling in the apertures as if they belonged there. A part of him felt as if he’d stepped back in time. He loved coming out this way, and hadn’t been in years.
They went over a big bump in the road, causing their bodies to bounce. He didn’t miss how English’s breasts sprung up and down in her tight green t-shirt with each dip in the road. He hoped they’d come across even larger bumps up ahead, forcing her to really put on a show.
“I needed this…. To get away. Thank you.” Taking a deep breath, she stared out the window.
It had been a couple of weeks since he’d had to have his truck restored after the “black car incident,” and the nonsense that followed had to be kept under wraps. In the interim, he’d driven his other truck, an older black F-150 he used mainly for hauling lumber, paints, and whatnot for house flipping projects.
Other things were going as planned. Legend had moved into one of his apartment buildings, much to his happiness. He knew it wasn’t easy for his good friend to relinquish control and accept a helping hand. As part of their negotiations of sorts, he’d asked him a favor—to find someone discreet who could keep an eye on his woman. Legend knew practically every damn body in the city, and if the person was into something illegal and ugly, he knew them two times over.
Axel regarded English out of the corner of his eye. He fell in love with her smile, right then and there, as if he’d never seen it before. He cleared his throat and turned away… feeling those emotions creeping up inside him, burning him within. It was happening. He was in big trouble. Things were getting complicated, and he was going to become annoying as hell. Jealous. Overprotective. They were going to argue because English’s personality was loud, and he refused to back down. What did he expect from such an amazingly beautiful and intelligent lady? There was a price to pay when you were a fool for sexy nerds.
Smart or not, this Master Whitefield bastard isn’t taking her seriously. He won’t back the fuck off. I’m not going to just sit here and let it happen to her. Of all things, she had some lunatic harassing her and that set his gears in motion. Now, he was a runaway train. Choo, choo, motherfucker…
He just hoped English would be okay with who he was because there was no changing this part of him. He’d always been this way, even as a child. He didn’t want this thing between them to be short-lived, then fade away like smoke.
He snuck another glance at her, and smiled. She was definitely enjoying the scenery. Taking in the moment. Regardless of his philosophy of honesty being the best policy, Axel damn sure wasn’t going to tell her she had a bodyguard in the wings, so to speak. She’d resist, tell him it was unnecessary, and insist she was handling it. It hasn’t been handled all of these years. Time for someone else to step in and take the reins.
The latest suspicions were that someone was watching her when she traveled back and forth to work, and when she was at home. He hated it had come to this, but while English spent an obsessive amount of time online gathering information about this fucker, making sure her pepper spray, gun, and knife were on her at all times, and calling the police with updates just to leave a paper trail if nothing else, she was wearing herself thin. Just the other night, he’d had to wake her up from a nightmare about that fanatic monster. He was impressed, however, with her tenacity in protecting herself, especially after the police all but told her to jump in a lake. She wasn’t going down without a fight, and he found that extremely sexy.
“I wonder how many people live around here?” she asked, jerking him out of his thoughts. “Seems practically empty.”
“Oh, there’s some folks… but you can’t see all of their houses ’cause some of ’em live farther back from the main road. Some of the newer construction is up front. Still a lotta space between the land and houses, now. You’ll find big trailers here and there, too. Everyone knows each other. Most of the folks don’t work here no more. They got jobs right outside Van Lear and Prestonsburg. Most of the old timers were either sharecroppers or coal miners, like I mentioned.”