5.
S ANDI
We had been relaxing outside on the porch after breakfast when Ajax said, “As much as I hate to admit it, I feel one hundred percent better now. A lot better than I ever have this soon after a gunshot.”
“I noticed that there are a few of those scattered all over you, and one of them looks fairly recent.”
“That one could have killed me, but I had a guardian angel watching over me, just like I did this time.”
“Was that nurse nicer than I am?”
Ajax smiled before he said, “She wasn’t actually there. She was a figment of my imagination.”
“Did you have an infection? A high fever can make someone hallucinate.”
He shook his head before he explained, “No infection, although the woman that dug out the fragments then was nearly as sassy as you.”
“So, she wasn’t a hallucination.”
“I was being facetious about the guardian angel. I received a gift years ago from a woman I’d only met through letters. She sent me a guardian bell to put on my bike. We lost contact, and I always wondered about her, so I looked her up a while back.”
“How did that go?”
Ajax laughed before he said, “Ironically, she worked at a doctor’s office. She had no idea who I was because I used a fake name.”
“What happened?”
“While she did all the usual business with the stethoscope and blood pressure cuff, I put on the charm and made small talk. She told me all about how happy her life was with her husband, how old her kids were and how proud they made her. None of those facts had even crept into the illusion I had about her.”
“Did you eventually tell her who you were?”
“Nope. Didn’t utter a word. She’s got a good life, and that’s great. No sense in causing ripples. Hell, she probably wouldn’t even remember writing to me.”
“She might.”
“I doubt it.”
“My guess is that she’ll occasionally be doing something mundane while she lets her mind wander and randomly think, ‘What happened to that guy I used to talk to?’ But if she’s as happy as she says she is, then she’ll move on. I bet she has wondered about you a time or two.”
“Doesn’t matter now. The bubble has popped.”
“Did it break your heart?” I asked with a grin.
Ajax scoffed before he said, “No, it didn’t. I left the doctor’s office and went and got drunk with a friend of mine before we parted ways.”
“Did you learn anything from that situation?”
“Don’t take tequila shooters out of a woman’s belly button?”
“Oh my god! You didn’t!”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Do you know how many kinds of bacteria grow in a belly button?”
“No, and I don’t want to. Besides, tequila kills everything.”
“Including brain cells. Go brush your teeth with some bleach, man. Jeez.”
Ajax burst out laughing and then groaned as he put his hand over his wound. “Don’t make me laugh.”
“I wasn’t trying to. I was trying not to throw up.”
“I solemnly swear to never drink anything out of someone’s belly button again.”
“Good.”
“Unless it’s yours.”
“No! Gross! You’re not putting anything in my belly button.”
“Ah, but you didn’t say I wouldn’t be able to get near it. I’ll take that as a win.”
“Don’t get it twisted, sweetheart. Just because you’re feeling better than you have in a while doesn’t mean you owe me anything, including a pity fuck.”
“A what?”
“You feel indebted to me, and you know I’m attracted to you. You’re a man, so your dick gets hard when the wind blows, and that doesn’t have anything to do with me. Therefore, you’re going to try to make nice and get laid, because it’s been a while or because you feel you owe me something. Let’s just skip that part and have a few pleasant conversations before we get on with our lives.”
“I want to lick every part of you from your kneecaps to your nipples, except for your belly button , and you think that’s because I feel indebted to you?”
“You’d probably be a lot of fun in bed, Ajax. I have no doubt you would try your hardest to please me, but there’s no sense in that. Let’s call this what it is and . . .”
“I want to use your thighs as earmuffs so your screaming doesn’t hurt my ears.”
“Wait . . . what?” I stammered.
“When I’m eating your pussy,” he explained. “I figure I’ll need to knock a few orgasms out of the way, because I won’t last long that first round. I’ve been looking at your ass for days without being able to touch it or myself since you shoved that thing up my dick and locked up my dominant hand. I’m gonna go off like a two-pump chump who just got to third base for the first time.”
“Are you . . . What the . . .”
“Please don’t tell me that you don’t like oral sex, Atilla. I’ve been laying in that bed dreaming of those gorgeous lips of yours wrapped around my cock, and if you . . .”
“Have you lost your fucking mind?” I shouted.
“What?”
“We go from . . . What the fuck, Ajax?”
“What?”
“You went from being worried about Stockholm Syndrome to belly button bacteria and then blowjobs. Are you mental?”
“My mind took a trip down around your thighs and got stuck there. When I saw you watching me stroke my cock while I was in the shower, my brain camped out on the idea of you doing that for me before I listened to you try to tell me exactly why fucking you would be a bad idea.”
“And?”
“And I love bad ideas. They’re always the most fun.”
“You are mental.”
“No, I’m a grown man who is trying to explain to a grown woman that I find her immensely attractive and want to do unmentionable things to her body that make her scream my name until she’s hoarse. That’s not mental, that’s real.”
I leaned back in my chair and looked out over the sparse grass in the yard of the cabin as I tried to wrap my mind around what he’d just said. I hadn’t quite figured out his angle when the young woman who had called Jewel appeared with Ajax’s friend, Rooster.
I had never been more happy to see another human being in my life because I had almost tied up my better judgement and stuffed it into a closet so I could fuck the daylights out of my patient. Multiple times.
Bad idea. Very, very, very bad idea.
◆◆◆
AJAX
As much as I wanted to reconnect with my niece without the drugs clouding my mind, I wished with all my heart she’d waited to visit - at least until I’d convinced Sandi that getting naked with me was the best kind of bad idea.
Although, I didn’t think it was a bad idea at all.
We were both adults who understood the score. A quick romp in the hay didn’t have to mean forever, just fun for right now before we parted amicably.
Yeah, that was the plan. Sure it was.
“I want to pin down exactly when you’re planning to go to Rojo,” Rosie said as she leaned against the porch rail in front of me. She had her arms crossed and a determined look on her face that reminded me so much of my brother that I wasn’t sure I could look at her and hold a reasonable conversation.
I put on my most disarming smile and tried to deflect by saying, “I bet a lot has changed since the last time I was there.”
“That doesn’t work on me, Uncle Eric.”
“What doesn’t? Is Martha’s Diner still the best place in town?”
“When?”
“Now, sweetheart, I don’t really want to . . .”
“You pinky promised Aunt Drea that you’d come visit, and when I called Aunt Carlie, she said you promised her too.”
“Honey, let’s get real here. Neither of them wants me around for any length of time, and I’m not even sure when I’ll be able to work a visit to Rojo into my schedule.”
“Your very busy schedule recovering from three bullet wounds?” Rosie asked sarcastically.
“If she hadn’t handcuffed me to the fucking bed, I’d already be gone,” I admitted. “Now, I might not have gotten very far, but I’d have tried. I’ve got shit to take care of, and that shit is not in the mountains of New Mexico.”
“Your employees said that they took care of everything with the case that got you shot.”
“They did, but there are other cases that need my attention. I also need to swing by my house and make sure it’s still standing, and then . . .”
“You have a house?” Rooster asked.
“Do all of you really think I’m some mysterious cave dweller who only crawls out when the planets align or what?”
Rooster shrugged and said, “I wouldn’t exactly call you mysterious, but yeah.”
Sandi burst out laughing and asked, “What did you do to get a reputation like that?”
“I go where I go and stay as long as I want to stay,” I said nonchalantly. I leaned toward her and under my breath said, “That’s why what we were talking about earlier is a good idea for both of us.”
“Shut up before I poke you in your stitches.”
“Have either of you ever met someone so diabolical?” I asked Rosie and Rooster.
Rooster said, “You.”
At the same time, Rosie replied, “Jewel.”
“I’m not diabolical. I just don’t put up with your shit,” Sandi said with a smile. “I don’t think you’ve encountered very many people like that in your life.”
“Since I met you, there’s been one too many,” I muttered.
My niece cleared her throat before she pressed, “Back to the subject at hand - Uncle Eric, when are you going to Rojo? I want a date so I can tell my mom to have the guest room ready.”
“I am not going to sleep at your parents’ house,” I said with a bitter laugh. “Oh, hell no.”
“Okay then. You can stay in a hotel. Or at Jewel’s place. Hell, you can stay at my house. I haven’t gone back to get any of my things yet because . . . well, we’re not quite there yet.”
“We aren’t?” Rooster asked.
“I have a house full of furniture, honey. What am I going to do with all of it?” Rosie had always been a determined child, and she’d turned into a determined woman since I’d seen her last. “We’ll discuss that later. Right now, I want a date.”
“He’s going to have to take me home soon, so he can visit everyone then,” Sandi suggested. When I turned my head to glare at her, she smiled at me before she said, “That will work, won’t it, Ajax?”
“I can take you back whenever . . . Oof!”
I looked back at my friend and realized my niece had just backhanded him in the stomach to get him to shut up. I frowned at her before I said, “That wasn’t very nice.”
“Neither is going back on your word. You made a promise, Eric.”
“Oh, it’s Eric now? What happened to the Uncle part?”
“I need to get back within the next few days because I’m scheduled to start work at Parker and Hamilton Medical Center next week.”
“That’s perfect! You can drive Uncle Eric to Rojo and drop him off at my parents’ house so Mom can take care of him.”
“Absolutely fucking not,” I snapped.
“Jewel’s house then.”
“Also a big fucking no. I’m way too young to die, and I’ve spent enough time in prison. Either she’d kill me or I’d kill her. It’s not happening.”
“You can stay with me.” I looked over at Sandi and raised my eyebrows. She mimicked my expression and asked, “What’s your argument about that idea?”
“Will there be handcuffs involved?” I asked.
“Only if you misbehave.”
“Okay, now it’s getting weird,” Rosie mumbled.
“Fine. I’ll go with you to Rojo and stay for a day. Maybe two.”
“I want you to stay long enough to mend fences with Dad.”
“Honey, we all have a limited time on this earth. There’s no reason to waste it doing things like banging your head on the wall.”
“You and Dad aren’t getting any younger, and you’re the only family he has left.”
“No, I’m not. He has your mom and his kids.”
“But who do you have?” Rosie asked.
I sat there stunned, blinking in shock at her question, and couldn’t answer. I lived my life carefree with no attachments and had never seen that as a problem. So, why in the hell couldn’t I tell her that? Why did that simple question throw me for such a loop?
Sandi seemed to sense my unease and reached over to take my hand before she said, “Don’t worry, Rosie. I’ll take care of him while he’s in Rojo. I’ll even check in on him after he leaves, if he’ll let me.”
“You will?” I asked as I flipped my hand over so that our palms were touching. I looked down at our joined hands and thought that was the most foreign sight and tried to remember how long it had been since I had done something so simple with a woman. “Why?”
“Because even when we want to be alone, it’s best to know that we’ve got someone in our corner we can depend on. Life is short, Ajax, so you’ve got to make every relationship count. I’m not a therapist or anything, but reconnecting with the last of your family is probably the best thing you can do.”
Suddenly, I was back in that field with my client’s daughter, the young woman I was rescuing when I got shot.
“Please don’t die!”
“Honey, I’m too mean to die, but if I do, my friends will take care of you and they’ll even find your sister and help her. I promise.”
“You may think that your death won’t affect anyone, but it will. Think of your family and how much they’ll miss you.”
“I don’t have any family.”
“A wife?”
“Not married.”
“Girlfriend?” my client whispered. “Don’t you have anyone that will miss you?”
“My brothers,” I whispered as I thought about Sugar, Rooster, Lurk, Fish, and a few of the other guys. They’d miss me, but for how long? I came and went in their lives, sometimes going months or even years between visits. They might think of me occasionally, but even that would taper off after a while.
“I thought you said you didn’t have any family?”
“They’re not that kind of family, sweetheart. They’re chosen family, and that’s just as important.”
“If you save me and my sister, we’ll bring you into our family.”
“No, you’ll go on with your lives and try to forget this ever happened.”
“What will you do?”
“If I make it outta here, I’ll go on with my life.”
“It’s sad that you’ll be alone, Ajax.”
“I’ll be fine, kiddo.”
“Promise me that you’ll find someone to share your life with.” I chuckled darkly, but tried to avoid the request because I wasn’t one to break a promise. The desperation in her voice, probably the only bit of hope she’d had since her kidnapping, almost broke me when she begged, “Please promise me.”
“I promise I’ll try. Does that work?”
“You promised to find my sister and I believe you, but I’m not sure you’ll keep this promise.”
Since I was almost sure that I was going to die, I said, “I promise to keep my eyes open and find someone I can trust to share my life with.”
“I believe you, Ajax. And I believe in you.”
That young woman was right. I was alone even when I was surrounded by people, but that was my choice. Why did it suddenly feel like the wrong one after all these years?
“Ajax? Are you okay?” When Sandi squeezed my hand, I squeezed hers back before she said, “You look like you’ve seen a ghost. Maybe we should get you back inside.”
“I’m fine, Attila.”
“You don’t look fine, and I promised to take care of you, so you’d better stick around or I’ll be pissed.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”