Chapter Ten
“I don't feel comfortable leaving Jenna alone in the house,” Nick said.
Axel’s chest tightened at Nick’s worry. It echoed his own, but hearing it aloud made something warm flicker low inside him.
He didn’t say anything as he watched Nick carefully arrange the light blue sheets and midnight blue blankets over the hay bed that he and Axel would be sharing. There was a quiet competence in Nick’s movements, a steadiness Axel had come to rely on more than he liked to admit.
The muscles in Nick’s forearms flexed with motion and his prison tattoos shifted like living things under his skin.
The ink wasn’t just decoration. It was a map of everything he’d survived over the years, etched into skin that had once been too thin from hunger and fear.
Some of his tattoos had been done quite nicely by another prison inmate who actually used to be a tattoo artist on the outside and had had a guard smuggle in the proper tattoo tools.
Axel’s gaze lingered on the way Nick’s t-shirt clung to his back.
The military green cotton fabric was stretched tight over the wide expanse of his shoulders and clung nicely to the taper of his waist. He’d seen Nick’s naked body in their shared cell and in the showers more times than he could count, and he never got tired of looking at him.
But there was something different tonight.
They were out of prison and not sharing a room with a prison guard at the hotel.
Here, the two of them were alone, ankle monitors keeping an eye on them and in a barn with the fresh taste of freedom sharp in the air.
It kind of felt like it would be their first time all over again.
Jenna had provided them with pillows and blankets for their makeshift bed, stuffing them into plastic bags to prevent anything from getting wet on their way over to the barn.
When they’d removed the sheets, the softness of the material felt almost unreal after years of coarse prison blankets.
It was a reminder that this life, this night, was something they weren’t supposed to have.
But thanks to Cowboys Online, they had a chance to explore this new relationship on the outside. But would it last?
In prison they’d been solid, but now being back with Jenna, the dynamics were changing fast.
Jenna had also asserted that she would be fine alone in the house with the poodle.
The dog, she insisted, was just as good a watchdog as any police officer and she reminded them, she also had her gun and a rifle in the house. And she’d also reminded the men that they weren’t allowed to be around firearms, so she’d told them she’d locked up the guns.
It worried him too that he and Nick had touched her handgun today. That was a violation of parole. His stomach knotted. One mistake, one wrong word, and everything would vanish.
When they spoke with their parole officer they would have to lie when asked about being around weapons or they’d be sent back to prison.
He didn’t like lying but he would have to protect Nick and himself.
Besides, they’d only touched the gun for a short period of time.
It wasn’t as if they’d gone looking for one.
Despite his lingering worries, Axel found a small measure of reassurance in knowing that if the assailant who had attacked Nick, came back he’d be greeted by a barking dog.
Had the criminal been watching the place again since Nick’s assault, he was now aware that Jenna was not alone. She had two male guests and Daisy.
That knowledge, he reasoned, should be enough to deter any further attempts and keep the perpetrator away.
Inside the barn, their only source of light was a battery-operated lantern, placed atop an old wooden crate the two men had turned upside down to serve as a makeshift table.
The lantern’s faint glow cast long shadows and barely illuminated their surroundings making the loft feel like a quiet cocoon.
And anything shining out the lone loft window could easily be mistaken for a standard night security light.
Fortunately, the storm had subsided shortly after they had taken refuge in the barn making the air drifting through the slightly open window, fresh and cool.
“Well, if you hadn’t noticed, I did try every possible way to convince her to let us stay in the house. Every time I thought I was making headway, her excuse of being alone in the house came to that dog you brought home. Why, may I ask, did you bring that damn dog home?” Axel asked.
Nick paused from arranging the blankets and twisted his head to look up at Axel. With a lighthearted laugh, he replied, “To make you jealous, of course.”
Then he returned to finishing up their makeshift bed.
The familiar teasing tugged a reluctant smile from Axel. Some habits of humor survived even the darkest places.
“Funny guy, aren’t you?” Axel grumbled to his back.
“That’s what they say,” Nick chuckled.
Under any other circumstances, Axel might have punched his friend in the arm or slapped him on the back for picking up Jenna’s jealousy joke and expanding on it, but tonight he simply wasn’t in the mood for banter.
The kiss with Jenna still burned under his skin, tangled with guilt, longing, and the ache of everything unresolved.
He leaned against a rough hewn support post and surveyed the bed. It looked quite cozy, like a sanctuary in comparison to the sterile metal beds with too thin mattresses they’d been sleeping on in prison. He had to admit Nick had picked a nice area on the hay.
The makeshift bed with Jenna’s light blue sheets and dark blue blankets was nestled in the far corner, shielded from the window and beneath the slanted roof. The domesticated look was a stark contrast to the weathered wood floor.
Axel pushed away from the post and walked over to the large second story window and gazed outside.
Jenna said she’d leave the back porch light on and had told them to use the house key Cyn had given them in case they needed to go to the bathroom.
The porch light was on, and it glowed like a beacon, pulling at him with a force he didn’t want to name. And so was one of the bedroom lights facing the barn. She was probably nestled snugly in her bed reading a book, with that damned dog.
Axel smiled as he remembered she liked reading romance novels before she went to bed. Those quiet nights had been his favorite. Her absorbed in a book, him pretending to be asleep just to watch her breathe. He loved her so much. He would do anything for her.
Man, he wouldn’t mind trading places with that dog, especially after experiencing such an uncontrollable reaction to kissing her.
Now that the rain and storm had passed, it was remarkably quiet, both inside and out. No sound came from the horses below in the stables, and not even a creak emanated from the planks of old grey wood that held the two-storey barn together.
As Axel’s eyes adjusted to the darkness, his gaze drifted east of the ranch house where no lights shone. There he noticed tiny bursts of light floating here and there above the tall grass.
He smiled.
Fireflies were flickering in the night, and for a brief moment, he felt a profound sense of freedom. He heard crickets singing too. How cool was that? He hadn’t heard that sound since before he’d gone into prison.
He let out a deep, heavy sigh, finally accepting that he was truly outside those concrete walls lined with razor fences and reunited with Jenna. Well, not exactly reunited with her, but given the circumstances, he was grateful he was here to help her.
“So, this cop that’s coming tomorrow. Just answer his questions and don’t volunteer any information about yourself.
Cops have a way of following the law and I sure don’t want him to find something on us to throw us back in prison.
And don’t mention Jenna’s handgun,” Axel said.
He wasn’t afraid for himself. He was afraid of losing the one person who’d kept him sane behind bars.
“Good idea. No wearing shorts tomorrow either. Don’t want him seeing the ankle bracelet,” Nick said.
“Exactly,” Axel agreed.
“Thanks for not mentioning about the cop coming. I think we had an enjoyable evening, despite you letting Jenna know everything that needs fixing around her place,” Nick said.
“Yeah, well it needed to be said. It appears her husband wasn’t much of a handyman and didn’t make the necessary repairs.
And I gotta agree, it was a pleasant evening.
One of many, I hope,” Axel replied. For the first time in years, Axel had felt something close to normal.
Delicious food, good laughter, hard work, a woman he loved and a friend he trusted.
He heard Nick move to stand behind Axel.
Saw his reflection in the window. He was looking over Axel’s shoulder, checking out the ranch house.
Nick’s body heat was blasting against him like an electric blanket and his shaft hardened like a serpent as memories of their nights together in the prison swept over him.
“We should take turns in keeping an eye on the house, despite that Cujo coming out in Daisy when she hears someone coming,” Nick said.
The routine from prison came back into Axel’s mind easily. It was a silent agreement they had. Their shared vigilance, the instinct to protect each other through the rough days and nights.
They’d had to keep quiet while having sex.
Always quiet, so their ears would be in tune to when a guard would patrol and gaze into their cell.
They’d been lucky in being housed in an older prison where the security cameras covered the hallways and other areas of the prison and not the sleeping quarters.
He’d heard that in the newer prisons, security cameras were everywhere, even in the toilet and shower areas.
“I’ll take first watch since I can’t sleep,” Axel volunteered.
“Okay. Doable. I can go to sleep now. How about if I sleep about two hours. Then I’ll do the next two hours so you can sleep and so on.”