Page 5 of Sackett
He drifted back to where Savage and Donna sat, checking to make sure they didn’t need anything more.
“I got the impression that your ex is making things difficult for you?”He glanced at Donna, not sure why he was bringing it up but curious just the same.
“No more than he did before we came home.In fact, I haven’t even heard from him since then.But I want to be free of him.”
“I want to make sure there’s no way he can come after her.No chance he can pressure her into anything she doesn’t want.”Savage wrapped an arm around her shoulder and gave her an affectionate hug, resting his cheek on top of her head as she leaned into him.
Sackett didn’t know why, but it seemed these two were meant for each other.There was something soft, almost innocent about her.Something that stirred even his instinct to protect her, and that almost never happened, at least not with grown people.He’d gotten used to it when he saw children being mistreated or abused.But given his own childhood, that made perfect sense, at least to him.
“I’m surprised you could get something done this quickly,” he said.He’d never had to be divorced, but he’d known a couple of men who had while he’d been active.It had never been fast or pleasant.
“Ms.Leighty wanted to wait a bit before filing, but after I explained the situation, she said she had a trip up there this week anyway.”Donna kept her eyes on the glass of soda she was drinking, slowly spinning it with her fingers.“She came up with the idea to prepare the paperwork, then speak with a judge to see if we even needed to file it.It would be too easy if the judge says there’s no marriage and no need to file, I’m not holding my breath.”
“I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you.”Sackett liked Donna, even if she was the reason he didn’t get to spend as much time with his brother as he was used to.She was sweet and brought out something in Savage that Sackett hadn’t noticed was missing until she’d come along but fit the other man well.She seemed to complete him in a way Sackett didn’t think even Savage had realized he needed.
The door behind the bar opened and Marge stepped in.She was his relief.He glanced up at the clock and realized he only had about ten minutes left.The last hour had gone by amazingly fast.He spent the end of his shift counting out the drawer and updating her on what she needed to know about the open tabs, there were only two, before he turned the bar over to her.
He said good night to the people he knew then headed outside.He was looking forward to a couple of hours on the back of his bike.
An hour later he rode north along Kinney Road and noticed how the parking lot to the old west movie set turned tourist attraction was packed.He shook his head as he passed by.That was something he’d never understood.The draw of playing tourist in a place that while it might look like it was straight out of the old west was purely fake.
Sure, he liked a good western movie as much as the next guy, but why go pretend you were walking among them?He understood the men playing gunfighter out there a little better, not the play-acting or the gunfighter element.But he’d heard they picked up a lot of women in that gig.That was the part that made it even semi-appealing to him.Not that he had any trouble finding pussy when he wanted it, but to have it chase you instead?It had been a while since he’d had that, not since he'd left the Teams.But even before then the frog hogs had gotten old.
Sure, he liked pussy, but he also wanted to be more than a trident and a dick.Even if it was only there for the night.He made a point of finding out the woman’s name and using it.He knew what it felt like to be nameless and faceless to whomever was using you and while he slept around, he didn’t use women.Sackett was always honest from the very beginning.He wasn’t looking for anything more than a night of fun.They’d both end up happy and could walk away tomorrow, and they shouldn’t come looking because he wouldn’t be back.
He pushed those thoughts from his mind and turned his thoughts back to the road, unrolling before him.Sackett took a deep breath, enjoying the familiar tang of creosote on the hot air as it blasted across his face.As his tires ate up the miles, he let the vibration of the bike, and the peaceful evening, carry away all his worries and stresses.All the things haunting his mind.
As he passed the Sonora Desert Museum and made the turn that would take him out to the Ironwood National Monument, he found his mind drifting.First to his brothers, how they all seemed to be falling victim to romance and their hearts.It was something he didn’t understand, but they all seemed so happy, he couldn’t begrudge them that.For a moment he wished he could be as happy as they seemed, but didn’t know if he had what it took to do what they had done.
He knew he was a closed off son of a bitch.He hated having to trust people, especially women, though he couldn’t say why.Was it because his mother had left when he was a child, leaving him behind with his alcoholic, abusive father?The way his parents had fought, even before that?He didn’t know and he wasn’t going back there long enough to look too closely at it.He’d survived, he’d gotten out, that was all that mattered.
Sackett pushed thoughts of his past and things that didn’t matter anymore from his mind and turned his attention back to the road.He loved the sense of freedom, the wide-open spaces riding out like this, though he should have let someone know where he was going just in case something happened.But today he’d been in too much of a hurry to get out on the road and it had slipped his mind.He’d needed to feel the road and the wind more than he’d realized until he got out here.
He focused on clearing his mind, thinking about nothing but the road unrolling in front of him.It worked for a while but soon he found his thoughts drifting again.Since it hadn’t gone back to the dark memories or turned morbid, he let it go where it wanted.
It wasn’t until he found himself wondering about the curvy little attorney that he realized where his thoughts were going and that maybe he should curb them a little more.He found himself hoping she was successful in Colorado, especially the part about not having to file divorce paperwork for Donna.And as selfish as it was, it was only partly for Donna and Savage’s benefit.The other part was that the sooner she was done with Donna’s case, the sooner he could pursue her.And something about the woman made him want her in a way he didn’t want to examine.
He shifted on the seat of his bike, hoping to ease where his jeans had grown tight as he thought of her and all the things he’d like to do to her.He couldn’t help but wonder how that prim, pink, little mouth tasted.As well as parts farther south.
There was no point in letting his thoughts wander like this, he reminded himself, but that didn’t stop his brain from conjuring images of her bent over her desk while he tasted and touched every inch of her.
Damn.He needed to get laid.
6
Selenapickedupherlist and doubled checked that she’d packed everything on it, either in her suitcase or in her backpack.When she was certain everything on the list was in one of the two bags, she searched her mind, trying to recall if there was anything that hadn’t made the list.
She’d learned long ago that lists were the key to making sure she got everything done.She was too scatterbrained to remember everything if she didn’t put it on a list.She hadn’t gotten bad enough that she needed lists of her lists, but she feared she wasn’t too far away.
Knowing she was running out of time, Selena turned her attention back to the task at hand.She had a sinking feeling she was forgetting something, but she couldn’t figure out what it was.Letting her gaze play over the open suitcase in front of her, she compared it to her list, marking them off as she went.Clothes, shoes, toiletries, makeup, emergency power cords in case the ones in her briefcase died.It all seemed to be there.Next, she went to her briefcase and repeated the process, making sure she had all her paperwork, electronics and anything else she could think of.It wasn’t until she closed them both and set them next to the door to grab when her uber arrived that it hit her.
She’d forgotten her reader.She retrieved it and tucked it into her briefcase as she mentally reviewed everything she had to do.She had a little paperwork to finish and could do that on the plane, but she hated to pull out client paperwork if she had seat neighbors.Too much risk of someone seeing confidential information.No, unless she was in a row alone, almost unheard of these days, she preferred to do something innocuous like read fiction while on the plane.She’d have time in her hotel room tonight to finish up any lingering paperwork, review files and that kind of thing.
Tomorrow morning she would meet with her client for the hearing in Boulder on Wednesday.She wanted to make sure there were no last-minute surprises then in the afternoon she had an appointment with the judge for Larimar County, to discuss the issue of whether or not Ms.McKenney needed to pursuit divorce.If it turned out that Ms.McKenney, no she’d asked Selena to call her Donna, needed to file, Selena would either do that tomorrow afternoon, if she had time before the courthouse closed or she’d do it first thing Tuesday morning before preparing for the hearing the next morning.
Selena took a deep breath and checked her watch.The Uber would be here any minute.She was as ready as she was going to get.And if she decided she’d forgotten something it wasn’t like Boulder was the ends of the earth.She could find a target and get whatever she needed.
Her phone beeped, alerting her that her ride had arrived.She was out of time to delay, not that she had any reason to.She sent the driver a message that she was on her way, gathered her bags and left.It wasn’t supposed to be a long trip, and she had long ago mastered traveling with her briefcase and a carryon, so she didn’t have to struggle to get everything down to street level and to the waiting car.
