Page 11 of Sully
The question caught me off guard.What was I planning to do?I hadn’t thought that far ahead.Hadn’t allowed myself to imagine what would happen if I actually found her again.
“I just need to see her,” I said finally, the words coming out rougher than I intended.“I know I sound like a creepy stalker, but I swear I won’t hurt her.If you doubt my state of mind, come with me.Bring one of the guys with his old lady.If Darby doesn’t want to see me, if she’s a woman havin’ a fling to bring some fun into a stuffy life or something, I won’t approach her.I won’t lie and say I won’t be disappointed, but I don’t wish her any harm.”
Knight nodded slowly.“I get it.If she’s available, you want the chance to make her unavailable.”
“Yeah.”I chuckled, the tension finally leaving my shoulders.“I guess that’s it.I get she left for a reason.If that reason’s because she truly is a wild mustang, then I’m good.If she’s runnin’ because I scared her…”
“Did you?”
I scrubbed my hand over my face.“I don’t think so.I mean, it was a pretty wild night.We’d both been drinking.But we were both sober the last conversation we had.I got the impression I might be able to do something to convince her to give me a chance to make her happy.”
“Jesus, this woman did a number on you.”Knight was equal parts horrified and amused.I’m not sure even he knew which emotion dominated.
“Yeah, she fuckin’ did a number on me.”I shook my head.“The bad part is, I’m not all that tore up about it.”
“Give me a week.I’ll see what I can find.”He stood and clapped me on the shoulder.
* * *
Three weeks later I watched Knight’s confidence erode with each passing day, his initial certainty giving way to frustration, then disbelief.“It doesn’t make sense,” he’d say, shaking his head as he delivered another dead-end report.“Everyone leaves traces.”Except Darby, apparently.“Either she doesn’t exist, or she’s got access to some really fuckin’ good identity creators.”
I took a slow sip of my whiskey, unsurprised.“She knows how to stay off the grid.”
“This is beyond staying off the grid, Sully.This is…” Knight trailed off, searching for the right words.“It’s like she’s a ghost.Like she doesn’t exist.”He closed his laptop with more force than necessary.“Even my contacts in the police department have nothing.No arrests, no warrants, no parking tickets.Not even a Goddamn library card.”
Knight shook his head.“Whoever this woman is, she knows how to disappear.Professional level.And that makes me wonder…”
“What?”
“What she’s running from.Or who.”He leaned forward.“People don’t go to these lengths unless they’re hiding from something serious.And I mean more than an abusive ex or a gang or something.This is government-level disappearing.”
The thought had occurred to me as well.She didn’t strike me as the type of woman to be in that kind of trouble, but what did I know?“She was so in your face, she’d be memorable, though I can’t fault your reasoning.But what the fuck?”
“I’ll keep looking.”He frowned as he looked at his computer screen, concentrating as his fingers flew over the keys.“I’ll try some less conventional channels.Got a few contacts who operate in gray areas.Maybe they’ve heard something.”He packed up his laptop.“But Sully, you might need to consider the possibility that --”
“Don’t,” I cut him off.“Just… don’t.”
He raised his hands in surrender.“All right.I’ll let you know if anything turns up.”
After he left, I lingered, nursing another whiskey and watching the door out of habit now more than hope.The crowd atThrottlehad changed over the weeks, familiar faces replaced by new ones, but the energy remained the same.Not one fucking sign of Darby.
By now, Mike was used to me leaving bills under my glass before I walked out.I threw up my hand on the way out the door.He nodded in return.
I straddled my bike, started it up, and took off back to the clubhouse.Nashville’s streets blurred around me, neon signs bleeding into streaks of color until I got out of the city and closer to the Kiss of Death compound I now called home.
The clubhouse was on the outskirts of the city, nestled among industrial warehouses where no one asked questions about the comings and goings of men on motorcycles at all hours.I parked my bike in the big garage and headed up to my apartment in one of the outlying warehouses.
Once there, I unlocked the door and stepped inside, tossing my keys on the dresser.I stripped off my jacket and shirt, my body aching from tension I couldn’t seem to release.
The shower called to me.Water as hot as I wanted it was one of the few luxuries I’d craved in prison, and even years after my release, I still appreciated the simple pleasure of standing under a spray as hot as I wanted for as long as I wanted.I turned the water on as hot as I could stand, stripped off the rest of my clothes, and stepped in.
Steam billowed around me as the water sluiced down my body, washing away the stink of cigarettes and whiskey fromThrottle.I closed my eyes, letting my head fall back, feeling the spray hammer against my chest and face.And like they always did when I allowed my guard to drop, memories of Darby flooded in.
The way she’d laughed when I pushed her against the wall, that wild, unrepentant sound that had made me want to both silence her with my mouth and hear it again and again.The feel of her nails digging into my back, marking me as hers in that moment.The taste of whiskey on her tongue as she’d kissed me with a hunger that matched my own.
I remembered how she’d moved beneath me, against me, on top of me.How she’d taken control then surrendered it, a constant push and pull of power that had left us both breathless.The sounds she’d made, halfway between pleasure and pain, when she came.
My hand slid down my torso of its own accord, finding my cock and circling it tightly.I didn’t fight it.This had become part of my nightly ritual, a surrender to the most memorable night of my life.I braced one arm against the tile wall, letting the hot water continue to pound against my back as I jacked my cock.I could almost feel her legs wrapped around my waist, her breath hot against my neck, her body clenching around mine.
