Leila said nothing about what had just happened in her truck and neither did Sterling. But he did give her a sweet grin before Zenia walked up to the truck. The girl had been on her cellphone and pacing the gravel lot in front of the bar. She didn’t sound happy when she hung up the phone. She stuck her head in the window of the truck.                “Zanna won’t tell me shit. She said it’s too hard to talk about. She’s been praying nonstop for Clyde’s soul to go to Heaven. That’s a lost cause for fuckin’ sure.”            

Chapter 14 Waiting to find an image of a killer turned out to be fairly anticlimactic and tedious, as Sterling had to scroll through over a year’s worth of images captured by the pond. It was a good thing Titus Mount had sprung for a top-of-the-line model with battery power lasting almost two years. Lots of patrons from the bar liked to fish at the pond. Leila began to be able to pick out the regulars and identify many of the faces. Henry Blaine and Frank Potter seemed to be the most avid fisherman in the group, but Amos Fox, and Gerald Travis had also cast many lines in. Amos and Henry often fished together it seemed, before the sun even peeked fully over the horizon. Occasionally, a whole family would be captured with their picnic baskets and fishing rods. Or a couple which had moseyed out of the bar for a moonlight walk at the water’s edge. Deliveries made to the bar came around the other side of the building opposite to the pond where the gravel path was wider to

Chapter 16 Sterling moaned. A heady sound that made the wetness between Leila’s legs spread even more. His swollen lips reclaimed hers with a new vigor and his hands cupped beneath her ass to lift her feet off the ground. She wrapped her legs around his waist, could feel the swell of him. He carried her across the lot and towards the bar. Their lips scarcely parted as he pulled open the cracked back door with his foot. Sterling carried her towards the counter and set her against it. Leila had fantasized about this very thing countless times. He kissed and licked his way down her neck, taking delicate care to kiss every inch it seemed. She moaned in ecstasy while her hands slipped beneath his shirt, feeling every firm ridge, every dip, then lower, flirting with the hem of his pajama pants. This was really happening! Sterling Mount was about to take Leila on the bar just like she had so often fantasized. She was tempted to pinch herself, but if this was just a

Chapter 18          Leila emerged from the Cut’ N’ Curl and ran a hand over her “trim”. Kacey Jo had taken off at least four or five inches and cut it into choppy waves. Not that it looked bad, but Leila was accustomed to long hair that touched the middle of her back. It seemed men liked long hair on a girl to run their fingers through. She wondered what Sterling would think of her new hairdo. When she had first run away from the Blackwood pack, she’d considered trying to change her appearance. Had even dyed her hair for a while. But that was really pointless when your ex could track you by your scent.  She still had the nightmares sometimes, even after two years, of what would happen if Ulric found her. His punishment would be severe, and then he would also turn her over to the pack when he was done with her. She would never have the chance to escape again, if she even survived the punishment of the pack in the first

Chapter 20Her stakeout would definitely happen tonight, but right now, Leila’s work here wasn’t done. She returned to her truck and moved it closer to the building now that the lot wasn’t as crowded. She waved to another bar regular she noticed, though she pretended to be on her phone to avoid a conversation with the man. His name had also not been on the list of patrons there that night. It was times like these Leila wished her truck wasn’t a piece of shit as she cracked her windows and fanned herself. Sweat was sliding down into the cracks and crevices of her body and she could feel her bare legs sticking to the seat.Right now, she should have been in the post-coital bliss of fucking Sterling for the first time, perhaps even having a round two. She had been so close to her orgasm, it should have been a crime when the sheriff interrupted, coitus interruptus, that bastard! And Leila hadn’t even been able to properly taste Sterling either