Chapter Five

Jared glanced over at his silent passenger; she had been uncomfortably quiet since they had left the diner. He would bet every cent in his savings account that he knew why. The whole day he had been thinking of ways to approach the subject. He might have only known her for less than 24 hours but he knew that she was one stubborn lady. Fortunately for him, he was use to stubborn women; he had two of the most stubborn women on earth for baby sisters. Clearing his throat he made his concerns known, “You know I’ve been thinking it might not be safe for you to go back to the house tonight.”

“What do you mean? They have the guys in jail.” She said not bothering to turn from her vigilance out the side window.

“True.” He looked at her again, willing her to look at him, “But we don’t know if there’s another partner out there. Until we know exactly what we are dealing with, I don’t think you should be left alone.”

This time she did look at him, “Look I appreciate all that you’ve done for me. But this isn’t a “we” thing, it’s a “me” thing.”

“Hate to burst your precious bubble sweetheart, but the moment you came rushing around my corning was the moment it became a “we” thing. Plus my Dad would kill me if he knew I let you go back to that house alone.”

She gave a frustrated sigh and said with all the steel she could manage in her voice, “Jared, I don’t want you involved. I mean it.”

The corner of his lips lifted in a half smile, “Here I go bursting your bubble, I’m not scared of you honey. The way I see it you’ve got two choices, either you come back to the cabin with me and Styx or the three of us stay at your house. Make your decision quickly I’m coming up on the turn.”

Inwardly Angel gave a sigh of relief that Jared was pushing the issue. She had been fine in the diner, surrounded by Jared, Walter, and Walter’s parents, but as they started to leave she had realize she would have to go back to the house alone. Normally that wouldn’t bother her, she preferred the isolation, but normally she wouldn’t have been a victim of a break in the night before. But her stubborn pride wouldn’t allow her to ask for his help twice. “I want to be in my home.” She said quietly.

“Alright, I just need to stop by the cabin and grab some change of clothes and personal items.” Jared said as he turned down the dirt road that led towards his family’s cabin.

Ten minutes later Jared left both Angel and Styx in the car as he ran into the cabin to pack. He ran up the stairs grabbing his worn duffel bag and started throwing in random shirts and pants. He paused when he got to the pajama set his mom had bought him for Christmas, he never wore pajamas, he wasn’t going to start now, he also packed his laptop. Going down the stairs he went into the bathroom and grabbed all his grooming tools and then made a quick stop by the kitchen to grab Styx’s food bowl. The dog would have a hissy fit if Jared forgot it. He would never understand his pet’s perchance for the dingy bowl.

Locking up, he moved back to the jeep. Inside Angel had changed the radio station, instead of his usual 80’s music, sounds from the top 40’s radio station one of his younger sister’s preset on his radio, wafted through the speakers. In most cases Jared would have made a comment about the changing of his radio stations but as he looked at her through the windshield he was mesmerized. She was still looking out her side window, but he could see her lips moving in a lip sync motion and she was bouncing in time to the beat. Because she wore no bra underneath her tank, Jared could see her small breasts move as she danced. When she noticed him watching she quickly stopped and leaned over to change the station back. After putting his stuff in the back seat with Styx, and assuring the dog that he had his food bowl, Jared climbed back in the front seat. As he pulled out of the driveway he leaned down and switched the station back.

Angel’s shoulders slumped slightly as she entered her front door. She had to admit that a part of her was hoping that it was all a bad dream and that when she walked in her home would be miraculously back in its perfect order. “This is going to take forever to straighten out.”

“If you were alone maybe, but hey you’ve got me and Styx. We’ll start in the living room.”

“Oh, um, I couldn’t ask you to clean my house.”

“We don’t mind, do we Styx.” Jared asked and was rewarded with a wag of a tail in acknowledgement. “See, don’t worry. Despite that fact that we’re guys we actually know a bit about cleaning.” With that they both moved into the living.

Angel stood there for a few more seconds unsure of what to do, than shrugged and went to attend to the study. Three hours later Angel came from cleaning her bedroom just in time to meet Jared in the hallway outside the dining room. She was tired and aching from it all, but her house was finally back to normal. Stretching her arms up above her head and closing her eyes she sighed in accomplishment, Jared was right if it had just been her trying to straighten it all up she would have been at it for hours and hours. “Thanks guys, I’ll guess I’ll cook you dinner in appreciation.” When Jared didn’t respond Angel looked over at him, finding him staring intensely at her chest. She had forgotten that her tank was rather short and she had no bra on, with her arms raised and her back arched the shirt had risen to just below the bottoms of her breast. She quickly lowered her arms and the shirt, and cleared her throat to get his attention.

“Sounds good. I’ll go put my stuff up in one of the guest rooms, does it matter which one?” He asked moving towards the stairs.

“The one closes to my bedroom has its own bathroom.” She called to his back. Waiting to she heard his footsteps above her, she turned to Styx. “Was your master just ogling me?” This time Styx gave a resounding thump in agreement. Angel laughed at that, “Come on, I’ll start dinner before I go take a shower. I feel dusty yet sticky at the same time.” She waited while Styx ran back to the front door and grabbed his dish before moving into the kitchen with her. She watched in amazement as he sniffed around before placing his bowl next to the kitchen table, only to look at it with a cocked head and move it to the other side. “You are a strange one aren’t you?” Styx took no offense to comment, and even came and gave her hand a lick before going back over to the ceiling to floor windows that graced the breakfast nook to watch the wildlife.

Hearing the shower click on upstairs she decided to go with her favorite vegetable lasagna recipe since she had the time to cook it, she gathered all the ingredients on the island in the middle of the room. She loved to cook, although her kitchen’s surfaces were no were near as good as Jared’s in his small cabin, she had spent most of her renovation budget here in the kitchen. She had raised the ceiling and put in those windows that Styx was so enamored with. She had personally designed the layout to work with her cooking style and physical characteristics. There were a set of two of almost everything, two ovens mounted on the wall, a regular sized dishwasher and one in a drawer, two sinks, even the massive island had to counter spaces one at a lower height then the other. She knew it was an unnecessary splurge to have two of everything, since she was the only one who lived there and rarely had guest, but it was her dream kitchen and she couldn’t help herself. Twenty-five minutes later Angel was shoving the dish in the oven and setting the timer to go off in thirty minutes. “Alright Styx I’ll be upstairs, bark if you need anything.” She called out to Styx, only to be ignored, truly a strange one.

Jared laid his forehead against the cool tile in the borrowed shower, willing his unruly body to control itself. If he didn’t know better he would think he had never seen a pair of breasts before. In his thirty-five years of life, he had seen his fair share plus more, but none of them seemed to affect them like Angel’s did and he hadn’t even seen them in person, just hidden underneath clothing. He didn’t know what he would do if he saw them bare, or the rest of her. It was enough to drive a man insane just thinking about it. He fiddled with the shower nozzles until a burst of cold water came out. He stood there for a few more minutes willing his body to calm down. This wasn’t the time to get involved with his intoxicating hostess. He had worked to do.

Shutting off the shower he grabbed one of the towels from the rack and dried off. Wrapping the thing around his hips he strolled into the bedroom. He was still curios about the business card he had found earlier that morning. Grabbing his laptop he plugged it in and settled on the bed. He started with sampling Googling the guy’s name, he found a few hits. Clicking on one for a news report he quickly skimmed through the article. Lyle Watts a lawyer to various political officials, a few high profile clients, once he was finished he consented that there was nothing really of interest there. After about ten more articles he was even more convince something wasn’t right. Why would these low class criminals have the business card of an overpriced lawyer, he doubted the guy did pro bono cases. He decided that he wasn’t going to get much from the public records; he tried his luck in the state records. This time he lucked out, but not dealing with him directly, just some of the clients he represented. He had inkling if he went higher, the federal level, he would find even more, but he couldn’t do that with his laptop and Angel’s unsecured wireless. Picking up his cell phone he hit the speed dial number for his brother.

“What’s happening little brother?”

“Hey Jake I need you to do me a favor.”

“Sure, how much you gonna pay me?”

“Dude, I’m serious.” He filled in his older brother on the details of the previous night finishing with, “When me and Styx went for his morning walk we found their car, inside I found a business card for one Lyle Watts. Ring any bells?”

“No, but that doesn’t mean much. If he’s a local guy then he wouldn’t have shown up on my radar. But I’m intrigued. I’ll ask Heidi tomorrow if she knows anything.”

“Thanks, it might not mean anything, but—“

“But you’ve got a feeling, yeah I know. Alright I’ll give you a call later.” Jake said. “Or and Jared?

“Yeah?”

“Be safe little bro.”

“I will.” He smiled as he disconnected the call. Closing down his laptop, he felt a little better. If there was anything to this Wyatt guy, Jake would find it. One of the perks of being in a family full of security, military, and special ops people, you had contacts all over the place and skills to use them. He quickly changed into some jeans and a simple white t-shirt. He padded down the stairs and into the kitchen. Not surprisingly, Styx was sitting patiently with bowl in mouth as Angel removed dinner from the oven. When she set the dish on the stove to cool she turned to find him in the doorway.

“What’s up with him at the bowl?” she asked.

“Good question. He showed up with it. I tried to get him a new one, something a little better. But he refuses to give that one up.”

“Interesting.”

“Yeah, so what’s for dinner? Need any help?”

“Vegetable Lasagna, no it’s all done. You can grab the wine out of the freezer though, the glasses are over there, oh and if you could maybe get the salad ready while I do the bread.”

He turned to hide his smile from her, dutifully going about the tasks that he was given, he couldn’t help but notice how domestic the whole scene seemed. He wondered how easy it was to feel comfortable around this woman.

And that's where this story ends for now, like I said no need to comment or review. If you want to by all means go ahead. But I wont be updating it anytime soon.