The motorcycle touring club Brogan had been leading for the past year had been used to taking weekly trips several times a summer. They toured the States on their motorcycles, often riding to scenic, out-of-the-way areas, where civilization still hadn’t marred nature’s beauty. This last summer, they’d stuck closer to Pulaski County, though. Their trips usually lasted no more than twelve to sixteen hours between leaving then returning.
Oh, civilization was creeping closer by the day, she admitted, even in Pulaski County.
Removing the towel she’d wrapped around her and climbing onto her bed for a nap, she was surprised she fell asleep as quickly as she did.
A deep, luckily dreamless sleep.
No dreams of Brogan and sex, or the dream that often visited her of watching him, aching for him, only to see him leave with one of the local women she’d known him to see in the past.
Today, though, there was only peaceful sleep.
Something she hadn’t had in far longer than she could remember.
* * *
Brogan pulled into the rest stop, parking the Harley in front of the concession building as Eli and Jed pulled in to one side of him.
The two other agents, despite renting suites at the bed-and-breakfast, were only rarely seen in his presence. The only time they spoke or even came in contact with one another was during the rides the touring club made.
Luckily, there were fewer rides this summer than there had been in summers past. After the former “president” was arrested for drug possession, it was learned that the club’s riding account was at nearly zero. They would be making a lot shorter trips until the monthly membership fees added enough for them to resume their normal summer schedule.
Dismounting the bike and hanging his helmet on the handlebars, Brogan watched as the rest of the group pulled in. Behind Eli and Jed, Poppa Bear and his wife pulled in, sharing a cycle the size of a small car. Their daughter rode her own Harley next to them and managed to make many of the trips her parents went on.
Behind them, surprisingly, rode and Donny and Sandi. They had been unusually quiet since their ordeal. Donny hadn’t gotten into any fights, and Sandi hadn’t instigated any. They were up each other’s asses like Siamese twins, impossible to separate. The one time Brogan had heard one of the club members comment on the change, Donny had replied only that he was getting too damned old to be fighting and carousing all damned night long.
The number Brogan had programmed into his phone hadn’t yet been called either. He’d hoped the happy couple would be eager to get some useful information, just in case. Not that he’d really kill either of them in cold blood, but he was fine with the fact that they believed he would.
“Brogan, I have to admit, you know some damned fine scenery,” Poppa Bear boomed as he helped his slender wife from the back of their cycle. “It’s nice to finally see something besides the interstates we were seeing when your predecessor was running things.”
“I’m glad you’re enjoying it, Poppa Bear.” He inclined his head in acknowledgment.
“When are you gonna invite that little Mackay girl to join us?” the Santa-looking Poppa Bear questioned him with a suggestive wink. “There’s nothing like having your gal sittin’ behind ya.”
Hooking his thumbs into his belt, Brogan grinned back at him. “Hell, her brother might shoot me.”
“Naw, ol’ Dawg loves his baby sisters. He might snap and snarl, but he’d not kill you over her.”
Brogan wasn’t so certain of that.
“Better claim that pretty little thang afore it’s too late,” Poppa Bear claimed. “There’s a lot of nice-lookin’ boys that’ll snap her right up ’fore you know it.”
“Yeah, like the one who asked her out last night.”
Brogan’s head jerked around to Donny’s unusually quiet tone of voice as Poppa Bear and his family headed to the restrooms.
“Do what?” Brogan asked.
He didn’t have to force the vein of surprise in his voice.
“There was a guy at the bar who asked her out to dinner last night.” Donny shifted on his feet, moving with a nervous rhythm that made Brogan want to order him to stand still.
“What did she say?” He frowned.
“Well, she accepted.” Donny scratched nervously at his cheek. “They’re having dinner at Mackay’s tonight at seven.”
The hell they were.
Brogan could feel the blood suddenly boiling in his veins.