Chapter 18: Simple Day

The next dawn dawned hot and humid. The only one to get much sleep was Cleo. Who was already dressed and seated for breakfast. Long sleeves again, and this time Jeans, covered any signs of abuse well. Her face well...

"Looking better today." Molly slid breakfast onto Cleo's plate.

"Feeling better. Like I'm rested and..." She trailed off looking at me.

I smiled weakly. I knew she felt better from having shared her ordeal. I climbed my groggy self onto the island stool and picked up a fork to push my own breakfast around my plate.

"You on the other hand don't look so hot." Molly poured me a glass of OJ.

"Didn't sleep. Tossed and turned. It's hot and humid already." I complained.

"Fourth of July is this weekend. What have you two got planned?" Molly went about putting the kitchen order as we ate.

"Nothing." I mumbled.

"We'll go hang out at Dean's. I think Jake has some big hoop de do going on but I think we'll skip it." Cleo stated, and around a bite of eggs continued, "If that's ok with you Kat."

"Hm. No brownies."

Cleo chuckled and agreed. No brownies.

"Lets go to Dean's this morning and check, he may be going to the party. If so maybe we'll bug Billy." Cleo took a long sip of her own juice and added, "Go get dressed. Geeze lazy people."

I glared at her in mock anger. I was glad she was feeling better. Although I'm not sure how much was for Molly's benefit.

"Fine." I said dropping my napkin next to my nearly finished plate before I went up to change out of the night shirt.

An hour later found us at Dean's door.

"No answer." I said flatly.

Cleo had walked slower than normal, still she was standing up straight and the eye was looking better already.

"The fink is still asleep I'd bet. He doesn't have a Molly to wake him." Cleo pounded on the door and yelled his name.

"What!" Dean swung open the door and stood dripping in the door way. "Can't a man even take a shower without someone caving in his door?" Dean opened his arms and Cleo stepped in. "How you doing honey?" He kissed Cleo's hair.

He'd just gotten out of the shower and was wet, a towel was the only thing keeping the king that hung down his thigh in place.

"I'm hot, and now wet." Cleo stepped out of his arms and into his cabin. Without a word she pulled the long sleeve shirt over her head and let it drop to the comfy overstuffed chair. She had on a sports bra. "I wanted to cover up for Molly, but it's hot out there, already."

I walked in and couldn't keep my eyes from darting back to the towel every now and again.

Dean closed the door and kissed my cheek. "It's ok darling, he's still there." he whispered in my ear, meaning his penis. I blushed red, I'd been caught.

Louder he said, "Make yourselves at home. I'm gonna go put on shorts." He winked at me and bounded up the stairs.

I sat on the sofa, "Cleo, it already looks better. They're turning an ugly green color."

"Yeah, it's only been a few days. Still dark. Outside I'll stay covered. The less questions I have the better." She was fussing over the raw marks on her wrist.

"Have you gotten in contact with Flo yet?" Dean's question announced his entrance, he wasted no time in pulling on shorts.

"No." She sighed. "I don't know if I should mad at her, cause she didn't report me missing, and hasn't called, or grateful that she's left me alone."

"I think I can understand that. I mean she should have been..." Dean was interrupted when a knock sounded. "Grand central station." He went to the door.

"Molly told me Cleo was here."

Dean opened the door wide. "Good thing I woke up this morning hey?"

Billy walked in. Such a simple statement but not at all what happens when Billy enters a room. Somehow he seems to draw the eye and take over the room. Tight jeans, simple tank stretched tight over broad shoulders and classic cowboy boots completed the package. He held a small brown paper lunch bag.

"Kat." He nodded to me but his eyes were on Cleo.

Cleo too was taking his measure, her eyes drinking him in. Every woman's romance novel hero just walked in. "Hi Billy."

"Came to take a look." He knelt in front of Cleo. The tight jeans pulling even tighter over his thigh. He raised each wrist and examined the burn marks.

"They're better." Cleo said defensively.

"Hmm." Billy turned her wrist over and kept up his appraisal of her looking at her shoulders and eye. "And the other burn marks on..."

"I did go to the doctor, like a good little girl."

"Good. So treated and..."

"Yes." Cleo almost but not quit hissed.

"Well I brought this, just in case." He stood and tossed the bag at Cleo's lap. "Just keep putting it on the wrist. It will sooth and help the healing. It's a natural herb and actually smells good too."

With a face that proved she didn't believe him, she opened the small unmarked jar and sniffed. She raised one eye brown and spread it over both wrists. Without a thought she stood up and shed her jeans. Instantly my eyes rested on the still harsh black lines on her thighs.

"Cleo." I will never get used to this, I thought, how does one get so used to being naked in front of men?

She ignored me and sat on the sofa again, clad in modest panties and her sports bra. She rubbed the herb on her knees and ankles. It wasn't long before the delightful smell of fresh cut flowers filled the room. Was there a hint of mint as well?

"It really does feel better without clothes on. The air is cooler on the ... burns. And there is no chaffing on areas." Cleo finished as a way to explain her willingness to shed her clothes so fast. She reached for a throw pillow and held it in her lap. A Defensive shield?

Billy came and sat next to me with his arm behind my neck on the sofa.

"Food?" Dean asked the general room, and we all declined. "Well I'm starved." He went rooting in the cabinets for something to eat. He came back in with pop tarts and a soda. I couldn't help but grimace.

"Gross." Cleo said to which everyone agreed.

Dean shrugged. "It's food."

"I'm going to hang out here today Dean. I just need to be away from eyes and..." Cleo trailed off.

"Sure." Dean said around a mouth full. "Does Jake need you?"

"No. All the deals were done and Molly told him I wasn't feeling so hot. So he'll hold off unless he really needs me. Speaking of which." Cleo looked to me to take over.

"Cleo said Jake usually has a July 4th party?"

"Yeah." Dean said swallowing a gulp of soda. "That's this weekend isn't it?"

"Great." Muttered Billy. "Means the stables hands will have to be around. Never know which of the new stock will spook with all the fireworks."

"Did you have plans?" Cleo asked, sounding like a young girl.

"No. Hadn't thought about it. Why?" Dean took another bite of the dry pastry.

"Cleo doesn't think she'll be up to a party. And that goes double for a Jake party."

Dean frowned while he tried to swallow, frowning at his own breakfast. "Won't Jake ask too many questions?" He set the food aside and finished off his soda with one long gulp.

"Yuck." I said. He nodded to me in agreement this time.

"Maybe not if you have a small get together here."

Dean nodded. "Who do you want here?"

Cleo shrugged.

"I'll handle it." Dean said simply with a nod.

"Now. Onto more pressing matters."

Dean's entire manner changed with that simple statement. He seemed to grow more stern, more harsh. He settled back into a chair matching the one Cleo was sitting in. Cleo, in her chair had begun to fidget. Billy uncrossed his leg and leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. Dean looked at Cleo, who wouldn't meet his eyes and waited.

"Not today Dean." Cleo begged.

I could feel the men's tension. Absently I rested my hand on Billy's back. I wasn't sure if it was to help Billy relax, or to warn him to be easy. Even I knew what was coming, and like Cleo, dreaded it.

"Cleo, you gave us very few details." Dean waited while Cleo settled back down.

"And I'm not asking for more." At this she meet his eyes.

"Not now anyway. What I need from you now is who." Dean paused and watched Cleo's eyes. "Not only for your sake. There are a lot of women around here and they all feel safe. I need to know who it is."

He tried for a small chuckle, "Right now it could be Billy for all I know," and failed.

His joke fell flat. Billy just gave him a cutting look.

"What your jerk of a brother is trying to say is we need to be on the look out and protect the women. Kat, Flo, Molly, anyone and everyone could be next. We need to know who we're looking for, who the enemy is." Billy clasped his hands together and looked up at Cleo.

"If this guy is showing up at parties and going after anyone who seems alone, or is he picking his target? Or was it more personal, coming after you and only you? We need to know how to narrow things down Cleo."

Cleo shook her head. "No. He wouldn't be at a party here." She took a deep breath and began telling what she knew of who it was. "The one guy is easy. He's tall broad and just big. You'd know him instantly he has no tongue and doesn't speak." Cleo swallowed. "He has kind eyes." Cleo shrugged.

Billy and Dean exchanged a look then, startled. I rubbed Billy's back, trying to infuse in him my thoughts. Stay quiet and still.

"The other you've seen before." Cleo was looking at the floor boards. Trying to stay unemotional. "Micheal is his name."

Billy and Dean exchanged another look, this one mean and ready for a fight. I continued to rub Billy's back. Stay quiet man, not yet. I thought to him. He must have sensed my thoughts for he remained seated and quiet. Although I could feel how tense his back was. He gave Dean a quick short shake of the head. Both went back to staring at Cleo, as was I.

"Micheal. I've met him before. At work. I can't remember where. Only that I knew his name when I saw him. When it all happened he said he was staying in the RV area, and when they took me it was to a trailer." Cleo tried to state facts like she was simply relaying them from another source. "It was a pull trailer. The kind you hook to a truck. Small, older and it had been modified."