Forbidden (Southern Comfort) by O'Neill, Clark (best affordable ebook reader txt) 📕

out of him tonight.  Sweet as she was, Tate Hennessey was no man’s fool – not any more.  And he’d do well to remember that in the future.

A future, he realized, that they both saw happening together.

It was terrifying, and… terrifying, and yet comforting at the same time.

“I’m in,” he said after a moment.

“Good.”  Then the hand on his chest began inching lower, and Clay groaned as it closed around his member.

This, he thought, rolling over to pin Tate beneath him, was a program he could definitely get used to.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

JR Walker ambled into the Bentonville UPS store a mere ten minutes after it opened, stewing over the mess his idiot cousin had made.  Probably, he mused, he should have stopped him from beating that girl.  But a little sadism could foster sales in certain quarters, so he’d seen no reason to stop the filming.

Until Billy Wayne climbed off and she wasn’t breathing.

JR had even done CPR – he still remembered how – but to no avail.

And now they had a murder on their heads.

How the hell had he managed to be related to such a fool?  But then it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise – JR’s entire family had been worthless. From his junkie mother who more times than not forgot that he needed food, to his asshole of an uncle who’d been as free with his fists as he’d been with his gin.

Fury twisted inside him, quickly suppressed.  That was something he hadn’t allowed himself to think about in years.

“Hey, Rob.”

JR blinked himself back to the present.  He’d been standing in front of his mailbox.  Staring into space.

Not acceptable behavior.

He turned, managed a smile, and put on some aw, shucks.  He was Rob.  It was something he couldn’t forget.

“Hey, Julie.” He exaggerated his drawl, scratched the deep brown hair of his wig.  Just another tobacco-chewing local yokel – easy to recognize, easy to forget.  “I didn’t even see you,” he told the woman whose acquaintanceship he’d been cultivating for the past couple months.  Since it was impossible to remain anonymous in a small town, that left hiding in plain sight.

“No kidding,” Julie chuckled, which did unflattering things to her jowls.  But as her friendliness worked to his advantage, he kept his personal distaste in check.  No way would she link “Rob” to anything, should it ever come to that.  “You looked like your brain had been sucked out by aliens.”

“I was having one of them, whaddaya call it, senior moments,” he said as he opened his box, gathered his mail.  And glancing at the small stack, made a face that said more bills.

“I think you have to be a little older to qualify for a senior moment.”

“Tell that to my brain.”  And grinning, adjusted his pants under his padded gut.

Julie, stupid sow that she was, just kept talking as if he cared.  Something about her decrepit mother, who really had senior moments, and oh! – some of the mirth-provoking situations that caused.  As she was droning on, the WANTED poster behind her reached out like a fist to grab him.

Remarkable, actually, how well the artist had captured Billy Wayne.

“Hey,” he interrupted Julie’s nonsense, as absolutely casually as he could.  “What’s that poster over there all about?”

“Oh.”  Julie’s eyes lit at the opportunity to pass on the latest gossip. “That man is wanted for questioning in some kind of abduction.  Took a girl from that carnival they have goin’ outside town.”

“Is that so?”   The fist tightened, and squeezed. 

“Yep.”  Julie was utterly delighted.  “And that’s not all.”  She turned and lifted a stubby finger, which stilled in a flash of confusion.  “Well huh.  I wonder where the other one went.” Moving to the table over which the sign hung, she peered under it, toward the floor.  “Here it is!” Triumphant, she scooped another paper off the floor. Then ripping a piece of tape off the dispenser she wore clipped on her belt, affixed the second flyer to the wall.

And as she stood back to admire her handiwork, JR’s vision began to gray.

“The FBI man who brought this in said that the guy might use a disguise, and that he could be one of those, what are they called?  Albinos.”

“Is that so?” he repeated weakly.  Then clearing his throat, managed to look impressed.  “FBI, you said?”

“Uh-huh.” Then she lowered her voice. “But between you, me and the fencepost, he smelled like he’d been drinking.”

If JR hadn’t been going into free-fall, he might have found that amusing.  But since his brain quickly calculated that Billy Wayne had to have been identified from that incident at the diner, where he’d simply refused to wear a disguise – and where JR, as usual, had gone along to make sure the imbecile stayed out of trouble…

As himself, he remembered, infuriated. Because he hadn’t wanted to risk anyone seeing “Rob” with Billy Wayne.

But how the fuck had they managed to tie that incident to the missing girl?

Julie kept yammering away, mistaking speechless rage for fascination.  “My cousin Jenny’s boyfriend – do you know Jenny?  No? – well anyway, Jenny’s boyfriend works down at the sheriff’s office as a dispatcher, and he said that the FBI man and his girlfriend saw this guy at the carnival, and that they were this close to stopping him from taking that girl.  Because, you know, they saw them talking and stuff.  Wild, huh?  He abducted someone right in front of the FBI?”

But JR had stopped listening.  He hadn’t heard anything past the word girlfriend.

He knew who that girlfriend was.

Julie stopped blabbing. “Are you okay Rob?  You got that alien look again.”

Nausea roiled, but he smiled through it.  “Just surprised about all this, I guess.”

“I know what you mean. You don’t think about that stuff happening around here.  But that’s not even the worst of it.  They think he killed another girl.”

“Really?”

“Uh-huh.  Some run-away they found over by Piney Woods.”

  He had to fight to keep his hands from reaching.  From squeezing her throat the way her