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LCC 16 Dirty Laundry

16. Dirty Laundry
(same evening)

Brian lay still against the cold desert scrub; it wasn’t comfortable but then again, it wasn’t supposed to be. Far below him, the night desert bloomed in a ghostly green glow, distorted through the scope of his night vision goggles.

The business with Eddie had bothered him. Eddie had been predictable; a jackass, a pushy little bastard, but predictable. All this time, Brian, Jim and Mia had did their best to keep between Eddie and Dom, knowing that Eddie was just itching to get Dom’s parole revoked. Send him back to prison and lean on him. Brian had never been able to find out exactly what the lean was for, what the feds expected to get out of it, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t put together a few good guesses based on what Dom excelled at. At what he had been put away for.

It threw him when Eddie had intervened with the Sheriff, keeping Dom from getting charged with assaulting Amber’s ex. Mia’s voice had gone a little quiet when she had explained that part; she hadn’t really understood it either, hadn’t believed it either, that sudden sea-change. While Mia contemplated an Eddie doing the right thing, Brian had other thoughts. Like the plan had changed and Brian was determined to find out what that was. If Dom was dirty, it would have been different, but Brian knew that he wasn’t.

One small piece of information that Brian managed to pull out of the ether was that whatever game the feds were playing, Eddie wasn’t entirely on board with it. Which only served to make Brian even more curious. Curious enough to put a tail on Eddie, which is what he was doing out in the high desert just shy of the Mexican border, on the state line between Arizona and Southern California.

Far below him, local law had staked out a patch of the road, the extent of the crime scene delineated by the bright glare of emergency flares. Eddie sat on his haunches near the shoulder of the road. The rest of the law were farther up, talking to the truck driver as he leaned against the cab of his semi. They looked to be taking notes but if they were interested, they didn’t show it.

Zooming in, Brian trained the lens back on Eddie. He watched as Eddie stood, brushed road grit off his hands and moved to another spot. Absently, Brian hummed in acknowledgment, watching as Eddie worked the scene, squatting down near the beginnings of a long skid mark.

There was no way to know for sure what the story was down there, or what version the driver had told the law but Brian had the feeling that Eddie was working on a theory of his own. The semi had pulled off the road onto the softer shoulder, leaving tracks in the wet sand and gravel. The cab of a semi was heavy, but the tracks were deeper than they should have been.

Then there was the skid marks, a wide swipe from sets of dual tires. Smaller, narrower sets that pointed to a few other cars. It was something that Brian had seen before, if not in exactly this configuration. Some of the details had changed but the game was the same. At least four cars had been involved in getting the trailer-laden semi to stop. It had pulled off to the side of the road, and had skidded to a stop once, the heavy dual tires biting in. Black skid marks became deep grooves in the shoulder.

Whoever hijacked the truck had the driver separate the trailer from the semi, and the driver, or maybe one of the hijackers, had pulled the empty cab ahead, perhaps to hook up the trailer to another cab. That had resulted in the shallower tracks just ahead of the skid marks.

The truck drivers had been a problem before, Brian remembered; they fought back, and that’s when everything had gone wrong. They fought for their trucks, but they didn’t necessarily fight for their cargo; that was covered by insurance. With their semis, the truckers could still make a living.

The skidding made it clear that the driver had put up some sort of a struggle, but it wasn’t long lived and Brian wondered if the driver being able to keep his cab was a part of that. The trailer was then driven off. The driver, and his cab, were left untouched.

It was an improvement on the original truck heists, and it cleared up what Eddie was doing, as far as Dom was concerned at least. Brian might not know what the feds intended for Dom, but he was starting to get an idea what Eddie intended. It took a lot of skill to take out a truck on these roads. The heist and the escape took precision driving, and Dom was always going to be the best, no matter how much time had passed.

As Brian crept back along the ridge to where his car was parked, hidden from view, he thought about Eddie. Specifically about why Eddie hadn’t arrested Dom, and what he could want Dom for. A half an hour later, Brian drove back home; he would have to drop Mia off at work.

Amber jolted awake in Dom’s arms at the sound of shattering glass and she started to pull away from him, screaming and disoriented, at the sound of Mia’s shouting. Two mornings in a row she had woken to the sound of shouting. Elbows and knees struck hard on the wall against which the bed was pushed as she blindly fought for escape. Cringing, Dom turned away from Mia, his arm tight around Amber’s waist as he sought to keep her from hurting herself. “Mia!” he turned back, shouting at his sister over his shoulder, but Mia had already stormed out.

“Fuck,” he muttered, pressing against Amber until she froze, her body effectively pinned between the wall and Dom’s chest. He wrapped a leg around the top of her thigh, keeping her from kicking. It wasn’t something that she was aware of; she was somewhere else, terrified, fighting to escape. Her belly fluttered under his hand as he sought to pin her still. “Take it easy, it’s just Mia blowing a gasket.”

Mia had a short fuse and Dom knew that once she’d managed to say what she wanted to say, everything would be fine, but Amber didn’t know that and was freaked out. He could understand that, given everything that had happened. It didn’t help that Amber in all likelihood had no idea where she was. “You’re safe.”

It wasn’t how Dom wanted to wake up either, with Amber on her back, scared half to death. She looked up at him, trying to make some sort of sense out of it; her frightened eyes flitted over his face, settling on his before she nodded.

Sighing, Dom eased up, taking his weight off her, pleased that she didn’t bolt. “Stay here, I’ll go talk to her.” Taking a last look at her, at her face flushed red with embarrassment, he added, “nothing happened, okay?” Only when she nodded again did he swing his feet over the side and jump down the few steps to confront Mia, who had just gotten started.

“I can’t fucking believe you, Dom!” Mia had stamped halfway to the back door of the diner before she turned around, not quite done fighting, her hands talking as loudly as she was. “Why? Why her?”

“Mia, it’s not….” he tried to get out, but Mia was too angry, too sure of what she had seen. In sock feet he closed the distance between them, reaching out to grab her arm. Pissed off, she tried to wave him off, but he held her fast.

Unable to avoid him, Mia turned to face him, hurt etched into her face as she pled with him. “How could you hurt her?” she said, but held a hand over her own heart when she said it; Dom had hurt her too. Mia had never given a damn about any of the women in Dom’s life, instinctively aware that he didn’t care about them either, but she really liked Amber. Cared for her.

“She’s not just some fuck you can use up and throw away when you’ve had what you want,” Mia spat out bitterly, throwing Dom’s past back in his face.

Dom pulled her a little closer, his voice rising along with his anger. “Stop it right the fuck now!” It was bad enough that his little sister knew so much about his past, he hadn’t realized just how much of his private life she saw, but Dom didn’t want his life spilling out in front of someone else. Especially not Amber; that really bothered him. Amber wasn’t anything at all like the other women in his life and the idea that she was going to learn about it this way really affected him.

As if she hadn’t heard the warning in Dom’s voice at all, Mia continued to shout. “…She’s not Heather…”

Even Mia faltered after she let that spill out, seeing Dom’s expression blacken. Briefly, Dom’s grip on her arm tightened before he willed himself to let go, his lips twisting in a snarl. His voice dropped to a hard, flat monotone as he got right into Mia’s face, his finger mere inches from her nose. “No, she’s not,” he bit out.

The warning in her brother’s tone would have silenced a man three times her size, but Mia wasn’t a man, and she knew that she had nothing to fear from Dom. Hands on her hips, she stood her ground. “But I saw….”

Reining in his violent temper, Dom crossed his arms over his chest but he didn’t back off Mia. “You saw what, exactly? Why don’t you tell me what the fuck you THINK you saw?!”

The dead serious tone of voice, the surety in Dom’s stance. The fact that Amber had come down the steps from Dom’s room and now stood in her bare feet on the wet dirt of the driveway, her face a mask of hurt and shock. All of that had Mia falter, her eyebrows come together. What she had been about to say all but forgotten.

In the face of Dom’s anger, Amber’s embarrassment, Mia’s certainty wavered. “I…don’t….” she stammered.

“You seemed pretty fucking sure about it a minute ago. So tell me what you think you saw, sis.” The bitterness in his tone cut right into Mia, pouring ice cold water on her anger.

Mia blinked, her eyes quickly scanned over Dom again, and swept over Amber as well, now that she also stood in the driveway. Gathering up some of her outrage, she glared up at Dom again. “You know you shouldn’t have…”

“Shouldn’t have what?!” Dom roared back.

Mia had been so quick to anger that what she had thought that she had seen was pushed into the background. Dom was fully clothed, as was Amber. And Dom was on top of the blankets when she had walked into his room. Mia had no answer for what she thought she saw.

“Dom…” Mia whispered, looking around Dom’s arm to Amber, who had backed a few more feet towards the fence in the direction of her house.

“I was just scared. I shouldn’t have….” Amber stammered as both Dom and Mia turned to look at her. Nothing had happened, Amber knew, but it didn’t change the way that she felt. Humiliated, embarrassed and ashamed.

It was terrible enough that Dom and Mia were fighting, over her no less, but the fight had drawn out customers for the diner, who now stood in the driveway. Trying not to listen. Unable not to. A hard glare from Dom was enough for several of them to get interested in the ground, their shoes, their cars, but the damage was done.

They looked at her with pitying expressions, when they looked up at all. The last thing that she ever wanted to feel like was a notch on someone’s bedpost, and this was worse. Amber had backed up to the end of the fence and with a last look at Dom and Mia, she turned and ran around the end of the fence, breaking for her porch.

“Fuck…” Dom sighed out, his gut in a knot. It wasn’t as though it was the first time he had a woman run from him either. He’d never hurt a woman physically, but there were so many other ways. So many worse ways. He was an asshole, it was really that simple. It wasn’t the first time, but this time it hurt because it mattered to him.

“Dom, you should…” Mia started, her words a little quieter.

Bitterly, Dom barked at her, back in her face. “Oh, now I should, huh? I’ll talk to you after.” With that, Dom turned and went after Amber, leaving Mia to deal with the customers. For Dom they didn’t exist anymore.

Aggravated, Dom got to Amber’s closed door. If she was someone else, he would have barged right in. Then again, if she was someone else, he wouldn’t give a shit what she thought. Even as he thought it, that bothered him, just knowing that it was the truth. Another woman wouldn’t have stayed the night in the first place and he would have been glad to get rid of them. He really was an asshole.

He had one hand on the door knob and another raised to knock when he stilled, wondering if she would have locked it. “Amber, I’m coming in.” Unlocked. At least she hadn’t locked him out. Yet. She hadn’t answered him, but she hadn’t yelled at him to get the fuck out of her house either.

Standing in the doorway he watched her quietly as she splashed water on her face, standing over the kitchen sink. Hoped that she was just washing up but feared that she was crying. Pressing her hands against her face, she stood by the sink for a minute, taking a deep breath and then turned to face him.

“You okay?” There was a lot more that he wanted to say. That he was sorry she heard it at all, that she shouldn’t have had to listen to that at all. That he and Mia shouldn’t have yelled and screamed in front of her and a bunch of customers. The most important thing to him was knowing that she was okay; beyond that, knowing that they would be okay, but he wasn’t going to say that.

Another deep sigh and Amber turned, pressing back against the kitchen sink. She looked up at him once, enough for him to know for sure that she had been crying, and then back at the floor. “I’m sorry. I was just scared.”

Dom knew that her apology was sincere, but it had the feeling of rote; she was repeating what she had said earlier out in the driveway because she felt that she had to apologize. His hand came up to cut her off but she couldn’t see him, wasn’t looking at him, and she continued, her head down, voice barely more than a whisper.

“I shouldn’t have come out last night, shouldn’t have had so much to drink. I shouldn’t…”

Crossing the small kitchen to stand in front of her, Dom forced her to look up at him; she still couldn’t look him in the eyes. “Don’t.”

Dom sighed as he watched her; she looked like she was ready to bolt. She hadn’t though and that was a start. Repeating what he had said to her before he dashed out after Mia, he took a step closer to her. “Nothing happened.”

When she finally looked up at him, the naked intensity in her eyes had him look away for a moment. Women had stared at him but this was different. She sighed, and looked back at the floor, at a spot between her feet. “That’s the second time you’ve done that. Stayed with me,” her voice died to a whisper. “Taken care of me.” It was as unfamiliar to Amber as it was to Dom. Alan couldn’t have been said to share a bed with her either. She looked up at him and held this time, “Thanks.”

He opened his mouth and then closed it, unsure of what to say. Mia would have known exactly what to say, but in the realm of a woman’s feelings, Dom was a little lost. He went with his heart instead and stepped forward. Still Amber didn’t bolt, even if she had less space now.

Amber didn’t fight when his arms went around her. She didn’t reciprocate, her fingers remained knotted together close to her chest, but she didn’t fight either. Dom closed his eyes and rested his chin on her damp hair. It felt good to hold her; it felt better that she let him. “I probably should have just carried you back here when you fell asleep.” He could see himself so clearly as he stood on her porch the night before, when he had made the choice for her.

Mumbling, Amber spoke against his chest; Dom didn’t mind and didn’t let her pull away from him. “Would it have been any different then?”

Grinning into her hair, Dom squeezed her a little harder. “Fuck no, she’d just have more time to get really pissed off about it.”

Laughing quietly, her head rested against his chest and Dom tightened his arms around her, stroking her back. He eased off when he realized that he was taking advantage. Again. “Didn’t mean to cause a fight though. It’s…”

“Nothing,” he interrupted her. “We fight all the time.” Automatically he started to stroke her back again when she tensed up, pulling her chin up to look at him. “Mia’s not shy when she’s got something on her mind.” His grin widened a little more; that was an understatement and a half.

The grin was infectious and now Amber smiled too, briefly, before she sighed and lowered her head again. “Is she going to be pissed off at me?” Amber could deal with it, if she had to. There was still the job that she had doing work online. She didn’t want to though; the rejection would hurt like hell.

“No. She’s gonna be pissed off at me though,” he started to laugh and Amber joined him shortly after. Dom knew that she had no idea why, that it was nerves, but he liked it all the same.

He felt her hands shift against his chest as she rubbed her eyes again. She didn’t clasp them back in front of her chest when she was done but she wasn’t really sure what to do with them either. Dom wondered how often she had just been held and guessed that it couldn’t have been that often. A hand rested on his waist for less than a second and then she dropped both of them by her sides, as though she had been burned. In a way she had.

“Didn’t want you to have to hear what you did,” Dom whispered into Amber’s hair, pulling his head back as she moved.

Amber looked up at him, taking a deep breath. Blowing it out through her nose. She blinked, blushing, embarrassment written all over her face again, this time for Dom as well as herself. It made her think of Shirley, of all the awful things that the people in her office had said about Shirley. For years. Things that very well might have been true but that were awful nonetheless. Swallowing, Amber stood a little straighter; she pressed back from him but it was so that she could look up at him, not to pull away.

You don’t.” Dom had talked to her last night as she fell asleep on the porch. In his arms no less. Like Shirley, he wasn’t a saint, but like Shirley, he was a friend. Amber didn’t want his apologies either.

He frowned down at her at first, wanting to explain. Not wanting to explain. Then he just shook his head and let it be. “Fair enough.” Amber turned her head to the side against his shoulder as he tightened his hold on her, his nose in her hair. He went back to the question that he had started with. “You okay?”

Dom felt her nod against his shoulder and then she was pressing backwards again; he didn’t let her go far. “Are we okay?” She blushed as she looked up at him, but didn’t look away.

His hands came off her back to cup her face briefly, her skin hot and flushed. “Yeah, we’re okay.” Leaning forward, he kissed her forehead, resting there for a second. Amber’s breath hitched, just once, but Dom let her be; he had the feeling that if he held her again, that she would cry and he didn’t want her to cry anymore.

Standing again, he stroked a hand through her hair before letting her go. “If you still want to, go next door. I’ll straighten it out with Mia.”

Face still flushed, Amber looked up at him. “Shouldn’t I wait? I mean…if she’s mad…”

Dom took a step back, his chest feeling cold after letting her go. “She’s not mad at you, she’s pissed at me.”

“I’m…” Amber began, and was just as quickly cut off by Dom.

“Don’t.” It came out harder than he had wanted and he said it again, his voice softer, quieter. “Don’t.” He stood in the doorway to her kitchen, turning to go. “You should know, Mia’s never gotten pissed off at me quite like that before, and never over a woman. Ever. You’re the first.” With that, Dom turned and left.

Amber inhaled sharply, before she bit her lip and blinked back tears; she wouldn’t cry anymore, at least not over this. Heart pounding, she crossed her arms over her chest and rested back against the kitchen sink, her mind a jumbled mess. She had to think about it just to breathe and she still wasn’t sure that she just wouldn’t begin crying again anyway.

“What the hell just happened?” Her hands came up and rubbed at her eyes again; they felt raw and sore and she probably looked like shit. She felt like shit; there was that business of a small hangover that just added to the crazy morning.

On top of all that was the smell of Dom’s shirt, of Dom, as he held her in her kitchen and told her that they’d be okay. He had kissed her. Amber touched her forehead where his lips had been, as if she could still feel him there. Something, anything, just to try to make sense of it.

Making her way back to the bathroom, she dropped her pajama bottoms, sat down and buried her face in her hands again. Unable to stop, she cried for a few minutes, her heart a riot of emotions. Over as quickly as it had begun, Amber wiped a hand over her face one last time, her breath hitching and evening out. Finishing up, she stood in front of the bathroom sink and splashed enough cold water on her face so that it didn’t look like she’d been sobbing, and then looked in the mirror over the sink.

“You didn’t come all the way out here to hide in the bathroom,” she told her reflection. Her morning had been humiliating, frightening, confusing. But there had been other mornings, where she had to cover black eyes and bruises, or come up with lies about how she got them. This was awkward but she could definitely live with it.

And Dom had assured her that they were okay. She looked down and braced her arms against the sides of the sink, her eyes closed. That was the confusing part for her, that it mattered so much. Deep down, she trusted Dom, not just with her life but with her heart; that’s what it came down to. She trusted Dom, and she really liked Mia; there had been very few real friends in her life. There couldn’t be before but that had changed too.

On the way back to her bedroom she pulled her tank top over her head, briefly holding it to her nose. It made the morning real, the night before real. No matter what Amber had overheard, Dom had made her feel safe and just the smell of him, his solidity, on her clothes cleared her head a little. “I can do this.”

The moment that Dom stuck his head in the pass through window, Mia felt guilty. He hadn’t said a word, just crooked a finger at her, a silent demand to get out of the kitchen, turned around and walked to the very last booth by the window. Customers sitting on either side, in the booth behind him and at the counter to the side, got quiet in a hurry as he walked past.

Heads dipped even further as Mia came out and joined him, sitting across from him with her back to the window. Nearly everyone in the diner had been standing outside by their cars when the original shouting match had occurred. One look at Heather and Mia was pretty sure that she had gladly gotten in on that gossip.

Mia had hoped that Dom would have walked out back to the garage; she dreaded having Heather overhear anything that they said and possibly giving her more ammunition. They sat across from each other, not saying anything, at least not in words. Mia didn’t know how to begin, and she could see from the way Dom’s muscles bulged and flexed under his shirt that if he spoke, it would come out as shouting. Mia wasn’t entirely done being pissed off either but it was directed inward.

Elbows resting on the table, fingers knotted together, Dom’s knuckles crunched one last time and then he sighed, visibly letting go before he started to speak. “Amber is coming back, I sent her over.”

“Is she…” Mia began, only to be cut off by Dom’s hard glare. Biting her tongue wasn’t something that Mia was all that good at, but looking at Dom, she knew that now was not the time to push her brother. Not after what had happened, after what she had said.

There were so many things that Dom wanted to say but he knew that after holding Amber, not just in her kitchen but over the whole night, that he had to be careful or there would be a repeat of the fight in the driveway. He didn’t want to yell at his sister either. “I know what you think you saw. If she was anyone else, you’d be right.”

“No…” Mia tried to get a word in edgewise, just to apologize, to make up for what she had said. It was so clear that she had hurt him, or he wouldn’t be so pissed off now.

“Let me finish.” Dom didn’t ask for permission; it wasn’t a discussion. Leaning in across the table, his voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. He spoke softly, quietly, and with absolute conviction, holding Mia’s entire attention. “It’s not what you think; my intentions were honorable.” At that he stopped, almost daring her to say something or to laugh at him. Given his track record, he knew how it sounded, but he knew how he felt.

Mia had wanted to say something, but couldn’t, not yet. She had made a mistake, jumped to conclusions. It didn’t matter that she had a lifetime of experience with Dom to found those beliefs upon; she shouldn’t have been so quick to accuse him. Amber was included in those accusations, and just as hurt by them.

Dom’s voice dropped further, if that were possible and he leaned in a little closer, making Mia do the same until their foreheads nearly touched. “She matters to me, sis.” It wasn’t the words that swayed her, but the look in his eyes; he meant it, and a lot more. Mia wondered if he had fallen for Amber, if he even knew.

Mia tilted her chin up at him, her dark eyes blinking back tears, locked on his, willing him to know how serious she was, how much she meant what she was about to say. “I’m sorry about what I said outside.”

Sighing, Dom reached out and cupped the back of her head, bringing their foreheads back together. He could never stay mad at her. “Me too. We’re good?”

Nodding, her breath hitched and Mia reached forward as well, pulling Dom into an awkward hug across the tabletop.

Quickly, Amber got dressed and darted across the driveway to the back door of the diner. There was a moment when she feared that the door would be locked, that she’d have to press the small buzzer on the side, only to have Mia send her away.

The door opened when she turned the knob and Amber walked into the empty back hall of the diner. Feeling uneasy, she looked around for Mia but she was nowhere to be found; Dom had said that he would talk to her and Amber supposed that that was where she was. Where they both were.

Music played quietly out in the diner. Conversation could be heard. Life went on. Amber wasn’t entirely sure what to do but she could no more hide in the hallway than she could hide in her bathroom. Either she could pick up and move on, things would be okay, or they would not. It was better to find out now.

The kitchen was empty as well which almost had Amber turn back and walk down the hallway. She didn’t. Instead, she pulled a clean apron off the hook, pulled it on and tying it around her back.

Amber made a face when she realized that she was tiptoeing, as if she was somewhere that she had no business being. “This is dumb,” she muttered under her breath before walking into the middle of the kitchen, taking a look around.

Nervously, Amber took a more critical look around the kitchen. Where before she had simply searched for Mia, now she searched for something that she could do. Of course her eyes fell on the toaster, which made her laugh, a snort of sound that felt weird. The big flattop with the grill made her a little nervous but it really wasn’t much different than a frying pan, and every other piece of equipment wasn’t terribly different than something she would find in a regular kitchen. Just bigger. At least that was a start.

There was a slip of white paper clipped to the order wheel up by the pass through window and, after chewing on her bottom lip, Amber walked over to it.

“It’s not going to make itself, sweetie.”

Startled, Amber looked up, wide-eyed, as Heather appeared in the window. Heather’s voice was pleasant enough, if a little syrupy, and she was smiling, but it wasn’t a real smile. There was something bright and nasty in her eyes that froze Amber, a look that she recognized. Before Amber had taken the bat to her ex-husband she might have shied away from that look.

Amber snapped the paper off the wheel, smiling back at Heather. “Guess not. It’ll be a few minutes, who knows what the hell I’ll do to those eggs. Hope you weren’t expecting a big tip.”

Heather glared through the pass through, her false smile momentarily forgotten, before she turned on her heel back out into the diner. With Heather gone, Amber reached up and took down the bill again, taking a more serious look at it. Wishing that Mia was here didn’t make Mia appear; she was on her own but how hard could it be to fry an egg?

In the corridor that led to the kitchen, Mia covered her mouth with her hands, jamming the laughter inside, and backed into Dom. She could feel Dom’s chest shake with silent laughter, so he had heard what Amber said too. Mia nearly felt like crying again when Dom pulled her closer, just a quick squeeze, and then he shoved her forward into the kitchen.

Amber spun at the sudden noise, eyes wide and a little frightened, before she let out an audible exhale. “Oh thank god, I had no damned idea what I was doing.”

Dom leaned against the door, arms crossed, just watching. In case he had to intervene although he didn’t believe he would have to. Mia got hot but it wasn’t in her to hurt people, it just wasn’t who she was. Amber looked nervous and one look was enough to tell Dom that she had been crying again, but she had come back and that was a start. He didn’t really know what he’d do if she didn’t, it wasn’t like he could make her come back.

Mia let out a sound that started out as an apology and ended up closer to a sob. Then her arms were around Amber and Dom knew that it would be all right. Grinning down at the floor, he was a little taken aback at how happy that made him and got a hand up to wipe what had to be a goofy grin off his face before he crossed the kitchen to join them. His arms easily went around them both, Mia settling easily against his chest, bringing Amber with her. Leaning down, he kissed the top of Mia’s head and then shifted a little lower to kiss Amber’s forehead, resting there a little longer.

In the pass through, Heather glared at them. If looks could kill.

Copyright © November 2007 xxxevilgrinxxx

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