Ridge Creek (26 page)

Emma lifts her eyebrows at me as Jake takes my hand and
leads me out the shop front door and onto the street.  Turning me to face him,
he stoops low so he can murmur to my face.  “I know you two haven’t had time to
get together alone today and talk about what happened between us last night.  I
also know that by locking you both here in here for the next hour or two, your
gunna talk.  I’m leaving it up to you to decide how much you tell her.  If you
decide to tell all, make it clear that if tonight’s decision is
not
to
include her it needs to be the end of it.  Particularly around background
checks.  I know most of the men in that room have unsavoury backgrounds and my
guess is they won’t take kindly to knowin’ someone is poking around in them. 
Especially not without their permission.  I’m also betting that from what you
told me last night, she’s already started digging around.  If that’s the case,
she needs to stop.  I can’t be held responsible for her safety if the wrong
people find out she’s been poking around.”

Fuck.  How did he come to that very correct assessment of
Emma’s activities so quickly?

Clearly he’s not just a pretty face.  Nodding to let him
know I understand, I watch as his face relaxes momentarily before a look of
suspicion slides into place.  “You’re a bit too quiet,” he muses turning to
look in the shop window at Emma who is playing with Jambo.  The bird rolling
over and her fingers, swinging upside down momentarily with each roll.

Of course I’m quiet.  For a few reasons.  The first, Jake
looks serious.  Deadly serious.  A look I haven’t noticed before and fuck me,
it’s scary.  The second, I’ve just been told that I’m grounded.  I’m not too
sure I like that – at all.  No one, not even my mother has ever told me where I
can or can’t go and when.   The third, how the hell did he work out what Emma
was up to so quickly?

I tap him on the arm to regain his attention. “How did you
know Emma was already looking into backgrounds?” I ask warily.

“I didn’t, but you just confirmed it so my suspicions were
good, yeah?”

Fuck.

“You play cards don’t you?” I mumble, annoyed at myself for
falling into that trap so easily.

“You don’t?” He says with a grin, not answering my question.

“Asshole,” I grunt as I narrow my eyes and sneer at him.

“Cute,” he replies as he leans forward, grabs me by the back
of the head and blisters me with a long, hot, wet kiss that sends my blood
racing and makes my knees start to buckle.  Feeling me fold, he moves both
hands to grab me by the hips and lift me off the ground.  Suspended a foot in
the air, he finishes the kiss before placing me gently on my feet.  I feel
myself teetering for a moment, dazed and confused.

Smirking, he turns and grabs the door to the shop front,
holding it open for me.  By the time I’m through he has his phone to his ear
and he’s already talking to Jerry the pizza guy.   Closing the door softly
behind him, he flicks a nod to Emma and heads out to the communal room as
well. 

I watch him leave before finally turning to Emma.  She is
leaning against a cabinet, petting Jambo who is now standing quietly on a shelf
in front of her.  “Someone has something to tell Mummy doesn’t she?” She asks
Jambo quietly.  “Someone’s been getting some action and not sharing with her
best friend…” She grins up at me a naughty look on her face.  “Time to spill.”

“Supply run first.  Before the prison doors lock.” I
announce as I look towards the doorway where I can now see Bill carrying a box
back in. 

Nodding her agreement, she offers Jambo a finger to perch on
and leads the way to the door.

*****

Deciding I’m over unpacking boxes and sorting shelf space,
curiosity gets the better of me.  Glancing across to see Emma having a
tug-of-war with Jambo to decide the ownership of a shiny, silver Harley
Davidson key ring, I shuffle my way quietly around the front counter to the
door.

At this point I should say that I am rather proud of myself
for having stayed away from the door for so long.  It has taken a
lot
of
self-control to not head over and stick my ear to this door over the past hour
and a half that we have been unloading boxes.  Unfortunately my self-control
has now plummeted and I swear to God the door is actually
bigger
than it
was before because it’s swelled up and it’s physically
trying
to catch
my attention.

Sliding quietly closer, I start to hear the faint sounds of
music coming from behind the door.

What the?  The cheeky bastards are just partying back
there.

Slightly pissed that we’ve been duped, I press my head
against the door and listen carefully.  Apart from the sounds of the music, I
can’t hear much else.  Now and then I hear a muffled voice but I wouldn’t say
they’re going off in there having a hoedown.

A quiet whisper, “What are they up to?” Startles me and
nearly knocks me off my feet.  Emma has slid up next to me.  She starts to lean
into the door as well.

“Sounds like they’re playing music,” I murmur.

Sticking her ear to the door as well, Emma looks curiously
at me.  Both holding our breaths so we can listen intently, I am still unable
hear the conversation clearly.  I think they are murmuring.  All I can hear is
the damn music.

“Cheeky fuckers,” Emma whispers.  “They’ve put the stereo in
front of the door.”

My eyes widen as I realise what they’ve done.  Jake has
already preempted our snooping and placed a noise muffling device behind the
door.

“Bastard,” I mutter as I push away from the door.

“He obviously knows a bit about women and our eavesdropping
tendencies,” Emma grins as she too straightens from the door.

I grin back.  Clearly he does.

“Well I’m sick of unpacking,” I announce to Emma as I back
up slightly and lean my hip against the front counter.

“Me too,” she agrees instantly giving me a mischievous
look.  “What we gunna do?”

“Dunno, what you wanna do?” I ask smirking as I watch the
cogs in her evil little head ticking over.

“Well,” she says slowly looking towards the front of the
shop.  “The front door’s not locked and there’s gotta be a pub somewhere in
this town…”

“Perfect!” I exclaim with excitement, grinning ear to ear. 
“Let’s do a jailbreak and go have some fun.”

There is however one small problem with our plan.  Slumping
my shoulders I pout .  “I don’t have my purse.”

“Fuck,” Emma grumbles as her shoulders slump too.  “Neither
do I.”

Disappointed that our fun plans appear thwarted before they
even begin, I slide my eyes slowly around the room.  “I wonder if they’ll trade
Harley memorabilia,” I mumble and then start chewing on my lip.

“Doubtful,” Emma  replies, “But…”

I swing my eyes back to hers to see her looking cheerful
again. 

“But what?”

She starts grinning and I watch as her eyes hone in on the
counter behind me.  “We do have their cash register.”

I like her thinking.

“They would have cashed it out wouldn’t they?” I ask as I
turn to focus my attention on the object of our fascination.

“I don’t think so,” Emma mumbles.  “We have all been wrapped
up in building shelves and as far as I know, they opened shop as normal this
morning before they started moving boxes.”

Glancing back at her, I lift my hand and cross my fingers
before turning my attention to the register keyboard.  Finding a large key with
a picture of a drawer on it I reach out to press it.  Hovering slightly above
the keyboard, my voice of conscience rumbles slightly that it’s wrong to take
from someone else’s cash register.  Hesitating briefly, my mind flashes back to
my conversation with Jake and I quickly come to the conclusion that a few
dollars from his cash register (which I fully intend to pay back), won’t be an
issue.

Deciding I’m ready to do this, the matter is suddenly taken
out of my hands by Emma.  Without warning, she slams her hip into mine and bumps
me away from the register.  I lose my balance, fall sideways and grab for the
counter at the same time as I see her finger slam down on the keyboard.

The cash draw pops open.  There’s cash.  Plenty of it.

Emma slices her eyes away from the register to grin at me
evilly.  I give her an eyebrow lift and grin evilly back.  Clearly, Emma thinks
I’m grinning about the stash of cash we’ve just found.  Unknown to her, I am
not. 
My evil mind has turned its focus to payback for the sneaky hip bump.

Pushing back off the counter a lot harder than I intend to,
I send myself flying sideways at her to give her the hip bump from hell.  Shock
registers briefly on her face as I careen into her side.  Our hips  smash
painfully.

With a grunt, we crash with a force I had no idea I was
capable of.  We both careen sideways and slam into the wall behind the
counter.  A few papers that have been thumbtacked haphazardly to the wall fall
down around us.  Hitting the wall with such force, we fall backwards to hit the
counter behind us again.  My back hits the counter edge and I let out a loud
grunt as I throw my hands out to grab Emma by the waist to steady us both. 
Missing my target, we crash again and both fall sideways.   Having lost our
balance, we go down together. Emma grunting with pain as her back clips the
edge of an unopened box on the way down.  The box shifts our weight and we
bounce sideways, landing on the floor at the end of the counter, our heads
towards the shop front.

“Fuck, sorry.” I manage to grunt out a split second before
my chest slam against hers. Hard.

“Ouch!” She squeals as our boobs smash together.

“Double ouch!” I grunt out quickly trying to push up and
away from her body.

“That fuckin’ hurt!” She snaps as she jams her eyes shut
with pain and her hands fly to her boobs.  Groaning, she starts massaging them
to soothe the pain.

“Fuckin’ oath,” I grumble as I settle myself on my knees, my
heels to my ass.  Still on top of her I lean back and start to rub desperately
at the searing pain blazing through my own chest.

With her eyes still shut, Emma grins as she continues to rub
herself.  “Have you been secretly training your hip bump technique or
something?”

“I think I may have hit your ‘sweet’ spot,” I chuckle as I
vision a tennis ball hitting a racket in just the right spot that it flies off
the racket with speed.

“Sweet spot all right.  I bounced off you like a fucking
ping pong ball.”

I start to giggle as we both continue rubbing at our poor
smashed boobs. 

Emma groans again.  “I’d laugh too if it didn’t fucking hurt
so much.  As it is, I think I’m actually gunna cry,” she smirks as she opens
her eyes.

Within an instant, I see there is something wrong.  Her eyes
bulge and she starts blinking at me.

“What’s wrong?” I blurt, suddenly concerned there is either
something very wrong with her or very wrong with me.

“What the fuck are you two doing?” I hear a surprised male
voice boom from behind me.

Fuck!

Jake.

I snatch my hands away from my boobs at the same time as
Emma does.  She looks mortified.  I suspect I do too.  Her eyes slide to what I
assume is Jake, over my shoulder and behind me.

Spinning with words of defense about to roll off my tongue,
my eyes hit Jake’s and I freeze.  Suddenly tongue-tied, my stomach drops as I
realize that not only is Jake standing behind us, but Zane, Luke and several
other men.  It seems as many men as possible have squeezed through the door and
are now peering down at us lying on the floor.

Zane is holding a gun loosely in his hand.

A gun?

Seriously?

“That made me fuckin’ hard.  Why’d you stop ‘em?” I hear
someone mutter.

Frowning I scan the group for the culprit but can’t work out
who it was.  Everyone now has their mouth jammed shut as they stare at us.  I
force myself to keep my eyes on their faces and not look at their crotches.

“Get off the fuckin’ floor,” Jake grunts as his eyes slice
to the now open register nearby.  “What the fuck?”

“Um…” I mumble as I awkwardly stagger to my feet and turn to
offer Emma a hand up.

“What’s going on with the register?” He asks looking confused.

“Um…” Emma starts from beside me before she is cut off by
Jake’s next growl.

“Everyone get the fuck out,” he snaps looking at the group
of men behind him.  Zane and Luke look at each other, their lips twitching with
amusement.  I hear a click and Zane stuffs his gun into the back of his pants
as he turns and starts herding people back through the door.

It doesn’t take long for the room to empty and we watch as
Luke steps through the door last, a smirk on his face.  He shuts the door
softly behind him.  Jake watches him go and then turns angry green eyes on us.

“What the fuck?  I leave you two unsupervised for a fuckin’
hour so you decide to raid my register and have some kinky brand of women sex
on the fuckin’ floor?”

I suppose it could like that.

“Um…” Emma and I both mutter at the same time which makes me
swing my eyes to hers.  I can see hers are smiling and she looks like she’s
having trouble holding back her laughter.  I grin at her and watch as a tear
starts to slide out from the corner of her eye.

Is she in that much pain?

I am about to ask her if she’s okay when she lets a
strangled gurgle and then buckles forward bellowing with laughter.

“Kinky women sex?” She screeches as she continues laughing
and starts to bang her hands against her thighs.  “Is that what you call what
you just saw?”

I hear Jambo start screeching from somewhere behind me. 
He’s distressed by Emma’s loud laughing.  With a whoosh, my hair lifts off my
neck as he swoops past me to land on her shoulder, his posture protective.  Oblivious
to his arrival, Emma keeps laughing.