Ready to Run Ch. 03

***NOTE*** This story is a part of my ongoing series called Trouble Texas Style (Night Walker's Woman, Tight Fittin' Jeans, One Night Stand, and soon to include Goodbye Earl). These are complex and interwoven tales that cross genres, including erotica, romance, and suspense.

I have kept them separate as opposed to hopping from character to character chronologically, as George R R Martin does with Ice & Fire. But I am keeping things sequential in the overall story arch. So, while it might theoretically be possible to read this as a standalone story, it is best appreciated in the overall context of the stories.

***TRIGGER WARNING*** This story contains strong content and controversial topics, including racism, rape trauma, and human trafficking. The purpose of these stories is certainly NOT to justify or glorify any of those things. There will be brief flashbacks but I am NOT including any graphic depictions of something that is a crime of violence and power, not a sex act. Please do NOT read if such things offend you, and if you are a survivor of trauma, please seek support.

***

Why now of all times? Why did Mercy finally meet a man that did as much for her as those 'book boyfriends?' Why when her world was falling apart?

She began to laugh. And once that dam broke, there was no turning back. She pushed out of his arms. She did not need that distraction on top of everything else that she was dealing with. She just kept laughing until she doubled over with pain in her side. Even then, she could not stop. She laughed until the tears began to flow. She was laughing and crying until her whole body shook as violently as if she were having a seizure.

The man leaned against his motorcycle, just staring at her. It did not take a psychic to read his mind. And he was probably right; she had lost her mind. She had to have, right? Hell, her whole fucking life had become worse than some cheesy plot in her romances.

Except she was no fucking damsel in distress, let Elena play that role. Hell, even Laura seemed to be embracing the role now that Ryan had shown up. But she was too much her Mama's daughter. She didn't need no man. Even an uber-hot one that she'd pay good money to pose for a cover.

Oh sure, this was just how those fucking tropes went. A seemingly strong woman faces an insurmountable problem. White knight, although in this case, her knight wore dark damned fine, rides in on his charger. She supposed a Ducati Scrambler 1100 was the modern equivalent. And saves the damsel and the day. Still, dei ex machina had never been her favorite plot device.

But Merry J. Austin never wrote to those fucking tropes. That was why she had given up looking for an agent or book deal, and just self-published her stories. No, her books were different. Her heroines took no shit and always kept the upper hand. So, how did she get that upper hand back now?

Mercy drew in a deep, cleansing breath and wiped the tears from her face with the back of her hand. She looked around them, "Where the fuck are we?"

He shrugged, "I'm not sure exactly. Bumfuck, Texas. About a hundred miles or so southwest of Sebida."

She nodded and slipped the backpack off her shoulders. She clutched it in front of her, though she did not mind this man staring at her tits. She opened the top and reached inside for a bottle of water. She grabbed one for him as well. "Where are you going?" She asked as she tossed him the water.

He unscrewed the cap and brought the bottle to the sexiest lips she had ever imagined kissing. Fuck, now was not the time for this shit. But if those lips weren't enough to unnerve her, then those soft brown eyes that never left her face would have. Were those green flecks around the outside? Shit, this was bad.

And his next words only made it worse. "I have no fuckin' idea. I was hoping you could tell me, sweetheart."

"What do you mean, you have no idea? I thought you said that you were a fed?" But was that a good thing? Hadn't Mama told her that Ryan thought there might be a leak? Wasn't that why they were going into hiding? Could she trust this guy? She unconsciously slipped her hand into the front pocket of the bag.

He held up his hands, "Mercy." He smiled, and her name sounded like some sweet caress, like a Chicks ballad. "Mercedes, there's no reason to go for your gun. I'm one of the good guys, I promise." He shrugged, "Well, if there is such a thing."

She shook her head but did not take her hand off the gun, though this time, she left the safety on. For now. "I'm asking you again. Who the fuck are you? And what the hell were you doing at my library? Were you there to arrest me too?"

"My name is Caleb Williams, but as I said, most people call me Will. And until this morning, I was a federal agent assigned to the McBride case. And no, my former employer did not send me to arrest you. Hell, I did not even know that they were all that interested in your sister. Though I suppose it makes sense since McBride is dead."

"As for what I was doing at the library? That was just Fate. I was following Kerr." He brought the bottle back to those kiss-ass-able lips and drained it.

"Why were you following Kerr? What do you mean former employer? McBride is dead?"

He began with the easiest question. "They found McBride and the rental in a ditch. Just outside of Sebida earlier today." Will saw the shock and concern in her innocent eyes. But he did not want her to make those same connections he had, so he continued.

"I had personal business with Kerr. And States Attorney James Travis Tyler fired my ass this morning." He screwed the lid back on the bottle and tossed it back towards her.

But she was not biting. It landed at her feet, and she kept her eyes on his face, "Why did he fire you? And what personal business?"

"Damn, woman, maybe you should have gone to law school like that sister of yours. Cause you're better than Tyler at cross-examination."

"I always preferred fiction to legal briefs. Now answer my fucking questions, or the safety comes off my gun."

He laughed and shook his head, "I was one of the agents guarding McBride when he escaped."

Fuck. That made him crooked. As bad as Kerr. She took off the safety and pulled the gun out of the pocket, aiming it at him. Well, at his kneecap. She might have had the courage to shot Kerr through the heart if he had not moved, but she knew she could never kill this man. No matter what. And that bothered the fuck out of her. But she could make damned sure he did not follow her. She took another couple of steps back towards the road.

"It's not what you think. I'm not the leak, and I didn't do it for the money."

The way those eyes met hers almost made her believe him, or maybe that was just because she wanted to? Either way, she found herself asking, "So why then? Why would you let that man go?"

"Like I told Tyler, I didn't. Well, not McBride himself. He promised he'd come back. He just wanted to take his wife and child someplace safe."

"And you believed him?"

"About coming back? No. But I did about getting those women someplace safe." He sighed, and his shoulders slumped as he dropped his hands to his side at last. "I'm guessing from what you said about your sisters and Mama that Ryan had figured it out too. There's a leak in the agency."

Mercy stiffened; it was one thing to know that her brother-in-law suspected that, but this man spoke as if it were fact. "How do you know that for sure?"

"Because I know who it is."

***

"Who? And how do you know? Are you some hotshot double agent working both sides?"

Will began to pace back and forth in front of the Duchess. He did not believe that Mercy would shoot him. He was pretty confident that she could not bring herself to do it. Strike that, he was sure of it.

That was just it, though. How the hell did he explain any of that to this woman? Other than his Grandmother, he had never told anyone. Hell, it was Nana's idea not to. And that said something.

He had screwed the pooch on this one, for sure. So, what did he say to her now? How did he explain how he could know something that no one else did? "I can't tell you that." Maybe he could play the national security card?

She cocked the gun. He looked at her. No, he was still sure she would not shoot him. He would even bet that she felt the connection between them. Maybe not like he did, but then again, he had never felt anything like it before either.

"Try again, buddy. And you never answered my other question. What is your 'personal' business with Kerr?"

Will ran his hands over his hair. Damn, he was in this deep. And this time, he had no exit strategy. Hell, the truth was that with this woman, he did not want one. But he damned sure needed to come up with a stick around one, to earn her trust, and something told him that was not easily done.

He shook his head and looked at her, met those dark eyes once more, damn, he could get lost in those things. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you." And that was the truth.

"Try me," at least she lowered the gun as she crossed her arms across those spectacular tits. Damn, now was not the time to dream of motorboating those things. But he was sure they would become his favorite pillow for the rest of his life.

He sighed, "I just do."

She shook her head, "What kind of answer is that?"

"An honest one. I don't know. I never have. I just know things."

"What you're like psychic or something?"

Damn, the woman was even sexy when she frowned. Though he would much rather see her smile. What he really wanted was to make her moan. "No, nothing like that. Nothing so specific. I just get these feelings about people when I meet them."

"Yeah, well, we all have those."

He nodded, "Yes, but most peoples are based on assumptions. Stereotypes. Fears," He held himself back from using the word prejudices. They had a lifetime to discuss the weightier matters of the universe. And he looked forward to that. Laying in bed next to this woman after making loving and talking about everything, anything, and nothing. "And loads of people don't trust their guts either."

She nodded her head, and he loved the way that ponytail at the back bobbed. Yeah, he liked that style on her. Not that he did not want to see her soft brown hair falling about her face. But at the moment, he was too caught up on imagining what it would feel like to wrap that ponytail around his fist and pull her head back as he slammed his cock deep inside her. Spilling his seed and his soul and in the process, creating a new life.

What the fuck! Where the hell had that one come from? It was the one thing that Will had sworn he would never do. Not in this world. He would never bring a child into this fucked up world. But when he looked at her, he could almost see her body round and ripe with his child. Now he was fucking scared.

She shook her head and frowned as she watched him, "Okay, say I buy that. Not that I do, mind you. But that still does not answer my other question, what is your business with Kerr?"

"I'm not sure." He began to pace again, to work off the nervous energy that was strumming through his body. Though he could think of better ways to burn it off, he did not believe Mercedes was up for that just yet. And he doubted he was any closer to earning that trust either. In fact, he might have just blown any chance of it. Well, not any chance, but he certainly had not helped his case. But maybe he could redeem himself a bit with more of the truth.

"I'm not certain, really. But my cousin disappeared from a bus stop in Dallas over two and a half years ago."

"I'm sorry," and he could see that she meant that.

"Bebe was only twelve, and she was waiting for the bus to school." He felt that same righteous indignation as his Grandfather Walt called it surfacing, but Mercedes was not the cause of issues that went back hundreds of years. He was not going to take that anger out on her. So, he pushed it out of his mind, right along with the breath in his lungs.

He looked at the ground as he put his hands in the pocket of his leather jacket. "The police told her mother that she probably just ran away. An honor roll student that had never missed a single day of school in her life just ran away?" He met those warm brown eyes; he did not even have to say the words.

"Because she was black, you mean?"

He nodded, glad that he had not had to say them to her. He swallowed down the lump that rose in his throat every time he spoke about her, "Nine-hundred-ninety-eight days and the Dallas Poice Department's file on her is only three pages."

Was it his imagination, or had Mercedes taken a couple of steps in his direction? Not that his vision was all that sound right at the moment. A lifetime of tears seemed to be welling up in his heart and spilling into his eyes. He swiped at them with the back of his hand, but the damned leather only chafed and made his vision more blurred.

"The only thing in that file that was of any use was a tip from the anonymous police hotline. All it said was to check out Sherriff Earl Kerr in Sebida that dozens of young women and girls went missing there."

"But Dallas is over two-hundred miles away from Sebida. What makes you think that Kerr had anything to do with your cousin's disappearance?"

"I didn't. Well, I couldn't be sure. But it was all I had, and DPD had never bothered to followup."

The next part was incredibly hard. He felt raw, like some wounded deer struck by a car on the road, bleeding out and just laying there waiting to die on the roadside. How could she understand? Hell, he did not want her to. He never wanted this woman touched by the nastiness of hatred and prejudice that ruled this world.

"He did it, didn't he? When you saw him today, you knew?" Her eyes reminded him of that doe just before the crunch of the grill sealed its Fate. And he knew then. He knew that this young woman, his woman, knew depth of pain equal to his own. Perhaps not the same pain, but wasn't all pain the same at its core?

He nodded his head at her words. He could not find words, and even if he could, Will wasn't sure he could make his mind put them together or his throat speak them.

***

His words bounced in her head like sub-atomic particles setting off a nuclear reaction. Stirring up memories that Mercy tired to keep buried. She lost it. She was that little girl once more. Five years old. Back in that trailer. It was late, and Mama had just come home from work. She had pretended to be asleep so that Laura would not know, but she had waited up for mama, crying. She had something to confess.

She could hear voices down the hall. One of them was Mama. But she didn't sound right. Maybe she had found out from someone in town. Mercy's guilt only deepened. She couldn't let Laura take the blame for her. It was all her fault. She knew better than to steal. No matter how much she wanted that chocolate bar.

She would tell Mama the truth. Mama would know what to do; she always did. Then she could make things right. So, Laura did not get into trouble. No matter what her sister said, it was not her fault.

But something stopped her just before she left the safety of those shadows. Mercy would never forget her mother's face. Fear. Mama was never afraid of anything. But she was.

Then she heard him. She saw the new deputy. She did not remember his name, but he was the one that had come to the store when Miss Patsy called. He was the one that had talked to Laura. She did not know what the man said because her sister had pushed her, Elena, and Jack outside.

Mercy heard his words now, though. "I'm sure we can work something out."

That sounded good. Until he grabbed Mama by the hair. "Don't make a fuckin' sound, bitch. I'd hate for anything; I don't know a fire to happen to those pretty little girls of yours."

She had not seen what happened. And she knew how hard Mama tried to keep quiet, but Mercy heard her whimpers of pain. That little girl sat there, frozen in the hall, she was not sure for how long. It seemed forever.

Then she heard the door close and Mama's sobs. Somehow that little girl found the strength and courage to step from those shadows. "Mama?"

Her mother reached for the blanket that covered the rips and tears in their Salvation Army couch. She wrapped it about her half-naked body as quickly as she could, but not before Mercy saw the red welts, white teeth marks, and purple bruises that were already forming. Mama turned her head and wiped her tears.

When she turned back to face her daughter, she had that smile plastered on her face. She pretended nothing was wrong and that there had never been any tears. "You should be in bed, sugar." She wrapped that old quilt tighter and walked on wobbly legs over to Mercy, "I'll get you some water and put you back to bed."

"I'm sorry, Mama. It was all my fault." Mercedes dropped the bag and the gun. She turned her head away from the man and fell to the ground. The water, the stale tuna sandwich she had eaten for lunch, and almost twenty-eight years of pain, anger, and self-hatred spewed forth, fertilizing that ground and its crop.

Then arms, strong arms, broad shoulders, and the rapid beating of his heart wrapped around her. She was not sure if it was that five-year-old little girl or the thirty-two-year-old virgin that held him tighter as a lifetime of bottled tears poured forth.

***

Will sat on the slightly damp ground with her head resting against his chest; his arms wrapped tightly about her until the crying and hiccups stopped. The sky was that dark red and purple that came just before dark in Texas.

He wanted to protest when she pulled back. It felt like she had ripped away his security blanket, the most precious thing in his world. But he chuckled as she wiped tears and snot from her face with the back of her arm. Damn, he already loved this woman. Strong, beautiful, and down to earth, what more could any man want or need.

"I need to call Mama."

He shook his head, "That isn't a good idea, darlin'. They'll be able to trace the call. Use it to locate us."

She shook her head and reached into another of the pockets on that pack, "Not if they don't know who owns the phone."

"A burner?"

She nodded as she scrolled through the contacts and hit the buttons, "Yeah, we all have them." She turned her attention to the phone as she spoke, "Mama."

Will could not hear what was said on the other end, but he could guess from the look on her face and her next words, "I'm fine. Or as fine as I can be."

"No, Mama, I'm safe," she looked at him for a moment. "I'm with a federal agent."

She frowned and shook her head, "No, Mama, I know I can trust him. Besides, he's not with the feds anymore."

Her eyes looked to him, almost pleading as she continued, "Listen, Marmee, I can't go into all the details right now. I just need you to trust me. I know what I'm doing."

He snickered as Mercy held the phone away from her ear. Though he could not make out the words, he heard the yelling. After a moment, she put the phone back to her other ear this time, "Are you done screaming, Mama? I knew you would be worried. So, I wanted to call you and let you know I'm okay."

"We haven't worked out a plan yet. But we're heading to Torreon. Yes, I know. But not only does it mean I can fight international extradition, but something Kerr said makes me think... Hell, I don't know."

"Mama, I'll try to call you later. Let Laura know I'm safe. And tell Ryan that I'm Agent Williams. You got that? I love you, Marmee."

Will could hear her voice breaking over those final words. He knew their power. Less than two weeks ago, he had held his grandmother and repeated them over and over again as if those words alone could heal her heart and right the whole fucked up world. But they had not.