Chasing Storm Read Online Free PDF Page A

begin, “what did you pick me up for?”
    “Loitering, soliciting.”
    “Soliciting? Soliciting who?”
    He turns sideways and smiles. “Me.”
    “You’re getting a bit ahead of yourself there, buster.”
    “Hey, a man can dream, can’t he?”
    I take the compliment quietly watching the road stretch out before us, headlights cutting through the fog.
    “Shouldn’t you be at the station sorting things out? You are the sheriff, after all.”
    “The boys are more than capable. Deputy Manning will have it under control.”
    “Do you enjoy it?”
    “Being a cop?”
    “Yeah.”
    “It’s like any job really, but at least here there’s no one actively trying to kill you every second. You don’t have to watch the road for IEDs.”
    “Just road kill.”
    “Right.”
    He has one hand on the steering wheel. I take in his arm and for a moment imagine it wrapped around me.
    It’s not so bad. In fact, the thought lingers.
    I allow it.
    I wind the window down a little to let the country air stream in and freeze the side of my face. “Where are we going?”
    “I have absolutely no idea.”
    “Where were you going to take me?”
    “Barnies maybe.”
    “For ice cream? What are we, fifteen?”
    “Give me some credit, Alice. I haven’t dated in a while.”
    “Not enough bad girls for you here in Rosie?”
    “You think a good guy needs a bad girl? You think I’m a good guy?”
    “You tick the appropriate boxes. Wait, you don’t have a dog, do you?”
    “Actually…”
    “What’s his name?”
    “ Her name is Annabelle.”
    I slap the dash. “Case closed.”
    “Got her from the pound.”
    I slap the dash again. “God, stop!”
    He lifts his hands off the steering wheel in surrender, but I can see the cheeky grin he’s trying to suppress. He knows he’s a catch.
    I sit back a little deeper into my seat. “As far as I can assume, you’re an upstanding police officer who wouldn’t dare dream of upsetting the moral equilibrium.”
    “Assuming makes an ass out of you and me.”
    “Come on, tell me the last time you broke the law.”
    “Why, that’s easy. It was with you.”
    “With me?”
    “Old Man Benbrook’s farm, the lake.” He looks at me quizzically. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten.”
    “The time we went skinny-dipping? That was hardly trespassing. Old Man Benbrook could barely walk.”
    “But he had a shotgun.”
    “And one good eye.”
    We both laugh freely. It feels good. I have to admit I find myself easing. A cool gust of air breezes through the open window, my hair flapping against the headrest.
    Dan’s looking at me out the corner of his eye.
    “What?” I question. “What is it?”
    “I’ll prove to you I’m not all Mr Super Serious. He pulls the handbrake and the car goes skidding sideways down the road. I scream, clawing onto the side of the door as dust and gravel whip around us and Dan wrestles the car into a barely visible dirt road off to our left. We hit a culvert and my head almost hits the roof.
    My stomach’s just returning to my body when the back of the car kicks out and we turn again.
    Just when I’m about to scream for him to stop, the car slows to a crawl and Dan switches off the headlights.
    “God, Dan, what now? You’re going to murder me out here in the woods?”
    “You don’t come to these woods to murder someone – well, murder them with pleasure maybe.”
    I’m confused. “What in holy hell are you talking about?”
    “You’ll see.”
    The car creeps along slowly, the engine just murmuring ahead as we come into a clearing and then turn into what appears to be a smaller road that runs along next to the river.
    “There.” Dan points to what looks like blobs of black in the distance.
    I squint. On closer observation it looks like a group of parked cars.
    As we creep closer to them, Dan begins to chuckle under his breath. I look into the distance and gasp. “Are they doing what I think they’re doing in there?”
    “You bet.”
    “You’ve