Virgo's Vice Read online

  “You guys be sure to wake me if you have any problems.” Trip stares at me, but heads into the shelter.

  Billy is still gripping me hard around my waist and his body is pressed close to my back. My heart is beating wildly and I can hear myself breathing hard. Jake is whining and licking my ankle.

  “This dog is serious about being your protector. First I thought he was gonna bite Trip, and then he turned on me. You gonna tell me what that was all about?”

  We hear murmuring from inside it and the candle goes out. The bed platform creaks as it takes up Trip’s weight. “Let me go.”

  Chapter 12

  “I’ll let you go if you promise you ain’t gonna attack me. You’re like some sort of hellcat and I’m scared you’re gonna bite me or kick me in the nuts or something if I give you half a chance.”

  My jaw is still clenched tightly and I feel sick from Trip’s touch on my hair.

  “Well?” Billy prompts. “I’m not complaining about holding you like this. It’s kind of nice. I’ve been wanting to get closer to you all day, but I want to be sure before I let you go.”

  “I won’t do anything,” I say with a snort.

  He releases me and I turn to see him grinning. I’m thinking about what he just said, about wanting to be close to me. I drop onto the log and bury my face in Jake’s neck. “It’s okay,” I say to him. “He didn’t hurt me.”

  Billy slides beside me on the log. I take a couple of deep breaths and force myself to unclench my fists. “So do you think any animals will come into camp tonight?” I say in a low tone. There’s still a quiver in my voice from being so crazy angry.

  “The pilot said most of them were poached out before the people left. There are some, though. You saw the hoof prints and the eyes at the waterhole.” He shifts and his arm bumps against mine, and that’s when I realize I want to feel him again. I want him to hold me close like that again.

  “So the fire should keep them away if they are out there?” I whisper.

  “Yeah. I don’t think we’ll have a problem with animals. I don’t know about the monster, though.” I glance at his face in the firelight and see that he’s grinning again.

  I slap his arm. “Stop trying to scare me. It’s not funny. What if there really is some sort of monster?”

  He bares his teeth and growls. “It’s the cowboy monster,” he croaks and holds his hands up like claws. “Coming to eat you all up.”

  I giggle. “Stop that. It’s not funny.”

  Jake growls.

  “Then why are you giggling? And where should I start?”

  “Start what?” I stroke Jake to let him know it’s okay.

  “Eating you.” His eyebrow lifts and he winks. I’m not sure because it’s semi-dark, but I think he’s staring at my boobs.

  “Billy Murphy, behave yourself.”

  “Darn,” he says. “I think you’d taste pretty good. Every little nook and cranny of you.”

  I glance toward the shelter. I have to change the subject. He’s making me tingle all over and I can’t prevent myself from thinking about how his mouth would feel on my . . . everywhere on me.

  “So the others all fit on that bed. Except poor Stretch. And the girls are sleeping on the inside.”

  “Yeah,” he says quietly. “Andy and Kelli are together.” He chuckles. “I can see why. She’s real pretty. I think Jared’s got it bad for her.”

  “I know. I also saw that, but Lela’s pretty too.”

  “Yeah. But she’s too . . . there’s something scary about her.”

  “Maybe she comes over that way. She’s sleeping in her T-shirt and skimpy panties.”

  He grins, his teeth white in the firelight. “Maybe she wants it after all. I would say a woman wants it when she strips down to her underwear, wouldn’t you?”

  It’s a little awkward talking to him about Lela’s sexual needs. “I guess. She has all those condoms.”

  “Hey, the water’s boiling,” he says. “I’m gonna take it off and put it on the side so it can cool down.”

  We fall silent for a while. Someone is snoring inside the shelter and soon we hear a voice saying, “Hey. Man. You’re keeping us all awake. Turn over and lay on your side.”

  Billy grins and shakes his head and leans into me. Suddenly his face seems very close.

  A cry resonates across the plains. It sounds like a baby.

  I jump up and my legs freeze. I’m too afraid to move. Jake rushes around and barks.

  “What was that?” I hear from the shelter.

  “Sounds like a baby.”

  The cry comes again, eerie and loud. It echoes from the hills. I step closer to the fire and stare down at Billy. I’m hugging myself. My heart is going crazy.

  “It’s a bush baby,” Trip says in a sleep-thickened voice. “They’re like little monkeys. They won’t hurt anyone.” Hearing his voice brings all the anger and tension back.

  I hug myself and blow out a ragged sigh.

  “Come on, sit down and talk to me.” Billy pats the log.

  Jake pushes his nose under Billy’s hand and Billy strokes him. “Now all of a sudden you’re my buddy?”

  I sink to the log again. My heart is still beating so hard I can hear it. I take a deep breath, and another. Billy is staring into my face, waiting for an answer.

  “You gonna tell me why you’re so mad at Trip?” He’s whispering again.

  “No.” I shake my head and stare into the fire. Panic rises inside me but I can’t let it win. I swallow hard and suck in air.

  “Let me guess then. You knew him before.”

  “I . . . Maybe.”

  “So he did something to upset you then, when you knew him before.”

  “Maybe.” I hear tears in my voice and I can’t say anything else. I swallow hard again.

  “I’m, sorry,” he whispers. “I didn’t mean to upset you. You sound like you’re about to cry now.” He throws more wood on the fire. I can feel him studying me in the flickering light.

  “Don’t be sorry,” I whisper back. “It’s just . . . I . . .” The tears are coming now and I can’t stop them. “It’s been a tough day.”

  “Hey.” Billy’s arm goes around me and he pulls me into him.

  I let out a loud sob.

  “It’s okay. I’m sorry, baby.” He holds me tight and plants a kiss on the top of my head. “Don’t be sad. Have you ever seen such bright stars?”

  I sniff and wipe my eyes with my hands, and scan the sky. He’s right. They do appear to be almost close enough to touch. I stare at him. He’s gazing up at the sky.

  “They seem brighter here because there’s no industry and therefore no pollution or smog, and no electric lights to detract from the stars. See that very bright star?” He points. “That’s Venus. It’s actually a planet but it looks like a star. Just above it and to the right is Jupiter. See it?”

  I follow where he’s pointing and I do see another bright star.

  “And there’s the Southern Cross. The two bright stars at either end of it are Alpha and Beta Centauri.”

  “Yeah, I see it. Wow. That means you can’t get lost here, right?”

  “As long as it ain’t cloudy. It points toward the south. The next brightest star in the apex of the cross is Gamma Crucis. It’s kind of red. See what I mean?”

  “Yeah. It is kind of red in a way.” I stare at the fire. “It’s getting cool now,” I say.

  “No clouds. What star sign are you?”

  “Virgo,” I say with a wrinkled brow.

  “It just so happens you can see it now in the southern sky. There it is. See it.” He leans in close to me and points. “It’s like a squished diamond. See that bright star?”

  I lean into him and follow the direct
ion he’s indicating.

  “Go directly to the right, then down a ways to that bright star, then back across to the big star where we started. Can you see it?”

  “Maybe,” I say. “I’m not really sure. How do you know so much about the constellations?”

  “I’ve been camping out in the wilderness since I was about five years old. There ain’t no Internet or TV out there, and the light’s usually not good enough to read by.”

  “You go camping with your family?” I get up, slide a half-burnt log out and throw it onto the center of the fire, and hug myself.

  “You’re getting cold.” Billy stands up and grabs a couple more logs and stokes up the fire again. A spray of sparks flies out of it. He sits beside me again and wraps his arm around my shoulder. “My mom, she died. I was five. My dad owns a ranch in West Texas, in the mountains, and we graze the cows on government land. It’s open range, which means it’s not fenced. So when winter comes, and the grazing’s all gone, we have to go fetch the cows and bring them back to our place. Dad didn’t set much store by babysitters so he always brung me with him. My three older brothers helped take care of me when I was little.”

  I watch his face coming closer, and, oh God, I want those lips on mine. They feel hard and soft at the same time. I open my mouth and an electric shock runs through me when our tongues meet. His fingers grip my hair. Everything is tingling inside me and I want the kiss to go on forever, but he breaks it off and nuzzles my neck.

  I lean my head on his shoulder and we sit in silence for a while. I think about how his lips feel on mine and how I’ve only just met him and about how much I want him to kiss me again. His arm is warm and comforting around my shoulder and at that moment it’s almost like I’ve known him forever.

  I close my eyes and after a little while I’m surprised to find myself nodding off. I wake up with a jerk.

  “It’s been a long day. You can sleep on my shoulder,” Billy says. “I’ll keep watch.”

  I didn’t think I would, but I must have drifted off. When I open my eyes, Kelli and Andy are standing there above us. I haul myself up and stretch. Andy has put his suit pants and shirt back on.

  “I’m bushed.” I head for the bed, kick my shoes off, and collapse in Kelli’s warm spot, far away from Trip. I’m vaguely aware of Jake curling up under the bed, and Billy crawling into Andy’s vacant place beside me but I’m exhausted and I just want to sleep. The night air has a definite chill in it now and the parachute is like a sheet and I wish I had a blanket.

  Billy slides his arm over me and snuggles close to me.

  I feel safe for the first time since we arrived here, but am I really?

  Chapter 13

  Billy woke and opened his eyes. The shelter was still dark inside, but the first gray light of dawn crept through the doorless entrance. A few early birds chirped outside. He realized his arm was still over Lexie’s warm body. He couldn’t see much of her face in the darkness, but he could smell her faint perfume. He didn’t want to leave her. She had ignited a fire inside him and he wanted to touch her all over. He wanted her lips on his and to taste the hot depths of her mouth—of everything. She murmured in her sleep and he found himself smiling. She was like a puppy, warm and soft.

  He removed his hand slowly, resisting the urge to brush it across her boobs. He glanced back at her one more time, and slid down to the bottom of the platform.

  Kelli and Andy were lying at the far end of the bed, cuddling one another. Kelli sure seemed pretty receptive to his advances. Lexie was right, though. He was wearing a wedding ring. He pulled on his jeans and stepped into his boots, and made his way to the fire. Trip was there stirring up the ashes.

  “Morning,” Trip said quietly.

  “Morning.” Billy stretched and yawned. “Did you sleep any?”

  Trip removed his pipe from his mouth, and blew out a cloud of smoke. “Some. Rodriguez was snoring though.”

  “Tell me about it,” Billy said. He decided not to say anything about Lexie’s outburst the previous night unless Trip brought up the subject. He sensed there was a lot more to Lexie’s story, and it probably wasn’t wise to take sides until he knew more.

  “We’ll have to haul some water,” Billy said. “Kelli and Andy must have poured it all into the water bottles. The pots are empty.”

  “Let’s go.” Mark picked up the pots. “Better bring a shovel in case some animals have messed up the hole.”

  Trip joined them.

  “So Andy and Kelli are already getting it on,” Mark said with a chuckle. “Do you think he got lucky last night?”

  Nobody answered and Billy didn’t say anything else. When they reached the sandy river bed, Billy said, “Wow. That’s pretty impressive.” He stared at the sunrise, which had ignited the thin ribbon of clouds into bright lines of red and gold above the distant haze of mountains.

  The three men watched it for a while before clambering down the bank to the dry riverbed. They found there had been visitors to their waterhole in the night, and they had to dig a new hole a little further upstream.

  The first rays of sunlight touched the shelter as they arrived back and set the pots on the fire to boil.

  “We have to find food today. That’s our number one task,” Trip said. “We’ll need protein. Allan Dockery isn’t getting here for another couple of days and we can’t live on rice alone. Or at least, I can’t.”

  “Me either,” Billy says. “I’m gonna go that way,” he pointed. “There’s a fairly big creek down in that valley where all those green trees are growing. I saw it when I was coming down in my chute and made a mental note of it. I’ll see if I can catch some fish.”

  “What we need first,” Mark said, “is a strong cup of coffee.” He headed over to the shelter and came out carrying a can of coffee.

  “Dude,” Billy said. “You’re the man.”

  “Something told me to bring it.” He opened it and poured a portion into the small pot. In a few minutes the aroma filled the air around them.

  The smell of the coffee woke all the others and they shuffled out one at a time with messed-up hair and crumpled clothes, except for Faith, who was still unwrinkled and perfectly groomed. She took up her position beside the pot. “This is a godsend,” she said as she poured coffee into her mug. “Where did it come from?”

  “For a moment I thought I was back home when I smelled coffee,” Stretch said, holding his mug out.

  “Guilty,” Mark said. “I didn’t think I could survive without the stuff. You might call it my survival item.”

  Faith gave him the thumbs-up sign.

  “I’ll make the latrines today.” Stretch seemed to have recovered from his head wound, although the Band-Aid was still there.

  “I’ll help you as best I can,” Rodriguez said.

  Billy couldn’t help smiling when Lexie finally emerged from the shelter, rubbing her eyes. She was so cute. “Coffee?” he said.

  “Sure.” She handed him her mug. Her voice was husky from sleep.

  There was something about her that made the day seem brighter. Her hair was still floating around her face in waves and when he looked into those bright blue eyes and saw something like encouragement in them, his stomach tightened. Hell, everything tightened.

  The mug warms my hand. I listen to the others chatting to one another for a while.

  Trip is telling everyone how wonderful he is again. “I know something about African plants, the ones that are edible and the ones that are poisonous, so I figure I’ll go search for anything that might be edible,” he says.

  There’s a long silence. I sense that nobody wants to take a leadership position in case it alienates them from the others, and I am reminded this is a game and they are the players, even if they don’t know how it’s gonna work.

  “So what exactly d
o we need to get done today?” Faith asks at last. “Shouldn’t we make a to-do list and then we’ll be able to figure out who’s gonna do each task.”

  I can’t frikkin’ believe her suit is still smooth and unwrinkled and she’s put her hair up again.

  Everyone mumbles. It sounds like they all agree, but I’m not really sure. I’m supposed to be neutral here. I mean, I can’t win a million dollars so I should stay behind my camera as much as I can. Of course, I’ll help around the camp, since I’m also sleeping and eating here, but I don’t want to get involved with their politics.

  “Okay. Food, latrines, water, firewood,” Mark says. “You have to figure out who’s doing what.” He has his camera rolling and I guess he is taking the role as leader because, like me, he’s not involved in playing the game.

  “I’m pretty much stuck here in camp. I can help dig latrines though.” Rodriguez glances over at Stretch.

  “Yeah, okay. You and I will do the latrines. We’ll need to keep at least one of the shovels and a machete.”

  “I’ll go fishing with you,” Andy says to Billy. He stares at Kelli with raised eyebrows.

  “I don’t know. I can’t go anywhere too far until these blisters start to heal, right, Maria?” Kelli says. “I can boil water and pour it into the canvas bags, though.”

  Maria nods. “If you want to be able to compete in any challenges Allan Dockery might introduce to the game, you should rest your feet as much as you can now.”

  “I’ll help you around here,” Faith says. “Maybe we can also get some firewood. We’ll need the hatchet.” She definitely has a comb, and I wonder if she took her clothes off last night. I have a hair brush, but no one would know, since my hair is completely out of control.