He touched the back of her leg lightly and then brought a ball up to her backside.
He then demonstrated what he wanted her to do.
The bad thing was, I wanted him to demonstrate on me.
All night long.
“You really have to control yourself,” I heard whispered from beside me.
I frowned and looked over at the unfamiliar voice.
“Are you talking to me?” I questioned.
Surely, she wasn’t.
But, sadly for her and for me, she was talking to me.
“It’s kind of embarrassing,” she smirked. “My husband is used to it, after all, but that doesn’t make it any better.”
Husband?
Husband?!
Why wouldn’t Mavis…
“Surely you remember that ugly divorce y’all went through last year, right, Maria?” Mavis drawled. “The one that you brought into this very gym and tried to ruin his career and his friendship with his best friend?”
What the hell?
“Don’t call me Shirley,” the woman hissed.
I had no heart to correct her and tell her that Mavis wasn’t calling her anything.
“And I’m back here to try to win him back. It’d be best if y’all didn’t try to stand in my way,” Maria continued as if she hadn’t just embarrassed herself.
My eyelid twitched.
I had been in the woman’s presence for all of thirty seconds, and I already felt bad for Taos having to spend even a second more with her.
“Well, good luck with that,” Mavis cheerfully replied as she caught my hand and led us away.
“Who the fuck was she?” I wondered the moment we were far enough away from both Taos and his ex-wife.
“Maria. Taos’ ex-wife. The keeper to the gates of hell.” Mavis rolled her eyes. “They were married for a few years. Shit happened that I don’t know about. Then Maria started to come here to get a rise out of him. A few of the members asked her to stop, so she did. But apparently, she got bored or something because she’s back. I don’t know all, though. Just everything that happened here. By the way, a CrossFit gym is like a bunch of gossiping girls. You won’t be able to do something in the eight thirty class and not hear about it in the six o’clock class. And vice versa.”
Gee whiz. I hoped that I didn’t do anything too embarrassing and make it to where everyone heard about it.
“Everyone back from the bathroom and ready to go?” came Taos’ lovely, deep-timbred voice.
“Ready, Coach!” Maria cooed.
I wondered if she was just trying to piss him off.
My guess was that she was.
I narrowed my eyes at Taos’ pained expression.
He looked annoyed that he even had to coach her.
And I decided, right there and then, that I was going to beat the hell out of her in the workout.
Taos grinned slightly at something that a young girl who looked more than a little frightened said to him up front, and I couldn’t help but grin myself at his smile.
Then he started pointing a remote at a clock, and I felt sick to my stomach.
“Everyone find a rower!”
Then I was on my rower, next to my sister, about to do my first workout in a very long time.
And I hadn’t even been nervous or scared or even thrown up once.
Hell yeah.
I could do this.
Taos didn’t realize it, but he was helping me.
His wife’s drama. His smile.
His voice.
They were all…
“Go!”
I hadn’t worked out in two years, and it showed.
By the time I was a minute into the workout, I felt like I was going to throw up.
By the time I was two minutes into the workout, I knew that it wasn’t a matter of if I was going to throw up, but when.
I kept glancing over at Maria, who looked like she was breezing through the workout.
But still, I kept myself in front of her.
By the last minute of me doing the workout, I was on empty.
The moment that I did the last rep, I headed directly for the door that led to the outside area behind the gym.
I kept walking until I got to the grass and promptly threw up into the weeds.
The moment I did, I felt a thousand times better.
Face flushing, I turned around to see Taos staring at me from the gym door.
He gave me a thumb up as if to ask if I was okay, and I gave him a weak one in reply.
But even that was a lie.
I might feel like shit.
I might want to melt into a pile of questionable liquid underneath my feet.
But I’d just worked out.
I’d just worked out for the first time in two and a half years since my assault.
I was… euphoric.
That, and I beat Maria.
Worth it.
It was on my way out of the gym with my sister fifteen minutes later that Taos caught my eye. “You’ll be back.”
Not a question.
Not even a statement.
A demand. One that I was more than willing to obey.
CHAPTER 3
Be a badass with a good ass.
-Madd CrossFit T-shirt
TAOS
The white-haired woman turned slowly, her long curls brushing the tops of her butt cheeks, and looked at the puddle of blood with a glowing sense of horror on her face.
She didn’t know that I’d done it for her.
She didn’t know that…
Brrrrring.
I frowned and glanced at the phone, pissed that I’d had to stop that particular scene.
“Hello?”
My terse words felt like sandpaper in my throat.
I’d been up all night, and it was now three in the morning.
“Taos.”
I would know that raspy, perpetually pissed-off-sounding voice anywhere.
“Hey,” I greeted. “What’s up, Chief?”
The chief sighed. “Long story short? There’s been a few murders that I’m worried about. Seriously worried about.”
I felt my stomach sink.
“What’s going on with them?” I asked, not able to help myself.
I’d been a detective at the police department in town for ten years after I’d gotten out of the Army.
I just couldn’t help myself from wanting to know. My brain was wired differently.
I just saw things, patterns, and inconsistencies, that other people didn’t see.
That was why the FBI had tried to recruit me. Twice.
However, I’d stayed with Paris PD and Chief Wilkerson because I didn’t usually buck from tradition.
“Bad shit,” Chief Wilkerson grumbled. “I know that you’re not here anymore, and I’ve left you alone for a year. But shit. This one is getting at me. I need you to look at the case notes. I just… something doesn’t sit right with me.”
I looked at my current work in progress. Then at the time on the clock. “Now?”
“I’m at a crime scene now,” he said. “The fourth one exactly like this.”
I knew what that meant.
We might have a serial killer on our hands.
“I can be there in fifteen minutes,” I stood. “I need some coffee because I haven’t gone to sleep yet. And some pants.”
Chief Wilkerson sounded like he’d had a laugh ripped right out of him at that.
“I’ll wait.” He paused. “The body’s been dead a while. Fifteen minutes, or thirty. Won’t make a fuckin’ difference.”