Targeting the Teacher

Part 8

Chapter 8

He kicked another rock, wincing when this one was a little larger than he thought and didn’t move an inch.  Staring down the driveway that Amy had just disappeared down, he mumbled a curse.  The woman should have stayed in her cozy cabin; she should have let him handle the mess he had gotten himself into.  Hadn’t this been what he wanted though?  Sure, at the beginning, when he had heard what her family name was, he had planned to use her.  It would have been easy too, but the more he had gotten to know her, the more he liked the woman.  It was a damned shame too, because she was off limits.

Glancing down at the dry sweatpants that he wore, Jaxon glared at them.  Sure, it was a stupid action, but for some odd reason, he didn’t like the man who usually wore these pants.  He glanced down at his feet and felt his glare turn into a smile.  The sweatpants were at least two or three inches too short for him, which meant that the man who owned them was also shorter.  The t-shirt he wore was a different story, whereas the pants were too small, the shirt was too big.  He pulled at the fabric.  Maybe the man was just short and fat, but even as he tried to sell himself on the thought, Jaxon threw it from his mind.  It didn’t matter what the man looked like; Amy was still off limits.

With a sigh, he tried turning his thoughts away from the woman, but the longer he stood outside the cabin and waited for her lights to come into view, the more worried he became.  Where could she have gone?  At this time of night, nothing near here would be open.  Had she taken the Marshal up on his offer?  No.  Amy didn’t seem like that type of woman.  His eyes squinted as they stared down the gravel road, hoping to see even a small light flicker in the distance, but when he saw nothing, frustration ate at him.  He could stand there all night, waiting for her to return, but what if something had happened to her? 

It was dark out, darker than was normal in his neighborhood.  Could she have run off the road while trying to get away from him?  She could be trying to limp back to the cabin right now, while he just stood there waiting for her to return.  Closing his eyes, he let out a deep breath while trying to calm himself.  He blamed his wild imagination on his mother.  The woman had always worried, and Jaxon had inherited that particular gene.  Even knowing this, it didn’t stop him from beginning to walk down the driveway, just to make sure.

The further he walked the more ridiculous he began to feel.  After one day, he had learned that Amy was a smart woman; she wouldn’t do anything to put herself in harm’s way.  A smile curled a corner of his mouth.  Plus, the woman had a temper, one he had experienced quite a few times.  She wouldn’t let anyone run all over her, wouldn’t let anything put her down.  He had to admit that a couple of times, he did things just to annoy her, just to see her eyes flash with anger and her hands snap to her hips.  After the past year, even seeing her anger was a nice change to what he was used to.  

Something flickered ahead, making both his thoughts and his body freeze in reaction.  As the lights came closer, Jaxon felt his body begin to relax as he saw the twin headlights coming towards him.  It had to be Amy, no one else would come up here in the middle of the night, but he couldn’t be too careful.  Stepping off the road, he put his body behind a small tree as the car came closer. As it was passing by, at a rate slower than he was walking moments earlier, Jaxon saw the familiar vehicle.

Stepping out of his hiding spot, he slapped his hand on the back of her car to get her attention.  Amy hit the brakes, and seeing as it wouldn’t take much to stop the vehicle, it halted instantly.  He walked towards the passenger’s door, but before he could reach the handle, the driver’s door flew open.  Jaxon smiled, opening his mouth to ask her why she was going so slow to begin with, but when he did, something wet hit him in the face. 

Before his eyes closed and began to burn, before his nose began to run, he knew what she had done.  When his brother had first become a cop, they had both wanted to know what it felt like to be pepper sprayed, and they had both learned that the experience was something that should be avoided at all costs.