made hearing that much more difficult.
“Shut up,” Luz instructed Wilhemina.
“Wilhemina, you okay?” Nate called out.
“Shut your hole!” Luz yelled. “This is how it’s going to go. Her first,” Luz nodded to Wilhemina. “You last,” she finished.
“No! It’s me you want,” Nate yelled.
“I did,” Officer Luz said. She turned her gun off Wilhemina then she closed in on Nate, slowly.
“We can talk about it,” Nate said.
“You kidding me? Talk?” “I spent an eternity being everything for you. The conversations, the meetings in secret… I just knew what we had was Paradise. But then you got on the down low. Didn’t you?
“No, Luz,” Nate said.
“Didn’t you! I should have seen it coming. But I see you now…” Luz snapped.
“Why?” Wilhemina shouted.
“What, you haven’t figured it out? Investigator ‘Prince’,” Luz mocked. “I knew about you the minute Nate left,” she said.
“What, you don’t think all us cops have resources?” she said watching Nate’s aim waver. “Yeah, I knew. I knew all about the sharpshooting… and the ‘boardwalk,’” Luz added.
“It wasn’t long before I had a line on Miss Pretty here- Don’t you move!” she told Wilhemina. “One more step and you’ll be who I put down first.”
“And you-“ Luz told Nate. “Your pompous, righteous, bull-friggin’ indignation about how you could only give your heart to the
Nate tried to work himself in-between Luz and Wilhemina. “I didn’t mean any of this to happen. That’s the truth,” Nate said.
Luz laughed. It was shrill and devoid of any heart. “I set you up. Both of you! I tracked your cell calls,” Luz told Nate.
“I had your friggin’ location zapped… and that ring?” Luz said to Wilhemina.
“The ring he gave you,” Luz began. “I chose that. We had been looking at rings and then I learned he’d found one for you,” Luz told Wilhemina.
“You didn’t know I found about that, huh? Did you! Luz screamed at Nate.
“Luz, I am so sorry-” Nate began.
“Bullshit!” “I loved you,” she said. “And you stomped it. You stomped us and me right into the ground.”
“But I had a plan,” Luz added. “And I knew just how to get rid, of you,” she told Wilhemina.
“By pretending you were me,” Wilhemina said.
“Like you didn’t already? You frickin’ detectives. Always thinking you got the upper hand,” Luz said. “Duh! Yeah, I set you up. I tracked down Leigh Marley and that was easy. Finding out who you were trying to protect and safeguard after learning Marley was a politician’s whore and a snuff addict, that took a little more planning,” she beamed.
“I started with Leigh, then a few others, after I made you when you copped the switch with your identities. That’s right,” Luz said, finger over the trigger.
“I hacked you, dressed like you, became you and voilá — the hits looked like they were made by you,” Luz smiled. She looked at Nate. “Payback truly is a
“Did you get all that?” Nate shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Copy that,” a tinny voice echoed from someplace.
“Sonofabitch-“ Luz fired.
“Wilhemina!” Nate screamed.
***
It rained two more weeks before sunlight broke the sky. The seaboard was peppered with sand dunes draped with sea kelp. Wilhemina bounced onto the bench and grabbed hold of her side just as quickly. Nate steadied her.
He captured Wilhemina in his arms and gazed at her. He was amazed she’d captured his heart and somehow managed to fill up all the lonely places. She leaned into him, and he brimmed with joy. She’d had him in the crosshairs of love from the very start. Nate looked at the song of his heart and then he frowned.
“What are you thinking,” he sang out loud.
“Oh, a little question here. A little thought there,” Wilhemina said.
Hell. The woman knew how to apply the screws to him, Nate discovered. He had better get on with things, before she decided she would be better off with someone else, he thought. Nate planned to be hers, solely.
“Whatever it is, my answer is yes,” he acquiesced.
The light of his soul smiled and the reaction felt a little too easy. He knew he was in for it.
“So, you and Officer Gerard were an item,” Wilhemina said.
“Truth,” Nate said.
Wilhemina looked at the worn plank floor below them. She could hear the roar of the waves as they licked the jagged shore below.
“And this?” Wilhemina picked a place in the sun and tilted her hand. The rays picked around the ring on her hand until the diamond carats gleamed bright.
“All me..” Nate said.
“Mmm,” Wilhemina said. “She bent forward and gave Nate a soft, sex-drenched kiss. She felt Nate grow hard, his erection stretching his slacks nudging her ass.
“Hey, that’s my ass, Sir,” she smiled.
“It sure is,” Nate agreed.
“What are you up to?” Wilhemina questioned.
“Enough with the interrogations… I’m dying, my sweet,” Nate moaned. He snaked his tongue into Wilhemina’s ear. She kissed him hungrily.
“Nate?” she said.
“Hmm?” Nate asked planting nibbles on her lips.
“What’s that over there?” she said.
Nate lifted up to see what Wilhemina did. “Already on it,” he moaned and lifted her into his arms.
A couple of ICEEs later, Wilhemina kicked her bare feet at Nate in mock protest as the hydrofoil bumped along the waves. She saw a particular vista come into view. It was the embankment off the sea coast.
“You rake,” she beamed.
“I’m now a man who keeps his commitments,” Nate grinned. “You owe me a date,” he said.
It was true…
“Oh Lordy,” Wilhemina suddenly smiled.
She was being courted by her very own hero.
Steamy Woodlands
by Phyllis Copeland
Eve arrived home sweaty and dusty, her long, dark hair plastered to her head and face. “Wow, it was hot,” she said to herself as she rounded the corner of the house. The sun had beat down relentlessly at work and she couldn't wait to get home and her very own shower.
Walking up the three concrete steps to her house, she unlocked and opened the door and was instantly accosted by two huge German Shepherds. Whining and howling, each was trying to be first for her attention, shoving each other out of the way, just about knocking her down.
“C'mon guys, lets go out,” she told them. The two tri-colored shepherds sprang out of the house, harassing each other and grabbing sticks along the way. Eve saw the youngest pick up a long stick as the older shepherd grabbed it in his mouth and together they jogged towards the barn. Following behind them she glanced up into the
