THE STRAGGLERS Book 2 OWN Read online

  BONUS CHAPTER

  THE STRAGGLERS

  BOOK 3: CARE

  A FIRST LOOK: CONNOR VAUGH & LUNA AGNELLI

  CONNOR VAUGH

  The kermess is very lively, I enjoy the day off, something very uncommon in my life, to catch up with my friends.

  I drink a Budweiser with Jared and Phill, friends from the battalion.

  “Don’t you miss vacations, Lieutenant Vaugh, it will be two years since you’ve taken vacations.”

  “Ja... Jared, call m... me by m... m... my nam... name, yo... you’r... you’re m... m... my friend an... and we ar... are off, m..., man.”

  A group of small children ask to take pictures with me and a little girl of about four, asks me to borrow my helmet that’s on the stand on the firefighter battalion, for a picture.

  “Uncle, can you lend it to me?”

  “Ju... just f... for the pic... picture, pr... princess.”

  One of the mothers takes a picture of the children and I ask the pretty little girl’s name who’s posing by my side with the fireman helmet.

  “Wha... what’s yo... your n... name, pr... princess?”

  “Pietra.”

  “Pr... pretty n... name, Pi... Pietra.”

  An olive skin complexion, curly light brown hair, I’m thinking that if Jessica hadn’t passed away, my child would probably be the same age this pretty little girl. She had a cat she offered me to hold it.

  “Do you want to hold Flit? He’s pretty, isn’t? It’s my kitty, my friend.”

  “I th... think he d... didn’t li... li... like me ve... very m... much.”

  Pietra doesn’t know, but felines normally don’t like to get near me, I think it may be because of the wolf that lives in me.

  The country music concerts are fantastic, three women are chatting animatedly, some children play around them, one of the women calls out my attention.

  Wow! What a beautiful woman, I never saw her here in Portland, she must be new in town. Olive skin and short with an enlarged shape, large breasts, wide and round hips and a large turned up ass. She’s full of curves, I stop to chat with my friends, watching her movements and thinking how soft she must be.

  She’s wearing a floral dress right above her knees, letting it show her well shaped legs and a good chunk of her thick thighs, cowgirl boots, dark hair lose falling on her back and the skin tanned by the sun. Certainly she hasn’t been living here long, I would her forget a woman like this.

  The little girl who asked for my helmet, Pietra, goes to her arms. I watch them both and notice similarities, they are definitely mother and daughter.

  The announcer announces the draw of the day’s prize to get to know the battalion.

  “And now we’ll have the most amazing draw for a day in the firefighter battalion of Portland, you’ll get to know the building, the downtown center, the battalion trucks and have lunch with these brave man. And the number is 37.”

  The tasty brunette smiles and raises her hand showing the drawn number, Pietra jumps in joy when she realizes her mother is the prize winner.

  “Hurray! Yippee mom. We’re going to meet the firefighters.”

  She smiles with such a jovial air and our eyes meet, I raise the Budweiser to greet her and she nods, giving me a smile that lights a thousand blocks.

  Beautiful, full of life, her smile disarms me completely!

  The rest of the night it was so good that went by really quick, I’m at Hunter’s booth giving a hand with the drinks, when the pretty brunette come towards me worried.

  “Good night, you are a fireman, aren’t you?”

  “I... am, wh... why?”

  She points to a area near by the kermess and trips on the words crying nervously.

  “I went to the restroom and when I returned, Tara let the girl play by the parking lot, she said Flit escaped and went up the tree. And Pietra climbed the tree, but now she can’t come down, for the love of God, please help me to get my daughter, please, mister.”

  “Sur... sure, let... let’s go.”

  I took of the apron and ran towards the area near he parking lot, I don’t know how the girl climbed so high after the cat, but the thing is that if she falls from there, she’s going to hurt herself bad.

  The woman talks to a parking lot valet and comes back carries a medium ladder, saying:

  “I think that if maybe I climb the ladder I can at least get Pietra.”

  And she starts to climb the ladder and I’m right behind her, shitty stubborn woman, I didn’t say I was going to help? Damn it! She is on a branch, but can’t go on.

  I can’t not look, only if I were blind, her large ass is all visible because of the size of her dress and I swallow hypnotized by those two round turned up globes, tanned and good to bite... and between those soft cheeks, rests a little red tong, all buried, fuck!!! That’s not fair, I try to close my eyes, but if I close them, there’s no way of getting the girl nor the cat.

  Then it’s only left me to look at her thick thighs and that fleshy, huge ass, good to slap around... Fuuuck! I need to control myself, what kind of perverted guy rescues a little child with the cock as hard as steel, because of the child’s mother’s ass? She speaks embarrassed, making me even more annoyed by the effect her soft voice causes me.

  “I can’t go up anymore, I shouldn’t have tried to come up.”

  “N... now yo... you’ll have to... to let m... me go thr... through..., o... otherwise... I can... can’t get your dau... daughter.”

  She turns to the side and I’m able to go up another branch, but is too narrow, then I’m face to face with her, our bodies couldn’t be nearer each other, ah! How embarrassing, she’ll notice I got excited, I throw my arm on her waist and she looks away and looks at the bulge on my pants, stuck to her belly. I look away wanting to put my face on a donkey’s asshole, so embarrassed am I.

  “And... she’s n... not so far, ju... just a few m... more bran... branches an... and I’ll be ab... able to get her.”

  The woman yells at her daughter, still nervous:

  “Pipi, just stay quiet the fireman will get you, grab yourself to one of the branches carefully, daughter.”

  “Mother, but there’s Flit?”

  “Pietra, first he needs to get you out of there, then we’ll see how to get Flit.”

  I went up a few more branches and got a splinter in my hand, my palm is bleeding, but I’m able to get Pietra and then Flit, who’s growling at me when I grab him.

  “Ther... there you go, I... I got y... you two, g... get on m... my lap, I w... won’t let y... you fall, Pi... Pipi.”

  The woman climbed down the tree with some difficulty and then I got down with Pietra and Flit, purring happy.

  Pietra hugs her mother and the woman kisses the child’s hair, putting her back on the ground. She looks my bloody hand and tells me shyly:

  “Thank you for everything, I asked you for help and didn’t even introduced myself, nice to meet you, I’m Luna Agnelli and this naughty girl is my daughter Pietra.”

  “Th... the plea... pleasure i... is all m... mine, Co... Connor Vaugh.”

  Jared comes running towards me.

  “Lieutenant Vaugh, I didn’t know you were rescuing some one or I would have come to help you.”

  I slap him on the shoulder with my uninjured hand.

  “I... it’s al... alright, it wa... was quick, Jared.”

  Luna holds my injured hand and sighs upset.

  “If it wasn’t for this cat you wouldn’t have gotten hurt, stay here I’ll get the first aid kit I’ve got in my car.”

  I remained with Pietra and after a few minutes Luna came with a little first aid kit.

  She and I sat on a concrete bench and she put my hand on her leg, with the palm up. Ah! Just thinking about that tiny red tong I’m aroused again, I try to put the other hand on my lap to disguise my erection that’s starting to show up and is humiliating the embarrassing the way she looks at my penis, bitting the lower lip.

  Lun
a cuts some strips of sticky plaster, removes the wood splinter that’s buried in my flesh and cleans the place with alcohol, covering with gauze and sticky plaster. As soon as she finishes, I smile thanking her kindness.

  “Tha... thank you, Lu... Luna.”

  Oh! God, I can’t explain in a rational way, but his stutter is surprisingly charming. It’s cute, I think he’s a beautiful model of a man in front of me, because he’s a tall, strong guy, he should be scary, but his needy boy face is the counter point of his masculine body, viril. He has a sweet and warm look that envelopes you like a comfortable hug and there’s been so long that I don’t know what is to be warm in body and soul.

  I let his hand go that I was holding like an idiot and get up clumsily, thanking him for rescuing Pietra and Flit:

  “If it weren’t for you Connor, I wouldn’t know what to do to rescue my daughter, thank you very much.”

  Pietra gets on Connor’s lap and kiss his cheek, rabbiting on:

  “Thanks, uncle.”

  I say getting Pietra out of Connor’s lap:

  “Mom and you got a visit to the fire department, when we’re there, we may meet Connor again.”

  He gets my hand talking a long time to let it go.

  “Wh... when yo... you get to th... the fire depart... department, lo...look for Lieu... Lieutenant Vaugh.”

  We said good bye to each other and I go back to the party with Pietra, thanking heavens for our new life in Portland, completely different from that scary hell we lived in Italy for a few months.

  PROLOGUE

  CONNOR

  The Fire Department patio of Portland is full of people. Today is our department’s birthday and a big event is happening to celebrate this important date.

  During the graduation, the announcer tells me to get a stand out place on the authorities stage.

  “Lieutenant Vaugh, three steps forwards.”

  I position myself in front of Colonel Twain, salute him and he gives me an honor medal for excellence, professionalism and relevance in my services, the rescues I manage in fires.

  Colonel Twain sticks the medal on my uniform and smiles, we’ve worked together for years and as he says, I’m one of the best fireman in the force. If that doesn’t not fills me with pride? No, not really, I’m far way from being a hero and every night when the past comes to hunt me, I’m certain that I don’t deserve his tribute. But military protocol makes me receive it, even if I don’t want it, then I shake my commander’s hand and thank him, returning to my origin place.

  After the end of the military ceremony, the marching band of the fire department play hymns and military marches, besides some popular songs.

  Jared and Phil come towards me and I watch them thinking of how opposite people can be friends. Jared is a blond, blue eyes, good natures, he would be a bad boy if he wasn’t a fantastic militar. And Phill is an almost 7 feet tall black man, serious and cranky, the nerd of the fire department. The two greet me on the tribute in an accomplice happiness that one great friends are able to.

  “Congratulations, Lieutenant Vaugh, you deserve it, so, let’s get a beer to celebrate it?’

  I hug my best friends, group partners: Sergeant Jared Patterson and Private Phill Truman.

  “Thanks, m... man, but to... today I’m n... not in the m... mood.”

  These man have been part of my team for years, we have been through some sticky spots for a fireman and during all this time, together. Jad and Phy Man are two partners for the rest of life.

  Specially the moment I’m going through today, because today makes it four years that Jessica passed away.

  Jessica was my girl, we dated since we were teenagers and after so many years dating, I asked her to marry me in a party that made history in town.

  She was beautiful, she had the bluest eye I’ve ever seen, all blond, short spiky hair, thin and full of freckles, she looked like Tinker Bell, but I called her my little gnome.

  Jessie and I graduated at the same university, I majored in Business Management and she in Gastronomy.

  After two years fighting, Jessie was able to rent a space, she turned into her restaurant, specialized in French food, it was one of the most interesting places in all Oregon.

  She lived for her work, she loved to cook, she dreamed of winning, of being a famous chef. That’s why, once in a while, when, every time she needed to close the restaurant late, she slept in the office that was behind the restaurant.

  Forensic found out the fire was accidental, short circuit in the electric system, the thing is that the restaurant caught fire and Jessie had taken a pill to sleep in the office, not waking up during the fire.

  During her rescue, I was stuck under the roof that collapsed, my team was able to rescue me alive, even though I had some burns on my back, but Jessie unfortunately died unable to breath because of the thick smoke. In the autopsy it was confirmed that my Jessie was pregnant with twins.

  I would be a father, something I always dreamed of my entire life, but not now, fuck! Now I can barely find a girl to date.

  My love life consists in casual dates and nothing more. When I realize me or the girl are getting more involved than I thought, I soon find a way to get out of it and end the relationship.

  Sweet and hot sex, no strings attached and with no ending time. That’s my life’s philosophy.

  But something beyond pleasure, my heart, I’m not ready to give it to any woman.

  “Hey, hey! Laugh, are you far away? We were talking to you, sir.”

  “I’m so... sorry, I w... was distr... dis... distracted.”

  Jad waked me from my past, Phill looks me sad and gives me a beer mug, asking:

  “It’s today, isn’t it?”

  I nod and Jad looks us both still not understanding what are we talking about, then after a few seconds, he understands it and give a couple of little slaps on my back, offering to drink all night.

  “Do you want to go out eat some pussy and drink till we pass out?”

  He speaks innocently, without knowing that’s a vice of mine and I’m not embarrassed of caving in, I’m addicted in the taste of pussy.

  I get lost in the scent they have, the smooth taste, intense, the unequal cream they give while they cum in my mouth. So many times I wake up the scent of a pussy invading my nose, the sweet honey running down my throat. But, it doesn’t matter how I want to escape reality, today there’s no vagina that will take me out of this melancholy that is eating my chest.

  Drunk nights and pussy, won’t be enough to that, what I really need is amnesia, nice and warm, just coming out fresh.

  People clapping wake me from my reverie and all eyes turn to the reception entrance. Barely being able to stand up, Tyler Randon applauds with sarcasm and points at me, talking out loud and with a thick tongue because he’s clearly drunk.

  “Congratulations, Lieutenant Vaugh, what a beautiful medal, why did you get it again? Ah! Let me think, for good services to the community, to the victims, am I right? Because I spit on your uniform, if I was able to rip this out of your chest. Why, it doesn’t matter being so good, so helpful and on the moment you fiancé is being toasted, you trip, fall, pass out like a frail little girl and let her die? If it wasn’t for your incompetence, my Jessie would be here among us, you shitty fireman.”

  Mary, Jessie’s mother, tris to take him out of the ballroom and after Tyler falling drunk on the floor, she comes to me and murmurs it:

  “Forgive him, Connie.”

  Me, forgive? I would be the happiest man alive if I had this power. “Forgive”, I would start with myself. Everything I really wanted to was to forgive me, but I’m not even capable of that. Pain? Shame, embarrassment? All these feelings are irrelevant, tiny in comparison to the guilt I carry. Hunter gets Tyler by the arm and takes him out of the crowded ballroom, everybody looks at me in a mix of petty and sorrow.

  I excuse myself to Jad and Phy, they mention following me and I tell them to leave me alone. I go through the door still hearing t
he drunk insults of Tyler and I get out of the battalion with no place to go, stopping at a playground near the official’s ranch.

  I sit down clumsily on the swing and take off the medal that’s stuck on my chest that every minute weighs more, throwing on the field.

  I cry, allowing myself after such a long time let the my anger on destiny, in life or in God come to surface. I cry for me, for Jessie who couldn’t make her dreams come true. For both of us who couldn’t love one another till we were old and mainly for the twins, my children that weren’t able to grow, that I couldn’t hug and admire their little face. My eyes are so blurry by tears that I don’t even see who’s approaching.

  It’s a child, I raise my eyes to see the little girl I rescued from the tree, the daughter of the hot woman from the pizza place. I make an effort to remember her name and then after a few seconds I remember: Pietra, that’s her name.

  She’s wearing pink, a flowery and puffed dress. Pietra stares at me curiously and without asking to just sits beside me on the swings. She crouches down and gets the medal, saving it with her two little hands stuck to her chest.

  “Don’t throw it away, it’s pretty, uncle.”

  I give her a bitter smile and answer;

  “A m... m... medal is of... for her... heroes, it w... wasn’t for m... me, de... dear.”

  Pietra stretches out her hand and I pull my hand out, but in the end I accept it.

  “Don’t you want it, do you want to give it to me?”

  I open her dress and stick the medal on it, by her chest.

  “Th... there y... you go, n... now it’s y... yours, pr... princess.”

  After a few minutes, Luna showed up pale and complaining a lot, when she finds Pietra on the playground.

  “Caspita, Dios mio, you were playing with Britney, where’s Latoya? What did mommy day about running away? La mia principessa non correr più. (My princess, don’t run away like this.)”

  “Perdonami, mamma, (Forgive me, mom.) I won’t do it again.”