“Thanks a lot Dad, next time leave me something I can use, like a toaster. “ He tossed the key his father had given him down on the desk in his motel room and there was a knock at his door. He opened it to find Blair standing there looking gorgeous.
“Are you alone?” she asked
“No, I’ve got a bunch of people here, as usual.” he said sarcastically
“How would you like to have a little party for two?” She inquired.
She entered and they shared his bottle of scotch talking about his father’s will reading and everything that had gone down with her that night. Then a song came on his radio and Blair looked at him.
“I want to dance.” Blair stood in front of him, tall and sensuous.
“With me?”
“I’m a big girl,” she licked her lips “I know what I want and I want to dance with you, Right here, right now. How about it Todd?”
As he stood up in front her, she reached and played with his hair, then she went to put her hands on his waist and he moved and gave himself more room. He put a hand on her waist and she once again raised a hand and smoothed his hair gently pulling it off his face. God it felt so good.
“I don’t feel like being alone tonight.” she whispered huskily
.
.
She was looking at him with those beautiful green eyes and he knew he would do anything to keep her there with him at that moment more than anything..“Me either.’ He started to kiss her and stopped himself, but then Blair took the initiative and kissed him, suddenly they could hardly keep their hands off each other.
They were going at it hot and heavy on his bed when he backed off to get his breath, Blair's hand came up and caressed his cheek and jaw and he suddenly grabbed her hand and held it down and began to kiss her desperately and roughly. Blair broke loose and asked him to slow down.
"I'm scaring you aren't I. Aren't I! Come on, I'm scaring you! Why can't you just admit I'm scaring you!"
"No. Todd, Todd look at me. I'm not afraid of you. I'll admit that I ..that I used to be. Every time I would run into you I thought , well you know. I'm lucky to get away alive."
"That's funny. I never saw that fear." Todd said softly.
"Why?' she said again playing with his hair."because I acted tough." she got off the bed "What can I say? We're alike, steel on the outside but on the inside "
"Not steel." he had confronted her then with the fact that she wanted to forget someone that night and then told her how he felt. "There are a lot of things about myself that I wouldn't mind forgetting."
Blair made a rule about 'no rules" and they had agreed at the time "no love."
The night had escalated from there and the next thing he knew she was suggesting they go to her place. He had been so turned on and yet found himself afraid of his emotions that night; he had grabbed her keys to drive and she had accused him of being macho and wanting to be in control. He had been anything but.
"I'm not in control"
They had talked some more in her penthouse. She had reached for him once again and he had started to leave, but he needed her so bad, he had taken off his coat and turned to her.”If you want me to stop you just let me know.”
Blair sat down on the bed looked at him with passion in her eyes and held at her hand to him.”Merry Christmas” was all she said. It had been unbelievable.
It was the first time he had been with a woman since the night he had raped Marty . so he let her take the lead, not wanting to hurt or scare her. He had been so afraid he would loose control but it hadn’t happened instead all he had felt were the incredible sensations of fondling and making love to a woman who wanted him as much as he wanted her. Afterward he had felt strange. He had come to really like Blair and he had been uncertain just what this night was going to mean to their budding friendship. It proved to be more than he ever imagined.
After giving herself to him completely, she had remained his friend and then became his lover and wife. God, every part of him ached for her, to hold her and let her know he still loved her. It was time to go home to be with Blair and their children. Todd ran his fingers through his hair, he missed them so much it was all he could think about. Todd got up. He wandered to the kitchen. Sam and Beth were kissing and Todd felt uncomfortable. He looked away, “Um sorry to interrupt, but Beth, is it all right for me to shower?”
Sam and Beth parted at Todd’s words and Beth found herself blushing because Todd had seen the moment of intimacy. She recovered quickly and replied. “Go ahead Todd, I’ll bring you another change of clothes and wrap new dressings when you’re finished.”
Todd nodded and headed for the bathroom.
Sam moved away and picked up his jacket. “I think he’s going to want to get back to Llanview after last night’s revelations. He’s going to need some sort of identification, so I’ll go to my man at the license bureau and explain I need an undercover ID. In the meantime you and he can look into various forms of transportation that will get him there. I’ll be home for lunch.” Sam kissed her again and gave her a love pat on her behind, and headed to town.
Beth stood at the door watching Sam leave and then turned her mind to getting some spare clothes for Todd. After placing the clothes just inside the bathroom door she went back to the kitchen to fix him some breakfast.
Todd grabbed the socks and headed into the kitchen. He had managed to make it through the shower by not paying too much attention to his many scars instead he had tried to keep his mind on his family, going over his list and letting more pictures sift through his mind in connection with his family members. He sat down at the kitchen table where Beth had bandages all set out, and patiently allowed her to change his dressings.
“Your color is definitely better than yesterday. You still have some infection around those ankles so you’ll need to keep them covered a little longer. Any nightmares last night?”
Todd smiled at her “Not a one. I dreamt of Blair and my family and nothing awful happened. It was great.”
“That’s good. Now I want you to eat everything this morning.” She placed a large plate of bacon and eggs in front of him, a separate plate of toast and jam, and a pot of coffee. “We’ve got a big morning ahead of us if we’re to figure out how to get you home. I’ll be in my office for a few minutes, I need to get down my notes on Amy’s two sons and then give her a call and check on them. Are you going to be okay while I do that?”
Todd nodded, his mouth already full of food. He felt he had a new lease on life this morning and everything tasted marvelous. He spotted the file on him sitting across the table and reached to get it. He pushed everything that pertained to him aside and found the clippings concerning the impostor. He began reading, wanting to know as much as possible about the man claiming to be him.
***
Sam got to town and stopped at his office to make sure his deputy had things under control, since Amy was home with her twins. He found one of the articles with Todd’s picture and grabbed it and started for the door. He was about to head for the license bureau when Fred stopped him. “Sheriff, you got a call earlier from that 'Jerry' guy. He wanted to know if the authorities had been able to retrieve any of the remains yet.”
“Damn, I have no idea. They didn’t call yesterday so I’m assuming they haven’t yet. Look, stay here and monitor calls. I have an errand to run, I’ll be back shortly.” As Sam left his office, he did his usual walk to check on the small downtown area but his thoughts were a mile away. If "Jerry or “Baker” as Todd called him, was calling for info, than more than likely they hadn’t stopped their search for Todd. It was now imperative they get Todd on his way to Llanview as soon as possible. Sam’s resolve was in full gear. He would have loved to have arrested Baker and Kent for breaking into his house but the only witness Sam had was the man he was hiding from them. He didn’t like anyone to break into his house and both men had violated his space. Todd had done the right thing by getting out of the house, but Sam didn’t want to even think what could have happened if Beth had been at home. Sam walked into the photo lab and up to the counter.
“Nathan, I need your computer skills, I have a request from the State Marshal for an undercover ID, this is the picture they sent me, but they informed me we need to make some changes in the picture. Can you help me out with that?”
”You bet, Sam. Things are real slow this morning this should be fun. Give me the picture and I’ll scan it into my computer.” Sam handed the picture over and watched Nathan put it into his machine. It came up on the screen and Sam began giving him the changes needed for the ID.
“You need to shorten the hair and give him a beard. Yes, that one, the trim one. Now can your program age him, say eight or nine years? That’s perfect. Print that picture for me will you Nathan.”
They waited on the picture. Then Nathan handed both back to Sam. “The guy looks pretty mean with that scar and all. He must be into something serious to have to look like that.”
Sam looked at his friend. He hated to lie, but he had to make sure Nathan kept quiet about the picture. “Nathan, this guy’s going to be going pretty deep undercover. This is a government sting operation. You can’t talk about this to anybody, not even your wife. If word of this leaked out, you could get the guy killed. Promise me this stays between you and me. Do me a favor and delete that download, too.”
“Hey Sam, mums the word. Just glad I could be of service to my country. I won’t say anything. Have a good day now and tell Beth, 'hi.'”
Sam nodded and said he would, then headed to get the rest of the ID. A short time later he walked down the street, putting the ID into a wallet with about three hundred dollars. It was a small amount but should be enough for Todd to find a place to stay in Llanview and have a little left over for food.
Walking into his office, he noticed his deputy sitting with his feet propped on the desk, reading the morning newspaper. “Things pretty slow around town today, I guess huh Fred?”
Fred started and his feet dropped off the desk, landing on the floor with a thud as Fred sat up quickly.”You know how it is, Boss, it’s the middle of the week. Amy is big news today, having her babies here in the office, and twins at that. Must have been something else yesterday.”
Sam smiled, recalling his panic when Amy’s water had broken. He had been thrilled when Beth walked in the door. “You have no idea, Fred. How did the that pileup on the state highway turn out? You didn’t make it back here by the time I left.”
“It was pretty bad, Sam. We delivered a number of injuries to the Baton Rouge Hospital. It looks like the whole thing started when that early morning fog that rolled in. The initial accident occurred when the lead car ran over an alligator. After that, it was the domino effect. I figured you had your hands full with Amy, so I stayed to help with the clean up efforts, too.”
“Okay, be sure and give me a written report by the end of the day, Fred. I have to make sure all the 't’s' are crossed and the 'i’s' are dotted.” Sam sat down at his desk and got busy on his own reports concerning the search for the missing person that had ended so gruesomely. He had called yesterday morning to alert the proper authorities and they had promised to send someone out to try and retrieve what evidence they could from the site of “Todd’s” demise. Sam knew eventually they would send a report stating that no human bones had been discovered, and “Todd” would be listed as missing instead of deceased. He was counting on those extra days to give Todd the leeway he needed to return home. He would continue to stall Baker until that final report came in.
***
Beth wandered out of her office after her call to Amy. The babies were doing terrific but it sounded like it had been a hard night for the adults. “Todd, did you see a photo lying around somewhere of me and Sam, it’s missing from my desk.” She paused, surprised to see Todd doing pushups on her kitchen floor. He was obviously feeling much better.
Todd looked up and paused, getting to his feet. “No, can’t say that I have. I didn’t move anything yesterday, I promise.”
“Oh, I don’t think you moved it. It’s just weird that it’s not on my desk. Wait a minute, there it is. How on earth did it get there?” The picture in question was sitting on the table next to the recliner and Beth headed over to pick it up.
“Wait, Beth. You say it’s usually on your desk and neither you nor I moved it. That means Baker or Kent must have picked it up. Sam might be able to get fingerprints off of it , and find out who these guys are. If they saw that picture it might explain why they left yesterday rather than wait around for you. They recognized Sam. They probably didn’t want to talk to him again.”
Beth looked at the picture and nodded. “Of course, they came looking for a doctor, hoping that I may have treated you. When they realized Sam and I were together, they decided the sheriff would get suspicious if they were continuing to look for you after everyone thought you were dead.” She walked to the phone and dialed Sam. “Honey, you need to bring your fingerprint kit with you. Todd and I think the men who broke in yesterday left some prints after all. Okay, we’ll see you soon.”
She looked over at Todd. “He’s going to bring it. He said they called early this morning, trying to find out if your remains had been retrieved. I think we had better get serious about getting you to Llanview.”
Todd nodded and sat down at the kitchen table. His hand shook a little as he picked up the file he had read earlier. Someone had taken over his life and he felt like his family was in danger. Who was this guy and how had he convinced everyone he was him?
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