Miss Nobody

Chapter 4

MEMORIES & MUSHROOMS

Late Evening Day 1

I rubbed my arms to chase away the chill as we walked to Jonny's truck in the dark parking lot. Relieved I wouldn't be going to jail but not looking forward to seeing Moonlit Mountain Lodge again. Chef's rooms would be empty and cold. The remnants of the morning chores would still be on his kitchen counter. His reference books opened, notes strewn across the marble table. No warm fire. No warmth. No Chef.

I reached for the handle of Jonny's truck as he did. Jonny's hand brushed mine and I tumbled into a memory.

***

A man's smooth hand slides up my body, stopping at my nipple and pulling it tight between his fingers. He chuckles deeply and the vibration tingles between my thighs. He runs his lips across my soft stomach and lower, into the trimmed hair that covered my pussy.

I redirect him and push him over so he lays on his back. I don't want his mouth on my most intimate parts.

He grins and grabs my hips.

I pull back slightly and guide the condom over his hard cock. I tease him a little with my fingertips on his sensitive head and glance at the red candle on the side table. It's burned to the halfway point. The spell will be done soon. I rub my pussy over his cock. "Ten minutes left."

He pulls my hips, pushing his cock inside me easily because of the lubricated condom. He guides my hips over him roughly, seeking his pleasure.

***

The memory leaves me breathless and flushed. I grabbed the cool metal of the truck and leaned my forehead against it before I hyperventilated. In through the nose. Out through the mouth. Slower. Again.

Jonny's pressed against me, holding me upright like an anchor in the wave of my memory. "Let's get you home." He steadied me as he guided me into his truck.

I slid in and he shut the door behind me. The memory was strong and made me disoriented. I was in that room again. I could smell the sex. Feel the silky sheets against my skin.

Jonny started the truck and turned up the heater. The warm wind blew up the hem of my dress, my tights had torn, exposing my thigh and my bloody knee.

I quickly smoothed my dress down and blushed profusely.

Jonny mumbled a prayer under his breath and made the sign of the cross over his chest. He kissed a silver pendant around his neck and dropped it back under his shirt. He pulled the truck onto the road silently as I mentally kicked myself for not getting my laundry done.

Tights weren't something I normally wore but I needed something thicker on my legs for the chilly day and my leggings still needed to be washed. Chef had kept me busy and doing my own laundry had taken a back seat to his urgency. I barely had time to wash the Lodge linens, the job I had been hired for, between helping him in the kitchen and foraging out in the woods. The old man must have known he was running out of time. He was trying to jam as much of his knowledge into my head as he could. A vibration across the truck seat drew my attention away from thoughts of Chef.

Jonny pulled his phone from his back pocket and tossed it onto the dash. "If there's anything you need to tell me, now's the time." He glanced at me, a sober expression on his face. "I can protect you."

I shook my head. Protect me? He needs to stay away from me, not protect me. "Nothing unusual happened. I mean-" Definitely not like the first time Jonny and I met.

He grunted in disbelief and glanced at his seat belt. "Tell me everything."

"It was a typical early morning, we always started by foraging in the woods, double-checking everything we found in his books. He always looked over my work. We would collect the eggs and feed his chickens. He said feeding them before sunrise would make the yolks brighter." Tears burned my eyes. I was going to miss his eccentricities. "Then we would go to the kitchen and get things ready for the day." I sucked in a breath and remembered more of the early morning. "No, it wasn't normal. Chef got a phone call, his phone never rings that early, and it pulled him away from the kitchen. I left to start the laundry."

"He had you busy."

"He wanted me to know...things." Fuck.

Jonny looked at me.

"He was teaching me about poisonous plants." Definitely not something I wanted the Sheriff to know.

"Why couldn't he teach you something fucking normal, like how to cook?" Jonny sighed.

I shrugged. He tried.

"Do you know what kind of plant did this?"

I shook my head. "There's a lot of poisonous plants. I just started learning about them. It doesn't matter what killed him. He died because of me. Everyone loves him and now he's gone."

Jonny looked at me. "Who wants you dead?" He studied me with curiosity. "How did you survive?"

I looked out the window. The man in the top hat. I couldn't explain that so I didn't mention it. I would've chalked it up to being part of the hallucination but I felt the small glass vial tucked between my boobs.

"You're not telling me everything," Jonny's voice was low.

I took a deep breath. "I made myself throw up. I'm just lucky it worked."

Jonny narrowed his eyes, he knew I wasn't telling him everything. "What happened after you started the laundry?"

"I was back in the kitchen before Chef-" I sighed and nodded as I remembered a small detail. I looked over at Jonny. "The mushrooms had been cut."

He shook his head not understanding.

"I didn't touch them but when I got back they had been cut. I thought maybe it was Chef but there was something different about how they were sliced. He's very particular about the size of the ingredients. He always said the feeling of food in your mouth is just as important as taste." I sat back against the seat. "No one is going to believe me. The whole town already thinks I poisoned him."

"Fuck what the town thinks." He put his arm across my thighs and pulled me closer to him on the smooth leather of the bench seat.

"Easy for you to say." I glanced at him, ignoring my surprise at what he'd just done, and saw him smirk. "You're Jonny Zantana. Most women want to fuck you, the men think of you as a brother and those that don't are afraid to even look at you. I'm sure the neck tattoo has something to do with it but...and not to mention you're best friends with the Sheriff." I trailed off, I've said too much already.

"Most?" He grinned. "We could get you a neck tattoo?" He laughed.

I rolled my eyes but smiled slightly. "I don't think it will help."

"Good to know you thought about me when I was gone, didn't want you to forget." He winked, still smiling.

"Jess and Cherry like to...share." 'Talk shit' seemed too harsh a term. "They won't let me forget. I've been busy these past...thirteen days." No, I wasn't counting the days Jonny was gone. "Not thinking about where you've been." I crossed my arms under my chest.

"Thirteen? Seemed longer." He kissed my temple quickly.

Surprising me again. The warmth from his lips lingered and I fought myself not to touch the spot. Does he flirt with everyone like this?

"Don't believe everything Jess and Cherry tell you. They have good chisme but most of it's not true."

I nodded. "Yeah, I figured." Jess told me that she and Jonny had slept together a year ago. But she also told me her mom was the Queen of some foreign land I had never heard of and wasn't on any map, so I took everything she said with a grain of salt.

"You understand Spanish?" It was Jonny's turn to be surprised.

"I guess so, maybe a little bit. Chisme means gossip?"

He nodded and squeezed my thigh lightly. "I know you didn't do this to Chef. I'll find out what happened. Did Chef notice the mushrooms?"

"No, he was distracted when he came back. He looked sad and when I asked him if he was okay, he brushed it off and became his happy self again."

"He didn't mention who he talked to?"

"Nope."

"If we can get a hold of his phone we can look. The Sheriff must have it. I'll make a few phone calls."

"Chef didn't have it with him. He was going to look something up but he said he forgot it in his room and didn't want to get it until after we ate." I wiped the tears from my raw cheeks with the sleeves of my sweater.

Jonny nodded and put his arm around me, pulling me in closer to his side. "I'll look for it tonight."

I sank into his warmth, too distracted to realize how cozy we were. My breath caught as he pulled into the parking lot of the Lodge. It was empty but one news van. A bored news anchor leaned against the side of the black van. She perked up when Jonny's truck rumbled up to the gate. She tapped the man's backside hanging out of the open rear of the van.

Jonny pulled up to the metal gate that blocked the Lodge property from the front parking lot.

Moonlit Mountain Lodge was a private resort. Only members and staff allowed to roam freely on the four hundred-plus acres of thick forest. The Main Lodge had twenty rooms on the second floor, some of them out of commission but I hadn't seen more than a handful of guests at a time, giving it a desolate, quiet feeling.

Jonny pressed in the code and drove past the gate, waiting until it closed behind him before driving around the back of the hotel to my living quarters. Which I fondly called the "Laundry Tower." My large but worn room was on the top floor with the laundry room below. It was attached to the hotel but the front staircase was the only access to my room and it was off-limits to guests.

Jonny stepped out of his truck and helped me down behind him. He held onto my fingers longer than necessary. "Get some rest. I'll take care of that van."

I nodded and trudged up the staircase to my room. I was used to being alone but after spending that short time with Jonny, his hand on my thigh, his lips on my temple. Our sides pressed together. Stay away from him. He's safer that way. I sighed. Loneliness it is. At least I had hot water and my own private bathtub to cry in.

(Authors note: I am a new writer and I'm absolutely falling in love with the story I'm writing and the world I'm building. This is draft 14 and while it still needs a lot of work, it has come a long way since the first draft. I would like to have three books in this series written and I am open to constructive criticism to flesh it out more. I look forward to your helpful comments.)