Pure Gold

1

Archer

I’ve never been a religious man. My mom sure as hell tried. I’m not even sure she actually is. She just wanted to scare me straight, I think. She made me go to church every Sunday with her and my father at her side. It was like everything else they did in life: all a show. I even played along sometimes but only for my mother’s sake. I learned that it made her life a whole lot easier if I was cooperative.

I never understood it all. No matter how hard Preacher McGuire would try to beat it into my head, I’d go around and around with the old man to get a rise out of him. He was an asshole. If there is a heaven, he sure as shit isn’t up there. If he is, then that’s not a place I’d want to be.

Too bad for the preacher and my mother that Savannah Moreau hadn’t been in church all those years ago. If she had been, I wouldn’t have put up a fight. I would have gone willingly to worship at her altar.

I would've read any book they put in front of me from front to back over and over again if it was about her. I’d have done anything it took to get inside that pretty little head of hers or anywhere else for that matter. And I still would. I’d go to my knees every fucking night for her.

Savannah is as innocent as they come these days. She strolled right into a lion's den blissfully unaware that she’d handed herself over to me that night. Her life is no longer hers. She can fight it all she wants. She’s been trying to, but in the end she’ll be all mine.

I’ll let her play her little cat and mouse game. I’m rather enjoying it myself. It’s been a long time since I’ve really enjoyed anything. That’s what happens when everything in this world is offered to you on a silver platter. Not her, though. I’m going to have to work to have her.

I should be sitting in a board room somewhere, plowing my secretary and thinking about golf. At least that’s my guess of what my father does most days, now that he doesn’t have to worry so much about me. I spent most of my youth trying to piss him off. He was a terrible husband, so I made it my mission early in life to make his life as miserable as he made my mother’s.

I was a dumbass, though. When I landed myself in juvie, the one that hurt the most was my mother. I’d gotten the bright idea to see if the fancy new truck my father got me could rip an ATM out of a wall. It could. Too bad Jason and I weren't bright enough to think about those ATMs having tracking on them. We dropped the damn thing down one of the mines on his father’s land. It wasn’t our brightest idea.

The authorities of course found it and tossed us in juvie. The best deal my father could work out with the judge was shipping us off to military school. Honestly, I think my old man could have gotten me off completely. But I think he thought it would set me straight and teach me a lesson. I’d gotten the last laugh when after all was said and done, I ended up enlisting in the Marines.

Truth be told, ripping that ATM out was the best decision I’ve ever made. Jason became like a brother to me, and the rest is history. I took a path completely different than my father would have wanted. That pisses him off, which always makes me smile. But I have no regrets since the choices I made led me straight to my Savannah.

Savannah stands from where she’s planting flowers around her trailer and glances around. I wonder if she can sense me staring at her. I can do this for hours and not because it’s what the Marines trained me to do either. Staring at a target through the scope of the gun could go on for hours. Sometimes even days.

It could be a bit maddening at times. Being lost in my own head was never good. With Savannah, there is nothing maddening about it. Obsessive, sure. At times my thoughts do turn a bit dark when it comes to the things I want to do to her.

I could just take her. End this little game she’s playing with me. Drag her back home with me. Bolt the doors. If it wasn’t for her best friend Ollie, I don’t think anyone would ever come searching for her. The passing of her grandfather, Preacher McGuire, has left her the lone survivor of the McGuire clan. Not that she’s anything like the people she’s related to.