Bear Flesh Delights

Chapter 7

It was early morning when Amelia opened her eyes again. She found Skylar sitting beside her on the bed, gently shaking her awake. She groaned and muttered, “I knew it. I didn’t get any work done at all!”

“Hey,” he said with a grin. “Have you been charging that laptop all night?”

“Yeah, I plugged it in when I got here,” she answered. “Why?”

“Joe doesn’t want to leave you alone all day, but he’s got deliveries to do, and I need to work a few more hours,” he explained. “I want to bring you with me on a little excursion. I’ve decided to drive so you can type a bit along the way.”

“You’ve only just come back from the lodge,” she said sleepily. “Are you going back out there again?”

“No, I’m not going to the lodge. This trip is for my other job,” he said. “I help the EPA out by gathering samples every couple of weeks to ensure the lake and lands around here haven’t become toxic.”

“Toxic?” Amelia gasped. “Why would they become toxic?”

“Because we are sitting in the midst of acres and acres of undeveloped land, on the biggest lake for many miles,” he explained. “There’s some people who would pay a pretty penny to dump their hazardous wastes out here.”

“That’s terrible!” Amelia gasped.

“Some dumpers fly it in during the night and drop the stuff straight into the water,” Skylar said. “Then there’s the sort who like to bury it someplace where they hope it won’t be found. It’s the diggers that are the hardest to stop. And it does no good to say anything unless you have proof, even if you know exactly who they are.”

“I had no idea,” Amelia said.

“Get dressed, sweetheart,” he said. “I don’t have time to be distracted by your delectable body at the moment. Dress warm, we’ll be a bit higher up the mountain and it can get a bit cold even in August. And I’m glad you’re here, by the way.”

She smirked as she scrambled out of the bed and recovered the clothes she’d shed the night before. When she caught Skylar glancing appreciatively at her naked ass she giggled, quickly pulling on her pants and shirt so he wouldn’t be tempted.

“Better?” she asked sweetly.

“Absolutely not,” he replied. “Let’s go.”

They walked hand in hand out to the truck, and Amelia noticed a bigger boat hitched on its own trailer in the back. She raised an inquisitive brow as she asked, “Just how many boats do you own, Skylar?”

“Four,” he replied with a shrug. Then he opened her door for her and she moved to get inside. He swat her on her backside as she went, making her gasp. He closed the door, laughing as he walked around the front and got in on the driver’s side.

It took them about twenty minutes to drive up to the boat launch at the top of the road. Skylar put a hand on Amelia’s thigh along the way, effectively distracting her from her attempts at typing as it sent heat coursing through her body. She wished they were headed somewhere else. Somewhere they could assuage their growing needs.

Amelia believed she was becoming more jaded than she ever thought possible since meeting these two, but a secret, rebellious part of her really liked it. She would like it even better if she got to be a bit jaded right now.

“We’re here,” said Skylar as he turned off the ignition.

She reached for the handle to open her door, and she couldn’t seem to wipe a sudden grin off of her face. The hand he’d had on her thigh suddenly crept higher as he leaned over to speak softly in her ear. “What are you smirking for, Amelia?”

“Am I?” she asked innocently.

“You are,” he said. He kissed her ear, then nipped it suggestively before he let her go. “But we don’t have time to wipe that grin off your face right now. Come on, baby. Into the boat. Leave the laptop in the truck, we’ll lock the door.”

Skylar got out, stepped to the back, and used the lift to launch the boat into the lake. Then he took Amelia’s hand and led her to the dock, helping her aboard. He stepped in after her and started the engine, and the two of them were on their way.

They headed north, jockeying past the early-rising tourists who hoped to find good spots before the crowds started to form. Skylar started to point out different plots of land to either side of the boat as they went. Then, his face fell slightly as they rounded a bend.

“And this land right here belongs to the Harpers,” he said with a sneer. “We’ll definitely want to stop for some samples here.”

“Do you believe that Harper is involved somehow with the dumping, then?” Amelia wanted to know. “Why would you think so?”

“Harper has been trying desperately to get money, for whatever reason,” Skylar explained. “He first tried to obtain it through the sale of this land for the purposes of development, but I prevented his attempt by taking it to the committee. Knowing that, and being suspicious of the rising toxicity levels, which seem to be concentrated in this area, I’ve been trying to pinpoint a location here. But legally, I can only collect samples at the edge of the water. Anything obtained on the land itself without permission would be inadmissible as evidence against him.”

“So what, you skirt around his place taking samples instead?” Amelia clarified.

“Yeah, that’s all I can do,” he shrugged. “We’ll be mooring just north of his land so I can get soil samples as well. But we have to be careful. I’ve had more than one run-in with Harper and his boys out here. They’d like nothing more than to make me disappear just like the girl we’ve been searching for since last year.”

“You think he might have her somewhere, don’t you?” Amelia asked.

“I’m almost certain of it,” he said. He dipped a long-handled scoop into the water and poured the resulting contents into a little vial, which he capped and stowed away in his pack.

“Maybe it’s a bad idea to come out here alone, then,” she pointed out. “There’s at least three of them and only one of you.”

“No, Amelia, it’s much easier to remain unseen when I’m alone,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m taking a big risk, bringing you along for the ride. But with Harper and his boys gunning for you, there’s no way I could leave you home alone. When we go, we go quickly, we go quietly, we get what we need and we get out. Understood?”

“Yes,” Amelia said with a nod.

Skylar angled the boat to the dock and killed the engine. He hauled himself up, then reached out to bring her with him. He drew her against his side and set a fast pace as he brought her towards the shore.

“We need to hike in a bit,” he said. “We’ll be taking several samples along the way. I want you to hold these sample bags for me. That should make things go faster. Now, we should keep our talking to a minimum after this.”