I'm so glad everybody enjoyed the last chapter! It must have come out like I'd hoped! I've had a lot of questions about the ring. Yes, it's real! I found it online and I will be glad to send you a picture if you pm me your email. Spell out the dot or the spam blockers will delete it.
Just so y'all know, Sugar was a real dog who was a beloved member of our family for seven years until she died an untimely death. She was a total princess, despite being huge and she was loved and is missed greatly.
This chapter gives us some fluff and action. I hope you like, let me know!
"Damn, baby girl. If I knew givin ya a ring would make ya fuck me like that I woulda done it a long time ago."
Daryl lay on his back in their bed with his hands behind his head, smirking as he smoked his required 'after fuck' cigarette. Amber slapped at him with one hand and he pushed it away, chuckling as he reached over to stub the butt out in his ashtray on the nightstand. The door rattled, Sugar pawing at it and whining to be let in. Amber shifted to crawl over him but he stopped her.
"I got it."
Daryl sat up on the side of the bed, pulling on his boxers before stepping to the door. As soon as it was wide enough the puppy forced herself in, jumping onto the bed to snuggle down next to Amber in the spot Daryl had just vacated.
"Aw HELL no." He reached over and picked Sugar up to dump her on the other side between Amber and the wall. Sugar gave him a disgruntled look. "Ya didn't get ta be a fuckin cockblock that time, did ya? Now lay over there, she was mine first."
He pulled Amber closer to him, disturbing her work as she lay on her stomach. She was pushed up on her elbows, taking a picture of her ring with her phone.
"Who all ya sendin that to?" He asked, laying on his side to press his face into her arm. His hand was traveling over her back, tracing out his ink. Amber shrugged, looking at him out of the corner of her eye.
"You don't want me to?"
Daryl rolled his eyes. "Ya know I wouldn't give ya nothin I wanted ya to hide. Jus wonderin, s'all."
"Well, everybody I guess. Mama, Kaye, Carol, Beth..."
At the last name Daryl snorted. "Merle's gonna shit. His angel's gonna be wantin a ring now too." Amber nodded and chuckled in agreement. She sent the picture and handed her phone to Daryl for him to lay it on the nightstand. That put him on his back so she crawled over to prop her chin on his chest. One of Daryl's hands went behind his head, the other dragging his fingers through her hair absentmindedly.
"So when do you want to?" she asked, now serious.
"When do I want to...oh." he started to ask, then understanding. He thought for a minute and then shrugged. "Wouldn't have give it to ya if I wasn't willin whenever. Courthouse is open five days a week."
Amber's eyebrow cocked and her lips pursed. "Courthouse?" she asked in disbelief. Daryl fought the urge to groan.
He knew he was fucked.
"You got somethin else in mind?" he asked carefully.
"Daryl, my first marriage happened at the courthouse. This will be my last one, I intend for it to be different."
He nodded slowly, treading lightly. He was in unknown territory for a Dixon. "So where? I ain't the type for church girl."
Amber smirked. "Daryl, the whole club will be there. If all the North Georgia Demons walked into a church, they would probably burst into flames, your fornicative self included."
He smirked and wiggled his eyebrows naughtily in agreement. A part of his mind was shocked that he was actually having THIS discussion and not running for the hills. "The clubhouse?" he offered.
Amber tilted her head. "I thought about it, but Mamaw and Papaw won't do that. I was thinking we could wait until it warms up and then do it here, on the dock. I figured you'd like to have it outside."
He gave her a half smile. "Sounds good, baby girl. I ain't wearin no fancy shit, though."
Amber huffed, climbing to straddle him and sit up. "Well, ACTUALLY, I was thinking you and all the men could wear some really nice grey dress pants. And some PINK LONG SLEEVE dress shirts, with dark PINK ties, tied nice and tight!" She grinned down at him mischievously. "Maybe even TUXEDOS with pink vests and matching BOW TIES!"
Daryl knew she was being a smart ass but he still growled up at her warningly. "Girl..." Amber laughed and then yelped when Daryl reached up to grab her arms to flip them, barely missing squashing Sugar as they rolled over. He grabbed Amber's wrists with his hands, his body pinning her to the bed as he dug his scruff into her neck. Amber shrieked and squirmed under him.
"Ya best think better a that, girl. A DEMON don't wear no fuckin tux. Or no tie neither."
"Sugar help!" Amber yelled for their dog, who was investigating the scene. The puppy growled at Daryl, snapping half heartedly at his ear. He scowled at her, moving Amber's wrists to one of his broad fists so he could put a hand on the dog's face and push her away.
"Go ON, damn dog. I ain't hurtin'er!"
Sugar sat down, tilting her head as if trying to figure out the confusing scene. Daryl turned his attention back to the woman under him. "Ya changed ya mind yet?"
Amber paused from her struggles as if in deep thought. "Maybe pink socks too?"
Daryl dove back into her neck, tickling her with his scruff unmercifully. Amber finally relented. "Okay! OKAY!"
He pulled back, "And?"
She sighed. "You big dummie. You know the only thing I would ever want you to wear would be your black and leather."
"That's what I fuckin thought." He rolled them back, Amber across his chest.
"I'm not wearing white." she said firmly. Daryl frowned.
"Girl, I don't give a shit what people say and that ya been married b'fore. Or that we live t'gether. You wanna wear white, ya gonna wear white."
She shook her head, smiling at him. "I know. But I don't WANT to. This is about us, so it's gonna be all our favorite things. And we can have the reception at the clubhouse."
"Reception? As in cake and shit?" Daryl tensed a little, he hadn't thought about all this. Just that he wanted them to be together forever. But he didn't dare say anything otherwise, seeing how happy it was making her just to talk about it.
Amber chuckled. "Look at it this way. Just a regular clubhouse party, with some really good food. You can get hammered with Merle and Norm and all the other guys."
Daryl nodded, he could handle that. Just the folks from the club and her grandparents. Amber knew him well enough to not do anything that would make him too uncomfortable. If he could trust her to pull a paneling nail out of his neck he could trust her to handle this.
He had much more important shit to worry about between now and then anyway.
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'Wild Boy' sat up from where he had been watching the house through binoculars. He was in some thick tree cover two hills over from the pond, having been dropped off outside one of the far field fences a couple hours before. He lit a cigarette and pulled out his phone.
The boss wasn't going to be happy.
"You BETTER tell me all you see is a fucking grieving widow, Wild Boy." Kip growled as soon as he answered.
"Sorry, boss. They both been outside, playing with the goddamn dog." He said quickly, might as well just rip the band aid off. Kip snarled in the other end of the line before he composed himself.
"I thought you said you blew them to hell, you worthless piece of shit! Are you retarded?"
"No! I THOUGHT I DID! I put a shit load of nails in that! The charge was plenty big, it nearly blew the fuckin wall down!"
"Well, they wouldn't be playing in the snow if they were in hell now would they? And Joe said their damn limp dick Sergeant just left his house with his...old lady on the back of his ride."
Wild Boy checked his gun. "You want me to go take care of this one now? They went into the house about an hour ago."
"NO! We are having NO MORE fuck ups! I'm leading this MYSELF! And we take care of them together, all at once. Then I take care of my 'strawberry' and the little one. Word is the monster of New Orleans did a job on her but she's...interesting. Then they die too for calling law down on me."
"I can have the tall blonde? And the young one?" Wild Boy asked hopefully.
Kip hesitated, knowing how best to encourage his underling. "Sure. Whatever. As soon as their men stop breathing. Get back here. We'll send someone else out to watch them."
Wild Boy started packing up his binoculars and weapon for the walk back across the snowy field to the pick up site. He hated being in the woods, it gave him the creeps.
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"Ya sure ya don't care?" Daryl asked for the third time as he shouldered his bow and quiver.
"Oh my GOD, will you just go?" Amber said from the sink. "I'm fine. I promise, I won't sneak out and commit murder while you're gone. I'd like to have some game for supper."
"I'll stay close and keep my phone on."
"I know. Baby, Papaw is keeping the front gate locked to keep the reporters out. It's okay." She looked down at Sugar who sat by the door, knowing already that Daryl picking up the bow meant he was headed out. "Take her with you, if she's gonna be your dog she needs to know how to behave while you hunt."
Daryl eyeballed the wiggly mountain of white fur. She didn't look to be the picture of stealth at all. "C'mon then." he finally said, growling low in what had been established as his way of calling her. The puppy leapt to her feet, ready to go.
"Be back shortly." Daryl called over his shoulder as he stepped through the front door, closing it behind him. He grumbled to the dog as they crossed the yard.
"Ya best stay quiet, ya hear? Ya scare the game off and I'll send ya ass home! And quit pissin on everthin! They can smell that shit and it runs'em off! No barkin neither, ya yappy just like ya mama."
The puppy trotted next to him, investigating everything. When she would trot ahead too far Daryl would growl and she would bound back to his side. He smirked down at her. He really did like the dog, she was turning out better than he had hoped. He knew she would turn out huge, probably topping out at around a hundred and twenty five pounds. While gentle giants with their families, Great Pyrenees were vicious protectors. And this one was smart, having already learned to come when he growled at her and when Amber called her name. He was going break her of how she tried to protect Amber from HIM though. In a few months Sugar would be big and Daryl wasn't going to risk her taking a chunk out of his ass while he was trying to get laid.
They topped the wooded hill just south of the house when Sugar stopped short and began to growl. Daryl stood and studied the dog. She only ever growled before when she thought Amber was in trouble. If it had been summer he would have suspected a snake in the vicinity, but that was out considering the snow. He shrugged and headed forward. She was young, maybe she had just smelled something unfamiliar to her. He advanced halfway down the hill, heading out to a spot he hadn't hunted in a while. Sugar stopped following, running sideways along the slope to begin snarling to the west, looking back at Daryl every so often.
"Come ON!" he hissed. "Quit fuckin around!"
She ignored his commands, moving ahead in her chosen direction. He groaned frustratedly as he turned off his path to follow her as he muttered. "Shoulda left yore ass at home."
Sugar kept advancing forward, looking back to make sure he was following. They came around the curve of the hill, headed up the side of the one next to it. Daryl was intending to scoop her up and carry her back to the house but she stayed just out of his reach, making him curse furiously under his breath. Finally they reached the thicket that topped that hill and she froze on the edge of the wooded area, barking furiously as her hackles raised and she crouched as if to spring. The hair on Daryl's own neck raised and he slung the bow around instinctively and had it loaded within seconds. Puppy or not, the dog had instincts and his own fine honed ones told him something was up, of either the animal or human variety. He squatted down next to her, speaking low and calm.
"Hush. Ya told me, good girl. But now ya gotta shut up." Daryl said clamping a hand firmly but gently over her muzzle. After a moment she got the point and resorted to growling low in her thick chest. He studied the stand of woods. Nothing seemed amiss but it was so thick that the interior was cast in deep shadow. Daryl advanced slowly, keeping tree cover between him and whatever it was that he couldn't see. He saw it once his eyes adjusted from the blinding white of the sun drenched snow to the shadows of the woods. It was looked like some kind of wallow. At first he thought (actually more hoped) that it was caused by a large animal like the buck he had been tracking for the last few months. Sugar was walking the perimeter, whining and he growled, calling her to his side before she could cover any tracks in the snow with her own. But then he saw more.
A handprint in the snow, next to the edge of the wallow. It looked like someone had slipped as they tried to stand and put a hand out to catch them self. "FUCK!" Daryl hissed under his breathe, standing quickly, bringing the bow back up as he scanned the area. He didn't sense anyone there but he was still wary. Sugar moved on around the depression, finally stopping on the opposite side to bark into the back field. Daryl stalked over carefully and knelt, his heart going colder than the surrounding snow.
They came to his fucking HOME!
Now that he knelt over them the boot prints were evident. He knew they weren't Merle's. His brother would have let him know if he was hunting this close to his house, and they weren't big enough. He also had more sense than to leave a clumsy wallow like that. The person who did this was no hunter. Daryl assessed the tracks within seconds. It was a midsize man, wearing biker boots, not hikers appropriate for the weather. The tracks led in, and then out into the back pasture. Daryl walked to the edge of the thicket, looking out across the cleared land now a plain of snow covered white. The center was broken with the two tracks, one in one out. Daryl shook his head. The dumbass didn't even know enough to stay out of the clearing and keep to the tree cover.
The bastard would end up regretting that.
He began to follow the tracks but then he heard the distant sound of a car door shutting drift across the field, followed by the squeal of tires. Daryl turned and kicked the tree next to him. Fifteen fucking minutes earlier and the son of a bitch that dared come to HIS HOME would be bleeding out into the snow.
He took a deep breath to calm himself, mind racing. Amber was fine. They couldn't have doubled back to the house. That was one good thing about the snow, he would have seen any tracks that weren't his as he came from there. Whoever had been here was gone, getting farther away by the second on the back road that bordered the pasture. Daryl knelt back down at the wallow, fingers ghosting over the edges. He wasn't as good in the snow, having had less experience in it, but he was good ENOUGH. The edges of the wallow were icing over. Whoever had been here had been there at least a couple hours. Daryl lifted his head up looking around. Then he reached around, grabbing the small binoculars that hung from his quiver. He brought them up, scanning the snowline that peeked between the trees around him. A familiar pink knitted hat came into view a few seconds later, sitting jauntily on the head of the snowman.
The son of a bitch had watched them. And if could see them, that meant he could have shot them, shot HER if he had a powerful enough rifle with a scope like Merle's. Daryl jerked his phone out of his vest, and a second later it was ringing his brother. He finally answered after a couple rings, sounding breathless.
"It better be good, you little fuck. I'm busy." It was obvious what kind of busy he was. Beth was giggling in the background.
"Get your fuckin dick back in your britches and get down to the back pasture. We've had company." Daryl said, voice barely under control. He hung up, not wanting to elaborate before his brother saw for himself. Sugar squatted and peed on the edge of the wallow. Daryl knew what she was doing. Her territory had been compromised by a strange predator and she was marking it as hers again. He totally understood the feeling.
Except Daryl planned on re-marking his territory with the blood of the enemy.