She Sighed – Chapter 4

9:45 p.m. Just outside Wichita, Kansas in the middle of what most might call 'no-where', Rogue sat in a rental car on Saywood Avenue. She'd hopped a plane early that morning without so much as a by your leave to her friends. She'd only just arrived ten minutes earlier and sat surveying the two-story house. The lights were off and the curtains were drawn. By all appearances, it appeared as though nobody was home. Rogue studied the manicured lawn, the immaculate hedges. The soapbox house, as her mother had called it, had a wrap around veranda decorated with antique wicker furniture. Lace curtains adorned every window, as did flower boxes brimming with pansies. Sunflowers strained to reach the heavens in meticulously kept gardens strategically placed throughout the property. She sat back and sighed quietly to herself. What was she doing here? Remy was probably worried by now. Glancing to the seat beside her, she eyed her cell phone. Guilt was beginning to tug at the corner of her mind. She sighed again and reached over to pick up the phone.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

"Aahhhhh!" Rogue screamed and threw the phone to the floor. The sound had come from the window right beside her head. Turning towards the direction the tap had originated, all she saw was darkness. Now Ah know I'm goin' mental, she chided herself. Reaching down and opening the car door, she stepped out of the vehicle. Remy was on the ground, flat on his back, clutching his stomach.

"Omigod! Remy!" She quickly crouched beside him to see if he had been attacked, when she realized that he was laughing. "Jerk." She fumed. "What are you doing here?" She said in her most quiet and menacing voice.

"Sorry, Roguey. Got tired o' sleepin' wit your teddy." Remy sat up beside her, grabbed her wrist, and drew her down beside him. "Mind tellin' me what's goin' on here?"

"Y' shouldn't be here, Remy. This is none o' your business." She cast a glance towards the house. "Y' hafta scam."

"Too late. I'm already here." He crouched beside the car and watched the house as well. "Mind tellin' me why you're packin'?" He nodded to the double holster she had strapped under her jacket, the butt of one gun showing beneath her breast when she moved.

"No."

"Mind tellin' me what we're doin' here?"

"Nope."

"Who's Elaine Mercer?"

sigh "Ah guess you're about t' find out, Cajun." With that, she disappeared into the shadows behind him, leaving him to follow her. He smiled admiringly then joined her.

She hadn't anticipated Remy tagging along on this mission, and she found herself mildly annoyed that he had. She spared a glance back at him as they approached the house, using the shadows as cover. He smiled at her when he noticed that she was looking at him. Annoyed, she thought, and yet secretly pleased that he would go to the trouble of tracking her down. She couldn't help but think that her mother would be severely upset with her, mad that she was found so easily. No, Rogue thought to herself, she did a good job of covering her tracks. Fact was, she knew what she was doing, and so did Remy. She'd tried in the past to run from him, both physically and emotionally, but he always managed to find her. Like a moth to a flame, she bemused.

She stopped beside the back door and crouched close as possible to the house. Remy followed suit but made sure that he was also as close to Rogue as possible. She could feel the heat of his breath on the back of her neck as she surveyed her surroundings. She heaved yet another heavy sigh (she noticed that she had been doing that a lot lately) and heard him wince at the noise she made as she did so. He said nothing. She reached for one of the guns nestled in the shoulder harness she wore, and this time he did speak to her. "Chère ..."

She was moving towards the back door before he had a chance to continue his protest to her use of a firearm. She tested the handle of the door and found it to be locked. With a succinct front kick, the door smacked open and she stepped inside, holding the gun ready.

Immediately, she was overwhelmed by the smell of sulphur. There have been shots fired in here recently, she noticed. Remy withdrew his extendable quarterstaff from within the folds of his duster and tensed his body. With a nod of her head, he headed left into the hallway and she ventured straight into the main body of the house.

A preliminary sweep of the house told them that it was currently empty. That, however, didn't mean that there wasn't anything to find. Rogue was about to join Remy in the kitchen when she noticed a small piece of cloth stuck to a protruding finish nail on the corner of a door jam. She holstered her gun, bent down on one knee and deftly retrieved it, careful to touch only the smallest corner of the fabric. She joined her lover in the kitchen and found a box of 'baggies' on top of the microwave. She retrieved one and placed the fabric inside before she turned and spoke to Remy.

"No one's here."

"Non, petite. Th' place is empty."

"Yeah, I found 2 shots in the living room – by the front door, but no blood. Whoever they were shootin' at got away, I guess. I did find this though," she said as she handed Remy the bagged piece of fabric.

Remy quickly examined it, turning it over in his hand before handing it back to her. "Looks like fabric from a woman's blouse."

He would know, she thought then immediately chided herself for thinking it. "Might be Elaine's. She was supposed to be here, maybe someone found out she was meetin' wit me."

"Mebbe." He withdrew a pack of cigarettes from his jacket and removed one gently with his mouth, letting it dangle there as he leaned casually against the kitchen counter. Standing with one hand cocked on her hip, she watched him briefly before gliding up to him and taking the cigarette from his mouth. He said nothing as she reached her index and middle finger into his front pants pocket, fished around, then removed his lighter. As she turned away from him and walked into the living room, she lit the cigarette and inhaled.

"Thought you couldn't stand the smoke, chère."

"Lots o' things Ah can't stand, sugah." She pivoted to face him as he joined her. "Like why you followin' me?"

He watched her take another drag from the cigarette. Watched her as she stood there, the butt of her gun peeking from behind her jacket. Watched her as she watched him and he sighed. "Was worried, me. You don' seem like you' self lately."

"Ah'm fine," she exhaled, wisps of smoke escaped her lips as she spoke. Silence accompanied them as they stood in the living room. Then silence was joined by the sound of glass shattering as the picture window exploded inward, showing both of them in glass.