Blurred Lines

17-

6 Months Later

Chance put the scumbag in hand cuffs and led him to the back of the patrol car. Michael Brantley. Big time drug dealer they had been surveilling for the last three weeks. He was a major drug dealer in the game and was known for dealing meth and heroin to kids. They set up a deal with a kid to help him avoid time in juvenile detention and busted Brantley during the sale. They had placed the kid in cuffs too to make it look real.

"Nice Clermont! We've been after this guy for years. You might be a good addition to the team after all." Investigator Daniels commented.

"Just trying to make you proud," Chance joked.

"Yeah whatever. You're over on hours kid. Captain says you need to go home. Have a beer for me ay?"

"I'll have one for the whole team."

Chance headed back to the station and swapped his unmarked car for his motorcycle. He stashed his guns and badge in his bag and made the twenty minute drive out of Galveston to his house. After graduating from the academy he had found twenty acres of land with a fixer upper on it. He was drown in by the private lake and dock with missing boards. The place would take at least a years worth of repairs to be what he imagined but he had time.

He had already renovated the living room, kitchen, and bedroom. There were two other bedrooms, two bathrooms, a dining room, closets, and a laundry room that needed work but he took care of the important areas early on. The sun was just rising and he could never bring himself to sleep after a long night at work. He would go back to work Monday morning but he wasn't going to waste his Saturday inside sleeping. On his to do list for the day was the dock. He had just been careful to not step in the rotted boards when on it but it really needed to be fixed.

Chance went inside and changed out of his cargo pants into jeans and boots. He stripped his shirt off knowing it would come off in the heat anyway. He grabbed a six pack of beer and headed outside. First he would cut the boards all the same size and then tackle removing and replacing the rotted ones. The sun was rising behind him and just as he suspected the sun was beating down. He fired up the saw losing himself in the work and thoughts and memories of Erin.

He hadn't spoken to her since the night he left. He figured she was still at the ranch. She had a good life there and at the time what could he have offered her?

—-

Erin pulled the car to a stop in front of the old run down house. Colt must have given her the wrong address. This couldn't be right. All she had asked was where Chance was living. Colt had started to say more but Erin cut him off thanking him and hanging up the phone. Now she wondered if she should have let him say whatever it was.

She turned the car off and opened the door. She closed the door and walked to the front of the house careful of where she stepped. Erin took a deep breath and then knocked on the door. She didn't hear any movement inside.

She knocked again but there was still nothing. Erin retreated down the stairs. She walked back to the car and then she heard a thudding sound over and over in the distance. She walked around the side of the house seeing a motorcycle and truck. Erin recognized the truck. It was Chance's. Her heart caught.

She walked further around the side of the house. There was a saw and a stack of boards. Empty beer bottles littered the ground. She heard the thudding again and looked out towards the sound. That's when she saw it. The lake was beautiful. The cypress tress surrounded the area. There he was. Christopher Ryan Clermont III knelt down on a dock pounding nails into a board, shirtless.

She walked out onto the dock being careful of the missing boards. One creaked under her foot and Chance turned suddenly.