“Good fuckin’ times,” I muttered.
“You get stuck, we just leave the Jeep and ring for a pickup.”
I nodded. “Let’s hope we don’t get stuck.”
“Smooth as silk,” he said and knocked three times on the knit cap covering his head. My mouth turned down, and I shook mine slightly. His head was a piss poor substitute for wood. Dude didn’t give himself enough credit.
“Now?” I asked.
“Now, go easy, don’t lose traction.”
I got out onto the road, pulling out behind the guy and took a deep breath. “Hang on,” I said and got up where I needed to be just before the bridge and holding my breath, guided the Jeep into the truck’s rear quarter panel in a classic PIT maneuver.
“Jackpot! Nicely done!” Rush declared as the dude slid, his backend fishtailing nicely, and in his panic, he revved the truck’s engine. He slid on the ice, his back end going off the road. The weight of the truck plus the slick ground caused him to go backwards off the side of the road into the ravine.
“Not as gnarly as Eedee’s wreck,” Rush grunted.
“Nope, not nearly enough,” I said unhappily.
“Shall we go check on him?” Rush asked grimly.
“Afford him the courtesy he denied my lady?” I asked, pulling out my firearm and checking it, even though I already knew it was loaded and ready for bear.
“Absolutely, we should be the bigger men here, don’tcha think?” he asked.
We stopped, looked both ways, and crossed the road to where he’d gone over.
“What the fuck, man?” he cried, door to his truck hanging open, looking up at us with fury.
I shot him, no fucking remorse, a dark stain blooming in the center of his dirty gray sweatshirt like a rose on the gray for my woman.
“That’s for the girl you ran off the road,” I said safely from the shadows, backlit by the headlights of the Jeep.
“You fuckin’ shot me!” he cried.
“Good luck, bro,” Rush said and tugged on my sleeve. We backed away from him, making sure he was out of sight before we turned and hurried back into the Jeep.
“Point Nowhere?” I asked.
“Yeah, let’s lock this shit up and get my truck,” Rush agreed.
Vengeance was mine. I closed the book on this chapter.
23
Eden…
“Wow, kind of sad, huh?” my dad asked as the news played out on the television. A man had been found shot but frozen to death by the Sandy River Bridge. The police found drugs and with nothing to go on, they were thinking it may have been a deal gone bad, or whatever. They were looking for tips and information.
“I swear, this meth problem around here is out of control and the police are like Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. They don’t know whether they’re coming or going,” my mom declared.
I finished unloading the dishwasher and called out to Dante that it was ready whenever he was. It was the night before Christmas Eve, and Sage was supposed to come get me. It was going to be our little Christmas tonight, then tomorrow it was the club’s Christmas, then Christmas Day was the family Christmases spent at home with everybody.
My car was, not surprisingly, totaled, which sucked. However, unlike my brother, I had enough money saved and with the insurance company payout coming, it would make more than a tidy down payment on something new. That, or I could find something used and get it outright. I was undecided on what I wanted to do on that front. I kind of wanted Sage’s thoughts and opinions on the matter before I did anything.
A knock fell at the front door and my mom went to answer it as I left the kitchen. I paused, a smile already beginning to tug at the edges of my lips as she opened the door to reveal Sage.
“Hi!” my mom called out cheerily. “Come on in.”
“Hey, Smoke,” my dad called from his recliner.
“How’s it going, Rev?” Sage asked.
“Same shit, different day, bro.”
Sage smiled at me.
“Hey,” I said softly.
“Almost ready to go?” he asked, and I could tell, he couldn’t wait for it just to be us.
“Just need to put on my coat and grab my bag,” I said, biting my bottom lip.
“Here, let me come grab that for you.”
My mom stepped aside and went into the living room as Sage followed me to my room. As soon as I stepped through the door, he spun me, catching me up in his arms, kicking my door shut with one booted foot as he crushed his mouth over mine.
“Mm!” I exclaimed in surprise, before relaxing completely, melting into his arms, a much more satisfied and pleased ‘Mm’ passing from my lips to his.
“Mmm,” he hummed out in pleasure and finally broke the kiss, pressing his forehead to mine.
“I missed you too,” I whispered, and he smiled, his eyes closed, just drinking the sensation of having me in his arms again.
I loved that about him. When he did things like this, I felt like the most precious thing on earth, a golden euphoria sweeping through me, and it made me love him so hard. So incredibly, impossibly, hard.
He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Clearing his throat, he drew back to look at me asking, “So, where’s your stuff?”
I smiled and laughed a little and took a step back to regain my senses.
“Just need to put a few more things in my pack and we’re good to go,” I murmured.
“Okay,” he said, and he looked around and I realized, this was probably the first time he had ever been in my room.
“I like this, this is nice,” he said, looking around.
“Thanks,” I murmured. It wasn’t a whole lot, I preferred kind of a minimalistic and natural approach to decorating.
The walls were white with only two pieces of framed art on the walls – photographs of Ireland that Aunt Evy and Dray had brought back from their honeymoon. One was of green swept grasses and towering castle ruins, the other of a squat white cottage with a thatched roof set among rolling green hills.
Then there was my white dresser, two white bookshelves filled with books, and my full-sized bed with its two nightstands and lamps.
That was pretty much it.
“I like the simple clean feel. It’s not cluttered or overwhelming in here.”
I smiled and nodded. “I like your room too, for the same reason,” I said.
“You, uh, ever have any thoughts toward what you want in a house?” he asked, and I stopped where I’d pulled open one of my dresser drawers to grab some socks.
“I honestly haven’t,” I said. “Now that you mention it, though… I wouldn’t mind dreaming.”
“How come it’s not something you ever thought of?” he asked, picking up a framed picture of me and Harmony from our school-sponsored trip to Washington DC off of my dresser and looking it over, the Washington monument rising behind us on the Mall. I smiled a little sadly and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.
“I hadn’t honestly thought about it because I’m still trying to find my way, you know?”
“No, tell me,” he said gently.
“Like, I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I don’t know if I should go to school, or what I want to be. I mean, I don’t know if I should go for a degree or anything. Seems like it’s just a waste of time and money when so many are holding bachelor’s degrees and are bagging groceries, you know?”