Page 38 of Bronco

She opens her mouth to say something else but closes it again. I’m not a guy who wears his heart on his sleeve for anyone, but talking it out feels good. “You’re a good guy, Bronco,” she says, eventually.

I grin. “Even with saggy scrotes?”

She snorts. “I was on a roll, and when I get on my high horse, you never know what’s gonna fly out of my mouth.”

I sling one arm around her shoulder for a hug. “As long as you don’t ask me to blow up goddamn balloons, I’m yours for the afternoon.”

“Good, you can start with helping me get the chairs off the truck when they get here.”

“Spoken like a true queen of the MC, speakin’ of which…”

“I won’t say anything,” she cuts in. “Girl scouts honor.”

I glance down at her. “Ryder is one lucky man, you know that?”

She beams up at me. “I tell him every chance I get.”

8

AMBER

The past

Illinois - Three days later

“We did it,”I say, sagging back against the seat on our next bus. “They’ll never find us now.”

We’ve been on three buses so far, and have a little left for food but not much.

“Will it always be like this?” Erica whispers, her gaze not meeting mine. Poor Olive is asleep next to her, and I’m sitting on the opposite side of the aisle. “Looking over our shoulders?”

I shake my head. “No, it won’t, I promise. It seems hard now because we have to start again, but we can do that.”

I’m ashamed to admit that we raided the charity bin outside one of the shops after dark so we could dump our current clothes. I was too scared they’d see how we were dressed and march us back to the compound. I’m as full of paranoia as Erica is, I just seem to be hiding it better, which is weird; it’s usually the other way around.

Erica smiles to herself, a small giggle on her lips.

“What’s so funny?”

She waves a hand, then all of sudden, she’s in a fit of giggles. “I’m remembering how you knocked Jude out.”

I laugh, too. “Oh, that felt pretty amazing after all the shit she’s pulled over the years.”

“You were fearless. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“I didn’t want the opportunity to slip away.” I shudder when I think about what we almost lost. I don’t like violence, but honestly? Jude had it coming. She was a few moments away from running to get help, the nosy little bitch. If our chance at freedom was jeopardized, I don’t know what we would’ve done. I couldn’t go on for another second in that place.

“She almost ruined all of it.” My voice is small, it almost cracks on the last word. I glance at my sister-in-law, really taking her in. She looks tired and pale.

Her eyes meet mine. “But she didn’t, and now we’re here.”

“Because we stuck together.”

“Exactly.” Erica turns to look out of the window. She looks sad in the reflection, her face falling. We’ve both suffered so much trauma, and we’re running for our lives. Even though we’re technically free, it feels like we’re going to get pulled over at any second and get arrested, or worse, sent back. Then I remind myself that nobody knows us. We’re not doing anything wrong.

“No matter what.” I reach across the aisle as she turns, her hand gripping mine. “We’re gonna get through this. We’ve come this far.”

I know she’s uncertain about the future, I am too, but we have to take each day as it comes. Nothing could be worse than the situation we’ve both been in for the majority of our lives. I’d rather die than go back there, and I’ve got so much to live for. We all do.

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