Page 60 of Marlin's Faith

“What happened?” I asked.

“Had a little panic attack is all, you’ll be alright.” She smiled brightly at me and I nodded.

“I get them sometimes,” I admitted.

“I don’t know why, Baby. You’re free! You’re gonna be going home as soon as they take you back to the jail and get your things.”

I looked around, “My sister, where’s my sister?” I asked.

“Oh Honey,” the male of the team said, “They had to clear the hall when you fainted, it’s protocol. You feel like you need to go to the hospital?”

I shook my head, “No, I just want to see my sister.”

Paperwork, a lot of paper work and people standing and milling about, a lot of questions and finally,finally,they led me to the van to be transported back to the jail. I hated it the first time, and this time wasn’t any different, only this time… I rode in it alone. Except I wasn’t alone. I could hear the roar behind us. A distinct sound, that many motorcycles, riding in a pack. I could hear them and they stayed with me, all the way back to the jail.

It was comforting, knowing that I would never be alone again.

31

Marlin…

She’d fuckin’ fainted. They’d let her lawyer know, let him go back, but hadn’t let any of us back there to see her. They’d rushed the prisoners back off to the jail and let medical people do their thing; the lawyer had stood off to the side and reported everything to Cutter. She was okay, a panic attack, she was refusing to go to the hospital, a county van, windowless… follow it, now, yes now, we’d started the bikes and trailed it all the way back to the fuckin jail.

They had her processed and out the fuckin’ door in thirty minutes flat. Some kind of fuckin’ record if you asked me. Maybe her fainting dead away had been good forsomething.

She stepped out into the bright afternoon sunlight and shaded her eyes and I went to her, pulling her tight against me, kissing the top of her head, hating the stink of institution in her hair. She was trembling, but being so brave.

“They wouldn’t let me see Hope,” she uttered brokenly, “I mean I saw her, but they wouldn’t let me talk to her or say goodbye. They said visiting hours weren’t until Saturday.”

Fucking assholes, and here I was going to be one by whisking her away;shit.

I put an arm across her shoulders and led her gently to the bike where all my brothers were sitting astride theirs; baking in the fuckin’ finest heat and humidity Louisiana had to offer.

I took her personal effects from her and slowly put her back together a piece at a time as we made our way. First I stopped her and slid her sunglasses on her face to protect her from not only the blinding fuckin’ light beating down on us, but the retina scorching light beaming back up at us from the white cement we traversed to get to the parking lot’s curb.

Next I slipped her slim wallet back into her jacket pocket and when we got to the bike I helped her finish suiting up, getting her back into her chaps while she stood shaking from her nerves being wracked so bad, I could almost believe they’d put her back on that stuff were it not for her clear gaze back at the courthouse that’d screamed that she was putting her life in my hands and she trusted me with it.

Last thing I did before mounting up and taking off with her was to get her back into my rag, zipping up the form fitting leather over her already zipped jacket. It was hot as fuck and the wind wasn’t going to do too terribly much to cool us, but I wanted her safe. Especially knowing what me and the guys were about to pull.

“Mount up, let’s get the fuck out of here,” Cutter said, and didn’t sound at all happy about it. Not that I blamed him; if Faith were still in there, I’d’ve been sleeping out here on my bike.

We got moving, falling into formation and headed for the highway; only when the boys went to get on heading east, back to the heart of the city, I broke off and went west. Faith gave a surprised shout, her head whipping in the direction where the rest of the boys had gone but I caned it, twisting down hard on the throttle, the bike jumping beneath us and startling my girl right into what I wanted her to do. She held on tighter, held on for dear life, as I blasted up the onramp and into the flow of traffic, making for home at breakneck speed. I wanted this fuckin’ state in her goddamn rearview for good.

A couple three hours into the ride the sky looked threatening, so I pulled off on the side of the freeway and under an overpass. Just as I suspected it would, it started to rain; a thundershower one of those short cloud bursts more common Florida. They only lasted about twenty minutes or so, so I decided to let it pass before we continued on. There was no sense in us being soaked and really no point in digging out rain gear, unless it lasted longer than I thought it was going to. I rolled us to a stop and I shut off the bike. She got down, the roar of the rainfall outside our shelter, coupled with the traffic still passing by made it deafening.

“Waiting out the storm!” I shouted, and she simply stared at me. Her eyes wide and her hands trembling lightly where they rested at her sides. I stepped into her space and took off her helmet and mine, setting them on the bike’s seat before cupping her face in my hands. I smoothed my thumbs along her jaw, luxuriating in the feel of her hair across my fingers as she stared mutely up into my face.

I didn’t speak. There was something here, something magic about this moment and I didn’t want to ruin it by talking. She stared up into my eyes with that perfect trust from the courtroom but the hurt was still there in the way they shone in the dim light under here. I dipped my face down to hers and kissed her, a light brush of lips, a query, asking if it was okay that I do so when really, I felt like it should be a desperate plea for her not to be pissed at me for taking away any choice she had in the matter of her stayin’ near her sister.

Her breath brushed my face, slight and relieved. She kissed me back, her lips moving carefully, tentatively, over my own. I pulled her into me and she molded so perfectly against my body. Her kiss tasted like forgiveness even though I’d yet to voice an apology. It was difficult to explain… While I was sorrier than she could know for not giving her the choice, for swooping in like the barbarian I could sometimes be, and just whisking her away… Iwasn’tsorry for doing it. It’d needed to happen. She couldn’t stay; she’d have unraveled completely inside a day. Hell, she was still trembling, still likely to come apart in my arms right here, right now, on the side of the road.

She clung to me, as much to take shelter from the storm and traffic whizzing by as anything else and I let her. I would be her shield for a lot more than that. The kiss deepened, becoming a wild, passionate thing, that left me with a raging hard on in my jeans and leather that I couldn’t do anything for. We broke apart, naturally; her aquamarine eyes hooded and her body language much more relaxed than it’d been before. As if I’d somehow calmed her with my touch. It was a good feeling. Like I’d reached the pinnacle of what it was to be a fucking man.

The weather abated and we rode until just after dark, I didn’t want to subject her to any more today which meant we stopped somewhere near Panama City in Florida, being that I cut into the panhandle to get us back into our home state sooner rather than later. We were about halfway to Bobby’s but I wanted to get her a shower, a change of clothes and a little rest before we took on more people. She looked like her rope was about ready to snap.

We hit a cheap motel, one of the big name ones that had locations all across the country. I tended to like them better when I was travelling solo, because they were cleaner and had higher standards. This time it was because I had higher standards too. I didn’t want to bring Faith into some fleabag place. She’d probably seen enough of them for twenty life times. I regretted having to bring her to a motel at all, but the need for rest and a shower outweighed the desire to press all the way on down to Bobby’s.

I doubted she had it in her to make the ride as much as I doubted she’d had any kind of restful sleep when she’d been locked up the night before. She stumbled with fatigue when she got off the bike and I’d had to reach out an arm to steady her. I got off myself, and we checked in, the chick behind the counter eying us suspiciously. She took both my driver’s license and Faith’s ID, which it was a good thing her sister Hope had had her passport; it’d made replacing Faith’s ID weeks back much easier.

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