Page 29 of Road Rash

12

Old Man

She’s here. She’s in my arms. We got to her on time. I can’t fucking believe it. My arms feel good around her. She stinks like woods and sweat and fear, yet she smells beautiful, like love and lust and future.

We wait inside the truck for the sheriff to arrive, just outside the turn for the long dirt drive. He’d never find it in the dark otherwise. Only people who already know its location, who’ve spent time here know the turnoff.

I get a call from Mad Man. “Got him,” is all he says before hanging up.

Jonesie’s shaking, probably an adrenaline crash. I pull her onto my lap and crank up the heat to warm her.

“Shh…” I try to sooth her. “It’s gonna be okay. Promise, baby.”

“Don’t let go of me,” she whispers.

“Never.”

“Don’t let go,” she says so softly again.

“Not ever, baby. I’m never lettin’ you go.”

She curls up into a ball on my lap, shrinking right in front of me. Jonesie never shrinks. She never fucking shrinks. It’s more than I can take. Before I can remind myself of what a bad idea this is given the trauma she’s been through, the bruises around her neck, the cuts on her already injured feet from running for her life, I dig my hands into the tight ball of her body to pry her chin up gently, then I bend in pressing my lips to hers. They’re parched and cracked. I’ve never tasted anything so sweet.

It’s as if I can finally breathe again, this close to her.

And then there’s the goddamn knock on her window. I glance up to see the sheriff shining his flashlight inside the cab. Pressing my forehead to hers, I pull back. We need to get this part done before we can head for the motel. I’ll get people on cleaning tomorrow. I’ve got to find Burk as well.

I roll down her window and the sheriff leans his head through, resting his bent arms on the door. “Sorry to interrupt,” he says, not sounding sorry at all.

“If it means this shit is over, it’s fine. Just glad to have Jonesie back safe.”

He looks her over. “You need to take her to be looked at.”

“Doin’ that as soon as we’re done here. He’s up at the house. Lords and Outcasts are detaining him for you.”

“Sheeit. Hope there’s somethin’ left to arrest when I get there,” he replies. “Can you tell me what happened?” he asks Jonesie.

She nods, beginning her tale of being cornered in the hallway at The Rash and being sent off with Slim. My stomach clenches and I feel sick hearing about the shit she went through, knowing that I sent her off with that man, even if I didn’t know he was the bad guy in this.

Jonesie goes on about stopping at a truck stop and how he attacked her, tried to strangle her to death. The bruises on her neck are proof of that. Then she goes on to explain how she tricked him into believing that Drake and Brandi were recovering here.

She’s so damn brave. We follow the sheriff up to the cabin. He needs Jonesie to detail what happened. She takes him around the grounds to show the path she took, then explains about running in the forest. That leads them inside where she takes us to the gun closet where several members of the Brimstone Lords along with Mad Man and Specter from the Devil’s Outcasts have Slim hogtied with duct tape on the ground. His face is almost unrecognizable from the bruising and swelling. And he’s unconscious. The place is trashed. If Drake don’t have insurance on it, then I’ll help pay for repairs. He shouldn’t have to shoulder the burden of paying when it was my woman that brought Slim here.

Although knowing Drake the way I do, he won’t give two shits about what happened to the cabin so long as Jonesie came out safe at the end of it.

“What happened to him?” the sheriff asks.

Rex shrugs innocently—probably the only time he’s done anything innocently in his life. I have to stop myself from laughing at that. “He was out when we got here. As we were lookin’ for somethin’ to tie him up with to detain him for you fine men of the law—” He spreads his sarcasm as thick as peanut butter. “—he woke up. Tried to attack us with a gun.” Rex points to a gun on the floor across the room from where they have Slim tied up. “We unarmed him. He got a few elbows to the face while we were strugglin’. It was self-defense.”

I believe it was self-defense about as much as I’d believe Rex shows up for church every Sunday.

“That what happened?” the sheriff asks the other men in the room.

“Exactly,” Mad Man says.

“To a T,” Specter says next. And they’re laying it on thick trying to pull off these angelic-type faces. It’s ridiculous. But I’m sure as hell glad I can count them as friends.

The sheriff writes everything down then calls for an ambulance to take a look at Slim before he gets tossed in a cell for the night. And hopefully a lot of them to come.

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