Page 61 of Ride Forever
Chapter 22
Sloane
Tomorrow night.
I stared at my reflection in my bathroom mirror and held up the pair of scissors I’d found in the drawer. One way or another, in twenty-four hours, everything was going to change.
Betty was gone. Sloane was gone. So who was I now? I was Sloane, Mark II.
Grasping my hair, I sliced off a long lock with the scissors. It fell to the floor, and I glanced down. I already felt lighter.
I kept cutting, a wave of passion overcoming me. More hair came off, and I stared at my changing reflection with unmasked determination. Once I was done, I fluffed up my new do and grunted. That would do.
Opening the box of bleach I got one of the guys to get me from the beauty supply, I mixed up the powder and developer and slapped it on my head. Immediately, my scalp began to tingle. I covered all my hair with the mixture and watched my dark locks begin to lighten.
“Sloane?”
“I’m in the bathroom,” I called out, resisting the urge to scratch my scalp.
“What’s that smell?” Chaser appeared in the doorway, and his eyebrows rose. He glanced at the hair on the floor, and then to the bleach on my head. “What are you doing?”
“Coloring my hair. I wanted to see if blonde’s had more fun.”
“Do they?”
“Don’t know yet. I’m still a work in progress.” I shook the next box of dye. “I’ve gotta tone yet.”
“Why?”
“Well, when you bleach hair, it turns this gross yellow color, and you put blue or purple tones on it to counteract the gold.”
Chaser smiled and shook his head. “I meant, why did you cut your hair?”
“I wanted to evolve.”
“Fair enough.”
I narrowed my eyes. “How did it go?”
“I did what I could,” he replied. “Now we wait.”
I nodded. Watts was in Las Vegas, holed up in a fancy hotel waiting for a letter that may or may not be our ticket to freedom. Mainly my exoneration from King’s threats, but Chaser was tied up in it, too. My fate was his fate because that was how true love worked.
“Are you sure they’ll come through?” I asked. “They don’t seem like a trustworthy bunch”
“I insinuated we’d sell the information to the highest bidder and be granted asylum by a foreign power, so yeah, they’ll come through.”
I snorted at the irony and tossed the empty dye box into the plastic bag I was using for the trash.
“How are things here?” Chaser asked, leaning against the doorframe.
“Gasket has delegated men to each team,” I replied. “Bones, Hopper, Stewie, Ringer, and Davis are on mayhem duty at the Halcyon. The rest are going with Gasket to confront Rocket. Seems like the ‘Hollow Riders’ have taken up residence in a certain diner.” I air quoted the renegades shitty new name and curled my lip in distaste.
“Monroe’s?”
I nodded. “The old man isn’t very happy since he still owns the place.”
“Obviously.”
