Page 4 of Tower
We take only the stuff of true value from the house—food, weapons, medical supplies, and toiletries. We also take most of my clothes and some of my dad’s.
Everything else we leave to be collected later if we can beat the looters.
We drive a couple of miles to the motel the gang has used as their base since Impact.
“What’s your name?” he asks abruptly, coming to a stop on the road before we turn in to the driveway.
I blink. He doesn’t even know my name. “Hailey. What’s yours?”
“My name is Levi.”
I was thinking it would be a stereotypical tough-guy name like Stone or Axle, so Levi surprises me so much my eyes widen. “I guess I should probably call you Boss.”
He inclines his head, which appears to be his most common response to anything except a direct question.
I shift in my seat, taking a deep breath and steeling myself for whatever I’ll face when we get out of this truck.
“You sure about this?” Levi asks, eyeing me sharply. “This is your last chance to back out.”
“I’m not backing out.”
2
The gang’sbase used to be one of those rural down-and-out motels where the rooms were often rented by the hour. It’s still in relatively good condition, so they must have done some basic upkeep over the past three years. It’s two separate buildings of rooms positioned perpendicularly to each other, each with two floors and exterior stairs and hallways.
On first glance, I’d guess there are around forty rooms with a main office/lobby, plus a small adjacent building that used to be a Denny’s restaurant. There’s a motley collection of outdoor tables and chairs in the courtyard and a lot of motorcycles and ATVs parked in front of the rooms.
The overall effect isn’t pleasant or picturesque. Everything looks cluttered and grungy and chaotic. There are so many people hanging out in the courtyard, and they all stare as Levi drives the pickup into the lot and parks directly in front of the old check-in entrance.
He doesn’t say anything as he steps out of the truck, yanking up his trousers before he strides around to my side. I’ve already gotten the passenger door open, but I let him pull me down to my feet on the worn pavement.
He’s not being gentle or courteous, but I never expected him to be.
I hear the murmur that starts from the onlookers.Princess, I hear several times, and one guy nearby gapes at me before he says, “Fuckin’ hell. Boss went and got fuckin’ Rapunzel. He fuckin’ did it.”
Rapunzel. Dad and I laughed about that occasionally. That folks in this area would sometimes refer to me that way because of my long hair and because I never left the house and because my dad guarded me like a treasure, shooting anyone who so much as stepped on our property.
I’ve never in my life been so self-conscious. My cheeks burn, and my stomach is doing flips. I stare down at the cracks in the blacktop, wishing I could turn myself invisible and waiting for Levi to tell me what to do.
He grabs a handful of my hair and uses his clenched hand to push against my back, getting me to walk. He moves us toward the building.
When the door opens, a younger man fills the space. He’s got reddish hair, a lot of freckles, and clever eyes.
“Damn,” he says when he sees me.
“Got a bunch of shit to unload,” Levi tells him. “Organize the guys to haul it. She keeps her clothes, but the rest goes into storage or the kitchen.”
“You took her dad out on your own?”
I’m not planning to argue. The belief that he killed my father will only help confirm Levi’s authority with this group, and the stronger he is, the safer I’ll be.
Levi simply ignores the question. “Get movin’, Dep. Then send a crew back to the house for anything else y’all want before it gets looted.”
The younger man (whose name is evidentlyDep?) heads to the courtyard and starts calling out orders. Levi pushes me intothe old office. I would describe his manner as blunt and rather rude, but not rough or violent.
If he’s going to use me as a symbol of his power, he can’t be gentle.
There’s an older woman near a window, sewing in an ugly green armchair that looks like it probably belonged to the lobby when this motel was in service. She jumps up when we enter, clearly startled.
