“How can you say that? How can you know?” I ask him in a soft, timid voice. I don’t want to argue with him, but my pessimism is showing through. I can’t see a way out of this.
“Kate,” he says gently, and I know it’s warning, but I can’t stop. I’m too scared.
“They’re going to find your bike and they’ll know where we went,” I ramble on weakly. “They’re going to figure it all out, Breaker, and then they’ll find us.”
“You’re right,” he agrees. I’m taken aback by his ready answer, and my stomach lurches with anxiety. But then he goes on. “They will find my bike. They will keep looking. But you have to trust me, okay? You have to trust that I will do everything in my power to keep you safe from them, Kate.”
I want so badly to trust his pledge. But all I feel is emptiness. All I can think of is defeat. Over and over again, those dark images flood my thoughts. The bikers catching up to us. Surrounding us. Tearing me out of Breaker’s strong, protective grasp. Wrenching us apart. Ripping him to pieces and taking me away to torture and sell. I know this fate is looming, hovering just over us like a dark miasma. I can’t fully believe in Breaker’s words, but I do know that I have to trust him. What choice do I have otherwise?
He keeps running, his legs carrying us farther and farther away from the main road where his motorbike lies destroyed. He jostles me every now and then in his arms, almost as though he wants to make sure I stay awake. I don’t totally understand why, but I assume it has something to do with dead weight. Or maybe he just knows that I’m mere inches away from totally passing out, and he needs me alert and vigilant if we’re going to make it out of this situation alive. We keep going despite my fear, despite how tired I know he must be by now. But if he’s getting fatigued, he sure as hell isn’t showing it.
In fact, he’s barely breathing any harder than he was before. He must be very strong to keep me cradled in his arms like this for so long without having to take a break. I know I may not be the heaviest load to heft around, but I’m still a full-grown young woman. I’m not weightless, though I may as well be in Breaker’s arms. He doesn’t give up, not even when the darkness settles in like a velvety curtain around us, clouds blotting out the moon and stars once again. He runs and runs, never stopping to even catch a breath, until finally I tilt my head and happen to clock a looming shadow growing taller and broader in front of us. That must be our destination. A shack in the middle of nowhere.
As we approach the shack, Breaker comes to a halt and gently sets me down on my feet. I wobble a little at first, the dizziness swarming my brain. Then the world stops spinning and I stand on my own two feet, even though my heart is racing.
“What’s happening? Why are we here?” I ask, looking around for any sign of life.
“I’m here to grab something,” Breaker answers. “Can I trust you to stay put?”
“Here? Alone?” I murmur, eyes wide.
He nods and puts both hands on my shoulders. “Yes. Not for long, Kate, but yes. Can I count on you to stand here and wait for me?” he asks.
Tears well up in my eyes. “I-I guess so. Why can’t I come with you?” I whisper.
“I’ll be quicker on my own. It’s important, okay? Just stay here,” he insists.
“Okay,” I reply, nodding. “Okay.”
“Good girl. I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Breaker says, and with that, he dashes off into the shadowy darkness.
I watch him disappear into the night, feeling sicker and weaker by the second. I want to trust him. I want to believe he’s going to come back for me as he claims, but still there’s a part of me demanding to make a run for it. The urge is almost overwhelming. But I clamp it down and force myself to stay put and do as I’m told.
Not long after, I hear an engine splutter to life, and to my surprise, a beat-up but functional black sedan comes rolling toward me from behind the shack. I stumble back, clapping a hand over my heart, until I manage to make out Breaker’s face through the windshield. He pulls up beside me and pushes the passenger door open.
“Come on,” he says hastily. “Get in.”
He doesn’t have to tell me twice.
I climb into the seat and yank the door shut, then turn to him and ask confusedly, “Where did you get this car? Whose is it?”
“Belongs to a friend of mine. He runs a garage right off the highway. It’s a great business model because people break down out here all the time,” he explains vaguely.
“Does your friend know you stole his car?” I press him.
“It’s better you not know,” he answers.
“Oh,” I mumble softly. Fair enough.
“Kate, I need you to do something for me,” Breaker says, glancing over at me intently.
“What is it?” I ask.
“I need you to tell me everything you saw and heard of the men who put you in that room. Give me as much detail as you can,” he says. “It’s important.”
I bite my lip, toying for a moment with the idea of lying. But then he shoots me a look that makes me change my mind. I’d better be honest. At least with him.
“I was at a club with my friend Moxie. Some guy brought us there in a taxi. She was drinking with him at the bar. I stayed around to keep an eye on her, but when I went to the bathroom, they both disappeared. Then a man came up to me and said he would help me find her. From there it gets a little hazy,” I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose. “I was in a vehicle of some kind. The backseat or the trunk, I think. I remember the tires crunching over dirt and gravel. And then I woke up in that awful room. I was alone. I was still wearing my clothes from the night before so I assumed… I assumed everything was fine. Until I realized the door was locked from the outside. And the window was bolted shut. Then I got scared.”
“Go on,” he urges me, even though I can see the rage on his face.
“There’s not much else I remember. I’m sorry,” I murmur, shaking my head. “I banged on the door. I felt so sick. Someone must have drugged me. I promise I wasn’t drunk. I’m only eighteen. I can’t even order alcohol. I was just drinking plain cranberry juice, but I was so fuzzy and confused.”
“Mhm,” he says, looking even more pissed off than before.
“I’m sorry. Am I making you mad?” I ask in a tiny voice.
He looks over at me, and the pain etched in his gaze makes my heart pang.
“No. I’m not mad at you, Kate. But I am angry,” he says cryptically.
I’m having a hard time reading him in the dim light of the console, but when I glance out the window, I feel a shock of familiarity. I see a sign—which clearly states that we’re headed toward Stonedale. I sit up straighter in the seat, excited.
“That’s my hometown!” I gasp, pointing at the sign as we pass.
“I know,” he says grimly. “But don’t get your hopes up. The Prez is coming for you, Kate, and he doesn’t let anybody go easy.”
Breaker
The blackness on the horizon starts to melt away into a visible blue, and I know sunrise is right around the corner. There’s something so overwhelmingly comforting about what seems like a subtle shift in color. But on a primal, basic level, it tells me that the day is about to begin, and I’m eager to take any comfort I can get out here on the road.
The sedan has been holding up nicely. It isn’t the most comfortable ride on the planet, but it’s a hell of a lot better than having to deal with Buzz and the rest of the club hot on our tails. I haven’t seen hide nor hair of them since we shook them off last, which is a relief, I have to admit. My best guess is that they saw my bike on the side of the road and started spending more time searching off-road. I could be anywhere out there in the desert, and the one thing they almost definitely aren’t expecting is for us to have gotten another ride so quickly.
Kate is sitting in the passenger’s seat, but she seems to have barely blinked, much less gotten any sleep. I’ve been expecting her to nod off at any moment, but she’s on high alert still. When that energy runs
out, it’s going to run out hard and fast. I haven’t slept either, and I’m used to doing all-nighters like this. She isn’t exactly a spoiled princess, but I have a feeling she hasn’t spent many nights on the run without food or rest.
Letting your body be in fight-or-flight mode for that long takes a toll on you. It won’t be long before the cracks start to show on her. I need to be ready when that happens, because today is going to make or break this rescue.
The darkest blue in the distance starts to creep upward, pushed away by the warm orange glow of the sunrise proper. Finally, I see the sliver of that burning orange orb on the east side of the northward-bound road, and it begins its ascent.
When I glance over at it, I can’t help but notice that the light seems to frame Kate’s face as she stares forward vacantly. She looks exhausted, but even so, her natural beauty gives her a kind of quiet dignity that keeps her head held high.
I tear my eyes away just half a second before she glances over at me, sensing my gaze. I can’t keep looking over at her like this. Maybe I should double-check myself and make sure I’m not the one whose judgment is starting to go haywire. This is a scared girl I’m rescuing, nothing more than that. Of course she’s beautiful, Buzz wouldn’t have kidnapped her if she wasn’t.
But that thought makes me feel bad the moment it crosses my mind, so I dismiss it. I don’t know what to think of the girl next to me, except that she needs me, whether she likes it or not.
Once dawn is well underway, we’re able to see the town of Stonedale up ahead. It shouldn’t be that much longer before we reach it now, and I’m sure that’s doing wonders to keep Kate awake, but it’s a lot more exciting for her than it is for me.
I could just drop her off and disappear. I know of a gas station just far enough outside Stonedale that I could stop there, let her go to the bathroom, and be completely out of sight by the time she gets out. She could use a pay phone, get a ride home, and… be promptly taken by the club again the second they catch up to her. And they will catch up to her.
Buzz is not a kind man. I’ve been able to turn a blind eye to some of the way he acts over the years, but not this. I can excuse him beating a rival too hard. I can’t excuse selling people’s bodies for money like he was planning on doing. Even if I was welcomed back with open arms, I wouldn’t consider any offer Buzz would put on the table. I know men like him all too well.
If he’s willing to hurt a woman like that, it just means he’s willing to throw anyone he sees as lesser than him under the bus without a second thought. As long as he thinks he can get away with it, a man like that will not hesitate. I’ve had too many step-fathers walk out on my mom or do even worse to her for less. It’s a fact of men like that I’ve come to learn over the years, and I can’t just abandon Kate to that fate.
“Hey,” I say, and she jumps, sucking in a quick gasp of air at my sudden speech.
“Sorry,” she says, shaking her head and rubbing her temples. “I’ve just been zoning out watching Stonedale get closer.”
“About that,” I say, taking a deep breath and rolling my shoulders back to stretch my muscles out. Her eyes follow the movements of my body, and I force myself to ignore that.
“We’re still going there, right?” she asks with a hint of worry in her voice.
“Yeah. But I need to make something crystal-goddamn-clear before we get there,” I say, holding a finger out and looking sternly at her, which seems to make her recoil, and she nods softly. “The second I drop you off—and I mean the second—you need to leave Stonedale. Permanently.”
Her jaw drops, and I watch the color drain from her already weary face. She looks like she might be faint for a second, but she snaps out of it and shakes her head vigorously.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” she blurts. “There’s… there’s no way I can do that, Breaker. I can’t leave Stonedale, it’s all I’ve got! I don’t have anywhere else to go, I-I… my job is in Stonedale, all my friends, I-”
“Doesn’t matter,” I growl, and she twitches uneasily. “Pick a place. Haven’t you ever just stared at a map and thought about different places you’d run off to if you had the chance? Throw everything into a suitcase, pick a direction, and drive until you can’t drive anymore? I sure hope so, sweetheart, because with Buzz and the rest of the club on your tail, that’s exactly what you’re going to have to do. I’m deadly serious, and you better pay attention.”
My tone is harsh and stern, and she reacts accordingly. Her eyes have been looking at me with growing interest over the drive, but now, I have to hold back my sadness as I watch all that evaporate and get replaced with fear. She’s a prisoner all over again, and she swallows, trying to keep her composure.
“It’s not that easy, Breaker,” she says. I notice she’s using my name a lot, trying to keep me sympathetic to her by making me feel like we’re on the same side. I wish I could tell her that’s not necessary. I wish I could clear the air, but I’m going to have to scare this stubborn-ass girl if she won’t do as she’s told for her own good.
“Isn’t it?” I snap. “I’ve done it plenty of times since I was younger than you.”
Her jaw tenses, and she tries to dig her heels in. This is going to be harder than I thought, but I have to admire the tenacity of the girl.
“I’m eighteen, asshole!” she says with a trembling voice. “I don’t exactly have a savings account I can fall back on!”
“Then you had better find a relative or a friend who owes you a favor real goddamn fast, Kate,” I snarl, shooting a piercing gaze over at her, “because I don’t think you get what we’re up against here. I’ve watched Buzz put a bullet in a man he called a friend for running a side-hustle without telling him, and every single one of those guys under him is capable of just as much, including me,” I add.
“Breaker,” she breathes through a clenched jaw, eyes looking more heart-wrenching by the moment, but I can’t back down.
“If you’re anywhere near this town, they’re going to find you,” I say with terrifying finality. “And when they do, don’t you think for a second they’ll hesitate from dragging out of your cozy little bed kicking and screaming.”
“I’ll call the police!” she says fiercely.
“And tell them what, Kate?” I demand. “That ‘some gruff looking bikers’ kidnapped you, but a nice one brought you home after a night drinking? You think a bunch of small-town cops are going to give a shit about that?”
My harsh words give her some pause, and I press on. I’m going for the throat, and I can feel my heart ripping into pieces to say it, but I need to put the fear of the devil into her, because that’s what’s after us.
“You really want to know what Buzz had in mind for you, little girl?” I say, nostrils flaring as I glare between her and the road. “He bought a fucking dive bar outside Rawlins, and he was going to turn it into a strip club—and not the legit kind, either. He was going to pimp you out to every crusty old fucker who came through with enough cash in hand to make Buzz happy and force you to warm their beds for the night. And that’s assuming Buzz wouldn’t just take you for himself.”
Her face looks aghast, but she’s barely reacting anymore. She looks like she’s seen a ghost, and I know that my words are finally hitting home where I need them to. But I can’t decide what’s worse: the fact that I have to twist the knife like this, or the fact that every single word out of my mouth is true. I might be scaring her, but I’m not going to lie to her.
I’ve run with bad men in the past. I don’t know what that makes me, but all that matters is what I do now.
“And if you think they need to stick to Wyoming to do that, you’re kidding yourself,” I go on. “If I were Buzz, I’d be tracking you down, packing you up, and heading to greener pastures as soon as I could sell that shitty bar. But that guy I killed back there was his son. If they get their hands on me, they’re going to rip me apart piece by piece, probably leave my body burning in a pile of trash somewhere I won’t be found for
a few years. And if he gets his hands on you when he’s in a bad mood, he might just have a mind to do the same thing and cut his losses. You’re money to him, Kate, and nothing more.”
A new sound makes me turn my attention back to Kate, and my heart plummets as I realize there are tears streaming down her red-rimmed eyes. Her lip is quivering, and her whole face is going blotchy red.
“Ah, shit,” I grumble before she turns her head and tries to wipe her eyes dry, but as soon as she feels how wet they are, she starts sobbing. I open and close my mouth a few times, fighting the urge to say something comforting, but I know damn well I can’t.
Can’t blame her either, really.
The sun is up now, and the heat is starting to set in. With nobody on the road ahead of us or behind us, I slowly pull over and come to a stop.
“Wh- what are you doing?” she asks through sobs, sniffing and looking up at me in terror. She looks so vulnerable and fragile that my heart aches for her. I can’t just let her sob all the way to Stonedale. Besides, pulling up at a gas station with a terrified, tired, crying girl is a good way to get my ass caught by the cops.
“Giving you a minute,” I say calmly as I put on the emergency brake. “I’m taking the keys, so don’t try anything funny.”
Before she can reply, I open the door and feel the dry air flood the car. I walk around the car and take a deep breath, trudging off the road while Kate’s bloodshot eyes follow me ruefully. I take my phone out and turn it on for the first time in a while, deciding to do what I’ve been avoiding and actually look at who’s been trying to get in touch with me.
I’m about ten yards from the car when I finally feel the buzzes of messages and voicemails hitting my phone. Scrolling through the notifications, my frown deepens, because there are sadly no surprises.
“Breaker. I don’t know if you’re reading this, but bring the girl back. Let’s talk this out.” Bones’s message doesn’t exactly radiate subtlety.
“Prez is looking for you, Breaker. This is not a game.” Ironside sounds almost like a warning, unless my eyes are fooling me. I have to wonder if there’s more to the guy than meets the eye after all, but I’m in no position to make that call right now.
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