by Candy Quinn
“There’s gotta be another way,” I pleaded.
“I wish I knew,” he said, his large hand reached up, to brush those long hard fingers along my cheek. He brushed my hair back as he stared down at me, but the moment only lasted that: a moment.
“If you’re gonna stay,” he said, breaking our hold on one another, “you need to get to safety. I can’t handle these guys if they can just grab you and threaten you. It’ll all be over then anyhow. Do you know how to shoot a gun? As a last resort now. I don’t want you to do it unless they come for you in the house and leave you no choice.”
Pa had taught me when I was younger and I still went hunting once in a while, but this was somethin’ wholly different that he was talkin’ about and my stomach was clenched in knots.
“Yea,” I murmured as I pulled back, trying to find my own strength and waiverin’. “Yea, I can scare’em off if they get close.”
“Good,” he said firmly, reaching in behind himself and his leather jacket. He pulled out a black pistol then and held it out to me. “Take this. Get inside upstairs. I’ve blocked off all but the one door, so you know what way they’ll come if they do. Don’t shoot if you don’t have to. You don’t want that on your conscious,” he explained to me so cautiously, his voice low and tempered.
I nodded to him, and I struggled for words. My lips parted, but not a one came out. I didn’t know what to say or do, but I just stared up at him.
“Get up there. There’s no telling when they might come,” he said to me, concern clear as day on his face. I felt like somethin’ more was due, that he yearned to say somethin’ to me. But he didn’t, not then. And he went back to his work.
I turned and went inside, but I was none too pleased about it. Mornin’ felt like an eternity away.
Waitin’ is the hardest part.
I’ve heard that somewhere before, but never knew it so intimately as I did then. Pacin’ in my own home, keepin’ a watch out the windows into the dark of night. I couldn’t see three feet in front of me, but for some reason I insisted on watchin’ out all the same.
I was a fool to do it that way. If only I’d just have gotten some rest, then maybe I would’ve been awake enough come the approach of dawn to warn Asher.
If only.
But as it was, I dozed off at the window. My eyes slow to open as I looked below and watched that big hunk of a man walk from the farm back to the house, patrollin’ my property to keep it and me safe. Though somethin’ seemed to have him headin’ to the barn in a hurry.
It was the noise of motorcycle engines that woke me up, but my brain was slow to realize that. Slower still to see the shadowy figure comin’ up behind Asher in the dark shadows of approaching dawn.
I screamed in shock! But it was too late, the fella jumped on Asher from behind, and with nary a bit of warnin’, the man had him down to the ground, arm about his neck as the bikers approached with their engines roarin’.
The big brute was hammerin’ punches into Asher’s side, and I pushed myself up and reached around for the gun. Not that I trusted myself to make a shot in the dark at the guy atop Asher from that distance, or any. It was just my first instinct before my brain kicked into full motion.
The gravelly dust in the air along the roadway was getting closer and I rushed on down to do what I could to help Asher, to get the man off of him. By the time I got there the two of ‘em was rollin’ around in the dirt. The brute that attacked Asher was big, but not so big as him. But with his arm locked about Asher’s throat, there wasn’t a lot to be done about him.
I rushed up, kicked the man in the spine, and made him cry out before I shoved my gun in his face.
“Let him go!” I screamed in a panic. Things were falling apart too fast! I had to get Asher up on his feet before the bikers arrived at least.
Thankfully, the hairy brute let go of Asher in a jiffy with a gun in his face.
“You fuckin’ bitch!” he screamed at me, but Asher belted him in the face when the word was still fresh on his lips.
“Don’t talk to a fuckin’ lady that way, you animal!” Asher said, breathing heavy as he pulled a rope from his belt and began to tie the man up.
“Are you okay?!” I asked in a panic.
“Get back in the house, Shelby,” Asher warned me, and it was dire. The bikes were now roaring down the long drive from the road, right up towards my front door. “Thanks for your help, but you can’t be here anymore!”
I stepped back at his insistence, but it was a war within me. I didn’t wanna just abandon him! But as the bikes pulled up, I realized I was too late.
I headed into the porch in order to make my way into the house proper when a shot rang out, shatterin’ the glass of the porch area all around me. I dropped to my hands and knees, a scream stuck in my throat.
Asher dove behind the truck, which he’d set up as a barrier, with sacks stacked up beneath to hide his presence below.
The shootout didn’t last long, as the big thugs got off their bikes and advanced in.
I crawled forwards to get to the house, but there I could see out the front storm door, a big fat man with a shotgun — the guy who must’ve blown out my window! — roundin’ the truck. His gaze turned to me, but before he could swing his shotgun around, Asher was on him!
Asher grabbed the barrel of the shotgun and rammed it into the big lug’s face, shattering his nose. He wrenched the shotgun away from him, then struck the guy comin’ up next across the jaw with the butt. I could hear the crack of bone and he went down too.
But the last fella was still at the motorcycles, and he fired at Asher. Asher ducked back behind the truck as a few more shots zipped past.
“Tell me where that fuckin’ girl is you thievin’ piece of shit!” cried out the man from the motorcycle. And I suddenly found myself utterly confused.
What girl?
“I’d sooner hand you my balls on a platter, Marv,” Asher called out in such a deceptively calm voice. A few more shots rang out.
“I’ll have your balls yet, you shit!” cried Marv, as his cohorts lay tied up, or huddled, shieldin’ themselves from the crossfire. “But you tell me where that girl is and maybe I won’t—”
Asher popped out, fired his first shot of the night, and I was terrified. Someone might die on my land… killed by the man I’d fallen for.
All over a girl?
I was stricken, in more ways than one. But when I dared peek out, I got to see what Asher did.
He’d shot out the tire on the motorcycle that Marv was hidin’ behind, so it toppled over atop the man, causin’ him to holler out from the crushin’ weight of that hunk of metal.
“Fuck you, Ash!” he cried out through gritted teeth, against the pain and agony. “You piece of shit!”
Asher came in at him cautiously, and kicked the gun out of his reach as quick as he could, leavin’ Marv pinned and in agony.
“I’m not handing over an innocent girl to the likes of you,” Asher said, holding the shotgun still.
I got up and pushed out through the storm door.
Though that was careless of me, ‘cause the moment I did… that big lug with the broken nose was on me, arm around my throat, hand wrestlin’ for my gun.
“Asher!” I cried out before the biker choked off my voice.
“Drop that fuckin’ shotgun, shit head!” he yelled over my shoulder at Asher. “And tell us where you took the girl too, or else this one gets it!” And it was more than an idle threat, because I eventually lost my grip on the gun.
There was no delay.
“Okay!” Asher said, slowly lowerin’ himself down to lay the shotgun on the ground. “Just let her go and I’ll tell you,” he said.
He let me go, but not entirely. He still grabbed my wrist, and pointed the gun at me.
“Where is she?!” he yelled. “You know she’s worth a lot of money to us, and she knows too much!”
Asher glanced to me, then back at Marv.
I was terrified, and con
fused more than I could possibly say.
But I guess some part of me trusted him, and that he was tryin’ to do right by whatever he was forced to do. He wouldn’t have pissed these folks off for no reason, and even if it was another girl, he was tryin’ to protect her from the likes of them.
Or maybe I was just dumb.
“Don’t, Asher,” I pleaded, and I knew it was foolish. What was I gonna do? Take a bullet for someone — somethin’ — I didn’t know or understand?
“Don’t worry Shelby,” Asher said to me, his rich, deep voice so calming. “She’s up north. I dropped her off with family there, far away from you. In Canada.”
“You lyin’ shit!” the biker yelled, and pointed the gun at Asher instead of me. “We checked there!”
Asher came forward, and I knew: it was either I do somethin’ or Asher gets shot. I pushed against the man’s arm, so that when he pulled the trigger the shot went astray.
My blood was pumpin’, and I felt like I might faint with how fast everythin’ was goin’ crazy. I thought I knew what I was in for, but I never, not even a little.
Asher barreled at us both, and before the biker could fire off another shot he was there. His fist pounded into the biker’s jaw, and he grabbed hold of the gun, pointing it away from us both.
Everything happened so fast then, but Asher freed me, beat the man down so he wouldn’t be gettin’ back up any time soon.
He was pantin’, breathin’ heavy as he held the gun in hand and looked towards the man still cradlin’ his broken jaw on the ground.
“Don’t fuckin’ move,” Asher threatened as he slowly staggered to the truck to retrieve more rope and tie the rest of them up. He was no killer.
Yet he was clearly no one to mess around with either.
I didn’t know how to feel about it all, but I didn’t have a lot of time to think on it either. I was just runnin’ on instinct, on what felt in my belly to be right.
“What now?” I asked, surprised at how awake I felt after hardly gettin’ a wink of sleep.
Asher got down onto one knee and hog tied them, one after the other, startin’ with the one that had the broken jaw.
“I can’t stay any longer, Shelby. They’ll be coming for me soon,” he said, moving onto the one who’d just held me hostage.
“They already came for you,” I argued, following after him like a stray pup. I couldn’t believe that after all we’d been through he could just leave, but it wasn’t like I could abandon the farm neither. Not with ma the way she was. I’d fallen for Asher, but I wasn’t without a soul.
“What’s goin’ on, Asher? You gotta tell me...”
Asher’s big, broad shoulders heaved as he tied up that fella.
“You don’t understand, Shelby… they had that little girl locked up, ready to sell to anyone with the money,” he said, his voice tempered, but quaking with repressed anger. “I couldn’t just let that go. Couldn’t walk away like other men.”
That took the air right outta my lungs and I staggered back, my palm finding the railing as I stared at him. Then, the anger started bubblin’ in my chest, and I saw the three thugs before me in a new light.
“W-what?” I asked and my voice sounded hard. Deadly.
He looked up at me as he tied the knot real tight.
“I knew they trafficked in drugs. But selling little girls?” he narrowed his eyes in an anger that hadn’t dissipated. “There was no way I could live with myself if I didn’t do what I could. Even if it was just for that one girl. Even if it cost me my life.”
“Asher,” I murmured, going to his side, the smell of leather and guns in the air, “What’re we gonna do? Hank ain’t equipped to handle guys like these.”
“It isn’t these guys I’m worried about,” he said, rising up as I went to them. “You see Shelby,” he said, taking hold of my hand as he looked into my eyes. “I saved that little girl, got her far away from these guys. But the police were looking for her. And their last reported sighting was with me.”
He looked at me so deadly serious.
“Her family reported her abducted. But she told me they were the ones who sold her to the gang. I couldn’t very well turn her over to them. But now I’m wanted for abducting a minor. You have any idea the kind of sentence that goes with that charge?” he asked me, his face grim.
I felt like I was going to throw up.
“But these guys, we’ll have proof. They came after you, tried to kill you! They’re not... they’ve gotta believe you,” I said with tears threatening to spill from my eyes. I could barely breathe, barely manage to stand as I stared at him with such concern.
And deep in my heart, I dreaded that there was nothing that could be done...
“And then what? I’d still have to turn the girl over to her family. The same family who sold her off to some bikers for crack,” he said, his jaw set firm, though even as stoic a man as him couldn’t hide the pain in his eyes. “If I have to die for that little girl, I will Shelby. If I have to serve time for her… I’ll do that too. But what I won’t do is turn her over to people who’ll use and abuse her, you hear me?”
I nodded my head, because I understood and even admired his conviction. What he was trying to do, what he’d do for her...
How could I hold that against a man?
“What’s next, then?” I asked, because I knew arguin’ wasn’t gonna do either of us any good.
A moment of pained silence lingered between us, and then… sirens.
Not somethin’ we often heard ‘round here, I gotta say. But when I saw Sheriff Hank’s vehicle comin’, it was easy to see the gunshots must’ve got him called. We weren’t so far away that the sound of that wouldn’t reach pryin’ ears. Certainly not of my cousin.
“Go! You gotta get out of here,” I said, pushin’ at his big, muscle-bound arm. “Before Hank can stop you!”
Asher merely shook his head and looked back at the approachin’ vehicle, then to me.
“No use. I’ve got no bike, and I wouldn’t want to put him on a dangerous chase. No Shelby, there’s no point in running anymore,” he said to me, his big, hard hand squeezing mine.
It was all my fault. He only stayed because of me, because I was so damned insistent. Because I had feelings for him and didn’t know what type of trouble he was in.
I looked at him, my brows furrowed and my eyes filled with pain.
“Asher,” I said, moving to his arms, wrapping mine around his neck. “We can explain. Hank’s a good man, he’ll understand...”
Hank came to a halt, and was out the door in an instant.
“Drop the gun!” he shouted, and I forgot Asher still had the gun hooked into his belt.
With me still hangin’ off of him, he took the gun out and tossed it into the dirt.
“Drop it I said! Or I’ll open fire!” Hank shouted again.
But it didn’t make no sense, Asher had slowly took out the gun, cast it down…
“Final warnin’!” Hank said, and then…
Bang!
I shut my eyes in terror, and everythin’ went silent for a while.
When finally I dared to open my eyes, Asher’s big strong arms were around me, and we both stood there. I looked around, tryin’ to find out what happened, and I saw Hank approachin’ all cautious like, gun still drawn.
“Bastard wouldn’t drop it,” Hank said as he kicked the gun from Marv’s hands and bent down, testin’ his pulse. “Aw shit,” he said. “Stupid sonofabitch.”
I thought we were gonna be dead, my head spinnin’ as I finally let go of my death grip on Asher, and turned to Hank. I didn’t know what to say, I just wanted so bad to fix it. To make everything all better.
“Hank,” I breathed out, and I sounded relieved.
“What about the rest of these fellas?” Hank asked, gun still at the ready as he looked about at the hog tied bikers.
“Got ‘em all. Was just the one who wasn’t tied, and you took care of him,” Asher said, steady and showing only
a little of his sadness through that stoic expression of his.
Hank looked about, then at Asher, giving him a steady stare before he put his revolver back into its holster.
“Since that’s done, maybe you won’t mind helpin’ me get these gents into my vehicle,” he said so matter-of-factly, and I thought it might be over for now. “That is, once you tell me why your face is on a wanted poster. ‘Cause that tells me I should be puttin’ you in there with these fellas.”
My heart froze.
“It’s not what it looks like, Hank,” I said instantly, wanting so bad to defend Asher and his honour. I believed him with everything I had, and I was terrified that we’d be separated. That someone so good and kind-hearted could be punished for doin’ the right thing.
“I took a girl from these here men,” Asher said, plain as day, didn’t even try to hide it.
I wanted to object, tell him not to give away so much, but it was no use.
“And what about that girls family? You never turned her over to them neither?” Hank asked, starin’ over his sunglasses at Asher, floutin’ the fiercely red mornin’ sun.
“She told me it was them who sold her for crack to begin with,” was all Asher said, plain and honest, none of the powerful conviction of his confession to me. But his fists clenched at the thought of it, and I knew his words to be true.
Hank stood there, sizin’ us both up for a while, that steady gaze of his so intense.
“These all of the gang then?” Hank asked.
“These, the two at the dance last night, and the ones already in jail,” Asher replied.
“Got the ones you left at the dance already, they’re in lockup,” he said plainly, still studyin’ us both.
It was a long silence until finally Hank broke the quiet.
“Well, you gonna help me get these four into the back of my vehicle so I can leave you two be sooner rather than later?” he asked.
The relief I felt couldn’t ever be described, not really. I’d anticipated the very, very worst, and was bein’ offered another chance. An opportunity.