Legend_A Rockstar Romance

by Ellie Danes

  “Out of town.” I smoothed down my hair and tried to act like it was a normal question.

  The older man paused next to his pick-up truck and noticed that I did not have any luggage with me. “It’s a few miles from here, almost the other side of town. Want a lift?”

  I considered his rusted truck but also what Nathan would do. If he was following me, and I hoped he would try, then he would scare the hell out of the poor, nice man.

  “How about a phone? I’ll call a cab,” I said.

  The man nodded and let me use his old cell phone. “Waiting for a cab will give you some time to think things over,” he said.

  I smiled at him as I dialed information. He had no idea how much I wished I could turn my thoughts off.

  The patient man waited, and even told me the street corner where the cab could pick me up, but he never stopped frowning. He probably thought I was running from an abusive relationship or something.

  I cringed. Nathan had never been anything but good to me. I was the one who insisted on helping him and never left him alone. Nathan had kept me safe as I tried, miserably, to fit the pieces of his life back together. And now that I knew what the full picture looked like, I was running away.

  Nathan was a good man; I still believed that deep down. He deserved someone who could actually help him. I was nothing more than a liability and a distraction. Without me, Nathan would probably move faster, remember more, and face down whatever demons he had stashed away in his mind.

  My heart ached. I wanted to stay with Nathan.

  I handed the man his cell phone and thanked him.

  “You sure you don’t want me to wait with you?” he asked.

  “No, thank you. I’m fine. Really, I’m fine.” I found a spot on the curb and sat down to wait for my cab.

  It was Nathan I was worried about. He was the one who had everything to lose. And I was the one who had made love to him in the bar bathroom and then ran away.

  Every car that passed made me jump. I imagined Nathan pulling up and marching around to open the car door for me. We’d drive a few hours without talking and then everything would be the same as it was before.

  Except now I knew he really was dangerous.

  It was a weak, nagging thought that sometimes pushed through my broken-hearted haze: Nathan was friends with the man who had kidnapped me. Nathan was connected to a drug cartel and had made some kind of amiable deal with Adrian Juarez.

  I shivered and leaped to my feet when the cab pulled up at the corner. It was a shorter drive than I had imagined, and I was annoyed when I pulled out the skimpy roll of cash I had left. It would leave me just enough to buy a bus ticket.

  I looked at the boards and calculated what I could afford. Albuquerque. It was as good a town as any. I didn’t know anyone there. I could start over.

  That thought sank me onto a bench near the bus terminal doors. I had to start all over. Again.

  It was hard to tell what hurt worse, the thought of never seeing Nathan again, or the thought of being all alone in a new city. One I had done before, right after the falling out with my sister. The other seemed like it was a hole in my heart that would never heal.

  I swiped tears from my eyes before they could spill over and took a deep breath. I had to stay alert, not get lost in depressing daydreams.

  One glance around the bus terminal made me snap out of my melancholy. There was a sparse crowd, only a few actual bus ticket holders, and I felt like every single person there was watching me. The twenty-something girl at the vending machine was shooting me curious looks. The man at the ticket counter watched me, his chin propped on one fist, bored with his work. Two day laborers checked the bus schedule and took seats on a bench too close by.

  My flesh prickled. This was exactly what had happened the last time I decided to ditch Nathan. I was all alone and that’s when the cartel men grabbed me.

  I wrapped my arms around myself and pressed back into my seat. This was a public place. I had to be safe. Still, my pulse tripled, and I had a bad feeling I’d made the same mistake for a second time.

  What if Nathan wasn’t looking for me this time?

  I fought off the vulnerable feeling and kept searching the crowd. I told myself that I wasn’t looking for Nathan, I was watching for the gunmen, but he was all I could think about.

  That’s why I shrieked when Nathan sat down next to me.

  “How did you..? Where did you..? Don’t ever sneak up on me again!” I vaulted out of my seat and spun to face Nathan.

  He leaned back on the bench and cracked a grin. “Sorry. I thought you saw me. Or would you have run?”

  I winced. I probably would have run, though it would have been a half-hearted escape attempt. My heart was galloping from fear and adrenaline but I was glad to see Nathan.

  “Why would I stay?” I asked.

  Nathan stood up and followed me over to the vending machines. The twenty-something girl skittered away to a better vantage point, but I couldn’t stop making a scene. My blood was boiling.

  “Aren’t you the one who says we’re in this together?” Nathan rubbed his neck and glanced at the door, unsure if he should have come. “I tried to let you go, but I needed to know you were okay.”

  “I’m fine. You can go.” I busied myself with the vending machine to stop from wrapping him in a tight hug.

  “You’re not.” Nathan leaned on the vending machine and looked into my face. “You’re scared as hell. You’re too smart not to be.”

  “Scared of you. Scared of your friends,” I hissed.

  Nathan nodded. “But you know that I would never do anything to hurt you, right?”

  I paused and blinked back tears before I nodded. “I know. But you can’t tell me that running away from you isn’t a good idea.”

  “I understand,” Nathan said, “but you’ve been right all along. We are better off together. I can’t protect you if I don’t know where you are.”

  I held up my bus ticket. “I’ll be in Albuquerque.”

  Nathan plucked the ticket from my hand and ripped it up. “No. I’m sorry, Bree, but you’ll be safer with me. We don’t know how many men are looking for us or what they want. All we do know is that I have dealt with them in the past and I can do it again.”

  I scrambled to gather my fragmented bus ticket where he had dropped it on the floor. “No!”

  Nathan moved, bumping me into the vending machine. “Stay down, Bree. Act like you’re getting something out of the vending machine.”

  I shoved his knee hard. “I was going to until you wrecked my ticket. Or are you just trying to make it easier to say goodbye?”

  I stood up and Nathan cornered me against the vending machine. His jaw was set and irritation warred with relief in my head. Nathan was here, I wasn’t alone, I wasn’t heading off to a new life in Albuquerque. Still, he was pushing me around, and I could tell by the hard glint in his eyes that he was keeping something from me again.

  “See?” I cried out. “You can’t even be honest about why you are here.”

  “Bree, stop. Lower your voice,” Nathan said.

  “Why? I think I have a right to be upset. And I have a right to decide if I want to keep going or if I want to get on the next bus out of here,” I said.

  Nathan took my shoulders and shook me. “Not so loud,” he whispered. Then he kissed me.

  My breath caught in my throat and my body betrayed me by leaning instantly into Nathan’s lips. I returned his kiss for a full, passionate fifteen seconds before my eyes flew open.

  Then I saw what had Nathan had seen: two men in dark suits weaving through the bus crowd toward us.

  The station was fuller, as the bus was due at any minute, but the cartel men stuck out of the crowd. They were not dressed for a cheap bus ride, nor did they glance up at the schedules or head to the ticket counter. Instead, they slipped through the motley crowd like a pair of sharks.

  “Nathan, they’re here,” I whispered against his cheek. “They’re com
ing this way.”

  “I know,” Nathan said. He watched them in the reflection of the vending machine. “We’ll move when I say. Run to the exit nearest the ticket counter. We’re going to get out of this together.”

  I nodded and got ready to run. “Together.”

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Nathan

  I turned around only to find the gunmen closer than I expected. Fifteen feet away, stuck behind a pair of field workers, the man in the dark suit met my stare. He reached for his suit coat, a subtle threat, but I knew he wouldn’t shoot in the bus terminal. Too many people, too many cameras.

  They had shot at us before but that was meant to scare us. He was under orders to bring me in alive.

  Whatever deal I had made with the cartel was important enough for them to hunt me down. Maybe I had yet to deliver on my end, and they would let me live until then.

  There was no guarantee that professional courtesy extended to Bree. I shielded her with my body but the men knew she was there.

  “Get ready to run,” I told her through gritted teeth.

  I felt Bree’s nervous hands fluttering at my waist. She was ready. It didn’t matter that she had tried, just minutes ago, to get as far away from me as possible. Bree and I were still in this together, and she trusted me.

  “Now!”

  I waited a beat, just to make sure Bree went toward the ticket counter as we had discussed. She lunged in that direction and leaped forward, aimed at distracting the closest gunman.

  The other man in a dark suit was blocking the front doors and could only watch with wide eyes as Bree charged toward the emergency exit.

  I prayed there weren’t any other cartel men outside. The alarm from the emergency exit sounded, and chaos erupted in the bus terminal. Everyone was on their feet, and I ducked low to follow Bree out the door.

  “Wait a second! You can’t!” The bored employee at the ticket counter was yelling futile warnings out the open door.

  Outside, Bree was spinning in a panicked circle. I grabbed her arm and swung her toward the back parking lot. We sprinted through the parked cars and out onto the street where I had left our used car in an illegal spot. I had known going in that I wouldn’t be at the bus terminal for long, and now I was glad we had a straight shot out of there.

  “Get in,” I told Bree.

  She hesitated on the curb. “Nathan, I’m sorry. I don’t think I can do this,” she cried.

  “Get in the car or they will shoot you.” I yanked the door open and pushed her inside the old car.

  Bree pushed back. “Nathan, I’m serious!”

  “Bree, please, I’m begging you. I can’t keep you safe if we don’t get out of here now,” I said.

  She let me slam her car door closed but only because the two gunmen were sprinting across the parking lot toward us. A confused crowd filtered out of the bus station behind them but the witnesses did not stop the cartel men from pulling out their guns.

  I vaulted over the hood of the used car and jumped into the driver’s seat. “Hang on.”

  We peeled out onto the city street just as a shiny black sedan screeched around the corner. It stopped to pick up the two running gunmen, but only long enough for me to speed down the block.

  Bree watched in the side mirror, her mouth open in horror. “They’re chasing us!”

  The black sedan sped up, and I made a split-second decision. I slammed on the brakes and whipped the car into a narrow alley. The sedan was going too fast and squealed to a stop far past the mouth of the alley. By the time they backed up, we were out the other side and zig-zagging through the city side streets.

  “Do you know where you’re going?” Bree hung on to the handle above the car door and braced her feet on the dashboard.

  I skidded us around another tight corner to a trio of angry car horns. “Enough to know we’re heading toward the highway.”

  “But don’t they know that, too?” Bree asked.

  “Maybe there’s just the one car,” I said.

  “Yeah, that one!” Bree shrieked.

  The shiny black sedan popped out of a side street and narrowly missed our back fender. I jammed my foot down on the gas but they gained on us quickly. When I looked up again, the gunmen were leaning out of the car windows, gun barrels pointed at our tires.

  I yanked the steering wheel to the right and bumped up on the empty sidewalk. Bree shrieked again but held on as we came back onto the street and zig-zagged to avoid the gunshots.

  “They’re shooting at us.” Bree grabbed our burner cell phone from the cup holder. “Should I call the police?”

  “Too late,” I said.

  Two police squad cars sat nose to nose, blocking the entry ramp to the highway. I let my foot off the gas and looked for a new direction.

  “Why are they waving at us?” Bree asked.

  I looked back to the police officers and saw they were making frantic signs with their hands. “I think they are telling us to get out of the way,” I said.

  A gunshot pinged off our back bumper.

  “Then do it!” Bree said.

  I cranked the steering wheel all the way to the right and skidded past the police officers. Once we were out of the way, the officers hunkered down behind their squad cars and opened fire on the sedan pursuing us.

  “I don’t think they know we’re the target,” I said. Still, I sped up and turned us down another side street, getting as much distance from the confrontation as possible.

  “We need to get out of this car,” Bree said.

  I would have kissed her if I could have let go of the wheel. Instead, I white-knuckled us through another tight alley and found a crowded strip mall parking lot. We swung into the parking spot still going too fast, and I slammed on the brakes.

  Bree waited until I turned the car off before she pried her fingers off the handle above the car door.

  “Try to act casual,” I said.

  A strangled giggle escaped Bree’s lips as she cracked her car door and slipped out. We made our way across the parking lot, heading in the opposite direction of all the shoppers. Far on the other end of the parking lot was a dry culvert, and we scrambled down the edge and out of sight.

  “Shh,” Bree said before I could speak.

  We walked quickly along the culvert in silence, listening to the distant pops of gunfire. There were no more squealing tires or revving engines coming up behind us too quickly. Just the soft sound of our shoes crunching gravel at the bottom of the concrete culvert.

  The sound of a police helicopter made us both pause. Gunfire still popped back and forth but the whirling chopper drowned it out.

  “Quick, up the bank. Walk as close to the hedges as you can,” I said.

  Bree scrambled up and ducked into a small opening in one of the hedges. Behind the culvert was a row of houses, blocked by an on-going row of scraggly hedges. Still, they were enough to shield us from the helicopter and from any nosy neighbors.

  We edged our way along until we came to a split-rail fence. Beyond it was a long stretch of empty lot where the culvert made a sharp turn and led back to the city. We turned in the opposite direction and struck out across the field.

  “Won’t they see us?” Bree looked up at the buzzing helicopter only a few miles away.

  “We’re still not more interesting than a car full of armed men,” I said.

  She almost smiled.

  When we reached an overgrown shrub, I caught her hand. “Thank you.”

  “For running away and getting you shot at again?” Bree asked.

  I chuckled. “For sticking with me. You can still turn back, if you want.”

  Bree looked at the direction we were heading. There was nothing but another fence and a far trio of warehouses. “Where would I go?”

  “Albuquerque?”

  Her smile was a relief. Bree squeezed my hand. “I’m sorry I panicked. I didn’t know what to think and I got scared.”

  “Please, Bree, you have to believe I’m not a
bad man.” The pressure in my chest made the words come out in a strained voice.

  “I know.” Bree laid a hand on my chest. “Just promise me that you’ll try to be a good man. No matter what happened, you can change.”

  I nodded and cleared my throat. “I need you to keep me to that. You’re the only one who can save me, Bree.”

  She laughed. “I don’t know about saving you but I can tell you one thing for sure.”

  “What?” I asked.

  Bree gestured to the way we’d just come. “There’s no one following us now.”

  I grinned and took her hand. “Good. Then no one will see us slip into that junked-out bus over there.”

  “That rusty thing? It’s probably full of trash. Why are you smiling?” Bree asked.

  I kissed the back of her hand. “Because you’re with me.”

  Her smile was strained but still in place. Bree let me keep her hand entwined in mine but she didn’t say anything more. I thought about everything she had given up and everything she had put up with since she joined me on the road.

  It felt like a punch in the gut. Bree deserved the world and all I could give her was a decent place to hide until the police helicopters and bullets stopped flying.

  I squeezed her hand again. How could I ever tell her how much she meant to me?

  Chapter Fifty

  Bree

  The bus ended up being a quiet haven. The inside was completely empty, not even a seat was left, but Nathan leaned against the wall and made a comfortable headrest for me. I tried shutting my eyes but the gunmen always flashed into focus, so I kept my eyes trained on the faded rules sign above the bus door.

  “Do you know Spanish?” Nathan asked, following my gaze.

  “As much as I remember from high school,” I admitted.

  I wondered what Nathan was like in high school, before the Navy Seals, before whatever had happened.

  A leaden ball formed in my stomach again. We still didn’t know what deal Nathan had made with the cartel. The only thing we knew for sure was that the cartel was still after him and they weren’t giving up.