by Brook Wilder
Preston was charmed by her hand in his as they walked down to the large parking lot. He’d never been the type to hold hands with anyone, certainly not any of the women that he’d known in the past. It was an odd sensation, a feeling of togetherness, of comradery, that he’d never felt before. Like it was just them against everyone else.
“So, you’re sure that the Devil’s Martyrs don’t know where your brother is, right?” Olivia asked suddenly, and his good mood burst like a bubble at the reminder of the men, his family, who were at that very moment hunting them down, trying to kill them.
“I’m positive,” he answered her, with more confidence than he felt. He’d never let the location slip, but that didn’t mean his brother hadn’t. Knox had always been the reckless one. Preston had been the cautious one, much good it had done him in the end.
“We’re safe, Red. Don’t worry so much.” Preston glanced around the seemingly empty lot. “And we’ll be even safer once we get there.”
“Where is there, exactly?” Olivia asked, looking up at him.
Once more he was struck by the trust she had in him. She looked at him with an openness that said she would follow him anywhere. And it humbled him, seeing that look in her emerald green eyes.
“I’m sorry, Olivia. You’ll just have to see when we get there. Better to be safe than sorry.”
After a moment, she nodded, that look of trust never fading, and all he could do was shake his head again, wondering what he’d done to deserve it. But then she turned the tables on him, and he wondered for a second if she had read his thoughts.
“Don’t you trust me?”
She was still looking at him, meeting his gaze eye to eye. The question took him by surprise, not because of what she was asking him, but because of his answer. Preston was shocked to realize that he did trust her. He really did trust this woman, when he trusted almost no one besides his brother and his best friend Charlie.
It was a shock to his system; so, for a moment, he didn’t notice the gut feeling that was churning inside him. But, as they got halfway across the parking lot, it suddenly hit him.
“We need to get on the road. Now,” he said.
As soon as the words were out of his mouth he knew they were true.
“What? Is something wrong?”
“Sorry, Red, coffee is going to have to wait. We can’t waste any more time.”
His gut was screaming at him now, and he knew enough not to ignore it. His instincts had saved his ass more times than he could count and he wasn’t about to take any needless risks, not with Olivia to watch out for.
He veered off in a different direction, making a bee-line for his motorcycle, which was parked in front of the Motel lobby entrance. Olivia was sending him a curious look. He just shrugged, struggling to form the words to explain.
“It’s just a feeling. We need to get going. We need to put as much distance between us and Capone as possible. We lost a lot of our lead last night.”
“I… I thought you said we were safe?”
“We’re as safe as we can be with an entire gang of angry bikers trying to hunt us down,” he said, sharper than he intended.
“Well, when you put it that way, it doesn’t sound very safe at all.”
Preston glanced over at her and saw her scan the parking lot, looking terrified. He hated that he’d scared her, but fear would keep them alert. It could keep them alive.
“Come on, let’s get out of here,” Preston said, taking action and handing her his spare helmet. “Just a few more hours and we’ll be there.”
Olivia nodded, not saying another word, but her face was still a pale, washed-out gray as she put on the helmet and climbed onto the bike behind him.
Preston started the engine and Olivia wrapped her arms around him, tighter than she needed to, but he didn’t complain. He liked the feel of her, plastered against him, leaning into his harder body. He let himself focus on her as he pulled the bike onto the highway and drove towards his brother’s secret location.
Chapter 4
The landscape grew more desolate and desert-like with every mile. Nearly three hours passed before they were finally pulling down a nearly invisible dirt lane. They rode for a few more miles before a run-down looking trailer-home came into view, parked in the middle of nowhere.
This was it. They were finally there. They were finally safe.
The sun was well above the horizon, floating hotly in the middle of the sky overhead, by the time Preston finally braked his motorcycle to a stop in front of the trailer home. The dirt lane, barely more than a small indent in the surrounding shrubs, was exactly as Knox had described it.
So were the straggly trees that grew intermittently across the landscape and the craggy cliffside that bordered the back of the trailer. The front was surrounded by open grasslands and a dark tree-line that made Preston nervous, but not any more so than the trailer itself. Or, more specifically, who was waiting for him inside.
Preston wasn’t ever supposed to come out here, not for any reason at all. There were bound to be some uncomfortable questions that Knox would ask and Preston wasn’t sure if he had the answers straight in his own head just yet.
He stopped the bike and killed the engine, but he didn’t make a move to get off. He just sat there, staring up at the rundown, crappy-looking trailer.
It was nearly rusted through on the top left corner, not that the rest of the thing’s roof looked that much more stable. At least there wasn’t a lot of rain out here, but the wind and the dust could corrode the thin sheets of metal just as easily.
Once, years ago, it had been painted an eye-burning shade of bright mint green, but there were only remnants of the paint left, and what was there was dingy and grayed. The white primer underneath was just as greyed and rusted, so it almost seemed to fade into the landscape behind it.
Preston could feel Olivia tense behind him, her grip on his waist growing tighter, and to be honest he didn’t blame her. In fact, he felt that same trepidation as she did, if for a different reason. Because when she looked at the trailer, all she saw was probably just a rundown death trap that his brother was waiting inside of. For him, it was much worse. It reminded him of home.
Well, at least, the place he grew up in.
I wouldn’t ever call it a home.
He snorted silently to himself. His memories from that trailer park he and Knox had grown up on were just as brutal as the rest of his memories.
He shied away from them, trying to bring his focus back to the present and not to get lost in the past. But staring at the rusted-out trailer home, it was all too easy to picture the run-down trailer, his parents, passed-out from alcohol and who knew what else, while he and Knox had to fend for themselves.
They’d learned how to steal early on. Too many nights going to bed hungry would teach a kid a few lessons that most never had to learn. Lessons like how to wait and catch a bag unattended as some unknowing grocery shopper loaded their car. How to find out which days and time the local restaurants would throw out the food left uneaten for the day.
Preston swallowed hard, but the bitter memories caught in his throat, filling his mouth with bile. He could still remember the awful smell of the place, like stale beer and piss. The sleepless nights because their bed was full of bugs.
He let out a deep, shuddering breath and swung one leg over the bike, getting onto his suddenly unsteady feet. But before he could take more than a single step, Olivia’s hand reached out and grabbed his, pulling him to a stop.
Preston looked back at her, just drinking in the sight of her for a moment, marveling at the way she chased away the terrible memories that had been drowning him just a second before.
He arched one brow at her in question, noting the concerned look on her face as she glanced at the trailer home and then back towards him.
“Preston, are you… are you sure about this?”
“Well, we’re already here, Red. It’s a little too late to turn around and go back.”
Preston snorted, shaking his head, “Besides, I have to warn Knox. I owe it to him.”
“I know he’s your brother, but…” Olivia trailed off for a moment, her green eyes growing even more fearful. “He shot someone in cold blood, Preston. He’s… he’s a murderer.”
Preston’s breath hitched painfully at the accusation. He knew there was no way around it. It was just the truth. But he also knew that Knox would have had a damned good reason for doing it.
“Look,” Preston finally said, his voice deep and his words slow as he thought out each one of them before saying it out loud. “Knox is a lot of things, but he’s not evil. He’s not a bad guy, I promise you. He has a good heart, he just… makes some bad decisions sometimes.”
It was Olivia’s time to snort.
“We’re talking about getting a ticket for speeding or… or not tipping your waitress here. He killed a man! In cold blood.” Olivia’s voice rose higher and higher on every word. “That’s not just making a bad decision!”
“He must have had his reasons,” Preston said softly.
But he didn’t make another move towards the trailer. If he was honest, he wasn’t looking forward to the coming reunion any more than Olivia was, but Knox was family and Preston had to warn him of what was coming, of what had happened. Hopefully he would be a little more understanding than Capone had been.
He was so lost in his rambling thoughts that he didn’t notice Olivia’s look of shock until a few moments later. Preston tried to shrug it off but he couldn’t ignore the uncomfortable feeling that settled in the pit of his stomach. For the first time, he could see how it all might look to an outsider, to someone who hadn’t lived their lives and didn’t live by the same brutal rules as they had. It was kill or be killed. Both Preston and Knox understood that. It was obvious that Olivia did not.
“Don’t worry, okay?” Preston pleaded, taking her hand in his.
She still hadn’t budged from the back of his motorcycle and, if he didn’t convince her, it looked like he’d have to throw her over his shoulder and carry her in to get her to move.
“You’ll be safe, I promise. You don’t have to worry about Knox. He would never hurt you.”
“But what about you?” Olivia demanded.
And there it was again. That damned concern for his well-being that tied him up in knots. He couldn’t remember anyone in his life every worrying about him. He’d always been a loner, just him and Knox against the rest of the world, but even Knox hadn’t really worried about him. They’d taken care of each other because they were all they’d had. But, with Olivia, it was something different. It was like she really cared about him. And the thought of that sent Preston into a tailspin that he didn’t know how to pull out of.
Preston cleared his throat roughly.
“I’ll be alright. Everything will be just fine, I swear.”
As if to prove his words wrong, at that exact moment the door to the trailer banged open, ricocheting off the steel siding with a loud, metallic clang. A moment later, Knox stumbled out of the rundown trailer home with a half empty bottle of whiskey clutched in one hand and a deadly looking pistol in the other.
“Who the hell is out here?” Knox yelled, his words slightly slurred as he took one unsteady step closer.
His red-rimmed eyes widened as he spotted Preston and Olivia, still frozen where they’d been standing.
“You!” Knox growled. “How dare you show your face around here! After what I did for you!”
Preston saw Knox raise the gun in slow motion and he didn’t hesitate. In one smooth action, he grabbed Olivia around the waist and threw them both to the ground behind his motorcycle.
A second later the pop-pop-pop of gunfire echoed through the air and Preston could hear the bullets land, hitting tree trunks and rocks wide of where they were at. Either Knox wasn’t aiming at them at all, or he was too drunk to see straight. Preston prayed it was the former.
Another round shot off, followed by Knox swearing loudly. Preston rolled his eyes.
“What the fuck, Knox! Is that how you treat your own brother?”
He tossed the question from behind the motorcycle. He’d told Olivia that Knox was reckless. It had been a bit of an understatement.
“Yes!” Knox shouted back, “That’s how I treat my own lying, cheating, snitching son of a bitch brother.”
Knox’s voice was slurred, and Preston pulled Olivia further down behind the motorcycle. It was the only protection they had from his trigger-happy brother.
The look Olivia gave him wasn’t fear, as he had expected. Instead, her emerald green eyes flashed in annoyance and gleamed with anger.
“Knox, listen to me,” Preston said, as calmly as he could. “I didn’t snitch.”
“I don’t believe you! Charlie called me last night! He told me that Capone is on the war path because you flipped on me.”
“That’s not what happened… Wait, you talked to Charlie?” Preston shouted, suddenly feeling just as irritated as Olivia. “Shit, Knox you’re supposed to be hiding! That means not contacting anyone. Anyone at all, do you understand? How did he even get your number?”
“Well, at least he tells me what’s going on!” Knox yelled.
There was a tone of hurt in his voice that made Preston roll his eyes all over again.
“He keeps me informed. If not for him, I never would have known that I have a snitch for a brother. How could you that to me, Pres? Your own flesh and blood. After what I did for you!”
“I told you,” Preston said, and there was a distinct growl edging all of his words now. “It’s a lie. That’s not how it happened. I swear to you, I didn’t say a word…”
“No, you’re the liar!” Knox’s words were punctuated by another ping of shots being fired.
Preston instinctively moved to cover Olivia, to protect her from the onslaught.
After a moment, the shots stopped, and he could hear his brother panting heavily. Or maybe that was just him. Lord knows he was covered in sweat just thinking about how close Olivia was to getting hurt.
He was racking his brain, trying to find the words to say to his brother, to explain to him that he didn’t know the whole truth. But, before he could find his answer, Olivia ducked out from under his arms and rose to her feet, her hands outstretched in front of her.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Preston hissed. “Get back down here! Are you crazy?”
But she ignored him. She didn’t even look at him.
“It wasn’t him, Knox,” Olivia said, her voice ringing out loud and clear. “It was me. It was my fault.”
Sudden terror shot through Preston at her words. What the hell did she think she was doing? He could see Knox weave unsteadily, the gun still held raised in his hand. Knox squinted at her, his expression too hard to read from where Preston was still crouched behind the bike.
“Who… Who the hell are you?” Knox asked suddenly.
Preston opened his mouth to tell her to get her ass back here again, but then Olivia was taking a step forward, and then another one. He couldn’t breathe. He’d never been so scared in his life.
“Just put the gun down, and I’ll tell you everything, okay? You don’t really want to hurt your brother, do you? You know he’d never do anything to hurt you.”
“I… I know that.” Knox said defensively.
Preston braced himself, waiting for him to raise the gun, waiting for him to fire it and to watch the bullet tear through Olivia’s fragile body. He couldn’t watch. He couldn’t watch it happen. But he couldn’t force himself to look away either.
Knox took a stumbling step forward and Preston leapt to his feet, ready to run in between Olivia the bullet if he had to, but it never came.
Instead, Knox’s hand was lowering. All Preston could do was stare in shock as his brother did as she asked. He held the gun towards her and Olivia took it between two fingers like she was holding a snake that might bite her at any moment.
Olivia nodded for Knox to go ins
ide and he docilely followed her instructions before she entered with him, leaving Preston still standing there with his jaw hanging open like a fool.
Olivia and Knox disappeared inside the trailer, and slowly, Preston followed them.
Chapter 5
Olivia’s hands were still shaking like twigs caught in a storm as she walked inside the cramped trailed and gladly set the gun down on the small square of linoleum counter. She pushed it as far away from her, and Knox, as she could.
She had never liked guns. They’d always scared her, even more so when one was being pointed at her. Olivia shuddered, the memory of staring down the dark barrel of that pistol still too fresh to shake off completely.