Ex-Con Times Two

by Jay S. Wilder

  “It’s called East Amarillo Auto.”

  “We might have some questions for them regarding the state of the car,” she explains.

  I give her the number of the shop and we’re done. I take in my first calm breath of the last hour as my dad and I walk out the door.

  I may not have shared everything I know, but filing a report does feel at least a little good. Brad and Will haven’t done anything to make things better. In a way, going to the police means I’m washing my hands clean of it all.

  There’s a new bounce in my step all the way to the truck.

  27

  Katelynn

  Mom forbids talk about the drama at the dinner table. The second I hit the second-floor landing, though, Noreen pounces on me.

  “Oh my God,” she says breathlessly, clutching my arm. “I can’t believe you were almost kidnapped.” Her eyes roll up in her head like the very thought of getting kidnapped causes her ecstasy.

  “Kidnapped,” she repeats. “Wow.”

  The ‘k’ word makes me wince. “Yeah.”

  “Were you afraid?”

  I can’t shake the suspicion that she’s thrilled by some aspect of this situation. She doesn’t look as scared as she did earlier.

  “I don’t really want to talk about it, Noreen. I told the police everything and they’ll take care of it. We don’t have to even think about it anymore.”

  “But it’s awesome,” she quickly says. “Did the mechanics chase the men away with wrenches? Were they cute?”

  “Who?”

  “The mechanics.”

  “Why would you want to know that?”

  “Geez, Katelynn, I just want to get a visual. It’s more romantic if the heroes are hot.”

  I blink and take a moment to think about this. At another time, I might be dying to spill to my sister or best friend about the gorgeous men who have entered my life, but now isn’t the right time.

  “I need to take a shower.”

  Her lips pout. “But...”

  I slip around her and shut myself in my bedroom. I don’t want to hear another word from Noreen’s mouth.

  I strip my work clothes and lock Noreen’s side of the bathroom we share. I don’t need her pestering me with more questions while I’m shaving.

  Once I’m dried off, I check my phone. No messages. I find the text Hunter sent earlier and hit his name. His phone rings repeatedly.

  I sit on my bed cross legged and play with the hem of my towel while I wait. Through this whole evening, I’ve been dying to talk to Jake and Hunter. It doesn’t feel right to have something happen and not tell them about it.

  I’m also excited to share the news about my going to the police. Thinking about it while showering gave me some new perspective. I should have filed a report from the beginning. Since I didn’t tell them about Bennie Whispers, or Brad and Jake’s dealings with the man, it’s a win-win situation for everyone.

  “Hey girl.”

  The deep timbers of his phone make me melt. “Hi.”

  “Everything good?”

  “It’s all fine, thanks. I want to tell you and Jake about what happened tonight, though. Can you meet me for a drink? Maybe somewhere between our houses?”

  “What happened?” he sharply asks.

  “Don’t worry. Nothing crazy is going on. I talked to my parents. They made me tell them about the men in the black SUV. And then my dad took me to the police and I filed a report.”

  “What did you tell them?” There’s a stronger edge to his voice. He almost sounds angry. It takes me by surprise. I have to take a second to swallow and look for my next words.

  “I didn’t tell them about the bookie. But I told them everything else.”

  There’s a long pause.

  “Hunter? Are you still there?”

  “I’m here,” he tightly says.

  “Is something wrong?”

  Another stretched-out moment creeps by. My heart starts pounding. Something isn’t right.

  Hunter clears his throat. “Did you tell them anything about me and Jake?”

  The question doesn’t make sense. “What would I tell them about you?”

  “I’m asking you, Katelynn.”

  “I told them that my car is at your shop with a busted-up windshield.”

  My fingers clench the edge of my towel. I shouldn’t have to feel this defensive. I didn’t do anything wrong, but the tone of Hunter’s voice makes it sound like he thinks otherwise.

  “Jake and I are going to come pick you up.”

  “What’s going on? Why are you upset?”

  Again, he doesn’t directly answer my question. “We’ll explain more soon.”

  “Okay,” I slowly say. If there’s something he doesn’t want to say on the phone, it must be really serious.

  “We’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

  I hang up and get dressed. There’s a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I tug on some skinny jeans and cowgirl boots. There’s a semi-clean t-shirt on my bed. I snatch it up and pull it on. I can’t find the heart to make an effort to dress any nicer or put on any makeup.

  Something serious is going on. Hunter’s voice was worried, but also contained…

  Like he was hiding something from me.

  28

  Hunter

  “She didn’t mean any harm,” Jake says for the third time.

  “I know,” I say through gritted teeth.

  What the fuck else can be said? Those things are just the facts. Katelynn didn’t mean any harm and I know it.

  But it doesn’t change things. It doesn’t take away the potential danger Jake and I could now be in.

  Jake takes the turn onto Katelynn’s street. My mind is a jumble. There’s too much going on, and the adrenaline that’s pumping through me isn’t helping. No one’s chasing us, but it feels like they are. I’m bursting with the competing urges to attack and run away. It’s full-on fight or flight.

  Katelynn waits for us at the end of the driveway. I throw the door open and get out. She climbs into her usual spot between the two of us.

  “Go quick,” she says. “Or my parents will see us.”

  I jump back in and Jake hits the gas without me getting the door fully closed.

  “You sneaking out?” I ask.

  She dips her head. “Not because I want to. My mom and dad are being really cautious, and I can’t deal with their questions right now.”

  I can’t let it go. “You think they wouldn’t like us?”

  Katelynn looks at me like I’ve gone crazy. “That’s not what I said. I just mean—”

  “Cut it out, Hunter,” Jake says, cutting him off.

  Katelynn’s chin trembles. “They don’t know you two. They’d grill me if they saw me going out with two men they’ve never met this late at night. Usually, it wouldn’t be too big of a deal, but with everything that’s happened I think it’s pretty fair.”

  I tug at the roots of my hair and breathe in deep. My lungs burn. Oxygen shouldn’t feel like it’s this bad for me.

  At least Jake can talk. “What did you tell the police?” he asks.

  “I told them about me and Will being followed, about the men in the SUV showing up at your shop, about you guys and Jared chasing them away, and about Brad coming to work all beat up and with my wrecked car. And I gave them the number to your shop in case they need to call with any questions about my car.”

  “Fuck,” Jake says under his breath.

  “Anything else?” I demand. “Did you tell them anything else?”

  “I didn’t tell them about the gambling or Bennie Whispers if that’s what you mean. I’m not that stupid. I don’t want to get Will and Brad in trouble.”

  “But did you tell them anything else about us? Did you say that Jared had the rifle at the shop or that we all did? Think carefully, Katelynn.”

  “I said...” She shakes her head. “I don’t know.” Her voice cracks. “I think I said Jared did, but I don’t know for sure. I ca
n’t remember exactly what I said, Hunter! Why does it matter that he had the gun?”

  “It’s important,” Jake says.

  “What’s going on?” Katelynn demands. She turns to me. “You sounded upset on the phone.”

  “Katelynn,” Jake softly says. “There are things about our past that you don’t know.”

  The words couldn’t sound any heavier.

  “Okay,” she slowly says. “What does that have to do with anything that’s happening right now?”

  I grit my teeth and look at Jake. Passing headlights flash across his face and show his tight jaw. She knows we’ve done time, but she has no idea about the details of our convictions. There’s no way to prepare Katelynn for it. I need to come right out and say it.

  “You already know that we were in prison, but we both could have ended up doing hard time,” I slowly tell her.

  Katelynn looks from me to Jake. “Both of you?”

  Jake pulls into the parking lot of a bar at the end of a strip mall. He doesn’t answer while he puts the truck in park.

  “You didn’t answer me,” Katelynn says.

  “Yes,” I say. I didn’t believe giving her the specifics about our convictions would be this difficult. Okay maybe I did, I just didn’t think she’d care about it this much.

  Jake presses his arm against the steering wheel and turns to look at her. “That’s the reason going to the police is a problem.”

  “You shouldn’t have done it,” I say. “It was a bad idea, Katelynn.”

  29

  Katelynn

  The whole world presses in tight around me. It’s like Earth’s gravity has doubled. I can’t find my voice. I can’t gather my thoughts. Across the truck’s hood, light glows from the bar. The three of us are supposed to be in there having beers and celebrating being done with all this craziness once and for all. But instead, we’re in Jake’s truck and not talking. Instead, I’m sitting between two ex-cons out on parole when they could have done a hell of a lot more time behind bars.

  And my visit to the police station puts them at risk. I don’t know how to feel right now. I can be sorry about what I did, or terrified about the details of their past, or worse, betrayed for what they hid from me.

  “What’s done is done, Katelynn,” Jake says, “You couldn’t have known.”

  Tears press at the back of my eyeballs. I blink them away. “Hunter just said I shouldn’t have gone to the cops.”

  Hunter rubs his face with both hands. “Christ.”

  I swallow the burning in my throat. I have to ask. I’m terrified, but I need to know. “Did you kill someone?”

  “We’ve never intentionally hurt anyone,” Hunter says.

  A breath of air helps me to relax. More or less.

  “Let’s go inside,” Jake says. “I think we can all use a drink.”

  Hunter and Jake climb from the truck. Because it seems I don’t have a choice, I follow. Halfway across the parking lot, my hands start to shake. I fold my arms and press them tight against my chest.

  Inside, Jake fetches us beers while Hunter and I settle at a table. His eyes don’t seem to leave my face for a second.

  ““Why didn’t you tell me?” I ask.

  His jaw ticks. “I know it seems unfair. We don’t tell most people, for obvious reasons.”

  “Am I most people?”

  “Do you think differently of us now?”

  I press my lips tight together. We’ve both been presented with questions we don’t want to answer. We’re at a standoff, neither one of us willing to give in.

  Hunter’s face gets tighter but his eyes soften.

  “I don’t know what I think yet,” I tell him. “But where’s your answer?”

  Hunter scratches the side of his face and looks away.

  I need him to respond to my question, but he seems hellbent on dodging it.

  “Hunter? Am I like most people to you?”

  He looks back and fixes his gaze on me. “Naw, Katelynn, you know you’re not.”

  “Then why couldn’t you tell me?”

  “We’re telling you now.”

  I look down at my hands. “You hid this from me.”

  I’m stating the obvious, but I don’t know what else to say.

  “We didn’t hide it. We just didn’t advertise it. And we would have told you eventually.”

  A chair scrapes back. Jake sets three beer bottles on the table and sits down. I stare at my beer but don’t take a drink. Nothing will calm my nerves right now. I could drink a whole pitcher and I’d still be going crazy.

  Jake clears his throat. “You see now why we can’t have the police linking us to anything.”

  I look at his beautiful blue eyes. It used to be I saw nothing there but a caring, kind-hearted man. Now I don’t know what I see. I still don’t know what Hunter and Jake went to prison for. Being realistic, I haven’t known them for very long. There could be dark sides to their personalities that they haven’t yet shown me.

  Have they only been pretending to be the good men I think they are? Has it all been some act to rope me into bed?

  I burn hot at the thought.

  Maybe that’s all I am to them… Just a girl to fuck for a while.

  Jake’s words snap me away from my thoughts. “Katelynn? Do you understand?”

  “Yes,” I answer in a distracted monotone, though I’m not sure I understand much of anything anymore.

  “It might look like we had a part in something criminal. And even possessing or using a firearm could be bad news for us. If the police think Hunter or I touched a gun we could be back in prison.”

  “We’re already told you we’re on parole,” Hunter reminds her.

  “Yes, I know that.”

  To my dad, ‘parole’ is a dirty word. He automatically thinks it means you were only recently released from, prison, which means you did something bad not too long ago. But Jake and Hunter are good, caring men. Still, I can’t stop myself from the back and forth of trusting them one second to being somewhat afraid of how easily they snap when it comes time to protect me.

  “The police aren’t going to hound you,” I protest. “They might call just to ask about my car, but that’s all.”

  Hunter shakes his head. “It’s different on parole, Katelynn. Practically everything that’s happened is a parole violation. If the cops happen to pull up mine and Jake’s records after seeing your car all shot up, they’ll have us down at the station so fast. Look, the point is they’ll assume we’re connected to this whole fucking thing in one way or another.”

  I finally get what he’s saying. Their criminal records stand in the way of the police trusting them at all. I bite down on my lip to keep it from shaking. If I’d known how much going to the police could hurt them I wouldn’t have suggested it. Even if they’re not the kind of people I thought they were, they don’t deserve to get into trouble for helping me out.

  Hunter rests his elbows on the table and looks at me. “I’m not mad at you or anything.”

  “I know.”

  He takes a long drink and finishes his beer. “Good.”

  I never asked them how they ended up going to prison. My timing is probably off, but I’m curious now. Do I really want to know? Gathering my courage, I go for it. “What were you in for?”

  Hunter presses his lips together and flashes a glance over at Jake, who seems just as uncomfortable.

  “This ain’t really the place to talk about it,” Jake says in a low voice.

  Their hesitation makes my body tense up. “It can’t be that, can it?” I whisper. “You’re both in your twenties, so you couldn’t have been in for too long…right?”

  Jake’s shoulders drop. “It’s complicated.”

  I remember asking them in the truck if they’d killed anyone and Hunter answered that they’d never ‘intentionally hurt anyone’. It was an indirect answer. And Jake didn’t reply at all.

  Nausea spirals up through my chest. “Were you lying to me in the truck?
I asked if you’d ever killed anyone.”

  Jake’s eyes flash with pain.

  Hunter rests his palm on the table. “We said this isn’t the place to talk about it, Katelynn. Let’s talk about it once we’re back home.”

  I press my hands between my legs. I feel small and alone. I already know I won’t be going back to Hunter and Jake’s apartment. I like these guys more than anyone I’ve ever met, but I should have never gone there. I was an idiot to get deeply involved with two people I didn’t know. Just because we have a connection doesn’t mean it’s right. A part of me thinks it doesn’t matter what happened in their pasts. These two men are good people. I can trust them. But there’s tiny voice niggling at the back of my brain telling me that I’m fooling myself.

  “I should be getting home,” I tell them with a tremor in my already shaky voice. I can’t bring myself to look at them. “I’m sorry I went to the police. I realize now that was not smart.”

  “Katelynn,” Jake says. Out of the corner of my eye, I see him reach out to touch my arm. His fingers stop a few inches away from my skin.

  My heart feels like it’s breaking in two.

  “I need some time,” I say. “To, to absorb this. It’s one thing to have done time, but to hide how you got there…to have lied to me when I specifically asked you what you did time for… It’s a lot to handle. I mean, I thought you trusted me.”

  “We do, and we’ll tell you more,” Hunter says. “Just not here.”

  “Okay,” I say, but the truth is I may not want to hear any more. I don’t know yet.

  Hunter grinds his teeth together. “Seems like you’re not ready to hear our side of things.”

  He’s right. I take a long breath and let it hiss out through my teeth. “Okay. I get that. And I want to hear the rest of it, Hunter. I really do, but right now I just need some space.”

  He leans forward on his arms. “We would never hurt you,” he stresses.

  “She should already know that,” Jake adds with a tinge of disappointment.