“Do I have to decide right now?” It seems unfair of him to throw this at me without any warning then demand I answer.
“No.” His eyes darken. “I just thought maybe… we were… you know… beyond this.”
“Beyond me wanting to teach? Beyond Karen having a good job and living on her own? Beyond what?” My voice raises an octave and people sitting around us turn and stare.
He stands and rubs a hand through his beard. “Shit. I thought we were thinking along the same lines about staying together…”
Are we really having this talk in the airport? “I may be a little old-fashioned, but generally, if a man wants you to stay with him, he asks you to marry him.” I glare, then he raises his brows in defiance.
“Generally, the man needs to believe the woman will say yes.”
I got nothing more to say because he’s right. We seem to have reached an impasse. I try to remain polite on the flight to his dad’s but once we’re on the ground, I wonder if I should take the next flight home.
Chris is so damn pig-headed. It always has to be about him. Of course, he’s probably thinking the same of me. Why does life have to be so complicated?
When I think of him moving to another city, my chest gets tight. Like the players on the team, he’d be gone for a good part of the year while I’d be stuck at home. With no job and no friends, I’d be miserable.
I can’t do that to him. He’s had enough disappointments in his life without me adding to it.
Chapter 28
Chris
I thought she’d be happy not pissed. Being a trainer for the NFL is a big deal. Unlike a player whose career lasts only a few years, I could work until I retired and earn a healthy salary. She could stay at home and have kids. She and her sister would have good insurance. We’d be living the dream.
Mrs. Griswold said I need to talk out my anger because otherwise it will eventually erupt and spew all over the place. However, she also said to wait until I’ve thought things through. I’m trying to change but hell, I want to shout some sense into my woman.
She has no idea what it’s like to go through the black hole of depression and come out the other side.
I call us an Uber because Pops is busy with the bar.
My girl looks up at the flight board. Shit. Is she thinking of going home?
“What about that whole safe-fighting thing? You said we should be able to argue about shit without one of us threatening to leave.” I grab her luggage and hope she’ll follow.
Outside, at the curb she grabs my forearm and sighs. “You’re right and I want us to be together so much. I’m not sure how good I’ll be without you, maybe gone for months at a time. The trainers follow the team, right? So, I mean, essentially, you’d be traveling for half the year.”
“For the away games, sure. But mostly I’d be home.”
“Are you dead set against Freedham?”
“No. But I made some big mistakes and there’s only one position open. I need to have a backup plan.”
Adjusting her purse over her shoulder, my girl nods deep in thought. “I suppose I could find a place to do my doctorate but it might take a few months for me to work it out. My sister is getting much better but can’t quite function on her own. I’m not sure she’ll want to move.”
“I wouldn’t make you chose, luv. Somehow, we’ll work it out, all of us. Okay?” My heart thumps in my ears and I turn my head as if looking for our ride so she can’t see the fear written all over my face.
Her palm reaches up to my cheek and turns my head until our eyes meet. Desire blossoms in the center and her nostrils flare. “I love you.”
“Dammit Danni, I love you, too. More than anything.” I hold her to me real tight and say a silent thanks to Mrs. Griswold. We haven’t got all the touchy-feely shit worked out but it doesn’t matter. As long as we got each other, me and Danni will be fine, Karen too.
Fifteen minutes later, we drop our bags in front of Pop’s place. He and Marlene have moved into the bedroom above the bar so Danni and I can have use of his house.
His place is eerily quiet. One string of lights decorate a cactus in the middle of the crabgrass that manages to survive in the front yard.
“Home sweet home.” I swing open the front door and let her in.
The place hasn’t changed much since I was a teen but now I’ve been out in the world, I see it for what it is, a trailer with a back room addition.
“We could’ve gotten a hotel.”
“We already talked about this. The flight was plenty expensive. This is fine.” She smiles and gives me a kiss. “We got everything we need. Do you want to go see your dad?”
“Nope. Tomorrow is fine. Right now, I want you.”
She laughs. “Aren’t you hungry?”
“Damned straight.” I lift her up and take her to the bedroom.
Much later, I yawn as a motorcycle vrooms outside. It’s closing time at the bar. I assume Pop had a bit to drink and wants to talk up a storm.
Sighing, I slip on my jeans and check out the window.
Without warning, glass breaks, something flies by my ear and thuds into the back wall.
“Shit! Danni wake up. Under the bed!” I tug off her covers.
“Huh?” Sleepy, she sits up so I take a flying leap and drag us to the floor.
An automatic weapon thumps into the mattress while I stare, momentarily stunned.
Fuck. We’re sitting ducks.
She reaches to the nightstand and calls nine-one-one while I crawl on hands and knees to the kitchen. I open the cabinet next to the refrigerator and grab my dad’s rifle. Like it has since I was a kid, it rests on its wooden stock next to the broom and dust mop. Standing, I grab the box of bullets out of the freezer.
After loading the gun, I rush out the back door, and aim at the car parked out front. I fire off a few rounds and run like hell as they take off down the road. My old ride is still parked under the tin roof that serves as a garage.
I straddle the seat and follow.
Sorry, Mrs. Griswold, I’m pissed and there’s no time to think this through.
With the shotgun across my lap, I follow the red tail lights into the desert, away from town. It’ll be at least fifteen minutes before the local cops show up from McAllen and by then, these guys will be long gone.
With my headlights off, they don’t see me but they have to hear the engine.
As they pull off the road and head straight into the desert, I follow until they stop. There, I drop my bike. Lying flat in the dark, I put the scope to my eye and place the crosshairs on the driver.
What the hell is Pop into now?
My mouth drops open when a border patrol car pulls up. The bastard speaks to the man who shot up my house while I find my phone and record some video. Damn. This isn’t about my dad’s business, this has to be about Danni.
Holy fuck. I’m not the only one with anger issues.
The border guard gets back in his car and I think it’s over until his bright searchlight combs the desert. They’re looking for me.
I take my best shot, glass splinters, and the blessed dark returns.
“Fuck! He’s armed.” The second guy opens his trunk while the first sprays the desert with automatic fire.
I figure there’s plenty going on to plead self-defense. It’s him or me. Taking a deep breath then hissing it out to the count of ten, I take aim and pull the trigger.
He goes down and there’s but one left.
“US Border Patrol. Come out with your hands up.”
“Riigght, asshole. So you can kill me?” I recall how these guys sold Danni across the border to be raped and killed. Now, during a national holiday, they spray my dad’s house with bullets.
If I let him go, it’ll be his word against mine. He’ll say he saw some shit going on in the desert and came to investigate.
“Revenge is a dangerous thing.” I need to be sure this border patrolman was one of those who sent my woman across the border.
A half-moon decides to come out from under a cloud followed by a bullet whizzing over my head. It digs into the earth with a thud about two feet behind.
“Why now? Why not leave us be?” I hit record on my phone and hope it has enough juice to send this guy to jail.
He shouts from his car. “People need to know. You fuck with us, you die. Simple enough, isn’t it?”
Like a groundhog, his head pops over his car door, and I shoot. He drops and I crawl across the desert until I see his bloody body on the ground.
Even though he’s got no pulse, I kick his rifle away.
Then I tune his radio to the police band and shout, “You guys need to get out here. Route 12 about two miles and make a right into the desert. We’re about half a mile in. Over.”
“Who is this speaking?”
“This is Christof Vance, Faust’s son. I followed a shooter into the desert. He fired on me, I fired back. He’s dead.”
“Shit. Y’all stay put. You hear?”
“Yessir. And y’all should know a border car showed up and started firing on me too. He’s ah… well he don’t look so good.”
“Godddam it, son, can-”
“Chris, are you hurt?” Danni’s voice sounds in the background and I heave a sigh of relief.
“Give that mic back to me young lady.” No doubt, she’s struggling to take hold.
When the radio’s screeching stops, I press down on my microphone. “Please tell Dannielle I’m not hurt and call my dad, too, if you would. Over.”
“Please stay with me. Help is on the way.”
Not wanting my DNA anywhere near the vehicles, I place my rifle a few yards away in the sand and sit cross-legged waiting for the cops to show.
I’m not surprised my dad’s motorcycle is the first vehicle to arrive.
After, it takes hours to straighten things out but the video from my cell phone was priceless. No one could deny my story.
Regardless, Pops has a lawyer sitting by my side the whole time I’m questioned. The first time the suit mentions suing, the border patrolman clams up real fast, trying to claim one bad apple and all this bullshit.
The FBI shows up, too, asking me the same damn questions over and over. The lawyer also prevents them from confiscating my phone. “Hell, just upload the damn video. It’s not rocket science.”
Back at home, I settle in for coffee. Marlene had a few of the club stop buy and fix the window. Other than the bullet holes, Pop’s place looks back to normal.
I almost forgot what day it was until Danni hugs me. “You sure know how to show a girl a good time.”
I check my pocket, feel the fuzzy box, and heave out a sigh of relief. The diamond is so small, you need a microscope to see it but I’ll buy her another one when we can afford it. More importantly, she has to understand I want to make this permanent.
I was going to ask her on the plane until we had that fight.
Chapter 29
Danni
About an hour later me, my man, and Marlene sit on the couch while Faust leans back in a brown leather lounge chair.
Out front, the street finally goes quiet. I opted for hot chocolate with Kahlua while the rest drink whiskey.
The older man shakes his head back and forth. “Seems you made a few enemies in our fair city.”
“I really am sorry about your house.” Chris downs his drinks and pours another while his dad chuckles. “Not the first time it’s got shot up, is it son?”
“I honestly can’t remember.” He winks my way then rises.
“Danni, I can’t find something in the suitcase, can you help?” He puts out his hand and I follow, wondering what he’s talking about. Why would I know what he packed?
Inside the bedroom, he steals a heated kiss. Happy to oblige, I clamp my hands behind his neck, hold his head in place, and thank God he’s still alive.
Breathing heavily, I hold his gaze. “Don’t ever do that again.”
“Okay.” He agrees too quickly.
“I mean it. When you left, I was so scared. I was sure they would open fire and…” My voice cracks.
“How do you think I felt the day you were kidnapped, babe? Imagine how I felt when you wanted to attend another protest.”
Oh shit. “I had no idea… I never saw it that way. Jeesh. I’m so sorry. It-it’s like a knife in the gut, waiting to hear. When the stupid cop wouldn’t let me talk to you, I lost it.”
He laughs so I punch his bicep which hurts me more than him.
“It’s not funny.”
“Sure it is. Look at us, fighting like an old married couple.” He drops to one knee and pulls out a small square box and hands it to me.
“This isn’t how I planned asking you but last night made me realize how life is short. You never know if your next breath will be your last.”
He opens the box and holds it forward. “It’s small. I promise to buy you a bigger…”
“Don’t you dare! I love it.” I pull him to his feet.
“Well?”
“Well what?”
“Will you marry me?” He actually seems worried and I feel bad for teasing him.
“Of course I will.” Laughing, I pull his beard to bring his mouth to mine. Then, I kiss him until Faust pounds on the door.
“So? What did she say?”
“She agreed, Pops. It’s a done deal.”
A cork pops in the kitchen and Marlene laughs. “Well, let’s celebrate.”
“Wait.” I whisper. “I want to give you something.”
“Nothing can beat your agreement to be my wife.” He holds me back from digging into the suitcase and kisses the back of my neck, sending chills up and down my spine.
I hand him the vial I got during my last trip to Arizona. “It’s from Colorado. CBD oil. And, it’s regulated there. I did some research on pain killers. This one is supposed to be the best. If you like it, I can order more.
He smiles and hugs me to him. “That’s so thoughtful. I try not to complain but I still have some pretty bad days.”
“You never say anything, biker, I just know.”
Outside, Chris’ dad shouts from the kitchen. “Bubbles are going to waste.”
We raise our glasses as motorcycles arrive outside with a deafening roar. “That’ll be my brothers wanting to wish you both well.”
He introduces me to over a dozen members, some bringing women with them. The trailer is small so the party flows out onto the back patio and into the desert where large flat stones serve as chairs. A colored floodlight on the back of the house turns everything an eerie shade of violet and white t-shirts glow in the dark.
I grab a second glass of champagne, leave my fiancé’s side, and walk to the far back to where three huge guys drink beer and laugh. They quiet as I approach.
“You’re Blade, right? And Poison? Rubber?” I hold out my hand, feeling a bit shy but determined.
The biggest, Blade, grins and his huge hand swallows mine but his squeeze is light. “Danni. Congratulations.”
“I never got a chance to thank y’all for rescuing me. You never even met me and yet you risked your lives for me.” I take a deep breath and steady my nerves as that day comes to mind. Usually, the terror hits me at night but seeing these guys reminds me of the horrifying ride, the men ready to rape me, and dead eyes staring up at the sky.
Blade scratches his thick black beard with a hand covered in small blue tats. “We take care of our own. We knew, even back then, you and Chris would hook up. He was tore up about you. If we hadn’t come, he was going after you on his own.”
The other guys chuckle deep in their chests and clink their beers. “Fun times.”
Yikes. “To good friends.” I press the edge of my plastic cup to their bottles.
They share an amused glance as my fiancé strides across the backyard to where we stand.
“Everything okay here?” His eyes shoot to mine as he pul
ls me to his side and puts and arm over my shoulder protectively.
The three bikers guffaw and when they stop Blade says, “Chris, you are one lucky son of a bitch but I think you done got yourself pussy-whipped.”
Chris shrugs and eyes me with love. “Damn straight.”
We laugh and party until about three in the morning. Then, Faust calls it a night and everyone heads out.
“I really like your dad’s club.”
“Good to hear.”
“How come you left?”
“Long story and it’s late.”
A bit tipsy, I pull off my clothes. “I’ll make it worth your while.”
Chuckling, he tackles me onto the bed. “It’s no big deal. I’m more like my mom, not cut out for the life. These guys have a law unto themselves. They’re loyal to their own but they’re into a lot of illegal stuff that they kept quiet about tonight.”
“Yeah, I figured.”
“A lot of bad stuff passes through the border. They help facilitate it. My worst recollection happened when I was about thirteen. My dad had me tag along while he sold a whole trailer full of Mexican women to some men in suits with European accents. One real pretty girl with big brown eyes about my age pleaded with me to let her go and I tried to convince Pop but he backhanded me.”
Chris stares into the past. “I decided right then and there I was going to be something better but there weren’t a whole lot of options in McAllen. When it came time for high school, I found my mom and went to live with her. She lived in a real nice neighborhood with trees and flowers.”
“Your mom is alive?”
He nods. “We don’t talk much. She was real mad I went with Pop to recover from my accident.”
“Why did you.”
His laugh is grim. “I figured he’d get me killed.”
Chapter 30
Chris
Danni’s eyes widen at my confession which only came out because I’d had one too many beers with the guys.
“I’m sorry you were in that dark place.”
“I’m not.” My hand slides up and down the sides of her naked form as we lay side by side. “If all the bad hadn’t happened, I never would’ve met you.”
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