Outlaw

by Amanda Lance

  “Nobody minds their own business no more! That’s how folks end up in trouble half the time! People can’t just do what they’re s’posed to do. Just follow directions and listen! Then everybody wonders why everything gets messed up.” I was goin’ off, and I knew it, but I couldn’t stop myself. All I could think about was that we shouldn’t have taken that truck and how everybody’s life is probably gonna get messed up ’cause of it. “We shoulda just skipped it and stuck to the schedule. Followed through as usual. I done told them a million times before: a last-minute truck grab ain’t a good idea!”

  I thought maybe I could yell ’bout it forever—least ’til I punched something. But instead, I shut up straight quick. And the thing that finally got me to shut up?

  This girl yelling right back at me.

  “Hey!”

  Amazingly, she looked more pissed than I probably did. I couldn’t figure why at the time, but I did know, even then, that I really liked it.

  “Maybe you could quit complaining for a minute and forget that you’re not the only one having a bad day here.” She pointed out the bungees around her legs and frowned real hard at me. “Just imagine what my dad is going through right now.”

  She got sad then, all of the fire in her eyes burning out like a cheap candle. I knew she had probably been raised right, had parents and all that, but I didn’t wanna think ’bout how messed up they probably were over this. If they were lucky, they thought she was at a friend’s house or just hitching like she said. But when she mentioned it, I wanted to know all ’bout her. Where was she from? Were her parents still together? Brothers and sisters? I wanted to know it all.

  “What ’bout your ma?”

  Family musta been a real sensitive subject ’cause she got mad at me, all the fire coming back as she picked up the bottle cap and threw it at me—least that’s what I thought she tried to do. She missed by more than half a mile, and the stupid thing bounced off the sidewall, making all kinds of noise as it skipped down the hall.

  “She’s dead—but thanks for bringing up happy memories.”

  It wasn’t what she said that made me laugh, but the way she pouted, the way it kinda reminded me of Ty and how pissed such a tiny person can get when they get their feelings hurt.

  “Are you… laughing?”

  I hadn’t meant to make her mad, but at the same time, I was glad to see that spark in her again.

  “What were you trying to hit?” I laughed harder when I realized she was tryin’ to feel around for something else to throw, that the reason her cheeks were so red was because she was angry.

  “You.” I think her teeth were grindin’ together when she huffed it out at me.

  There was something so adorable ’bout the way she said it, I just had to keep laughing. I laughed harder when I heard Polo shutting down in the cellar. If he was done already, then that was a good sign that things were still going according to plan—as much to be expected, anyhow. Maybe we would get outta here on time after all.

  She stuck out her shiny lips and crossed her arms, looking away like I was a terrible person or something. I had to figure that if she was really upset, she woulda been crying or at least yelling. The act she was putting on me wasn’t working real well.

  “Shut up,” she snapped.

  I tried to do as she asked, I really did, but it was hard to breathe in such a stuffy room and my stomach kinda hurt from it, too. I stood up and hoisted the window open, though it gave me some trouble, splitting up the side as the screen came out.

  “Now I get that saying ‘throw like a girl.’”

  She gasped, pretending to be real offended, but I knew she wasn’t. Or at least I thought she wasn’t…

  “Who do you think you are? You have no right to insult people, let alone kidnap them and worry their parents to death!”

  This was just the opportunity I had been looking for. Now I could show her who I really was, the kinda stuff I was capable of. I crouched down real low next to her and did my best to seem scary, kinda like I did when I was messing around with Ty, only for real this time.

  “I told you.”

  Her face got all scrunched up, and it was all I could do to stay in control when her lips got all pouty. “Excuse me?”

  “I ain’t a nice guy.”

  Just when I thought she was gonna go and get mad on me again, she smiled real cold, like she thought I playing her all along. She jumped then, fast, like the vicious little things she was, to push me on my ass.

  “That might be true.” She smiled. “But you seem harmless enough.”

  Harmless? Harmless?

  “You are vicious.” I sat back down.

  She gave me a little laugh. “I try.”

  I wanted to call her a smartass outright, but I could hear Polo callin’ out for me in that panicky way he does whenever he screws up. At like, the same second, I heard something going off, too. Since I wasn’t expecting it, it freaked me out a little, and her, too, maybe, since she looked all wide-eyed and scared.

  So I left straight away, heading for the cellar and picturing nothing but the safe house blowin’ up with all of us inside. I shrugged off my holster and tossed it outside just in case whatever was outside was flammable and floating around. The guys were yelling, cursing up a storm, and I was tripping over anything and everything that I came across on my way down there, pissed off at myself for leaving any of them alone without a babysitter.

  Black puffs of smoke hit me when I opened up the door, and while I tried to wave it away, I ended up coughing out a bunch of old curses—harmonizing with what the guys were shouting. “What the hell is goin’ on down here?”

  “Take one goddamn guess!” I could hear Reid, but through the smoke I couldn’t see him, or anything else, for that matter. I heard something fall over and the sound of glass breakin’.

  I stood at the top of the stairs and tried airing out the place by waving the door open and shut a few times. When it became clear that it wasn’t doin’ a whole lot for the situation, I gave up on it and just headed down, coughing the whole way.

  Leaving the door open helped clear out the smoke a little, and once I figured out what was what, I could see the black on the stone of the cellar walls and how a couple of the shelves holdin’ our canned food had been taken out. There was glass and wire caps all over the floor with that awful smell of whatever bad had been brewing.

  “Well, Polo I think you did it this time.”

  “Huh?” He was trying to say something else but had to stop from his own coughing. “W-what Charlie? What did I do?”

  “Made the special Olympic tryouts, my man.”

  Reid shook his head. “Definitely.”

  “I’d say you’re gonna take home the gold,” Yuri added.

  By then, we were all coughin’, and Reid was tapping me on the shoulder, using his thumb to point at the door. I followed him up without saying nothing, but I did give Polo a good shove back down when he tried to follow.

  “Hell no,” I told him. “Clean up your mess.”

  We were still coughing when we got up the stairs, and though it was kinda uncomfortable, I was really just hoping that Vicious didn’t hear and get bothered by it. I didn’t want her thinking that the house was on fire or something and freak out ’cause she couldn’t get out.

  “Hey,” Reid said, “what are you doing?”

  “Looking for a fan or something. What does it look like?” I had muscled open the closet door but hadn’t found nothin’ to air out the cellar with. When I glanced over my shoulder, Reid was giving me a look.

  I threw my arms up at him. “What?”

  “What,” he asked again, “are you doing?”

  “Just leave it alone, huh?” I sighed and tried to get rid of him by washing my hands in the bathroom, but sure enough the asshat followed me, arms crossed and staring like he had never been pissed off before a day in his life.

  “You know Ben didn’t mean what he said, right?”

  “Shut up, Reid.” />
  I shut my eyes and grabbed hold of the end of the sink, swallowing hard to keep my anger down and my rage in check. In my heart and mind I wasn’t too sure how long I could do it for.

  “He told us out front he was gonna say that, but he’s out right now looking for some place to dump her after we do her in.”

  “Shut up, Reid.”

  The scumbag had me cornered in the room so that I couldn’t walk away even if I wanted to. But he should have walked away. He should have been walking away.

  “I’m just saying it won’t do any good to cozy up to her when we gotta off her. Course, if you ask my opinion, I think we should just leave her here and set the whole house up, especially now that Polo got that traceable crap all over the basement.”

  “Shut up, Reid.”

  “Then again, maybe it’s good to keep her calm. That’s what Ben said, anyway. Christ knows it’s better than that screaming—”

  I let go of the sink and grabbed his shirt collar instead, slammin’ him against the other side of the wall. He winced, both ’cause of his head hitting a nail and from inhaling the drywall dust. I was glad, glad to see him in pain for talking ’bout her like she wasn’t a human being, like she wasn’t important. The Red was begging me to give in right then and there, and it had me shaking so bad that I could feel all the blood as it pulsed in my heart. Yet there was this tiny blip of common sense that was just shining, though, reminding me that I didn’t wanna deal with the mess between Ben and the fellas if I went off on Reid just for opening his mouth. Hell, if people went off on Reid every time he opened his mouth… he woulda been dead long ago.

  “I don’t give a damn what Ben told y’all out front or what ya think you’re gonna to do. ’Cause if you or anybody else touches a hair on her head, I’m gonna beat the ever-loving crap out of ya! Got it?”

  He didn’t say anything, but I let him go anyway. Sure enough, in the typical Reid fashion, I was barely out the door before he had to go and open his big mouth.

  “What? Has she been in there blowing you or something?”

  I turned around and punched him square in the jaw.

  Chapter 5

  I walked back to the kitchen quickly, quietly trying to stir the anger out of me before I saw her again. I smoked, paced back and forth between the halls, and smoked again but none of it seemed to work. What if she saw the rage in me and thought I was gonna hurt her? What if she decided that being nice to me was a waste of time, and she dropped the nice stuff—started screaming and crying? Worse yet, what if I couldn’t control myself and did end up hurtin’ her?

  I cracked my knuckles and told myself to stop being so yellow-bellied about it. What the hell was I so worried for, anyhow?

  She was only a damn girl.

  I shouldn’t have been surprised that the first thing I saw when I walked back in was her messin’ with the knots. Anyone else, the lack of listening woulda made me mad, but with her it was refreshing. Most of the nice girls I remember never did a whole lot except stay home with the kids or maybe work as a teacher or in the bank. This girl wasn’t just smart, though; she had the kinda ambition that made me wonder if all her politeness wasn’t just playing me. I’d never put any stock into all that stuff about girls being able to rule the world before, but I was starting to think it mighta been true.

  “Ain’t no point in that.”

  She looked surprised to see me but not scared, which I still wasn’t sure was a good thing. As I came over to her, she was even ballsy enough to pinch her nose shut. “What is that terrible smell?”

  I was sure at that point she couldn’t have gotten outta that knot still around her legs, but I gave it a good tug, making sure it was together, and tried desperately not to listen to the sound of her sweet voice as she looked at me and wiggled around on the floor.

  I sighed. “No.”

  Forget about not being afraid; she seemed downright relaxed then, her shoulders all slack and her breath normal and everything. I thought maybe I was just imagining things, but then the miracle happened: she touched me. Those slim, warm fingers of hers ran through my hair, shakin’ out all the soot from the cellar and the drywall that I didn’t even know was there, and I thought for a second that the ache in my chest mighta been a heart attack.

  Like she sensed how much I liked it, she pulled away real sudden and laughed nervously. I was glad because she made me real nervous, too.

  “What were you doing down there?”

  Hearing her voice made me feel like I had just woken up, and I had to shake my head to try and swallow the lump in my throat. Still, I had a hard time explainin’ myself.

  “Better if you don’t know,” was all I managed.

  “You smell really bad.”

  “I know.” I frowned.

  “I have to use the bathroom.”

  “Okay.”

  “And my foot is asleep.”

  “Okay.”

  Considerin’ how good she had been to me, how generous and everythin’, I sure as hell wasn’t gonna go and perv her out by skimming my fingers on those milky-looking legs of hers—even though I really wanted to. So again, I tried to be careful untying her without touching her.

  I kinda figured it was the least I could do.

  She must have really wanted to get out, ’cause she was bouncin’ her foot like I do sometimes when I’m antsy, too.

  For all the effort I made not to touch her, though, she stumbled when she tried to stand up and I wasn’t gonna let her fall on her face, so I took her by the elbows and tried to help her as best I could—not focusing on how smooth her skin was, or how good she felt under my hands.

  The best part was that she didn’t look disgusted by me, didn’t flinch away or act like I was doin’ wrong. I wasn’t real sure ’bout it, but I thought what I was feelin’ in the pit of my gut was thankful.

  She even laughed. “Thanks. I guess no one could ever accuse me of being graceful.”

  I wanted to smile, laugh along with her, but I knew I shouldn’t, couldn’t let her know how much I liked her. So I tried to let it go and steady myself. I didn’t wanna think ’bout all the possibilities or how maybe in another life, if I was a different person, I might deserve her.

  “Just up the steps.” I pointed up and out the door, but knowing her how I already did, added, “Don’t do nothing stupid.”

  “Me? Stupid? Only at rest stops in the middle of the night.”

  I walked behind her so she couldn’t see me smile.

  ***

  I stayed close enough to the bathroom so I could still see the door, but far away enough so that she’d still have some privacy. I didn’t know much ’bout girls, but at least I did know that if they ever shut a door, they did it for a reason.

  I couldn’t have been there for more than twenty seconds before Yuri found me, a newspaper in his hand and frowning hard like it was the only thing his face knew how to do.

  “What?” I said before he even opened up his mouth “What?”

  He braced himself like he thought maybe I was gonna punch him and snickered, straightening out the paper in front of him just to be an extra wise-ass.

  “Adeline Battes, 17, was kidnapped last night from a rest stop just outside on the return journey from Fort Drum, where her brother Pvt. Robert Battes prepares for his second deployment to Iraq. According to local reports, Michael Battes, Adeline’s father, contacted New York State police when he could not locate his daughter and cellular contact with her failed."

  “Additional details are coming in, but eyewitness testimony from rest stop employees claim a young woman fitting the description of Ms. Battes was seen leaving a rest stop exit approximately eighty yards from where her destroyed cellular telephone was discovered. Several hours later, the body of a truck driver, whose name is not being released at this time, was found in the empty cab of his vehicle. At this time police, are unsure if the incidents are related…”

  “Okay!” I said, louder than I had to. “I get it!”

 
; He shoved the paper at me and I took it, wantin’ to know more ’bout her but not ready to admit it to anybody but myself yet.

  “Do you, man? Because we’re in a crap ton of trouble, here. This ain’t just some runaway or something.”

  I sighed. “She’s got people. We kinda figured that already.”

  “Yeah, man, but not just any people. Apparently, she got some mom who just died of cancer and a brother who’s like a war-hero or some damn thing.”

  “How do you know that?” I didn’t mean to sound so annoyed, but in a weird way I was sort of jealous. I had spent an hour talkin’ with her, and Yuri seemed to know more ’bout her than I did without even trying.

  “You kidding me? It’s all over the damn internet. ’Sides—hey, where is she, anyway?” I couldn’t help it; I laughed at how ’fraid he sounded, how panicked a little girl made him.

  “The john.” I pointed.

  He sighed and walked to one of the windows. It seemed like he was trying to find the right thing to say but probably didn’t know what it was. Did he ever get tired of playing the go-between when we fought with each other?

  “I know you don’t like it, Charlie, but—”

  “We ain’t gonna hurt her, Yuri. This girl—she’s all clever and stuff. If we hurt her, it’d be bad for everybody… not just us.”

  “She’s seen our faces, man, and Polo made sure she knows our names. We can’t just let her go home.”

  “You said it yourself: she’s bringing in media attention. If we hurt her, they’ll just look for us harder. Why can’t we just scare her real good? Pay her off or something so she keeps her mouth shut?”

  He turned to me but didn’t say nothing. And though he didn’t say it out right, I could tell what he was thinking: it would be safer for us if they never found her at all.

  “We ain’t hurtin’ her,” I said.

  “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

  I nodded. We’d all been friends and worked together for a while, but she needed me way more than any of them needed me—even Polo. And in my whole life, nobody ever needed me before. If I could help it I wasn’t gonna screw that up.