by Brook Wilder
But as night deepened, exhaustion started to set in. The adrenaline from the near miss with the Devils Martyrs had worn off long before and all she felt was drained. An empty husk where all her emotions used to be.
She must have started to doze off at some point because, suddenly, she heard Tex swear, low and angry, and she jerked back to wakefulness. Mentally, Lori berated herself. The last thing she needed was to fall asleep and slide off the back of the bike. Knowing her luck, she’d break a leg or two and wind up in the hospital.
Then she heard it. The sputtering, clanking noise coming from the front of the bike. Lori didn’t know what it was, but it didn’t sound good, and a moment later Tex was pulling off the highway.
“Fuck! God damn it!” he shouted as he leapt off the bike. He stormed several yards off and Lori could still hear him swearing up a blue streak. “This is the worst god damn timing! Of all the nights for the fucking…”
He went on and Lori climbed off the bike, stretching her legs for the first time in hours.
They were both exhausted and irritable, overwhelmed from the stress of being on the run. She understood Tex’s anger; she just wasn’t capable of handling it at the moment.
“What happened?” Lori asked, trying to keep the bite out of her tone, but it was hard.
She was just so damned tired.
“What happened? I’ll tell you what happened! We’re three fucking miles from the motel and my motorcycle had to break down right here, right now! That’s what fucking happened!”
Tex yelled the words and Lori took a quick step away, narrowing her eyes at him.
“Yeah, it sucks. But we’ll deal with it.” Lori’s voice was tight with anger of her own and she fought the urge to push Tex away. “If it’s just three miles…”
“It will take us an hour to walk there,” Tex growled, kicking a booted foot at the front tire of the motorcycle, sending it toppling to its side in his temper. Lori leapt back, staring wide eyed from Tex to the fallen motorcycle and back again.
“Jesus, Tex! This isn’t going to fix your bike…”
“Don’t you think I know that? If I was by myself…”
Tex trailed off, but not before the words hit Lori square in the chest. Her own temper erupted, pushed to the limits of what she could take in one day. Being yelled at by Tex was definitely on the list of things she couldn’t deal with at the moment.
“You want to be by yourself? Fine! Be by yourself, cowboy.”
Lori turned on the heel of her boot and started walking down the road in the direction they’d been heading in before breaking down.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going, Lori? Lori! Get back here!”
She just raised one hand, flipping him her middle finger and not slowing one inch.
Chapter 15
“Fucking hell.”
Tex snarled the words under his breath as he watched Lori walk away from him. Fury filled him, paralyzing him as he looked from Lori’s rapidly disappearing back to his disabled bike.
He let out a stream of curses. It was probably a good thing that Lori was too far away to hear. With one final glare in her direction, Tex stomped over to the shoulder where the motorcycle was still lying prone on its side.
He had to resist the urge to kick the damn thing again. Instead he leaned down, groaning as he tipped it back up again.
Anger had his hands shaking as he grabbed the handle bars and started pushing it after her.
A part of him knew it was a good thing that Lori had stormed off ahead of him. He was so pissed off he couldn’t even form a cohesive sentence, let alone one that wasn’t filled with expletives that were sure to set her off again.
It didn’t help his temper one bit to know that it was his fault. Mostly, anyway. He had been so focused on getting away from the Devil’s Martyrs, so intent on rushing ahead and reaching the motel that he had stopped listening to his own body. It had been crying out for sleep for hours. And he’d been so out of his mind with exhaustion that he had stopped listening to his bike, too.
Otherwise, he would have noticed the way the machine had started lurching thirty miles ago and the suddenly bumpy way it was riding. Tex would have noticed the odd sounds that the engine had started to make.
Tex shrugged off the edge of guilt that tried to overwhelm him, choosing instead to sink further into the heat of his anger. He knew he should have been paying better attention, but he was even more pissed off at Lori for walking away from him.
The woman had not one, but two, violent gangs who wanted to see her dead. And she had just wandered off into the night by herself!
She had no idea what was waiting for her. She could very well be walking straight into a trap. Anything could happen to her, alone, in the dark, walking along the side of the highway with nothing to protect her.
Tex rushed ahead into the darkness, looking for her, and panic hit him hard in the chest, knocking the breath from his lungs. She wasn’t there.
He moved forward as fast as he could while pushing the heavy weight of the bike. His eyes never stopped scanning the road in front of him. But she was still nowhere to be found.
Where was she? Where the fuck was she?
Tex broke into a shambling run up the incline in front of him and stumbled to a stop at the top. There, just a few more yards away, he could make out the silhouette of the motel. He’d been so scared shitless about losing Lori that he hadn’t noticed the bright glare of the neon signs flashing that there were rooms available and that there were slot machines open twenty-four hours.
Tex didn’t know whether to be relieved or even more nervous for her than he already was, but he knew he wasn’t going to find her just standing there. There was only one place she could have gone to.
Tex rushed down the other side of the hill, barely stopping long enough to park his busted bike in the lot and grab the saddlebags before jogging into the lobby.
There was a bored looking guy who looked like he was barely nineteen sitting behind the reception desk in front. The kid stifled a yawn as Tex ran up to the desk.
“There was a short woman, about this tall.” Tex held one hand up to just about his shoulders. “She’s blonde, gorgeous. Would have gotten here just a few minutes before me.”
The teenager gave a dumb look, blinking slowly up at him before tilting his head.
“And?”
“And, I need to know what room she’s in,” Tex growled, trying to keep his anger reined in, “She’s my… She’s the mother of my baby.”
“I don’t care if she’s you grandmother or the queen of England. I can’t give you another guest’s room number.” The pimple-face kid shrugged nonchalantly. “I don’t make the rules. I just enforce them.”
Tex jaw was clenched so tight he was afraid he was going to crack a tooth. His anger was on the verge of erupting and fear for Lori just made his control that much more precarious.
He slammed his hands against the top of the desk and felt a petty surge of glee when the kid jumped, his eyes widening.
“If you don’t give me her god damned room number by the time I count to three…”
“I can’t man,” the teenager pleaded, looking more worried now. “I swear I can’t.”
“One.”
“Come on. You gotta believe me. I’m just doing my job.”
“Two.”
The guy’s teeth were chattering so hard that his words were barely intelligible.
“Can’t… so-sorry...you have…”
Tex didn’t know what he would have done if he’d gotten to three. But luckily for the kid, when he glanced up, he caught a glimpse of strawberry blond hair disappearing down the hallway.
Without another word, Tex took off after her.
“Lori! Lori, slow down.”
He had to jog to catch up with her, stopping her just as she reached the room. He caught the door just before she could slam it in his face.
“Lori, wait.”
“I don’t think so,”
she said coldly, walking away from him.
She dropped a bucket of ice on the nightstand beside the bed with a loud thud.
Tex stared at her, outrage filling him. The saddlebags slipped from her fingers, dropping to the floor beside him.
“I can’t believe you could do something so… so god damned idiotic!”
“Idiotic? Idiotic!” she shouted as she turned on him, her hazel eyes flashing.
“Yeah. You know, stupid, dumb,” he drawled angrily. “Fucking idiotic. Two gangs are after you and you just walked away by yourself. You put yourself in danger. You put our baby in danger. You could have…”
Tex cut off the rest of the words. He was so pissed off that he could barely speak, and he was afraid that the next thing that came out of his mouth would be even worse.
Without another word, he turned.
“Where the hell are you going?” Lori asked.
Tex slowed but he didn’t stop.
“I’m going to get the fucking bike fixed. Get some rest while you can. At least one of us will get to sleep tonight.”
Tex didn’t hear the rest of the words that Lori shouted after him as he stalked from the room.
He had a feeling that probably for the best.
Chapter 16
Lori stared at the spot from which Tex had just disappeared and shook with anger. How could he say those things to her? Any of them?
Still fuming from her fight with him, and at how high-handed Tex had been, she stalked forward and slammed the door, locking it behind her. She glared at the door as Tex’s words echoed in her mind. She wasn’t idiotic, damn it.
Lori bit her lower lip. A part of her, a small part, felt a pang of guilt. She knew she hadn’t exactly helped the situation. She had just been so tired and so terrified that something inside her just snapped.
She hadn’t meant to say those things. Hell, she certainly hadn’t meant to walk away like that. But after he’d yelled at her she had just… lost it a little.
Even if Tex didn’t know it, Lori had made a promise to herself. After Gears had terrorized her she wasn’t going to let anyone treat her like dirt again. Not Gears, not Tex, not anyone.
Lori paced around the small, dingy motel room. Her body was exhausted, but after everything that had happened her mind wouldn’t shut up. It was like she just couldn’t turn it off.
Trying to find a way to distract herself, Lori looked around the room. There wasn’t much there.
There was a large king-sized bed that dominated most of the room, but Lori avoided looking at that. It made her think of Tex, and he was the last the she wanted on her mind at the moment.
Beside the bed was the nightstand she’d placed the ice bucket on. That long, grueling ride through the night on the back of the motorcycle had her thigh muscles aching. Next to the bucket was a remote. She grabbed it, pressing the red power button on the top.
A small T.V. on a stand in the corner flickered into life, the screen slightly fuzzy as Lori flipped through the channels.
The motel only had a few basic channels and Lori passed a few infomercials before stopping on a local news channel.
The anchor was a polished brunette, poised and perfectly made up. She was speaking of the murder in a disinterested voice.
“…The body of an unidentified male was found outside of a local bar, a well-known establishment with ties to the Reaper gang.”
Lori gasped, taking a step away from the screen. as if putting distance between her and the images on the T.V. would make it somehow less real, somehow less hurtful.
The screen flipped to a reporter who was standing on the corner outside the club. There was yellow police tape cordoning off the sidewalk and lights flashing blue and red in the dark, reflecting off the windows of her job.
“Not my job anymore,” Lori whispered out loud to the empty room. “Never be my job again.”
The screen cut away from the scene in front of The Reaper club and back to the studio and the pristine, beautiful new anchor.
“Police are actively investigating the rise in violent incidents that have occurred over the last week. And they are warning locals to be vigilant, report any unusual or suspicious behavior, and stay off the streets.”
Biting back a shaky gasp, Lori fumbled for the remote. It took her three tries to turn the damned thing off again. But even after the T.V. screen went black, she could still see the bloodstains on the concrete of the ally and the flashing police lights flickering behind her eyelids.
Nausea settled deep inside her and Lori had to swallow several times to contain it. She had wanted a distraction, but now she felt even worse than she had before.
Lori knew Tex had told her that what was happening wasn’t her fault. He’d told her she wasn’t supposed to blame herself. But she felt the weight of guilt on her shoulders.
None of this would have happened if not for her. Her, and her baby.
Lori crossed her arms around herself, trying to chase away the sudden chill that shook her. A moment later, her stomach rumbled loudly in the empty room.
No matter how guilty she felt, apparently the baby didn’t have any such qualms. Lori walked over to the saddlebags that Tex had left behind and searched through the side flaps for the beef jerky she had stashed away before their mad dash from the safe house.
Her fingers brushed against paper and she pulled it out. It was the bag that Robbie had given her. A gift for the baby, he’d said.
Curious, she flipped it over in her hands. She didn’t have anything to do until Tex came back to the room. She knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep a wink without him, the bastard.
If was a book, at least she could kill some time reading. Maybe that would help her shut off her overworked brain.
Lori took the bag in one hand and grabbed the pouch of jerky with the other before moving to the edge of the bed. She let herself drop to the squeaky mattress, grimacing at the high-pitched noise.
Slowly, she flipped the package over and pulled off the twine that held it closed. Lori drew in a sharp breath as she stared inside the bag, shock filling her whole body. It wasn’t a book at all. Robbie had given her a large brick of cocaine.
Her thoughts went into overdrive as she left the plastic-wrapped cocaine in the paper bag and set it on the nightstand with trembling fingers.
Anxiety gripped her, and all her fears came rushing back. She nearly dropped the thing, staring at it as if it was a viper, even though from there it just looked like an innocent brown paper bag. But she knew what was inside it now. What the hell was Robbie thinking? How could this possibly be a gift for their baby?
Officially freaked out, Lori jumped to her feet and starting pacing again, biting her fingernails as her thoughts whirled. What the hell was she supposed to do now? She had thought the pills had been a massive score, but it had been nearly impossible for her to sell them all. She never would have without Tex’s help. And now, with both of them on the run, there was no way to turn that much cocaine into cash.
“Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit! What should I do?” Lori was barely aware that she was muttering out loud. “Just breathe, Lori. Take a deep breath. That’s it. Stay calm. I just have to stay calm.”
Her first instinct was to call Tex, but she knew he would probably still be pissed off at her. She was definitely still pissed off at him.
Worry gripped her. She had told herself she wasn’t going to get Carrie involved in any of this, but suddenly she felt like she was in way over her head. She didn’t have to say anything specific. It would be enough just to hear her friend’s voice. To feel a little less alone in all of this.
Thinking that the motel’s phone would be safer than her cell phone, just in case someone saw the caller ID, Carrie picked up the beige receiver and dialed her friend’s number. Lori chewed her fingernails nervously as the dial tone rang over the line. She waited. And waited. After a few more rings it went to Carrie’s voicemail.
Lori debated leaving a message; finally she decided to.
She didn’t mention her name or where she was, just that she needed to talk.
Her heart was still racing as she hung up the phone, but something told her to try again. Desperation had her dialing her friend’s number once more, praying silently that Carrie would pick up.
It rang a few more times and Lori was sure it was just going to go to voice mail again. But, just before she hung up for the second time, the line was answered.
“Carrie? Carrie, are you there?” Lori asked after a moment of silence.
She heard a crackling noise come over the receiver and then a high-pitched, feminine scream in the background. It was Carrie. She knew it was Carrie, screaming. Why the fuck was she screaming.