“Alright, alright…”
“Ronnie, you alright? Did someone see you?” I asked, worried by the jump in his voice.
“No… No, man. I got it. I don’t know what that thing did but it brought up a loading bar on the screen and that’s all.”
“Did you let it finish? Load all the way?”
“Yeah, I reckon man. I’m sorry. I’m just nervous as all hell. Took forever to get transferred back onto nights. Then it took a while to catch Robins’ door unlocked.” Ronnie took a deep breath. “I’m leaving the agency now. Where do I need to meet you?”
I thought for a moment. Wasn’t sure exactly where to meet him. People wouldn’t question an ASA agent in most cases no matter their actions. Then I thought of this fishing hole Dad took me and Ronnie to as kids. “Remember where Dad would always take us fishing?”
“Yeah, man, that hole of water right off the road above your house?”
“Go there.”
“Should I come up your way or go the long way around?”
“Long way. We’ll be there waiting.” I looked to Sara. She had the covers pulled up over her chest with her head dropped, sulking. “Come on, get dressed.”
“Where are we going?”
“Ronnie has the EYE.”
“What about Shey?” asked Sara.
“Let her sleep. This won’t take long.”
We spent the next few minutes getting dressed. I wore my now usual outfit. Jeans, a black hoody, and black boots. She had on pink checkered pajama pants and a white t-shirt. We walked through the yard towards Shey’s SUV. Dawn was quickly approaching. The towering tree lines along the mountaintops had that dim glow. The fishing hole where Ronnie was meeting was about six miles up the river from my house. An old service road for a now-defunct natural gas well allowed access to the river for vehicles. I got in the driver’s seat and started the vehicle. The feel of the steering wheel in my hands made me quiver. “It’s been far too long.”
“Well, if you’d drive somewhere once in a while,” remarked Sara.
“Too risky.”
“Even now?” she asked.
“The gain outweighs the risk.”
Sara buckled her seatbelt as I reached to do the same. “How far is this place?”
“About ten minutes up the road.”
“Will we have enough time to get there?”
“We should beat him by a decent little bit. That way he can hand it off and go. I don’t want anyone seeing him hand anything off. He’s in enough danger until he gets out of here.”
“Well, let's go and get him out of here.”
The vehicle started on the first crank. I backed out of the driveway and started up the road. The little four-cylinder engine of the SUV was a lot more sluggish than what I expected. Even on the floor, the acceleration wasn’t that great. “Man, this thing is slow.”
Sara gripped the door handle tightly, staring straight ahead at the road. “Seems plenty fast enough for me.”
I turned the wheel, the tires squealing just a bit as we rounded the curve. “A little top heavy, but I can make it hang.”
She held herself tightly in the seat. A grin slowly crept across her face. “Who in the hell would believe you lost control of a car?” Sara started giggling a bit; having fun despite the fear.
“I know, right? Bastards could’ve come up with a better story.”
A few minutes later we arrived at the access road. I pulled the SUV down into the clearing next to the river and turned it around. “We’re here.”
“That was actually really fun. I’m still scared to death, but that was fun.”
“That’s called adrenaline. You should try jumping out of a plane next.”
Sara reached over and smacked my arm. “This is more than enough for me. I’ll leave the suicide missions to you.” Sara retreated into silence. She had to be thinking about what happened next.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Something.”
Sara looked over at me while she took a deep breath, trembling a bit. “You’ll go get your car today, won’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“Then all you’ll need is whatever Johnson is getting you?”
“That’s right.”
“Then it’ll be time for Shey and I to leave you.”
I reached over and grabbed her hand. My fingers laced within hers tightly. “It won’t be forever. I promise.” I hated making that promise because I didn’t know if I could keep it. I didn’t know if I’d ever see her again.
Headlights shined through the windshield. The car door opened and Ronnie stepped out. “Wait here,” I said before getting out.
“Tommy?”
“Yeah, Ronnie, it’s me.”
Ronnie quickly approached and reached me the EYE. “Here take this goddamned thing. Just having that thing near me scares the living shit out of me.”
“It should. If you got caught with this, it would be automatic treason.”
“Fuck, Tommy! Why didn’t you tell me that?”
I chuckled a bit at Ronnie. He should’ve known that it would have been a charge of treason. “Ronnie, you’re an ASA agent. You should’ve known that.”
“I wasn’t thinkin’, Tommy. You came back from the dead and needed me to do somthin’ and I was just tryin’ to go home.”
“It’s over Ronnie. Calm down. You’ve been a great help.”
Ronnie took a huge breath and placed his hand on my shoulder. “If you gotta be doin’ this. Give’em hell. Don’t rest until they pay for what they’ve done.”
“You have my word.”
“Well, with that said, I’m gonna be goin’ on home now. The wife’ll be pretty pissed when she finds out we’re moving in a day or two.”
“Better pissed than dead.”
Ronnie nodded and turned away. “I’ll be seein’ you. I hope.”
“Ronnie,” I called out. “One more thing.”
“Yeah? What’s that?”
“Don’t say shit about this to your wife. It’s best not to know about this sort of stuff.”
“Yeah, man, I don’t reckon I’ll say a damn word. Good luck.”
I watched Ronnie pull away. Haven’t seen him since. That’s for the best. Afterwards, I rejoined Sara in the vehicle. “Got it.”
“Good. What now?”
Anxious was a mild word to describe what I was feeling. All I needed was my gear to start tearing the ASA down… At least Grundy. “I’m making a call.”
“Who?”
“Johnson,” I replied while I dialed his number. It rang for a few moments before he finally answered.
“Logan? I told you that I’d call you.”
“I’m patient, but it’s almost time to move.”
“I was going to call you today anyway. I can’t talk now, but I’ll call back tomorrow. Be ready to move as soon as you get my call. You won’t have a lot of time.”
“Understood, Sir.”
“Good.”
Johnson hung up the phone. I can’t blame him, not really. This was at best vigilantism and at worse some psycho hellbent on killing upstanding citizens that protected and served. Johnson had made himself an accomplice… So had Jay and Ronnie for that matter. Shey and Sara could even be roped in on it. I looked over to Sara. This was it. The last day I’d see her.
“What? What is it, Tommy?”
“It’s time.”
Sara’s heart sank. The expression on her face was something I’ll never forget. That amount of fear, dread, downright terror can never be forgotten. She took a deep breath. “Alright… What do I need to do?”
“We’re going to get Shey, then my car. We’ll talk about it after we get back home.”
A couple hours passed and we were nearly to Jay’s shop. That ride was quiet. Not even a word was spoken at that point. Shey drove along the road slower than her normal pace. She was always at least five over the speed limit. She was under today. “Something wrong?” I aske
d.
“Just everything,” answered Shey.
What was I supposed to say to that? She was right. Everything was wrong but it had to be this way for me to make it right. “Yeah, I know.”
“It’s not too late,” said Sara from the backseat.
“Yeah, Uncle Tommy, let’s get your car and get out of this dump. It’s taken enough from us. I don’t want it to take you too.”
“It won’t, Shey, I promise.” Another promise I didn’t know I could keep. I was on a roll that day. “This’ll be over soon. I promise. And we can go wherever you want. Wherever both of you want.” Yet another promise.
Shey nodded her head. I think she wanted to believe me, but she had lost enough to know tomorrow is never guaranteed. “Alright… We’re almost there.”
I watched Jay’s shop as we drew closer. It was still early and no one was there yet. It was a Saturday, so it would probably be slow for him anyways. We pulled in and I stepped out, seeing his Trans Am parked next to the shop. I lit a smoke and walked up to the door. After a knock, Jay opened it. “Tommy, didn’t know you were coming.”
“Yeah, can’t be talking too much these days. Dead and all.” Jay let out a laugh. He had a very distinguishable high-pitched laugh. Couldn’t ever forget that. “She ready?”
“And then some,” replied Jay. “Come on in, you can smoke in here. I don’t give a rat’s ass.”
After taking another draw, I followed Jay to the far bay of his shop. A car was covered there. He pulled the cover off and man, I got butterflies. She was beautiful. The metal flake in her black paint glistened brightly. “Shit, Jay. You must have found the nicest GTO on the market.”
“Low mileage 06, I figured if you were gonna be bustin’ some heads, you might as well do it in style. I had a shit ton of money left over, so I did a bit more than you asked.”
“Like what?”
“Well, to start off with… I figured you might be running from some of those idiots if you found yourself in a tight spot. I put a set of coilovers in the front suspension. Replaced your front and rear swaybars as well. All polyurethane bushings. She rides a bit rough, but it’ll hang a curve.”
“Damn, Jay. You’ve outdone yourself.”
Jay grinned. “That ain’t all.”
“Tell me more, please tell me more.”
“I figured that’d get you in the mood,” remarked Jay, laughing. “That full nine-inch independent rear freed up some room out back. You know as much as I do that these cars ain’t got a lot of room for tires back there. So, I sent those rear wheels off and had them widened an inch and a half. You got nine and a half inch wide wheels back there now. I picked out some aggressive road track tires. They won’t hook off the line if you put it to the floor, but they’ll hold your power in the curves.”
“What size tires did you go with out back?”
“They’re a two-ninety-five. It was tight and I had to roll the inner fenders flat, but they don’t rub.”
“Man, you’re awesome.”
“Don’t stop me yet.”
“What else?”
“Ah, nothin’ really. You know the engine set up. It’s a six-speed manual, but we ain’t talked about what kind of power it put down on the dyno.”
“What’d it make?”
“Well, it didn’t make a whole lot… Just about five hundred and eighty horsepower to the wheels and five hundred and fifty-five pounds of torque.”
“Holy shit, that sounds fun.”
“And listen to this.” Jay opened the door and hopped in. The engine cranked and came to life. It was quiet. Very quiet. “Now, wait for it…” Jay flipped the toggle switch for the electric cutouts. The roar of the engine shook the walls. You could feel the thump of the camshaft in your chest. It was nothing short of glorious.
“Hit it.”
Jay bumped the throttle. She sounded straight up wicked. Easily the meanest car I had ever heard… Of course, she is mine, so I’m probably a bit biased. Jay turned the car off and stepped out. “What do you think?”
I wrapped my arms around Jay, hugging him. “Thanks, man.”
“Ah, don’t mention it,” he said, pushing me away. “Now after you kill who needs killin’… And don’t get yourself killed in the process, we gotta take this thing to the track. I bet it’ll run tens in the quarter without trying.”
“It’s a deal.”
Jay walked to the front of the bay and opened the garage door. “Now get outta here. Been hard enough keeping these nosey fucks away.”
I opened the car door. “Thanks, Jay,” I said, sitting down.
“Now get on out of here.”
The car cranked and roared to life. I eased out on the clutch. It was stiff and grabbed quickly. She rolled her way out of the bay and next to Shey and Sara. I rolled down the heavily tinted windows as Shey rolled hers down. “Don’t try to keep up.”
“What?” asked Shey, trying to speak over the incredible sound of the engine.
“You know where I’m parking this thing right?”
“Yeah,” she shouted.
“Meet me there. Don’t try to keep up.”
Sara poked her head across Shey. “Don’t get yourself killed in that thing!”
“I got this.” With those words, I revved the engine high and slammed the beautiful feeling transmission into second gear. My foot slid off the clutch, allowing the tires to scream for mercy. She spun out of the parking lot and onto the road leaving a thick cloud of white smoke in her wake.
With each gear caught, I pushed the car to see what kind of monster Jay had built. It hung curves like it was on rails. This car was simply amazing. She could never replace my red beauty, but she was already carving out her own spot in my heart.
Somewhere off the main road and out of the way was the best place to keep her. I could cover her up and no one would be the wiser. For days I had worked digging out a spot on that service road that led up to my old cabin. It was closer to the main road, where there still was a road that wasn’t overgrown. Along the way, there was a straight patch of road that was just far too tempting. I downshifted to second at forty miles per hour and nailed it. The tires slipped at first but finally hooked and the torque sucked me back. The amount of torque this thing made was nothing short of dangerous for a street car. Sure, people made more all the time but I hadn’t ever messed with it. I grabbed fourth gear at ninety-five and stayed in it. Before I knew it, I was sitting on a buck twenty. Nobody would keep up with me in this monster, especially around here on the curvy roads I grew up doing stupid shit on.
After getting my kicks, I slowed down and turned across the old bridge to the dirt access road. The car eased its way up the road to the dug out spot at the foot of the mountain. I turned her around and backed her in. Then I began my wait for Shey and Sara. Twenty minutes or so passed and they finally pulled up. I walked past Shey’s window, winking at her, then opened the back hatch. From it, I removed a tarp that would protect the car from the tree branches and shrubs I was going to cover it with.
“Need some help?” asked Sara as she stepped out.
“Sure, help me cover the car with this tarp.”
We covered the car quickly while Shey watched. She didn’t want anything to do with this. She just wanted us to leave. It broke her heart that I wasn’t, and I hated that. I hated myself for that. Afterwards, I put rocks down along the edges of the tarp to help keep it anchored to the ground. Then, I tossed numerous cut shrubs and tree branches over it. Up close, you could tell that something was there, but nobody ever really came there… And no way would anybody would notice from the main road. It was a few hundred yards off in the distance.
“Let’s go,” I said. Sara and I both hopped into the vehicle and off we went.
“So, this is it?” asked Shey.
“Yeah.”
“Where are we supposed to go?”
“Far away. Pick a spot.”
“Jesus, Uncle Tommy.”
“I’ve always wanted to visi
t Florida,” said Sara.
“You guys should go to the beach.”
“Yeah,” Shey agreed, sarcasm in her voice. “We should just go have a great time at the beach while you get shot at or run over or whatever!”
“Shey, it isn’t—”
“Shut up! Just shut up!” she screamed. “You promise this and you promise that. Yeah, well, I know better. You’re risking your life when you don’t need to!”
“Shey, if I don’t someone else will.”
“I said shut up!” she screamed once more. Sara began to speak, most likely to try and calm Shey but she was having none of it. “Sara, you shut up too! Just everybody shut up, please!”
After we arrived home, Shey remained quiet. Sara and I spent much of the day laying with one another in silence. We knew those moments would be our last, at least for a while. That’s all we wanted from them. To be with one another until they were gone. After night had fallen, Shey and Sara had their things packed. I watched as they loaded their stuff into the vehicle. They returned to the house to say goodbye.
“Decide where you all are going?” I asked.
“Florida,” answered Shey.
Sara forced a smile and nodded. “We thought it’d be nice to visit—”
“Don’t tell me where, exactly,” I interrupted. “Better that way.”
Sara quickly nodded once more, trying to fight back the glistening tears in her eyes. She walked up and hugged me, holding me, and treasuring the embrace. “Don’t you get yourself killed. Promise me,” she whispered.
“I promise.” My arms squeezed her tightly. She pulled back and kissed me deeply. Shey watched, glaring at me in silence. “How about a hug, Squirt?”
Shey huffed and puffed before finally hugging me. She kissed my cheek and pulled away. “You can’t die,” she snapped.
“I—”
“Shut up! You can’t die because I’m still pissed at you and no matter how much I love you I’m not ready to forgive you…” She trailed off into silence and started wiping the tears from her eyes. “And you have to stay alive until I’m ready to forgive you. You owe that to me after pulling this bullshit!”
“I’ll stay alive—”
“Promise me!” Shey interrupted once more before she ran into my arms. “Promise me, Uncle Tommy.”
A Tommy Logan Story Page 16