we have to get away from here,” she urges, her eyes sparkling in the moonlight, but still blue like a gem.
“Wait, I’ll go first,” I say and open the gate just wide enough to squeeze through.
I didn’t need to worry about us being seen. The parking lot where I left Blaze is deserted, and so silent, I can hear the dry grass in the fields surrounding this place rustling.
But Blaze and my bike are gone too.
“What’s the best way away from here so we’re not seen from the road?” I ask her in a whisper that sounds way too loud in the silent darkness.
My heart is still thumping from almost losing that knife fight with Crow. I would’ve lost it, I ain’t too proud to admit that. We’d both be dead if she hadn’t found her head and shot him. Wicked. A true badass. Despite everything, despite almost getting killed, despite now being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no transportation, I don’t regret coming back for her. Not even a little bit.
“This way,” she says and heads straight across the lot to some bushes that are just a darker, higher mass against the dark field behind them.
I’m worried we’ll be seen, I wish I had my gun on me, but there really is no better choice than to follow her lead. The only way in and out of here is the gravel road and we’ll definitely be seen there.
“Where the fuck were you?” Blaze whispers when we’re still yards from the bush.
Brenda stops dead in her tracks, a sound between a whimper and a scream coming from her mouth.
“It’s all right, he’s with me,” I tell her, just as Blaze appears from behind the bush.
“Seriously, Colt, I was about to call in reinforcements. What the fuck were you doing in there? The bar closed almost an hour ago.”
I know that tone. He’s thinking I took my sweet time fucking her, while he waited outside for me.
“Trying not to get killed, actually,” I tell him, letting my tone do the conveying how wrong he was in his assumption.
“What?” he asks kinda breathlessly.
“No time to explain now, I’ll tell you later,” I say. “We gotta go.”
“The bikes are behind here,” he says and leads the way.
Brenda has her arms wrapped tight around her chest and her face is so pale it’s sparkling in the moonlight. Delayed shock over killing a man? Over almost dying? Probably both. I just hope it hasn’t rendered her speechless yet, because we still need her to show us a different way out of here.
“Get on,” I tell her as I roll my bike from behind the bush and mount it. I’m trying to sound gentle, but I’m not sure I know the first thing about that.
She snaps her arms away from her chest and deftly climbs on behind me, wrapping one arm around my waist and pointing into the dark distance behind the bar. “Go that way. It’s a shortcut out of town.”
I rev my bike, and Blaze asks no questions before doing the same. Then we ride across the gravel lot and onto the grassy field, the bumpy terrain making her hold on to my waist as tight as she can. Having her behind me on my bike, holding on so tight, her hot breath warming my neck, is all sorts of dreams come true—ones I never even knew I dreamed.
Brenda
The night grows deeper, darker, and cooler, the rumbling of their two bikes louder than any bikes I’ve ever heard in the sleeping silence. Traffic is non-existent on this stretch of road, as I hoped it would be. We’ve been riding for a while, and only one car passed us.
I’m leaning against Colt’s back with all my weight, holding him tight around the waist. Tighter than I need to since we’re not going all that fast. As tight as I want to. His body is warm and solid, yet somehow soft too, and it’s the best thing I’ve felt in more than six months. This is the best I’ve felt in over six months. Longer, really. If I could just stop shivering, this ride would be perfect.
His friend is riding in front of us, glancing back every so often. He signals right then pulls over onto the shoulder. Colt stops behind him and is waiting for me to get off so he can dismount too, but I’m good right here, I don’t really want to move.
“You all right?” he asks me, trying to turn