His hand stopped stroking her back. “A man tends to tell the truth when his fingers are being cut off.”
She sat up, twisting to look at him. “I…I didn’t hear any screams. The music…”
He stared at her, but made no excuses.
“Is he…”
“He didn’t suffer long.”
“I think I’m going to be sick.” She pushed out of his arms, and crawled around the tree.
Cole stood up, and went to her. He squatted down next to Angel, and held her hair as she emptied her stomach. When she was done, he handed her a bottle of water to rinse her mouth out. “You okay?”
She shook her head no.
Cole took a deep breath, and looked at the horizon. “This isn’t done yet.” He looked back at her, his face blank, his expression carefully remote. “I promised you two more. Today.”
She looked away.
“And they deserve it,” he reminded her. Reaching down, he pulled her to her feet. He slid his hands in her hair, and tilted her face up to his. “I forget how young you are. You gonna be okay with this?”
“I don’t know.”
“It’s what your father would do. You know that, don’t you?”
She stared at him.
“Think of all the other girls they’ve done this to. And there’ll be more. Doesn’t that turn your stomach?”
She nodded, and bent her head, about to break down.
He pulled her to his chest. “Come here, babe.” He held her a long time.
The rest of the crew began to stir. Crash was standing up stretching, popping his spine.
“Hey, Crash,” Cole called.
“Yeah, man?”
“Go inside. See if you can find us some coffee.”
“You got it, boss.”
A few minutes later, he was handing them each a Styrofoam cup full of steaming black coffee. “Hope you like it black. I couldn’t find any cream or sugar.”
“This is fine. Thank you,” Angel replied.
They moved to one of the picnic tables, and sat down to drink their coffees. The other guys soon joined them.
“You get the word?” Crash asked Cole.
“Yeah.” Cole filled them in on what they’d found out.
“Sounds perfect. We wait at the underpass for your signal.”
“Which will be?” one of the brothers asked.
“Couple of shots.”
“In the air?” Angel questioned.
“Or in them. Either way,” Crash suggested, a grin pulling at the corner of his mouth.
It was about 9:30am, and Cole was standing with Angel and Crash. The rest of the guys had already headed out to wait at the underpass.
“Here he comes,” Crash announced, indicating Chuck, who was walking toward them.
Cole turned, and addressed Chuck. “About time.”
“Just got the call. Said he should be there by 10am.”
“Good,” Cole replied. “Let’s head out now, then.”
Chuck noticed Crash. “I thought it was just gonna be you,” he said to Cole.
“The rest of the club already headed out. Crash is riding back with us,” Cole replied. He stared him down. “That a problem?”
“It’s just that I told him it would only be you and me. He doesn’t like surprises.
“It’ll be fine. You worry too much, Chucky. Come on. Let’s go. I’m tired of standing around here.”
“Yeah. Okay,” Chuck agreed, knowing that when a member of the Evil Dead spoke, if you were a member of the Dead Souls, you jumped. He headed off to his bike.
Cole, Angel and Crash were ready, and waiting for him when he pulled up.
“Lead the way,” Cole shouted over the revving engines. Chucky pulled out, and Cole and Crash fell in behind him.
As they passed over the underpass, Cole and Crash looked at each other, and nodded. Cole glanced back, and noticed one of his brothers walk a few feet out from under the overpass. Cole gave a thumbs up to Crash. Chucky was in front, and didn’t see any of this.
A few seconds later they were pulling off on an exit ramp to the rest area. A sign indicated it was closed. There were a couple of construction horses with flashing warning lights barricading the way, but they were easy to go around. Cole saw that even a vehicle would be able to get around them.
They proceeded down the exit, and followed it around a curve. Cole glanced around, and saw that they could not see the interstate any longer. They came to an area that divided the flow of traffic with a sign pointing cars to the left and trucks to the right. They followed Chuck to the left. There were diagonal marked parking spots along a sidewalk that