Page 42 of Rolling Thunder

Kayla stared at the women, doe-eyed. One of them picked up a paper schedule of meetings from the table and wrote on it, passing it to the next until it came to Kayla with a half dozen phone numbers on it.

“Why don’t you sit with us? The meeting is going to start in a few minutes,” Annie said.

Kayla nodded stiffly, looking around for Bill. He stood with the bikers on the other side of the meeting hall. She felt extraordinarily out of place here with these nicely dressed ladies. She wanted to go hang with Bill and the rest of the bikers, but he’d told her to stay with the women. Bill threw back his head in a hearty guffaw and clapped another man on the back.

The meeting was a bit of a blur. People talked from the podium at the front of the room, some nervously, some with animation and jokes that made everyone laugh. Out of the corner of her eye, Kayla couldn’t stop looking at Annie. She was tall, thin, and elegant. She wore a simple sun dress. Kayla couldn’t tell if she came from money or not, but she sat with her back straight and her legs crossed gracefully. She reminded Kayla of her Gram Kay in more ways than one. Annie glanced over at her and smiled, patting her hand softly. Like everything else, her smile was genuine. Kayla felt like she was in the twilight zone. People in her world never acted so nice.

At the end of the hour-long meeting, people spilled out onto the sidewalk, firing up cigarettes. Annie didn’t smoke, but Kayla felt the sudden urge to, so she ducked away. Annie and another woman reappeared, flanking her on the sidewalk.

“Keep coming, Kayla,” Annie said. “Call me anytime.”

“For not being able to drink, you people seem pretty fuckin’ happy,” Kayla said cynically. The other two women laughed.

“Why would you help me?” Kayla asked, not buying the whole scene. Maybe this was some kind of cult.

“Because when I was new, someone helped me,” Annie said. “And maybe one day, you can help someone else. That’s how it works.”

It made sense, and Kayla’s danger meter stopped firing off. She was in a strong, caring, feminine presence that she’d only ever felt from her Gram before now. She glanced around, realizing they weren’t even that far from Trent’s club. How ironic. She had only to walk away from these ladies and she could be back in his clutches in record time. An apt metaphor, she thought.

When Bill finally collected her, she swung onto his motorcycle. She took one last look at the group of people smoking and chatting on the sidewalk. She heard someone say, “If you want what we have, do what we do.”

She did want it. She wanted a new life, desperately. But wanting it didn’t make it so. Trent would come for her again, and she couldn’t live in his world sober. Hell, she wasn’t too sure she could live in any world sober.

Sure enough, that night, after about four more angry texts from Trent, she cracked and drank herself into oblivion. Those nice women couldn’t help her. She was beyond saving.

CHAPTER 17

Evan stopped at the feed store to get a bag of dog food for Abbey. It was a tiny country store run by an old Southerner. While waiting in line, he overheard a girl lamenting to her mother that Miss Kayla had canceled her riding lesson because she was sick. The line moved too slowly, so he dropped the bag of food back on the shelf and jumped in his truck to hammer home. Kayla was never sick. Even if she was, she would keep going even if it meant she was puking in the bushes between lessons. Something was wrong.

Her gate was unlatched, and now, he was sure. He pulled in, closing it behind him because she’d said so many times how important it was for it to be closed in case a horse ever got loose. Seeing no sign of her down by the barn, he knocked on her door.

“Kayla?” he called. There was no sign of the dirtbag he’d caught threatening her, either. But it did basically nothing to ease the terrible feeling in his gut. Finally, he heard movement. The door opened a crack, and Kayla peered out.

“Are you all right?” he demanded. It was a stupid question. She obviously wasn’t.

“No. I’m sick. You should go, I don’t want you to?—”

“What’s going on?” he demanded.

She withdrew, but he stuck his boot in the door before she could close it. He couldn’t believe he was doing this. Was Trent in there with her? He pushed the door open, and she pulled backward, hugging herself, trying to look away from him. But he saw it.

“What the fuck?” He reached toward her face, and she flinched. “Stop,” he said, suddenly gentle. She froze. He turned her chin to the side and swept her hair back to expose the black eye and bruised cheek she tried to conceal from him. A deadly calm settled over him.

“Who did this?”

“I fell off a horse,” she said, but her voice was small and unconvincing.

“Bullshit. You’re a terrible liar,”

“You have to go, Evan. You can’t be around me.” Her lips quivered, her chin trembled, her eyes filled with tears.

“I’m not leaving you like this,” he said. He gently pulled her into his arms, kissing the top of her head. She sobbed slightly and grabbed on to him with desperation. The honesty was in her touch. She felt so right in his arms, and he longed to protect her from whatever was happening. He could feel the answered longing back from her.

“I can’t be with you. You don’t understand.”

“Then explain it to me.”

“I’ve done bad things. You’re just about to finally have your life back, and I’m going to take it all away from you.”

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