Page 31 of Riff

“I love all animals,” I told him, meaning it. I could never pass by a dog without asking if I could pet it. Or hold myself back from going to the pet store to look at everything from the fish and reptiles to the birds and small mammals, even though I knew I couldn’t have any. “I hope he gets along with dogs,” I said, reaching out to pet the cat’s head. “And other cats.”

“If he’s not, the bedrooms at the clubhouse are practically the size of small apartments, so he will have space where he feels safe. Do you have a name for him yet?” he asked.

“Vernon,” I said, seeing the cat look over at the sound of my voice.

“Vernon,” Riff said, a smile tugging at his lips. “That have some sort of meaning?” he asked.

“It was the street the rest stop was on,” I told him. “And it suits him, right, Vernon?” I asked, reaching over to pet him, getting an almost immediate purr.

“He seems to like it,” Riff agreed, coming over to sit on his bed, the restlessness seeming to recede. “Do you have any more questions about the club?” he asked, clearly eager to put my concerns to rest.

“They’ll be okay with me coming?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said before I could even finish speaking. “Trust me. They’re a really welcoming crew.”

“What is the town like?” I asked. “I’ve really only ever been to Arkansas and Oklahoma,” I admitted, trying not to feel embarrassed about my lack of traveling. Work and money just never allowed me to stray far from my hometown.

“It’s not like the California you see on TV,” he warned. “We’re far from the coast. Completely landlocked. And the clubhouse practically backs up to the Death Valley mountains. It’s a very small, not very populated town. Oh,” he said, tensing a bit over what he just thought of.

“What is it?” I asked.

“It’s a prison town,” he admitted. “Meaning, there’s a big prison set back from the town a bit. It used to be a factory town. Then the factory shut down, and all the jobs dried up. Most of the people left. But the prison was built, and created work in the area again, so the town is coming back a bit. I just thought you might want to know that part.”

“That… doesn’t bother me,” I decided. At least those bad guys were locked up, right? Not like my captor and his friends, out to roam free and hurt whoever they wanted to with no repercussions.

“I just didn’t want you to go there without knowing all the details.”

“I appreciate that,” I said.

Though, honestly, what choice did I have? If I wasn’t going to go to the police with my issues, what other path could I take but to go with him? I had no home, no family, no job, no way to get back on my feet.

I distinctly remember checking my bank account balance on the day I’d been abducted, hemming and hawing if I could splurge on one of those fancy frozen coffees or not. I never got to make that decision, as it would turn out. But I still remembered that I had less than a hundred dollars in my account to get me to my next paycheck, four days from then. Sure, I imagine my last paycheck had been put into that account, but that was only a couple more hundred. Not enough to start over.

I needed to go with Riff.

He would give me a chance to get back on my feet.

I didn’t even know what that would look like.

I didn’t even feel like any of this was truly real, to be honest. Riff, and now Vernon, were the only tangible things anchoring me to this reality. Where I was free. Where my stomach was full and no one was going to come in to abuse me anymore.

I couldn’t fathom what it would be like to have things together enough to get up every day, go to work, do chores, exercise, prepare meals, have a social life, all the things that made, well, a life.

“You alright?” Riff asked, head tipped to the side as he watched me.

“Fine.”

“Darlin’…”

“I was just… thinking about how I don’t know how I am going to start over.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know, get a job, an apartment, friends…”

“Vienna,” Riff said, his voice a soft caress over frazzled nerves. “The only thing you have to think about right now is healing, getting healthy. That’s it.”

“I can’t just mooch—“

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