Page 4 of Holley Jolly Biker

And that was the exact case for the two men he had strung up by their wrists in an old cellar we had discovered on the property.

They thought it would be a good idea to peddle human flesh in our town.

That shit doesn’t fly.

Chapter 1

Ophelia – 2004

One week before Halloween.

That rat bastard decided to do all this one week before Halloween.

As for my blonde self, well, I had been none the wiser to anything that was going on.

I thought we were happy.

I thought we had it good.

I thought that I had met the man that I was going to spend the rest of my life with.

What bullshit.

What complete and utter bullshit.

“Come on, Susie Q. Come on,” I chanted as my old beat-up Pontiac Trans Am as it tried to go up this hellacious incline.

“Monnie, who is Susie Q?” My little bundle of a miracle asked from her booster seat.

I glanced in the rearview mirror that was hanging on with a prayer.

In other words, it was duct-taped and zip-tied.

Yep, duct-taped and zip-tied. That was how everything in my life, or what you would call life, was being held together.

But I wasn’t going to let those morose thoughts consume me right now.

My daughter had asked me a question. And I was going to answer her.

“It’s Monnie’s car, pumpkin’ head I named it after my favorite song,” I told her.

She looked confused for a minute, then asked, “What’s your favorite song?”

I smiled, trying to hide the resentment I was feeling at this very moment.

If that rat bastard hadn’t taken my phone, I could play it for her.

If that rat bastard hadn’t slapped divorce papers down in front of me because his boss told him that it wasn’t a good look for the company to have their top Chief Executive with a family.

If that rat bastard hadn’t used that as his scapegoat.

When all he really wanted was to keep on living like he was in his early twenties and not like he was in his mid-thirties.

Why did people say that with age comes wisdom? I call bullshit.

Pure and utter bullshit.

But I digressed, and... we just crested the top of the hill, I let out a breath and then sagged back in my seat when I saw the next hill.