Page 8 of Savage

“Then you’ve not seen how campus life can be.” The ghost of a smile flitted across her face for a moment before it was gone again. “Things were good. I made friends, went to class, partied a little, but not too much. During my junior year, my best friend and I heard about this group that had formed a commune.” She shook her head and looked out the window beside them as she told her story.

His heart ached for the woman sitting across from him, both at what she’d been through and at the way her ideals had been stripped from her so harshly. He couldn’t remember ever being so optimistic as thinking a commune where they all worked for the good of the group was an ideal situation, but he was glad she’d had that, or had once.

She continued talking, telling him some of what she’d gone through and how she’d escaped them, though he suspected she was leaving much of it out, until their food came. Afterwards, they ate in silence for a couple of minutes while Savage tried to figure out how best to put what he wanted to say into words, that hopefully wouldn’t scare her off.

“I want to help you. I’d like to say let’s get on my bike and go back to Arizona right now, but I can’t. I committed to this trip with my brothers, and I can’t back out of it now, not without some serious consequences.” He didn’t know what those might be, and he wasn’t ready to find out. But he’d help her get north if she wanted, or there were other options too.

“But I’ll take you with us north. We’re going to be just a little ways out of Gillette. We’ll be staying on a ranch owned by one of my brothers. You can stay with me.” She started to speak, and he held up both hands, stopping her long enough to finish what he’d been about to say. “No pressure. We’ll be living a little rough, as in we brought tents. But I packed a four man tent. There’s enough room for us to have our own bedrolls, though we may need to borrow one or stop and pick you up a sleeping bag. On the ranch, there’s little chance this group will find you, if they come looking that far north.”

She stared at him, eyes wide, as he continued. “If, at any time, you decide you want to go into Gillette, I’ll take you. If you decide you want to go home, I’ll buy you a ticket to go back to your family.”

“You don’t have to do that. I can’t afford to pay you back.” Something in her eyes told him there was more to it than that but he wasn’t going to ask. Not yet. It wasn’t time to get that deep into her past, not here and not if she wasn’t ready to tell him.

“And I’m not asking you to. I want you to know you’re not stuck. You have options.” He drained the last of the coffee from the mug on the table and signaled to the waitress he’d like more, then turned back to Donna. “When we’re ready to go home, and I mean back to Arizona, we can talk about what you want to do, okay?”

She blinked at him several times, waiting until after the waitress filled his cup, asked if they needed anything else, and left, then spoke.

“Okay. I can handle that.”

“Good. Now, we’ll get Jailbait to stop somewhere and get you some clothes, then get back to the motel before time to join the others and pull out.”

“I don’t need clothes. I can make do with these.”

Savage looked at her, not bothering to give what she was wearing a pointed look. “You have one outfit. Nothing warm enough for nights and nothing to change into. You need at least one change of clothes. I’ve got a couple of other things to pick up too, so we’ll stop. Don’t worry about the cost. You need it, I’ll cover it.” His look didn’t leave any room for argument. He waited but she didn’t try to argue again. Instead, she said two words.

“Thank you.”

Savage didn’t say anything, just nodded. When the others were ready, he slid out of the booth, held a hand out, wondering if Donna would take it. To his surprise, she placed her hand in his and let him tug her to her feet. Hand in hand, they went to the counter where he paid the ticket while she and Jailbait went out to the truck.

“She going with us?” Dumbass asked.

“For now, we’ll see for how long,” Savage said while the other man took care of his bill. Together they went out to the car to meet their women.

Their women. That wasn’t something he’d thought he’d apply to himself. Oddly, it felt right.

10

Donnahadbeenonthe back of Savage’s motorcycle for almost an hour before she relaxed enough to enjoy the ride. At first, she wished she’d taken him up on his offer to let her ride in the car they’d taken to the restaurant with some of the women, but then she would have had to talk to them, and they would have had a million questions. She hadn’t wanted to face that even if she’d had to sit closer to Savage than she was comfortable with, it would be easier than answering the questions of several women she didn’t know.

Now, as she found the tension of the unknown had mostly faded, she could appreciate the peace of riding. There was no one wanting an answer, no one wanting her to make sure they had food, drink or even entertainment, she just had to be. Well, that and live in her own head, but she was mostly used to that.

Now though she pushed thoughts and worries about her life, about the commune and its leaders, about everything but right now from her mind. This ride, this moment of peace was amazing, and she was going to enjoy it.

She had been resistant when Savage had wanted to buy her clothes, but he’d offered her jeans. She hadn’t been allowed to wear jeans in almost a year. She’d jumped at the chance, then he’d gotten her several other things, even insisting that she pick out underthings, plus all the other things he insisted were necessary. Then he hadn’t even blinked an eye when the total was more than she could have imagined. She’d nearly stopped breathing right there in the store. She had no idea how she would pay him back. She’d tried to tell him that, but he’d just said not to worry about it.

Now, she sat behind him, wondering what he had been thinking then and what he was thinking about now. What kind of person had that kind of money to spend on a stranger, with no guarantee they would even see any of it back?

She didn’t know how long they’d been riding, several other bikes rumbling along both in front of and behind them, when Savage reached back with one hand, grabbed her calf, and squeezed briefly before taking hold of the handlebars again.

“You okay back there?” His voice came from somewhere in the helmet he’d given her, startling her. Before pulling out this morning, he’d borrowed the helmet from one of the women in the SUV they’d taken to the store.

It took her a moment to register there must be some kind of radio in the helmet. “Um. Yeah. I didn’t know we could talk.”

“I didn’t think to tell you. I’m sorry. If you need anything, just let me know.”

She nodded, then realized he couldn’t see her and spoke, “Okay.”

“Don’t worry. The whole string can’t hear you. They’re on a different frequency. This is just you and me, okay?”

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