Page 21 of Sleeper

Neither of us spoke. We sat in the embrace together. The only sounds to fill the room were ragged breaths forcing their way out of our shuddering bodies.

17

VERA

I’d been pent up in Sleeper’s house for around two weeks and we used each other to forget the world repeatedly. This wasn’t how I normally acted, but our situation wasn’t a normal one. He didn’t tell me every minute detail about what was going on with his dad, but I knew they hadn’t caught him yet. I didn’t know Willie well, but surely, he was long gone from here. That’s what a smart person would do. Then again, he had already proven his lack of intelligence over and over again.

Sleeper was one of the most kind-hearted people I’d ever crossed paths with. Of course, that was overlooking the tiny detail of him being in a biker gang and the fact that he had killed people, too. Those facts should bother me more than they did, but for some reason, they didn’t. My hand had been forced to do so many things in my life, that I no longer saw people as good or bad. I chose to take people for their worth, not what they did out of necessity. Now, I understood that taking someone’s life wasn’t always a black and white decision as the news portrayed it to be. When information was broadcast across the television, they only showed the victim. The whole story was rarely given along with the picture.

Sleeper could have taken one look at my arms and my face and made his mind up that I was a junkie. It was without question that all signs pointed to me being one, and I guess I was, but not willingly. He didn’t, though. He gave me a chance and took me into his home. Well, he forced me into his home, but since then, he’d welcomed me. I found myself waking up each morning to coffee on the nightstand and a goofy smile on my face that I had trouble getting rid of.

Today was the first day I was going to venture out on my own. Sleeper was nervous about it, but most of the brothers were following a lead in West Virginia. Willie had a cabin up there in the woods, according to Sleeper.

“I’ll be back in a few hours.” Sleeper kissed the back of my head and smacked my ass. I giggled.

“Alright. I’m just going to snoop around in the library down the street and then I’ll be back. An hour tops.”

“I could just pick you up a few books, Vera. There’s no need to put you in unnecessary danger.”

“I hardly think the library falls into that category.” He flipped me over by my ankles and I squealed.

“Libraries can be dangerous. Anywhere can,” he cautioned, and he was serious. If I didn’t have my own paranoia issues, I would have questioned his sanity, but if I were being honest, I understood him and trusted his judgement. Was it crazy to place my trust in him after such a short time? For most people, the answer would undoubtably be yes without hesitation. But for me, I was never going against my gut feeling again. I didn’t listen to it with Willie and that ended in a whole fucking shitstorm I didn’t want to think about.

“Go do what you need to, and I’ll be here waiting on you to come home to me.” I didn’t mean to use those words, but didn’t retract them either. I let them filter in the air between us, seeing how we both reacted to them.

“I like that.”

“What?”

“You calling my home, yours.”

“You do?”

“I’d have to be a dumb ass not to.”

“Or a crazy ass,” I offered, jabbing his abs above his jeans.

“I question my sanity daily, so…”

“Just go.”

“Fine.” he kissed my lips and ran his tongue across them after. “I’m going. Already gone.” He kissed me again.

18

SLEEPER

“Do you really think Spider is right?” I asked Ghoul.

“Hell, yeah. When isn’t he? Willie has help. We just have to shake the tree and see who falls out.”

“Fuck, I hope this works. Spider’s too old to go back in lock-up,” I said mostly for my benefit.

“Nah, he’s a tough old shit. Plus, there’s free healthcare in there.”

“Guess so.”

Spider stepped out of the car with his gun pressed against the girl’s head and McFaye was right behind them. She was pissed and we were grabbing at straws with this move, but it was the only one we had.

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