Page 23 of Biker's Tribute: Property of Bear

"Don't spend a lot of time in motels?"

"No," she says. "I'm a therapist in Cambridge. I work. I go home. My life is the basic life of an average black woman."

Average? She looks anything but average to me.

"Is that when you fuck Mal?" I grumble, irrationally frustrated with her mention of this mysterious man and even more annoyed that taking a piss did nothing to diminish my erection.

Worse, I still sound embarrassingly like a jealous boyfriend. Amanda doesn’t seem to notice my jealousy. She just looks at me like I’m stupid.

"What are you talking about?" She has a good poker face, I’ll give her that. But I’m not going to let her get away with whispering about another man and not asking questions. That’s how you end up like Owen and his baby mama…

"The man you were just muttering about while lying in bed with me."

Amanda rolls her eyes and her cute nostrils flare out a little. "It's short for Mallory and she's my best friend that could be dead for all I know."

The name Mallory sounds familiar.

"She's the other therapist I work with," Amanda says. "I should call her. I should have called her last night."

Great. Is this Mallory going to be yet another problem on the road?

"We should start this ride before the sun gets too high."

"What ride?"

I scowl at her. "I'll figure it out."

"You should figure out a shower."

"If you want to see me naked, just ask."

"Never mind."

“If I let you call Mallory, will you be good all the way to New York?”

She glares at me. “I’ll tell her that you kidnapped me.”

“If you listened in on my phone call yesterday, you know why that’s a bad idea.”

If looks could kill, I would be one of Ruger’s shrunken heads out in the desert.

“I’ll be good,” she says. “I just need to tell her to protect herself from men like you and your associates.”

“I’ll put the number in. I don’t want you getting smart with me.”

“Don’t expect me to get stupid.”

“Phone number, doc.”

I sit next to her as she makes her phone call, because my mama didn’t raise a fool. Amanda has a very calm conversation with her friend. Doesn’t matter. The phone call calms her down, although this Mallory woman doesn’t appear to have more insight into the ongoing homicide investigation at their office.

She just asks Amanda, “Do you think the rent will go down?”

Boston will suck the soul out of you.

Amanda and I don’t have much to get together before we get going and she refuses to take a shower once she realizes I won’t let her shower alone. I hear her mutter something about “trust issues”, but when I ask her what she said, she denies saying anything at all.

Once we get downstairs, a gentleman stops us from passing the front desk.

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