Page 66 of Midnight Ride

The door frame gave way and the door flopped inward. Travis pushed through on the run with his Sig in his hand. The boys heard the racket and came running in from the back.

“Dead guy in this bedroom,” hollered Virge.

“One in the bathroom bleeding out,” hollered Harlan.

“No Tammy.”

Travis leaned up against the wall outside the bathroom door. “Fuck. I should’ve known she’d kill the fuckers. She’s had enough of this bullshit.”

“This guy ain’t dead,” said Virgil, “but his nuts might be shot off. Ain’t wearing a stitch.”

“Tammy left him alive for a reason. She killed the other guy dead, but she left this fucker to bleed out. That tells me a story right there.”

“I don’t like that story, Dad. I fuckin hate it. It’s making me sick in my gut.”

“Yeah, me too son. We’ll leave him be.”

“Where’d she go?” asked Virge. “She could’ve grabbed the keys to the Ram out front and drove home. Why didn’t she do that?”

“I thought of that too,” said Harlan.

“Yeah, the Ram is sitting right there,” said Travis. “Let’s sit in the truck for a minute and try to figure out what she’s doing, boys. This might take some hard brain power to think like Tammy.”

Highway Three. Alberta. Canada.

It was getting dark when I stopped running through the fields away from the trailer and went out to stand on the road and try for a ride.

Didn’t matter where I went. I couldn’t go home. I’d been raped all over again and Harlan would never be able to look at me and neither would Virge, Daddy, or Billy. No way I could ever be in the same room with them again.

I’d been standing on the side of the road for about a half hour, and it was starting to get real fuckin cold. I had on a T-shirt and my leather jacket, but I guess it could get freezing cold in Canada. Don’t remember being born here, but mama said I was.

Big black rig hissed the air brakes on and slowed down when he saw me. Took him a ways to get stopped and I had to run to catch up to the truck.

I patted my gun in my waistband, hopped up on the sidestep and jumped up into the passenger seat.

“You shouldn’t be hitchhiking, little girl. It’s not safe.”

“No choice. I had a bit of trouble. My name is Tammy...Traynor.”

“Eldon Fontana. Nice to meet you.”

“Same. Your truck is warm. Thank you for stopping for me. Can I smoke in here?” My hands were pretty shaky as I fumbled around trying to get a cigarette out.

“Sure. I smoke too. Want to tell me about the trouble you’re in?”

“Might as well. Got nobody else to tell. My life is basically over.”

Eldon chuckled. “It can’t be that bad.”

“Honest, it is.”

“Go ahead and tell me all about it. I like a good story.” He reached over and turned the radio down.

“Couple of night ago, I got mad at my daddy for something stupid, and I ran out of the roadhouse we were drinking in and got myself kidnapped. Bad guys that I kind of knew but not really.”

“Okay.”

“That was in Montana where I live—or used to live—because I’m not going back.”

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