Page 73 of Midnight Ride

“Okay.”

Coming into Moose Jaw, Eldon picked Trans-Can Truckers and pulled off the highway. He parked in a line of trucks, and we went into the restaurant. I was glad to use the ladies’ room and have a chance to brush my teeth and my hair. I was a bit of a mess living in the truck.

We ate a late dinner, went back to the truck, and crawled into the sleeper for the night.

I took my new clothes out of the bag and took the tags off, then put them away in the little closet in the sleeper where Eldon kept his clean clothes.

“You got a washer and dryer at your cabin?”

He smiled. “Sure do. First thing I do when I get home from a run is take the sheets off this bed and wash them for the next trip.” He laughed. “I guess I’m a bit of a clean freak.”

“Better than being a dirty freak, Eldon.”

He laughed as he took two cans of beer out of the six-pack he’d bought in the convenience store attached to the restaurant.

“One beer to celebrate, and we’ll call it a night.”

“What are we drinking to?”

Eldon held his beer can up. “To being happy together.”

I held my can up and said, “To looking forward and not looking back.”

We touched our cans together and chugged our beer.

I lay down next to Eldon’s warm, muscular body knowing in my heart he was sent to me by the Fates. No possible way I could go back to my family after Franko Garrison raped me. I wasn’t worthy of being a Bristol. And besides that, I had murdered two people and couldn’t be a cop no more.

For a while I was one of the good guys, but now I was an outlaw just like Eldon. We were cut from the same cloth. Me and Eldon Fontana belonged together forever. There was no going back.

Dry Run Roadhouse. Coyote Creek.

Billy asked me and Virge if we wanted to go with him to the Run. He didn’t feel like sitting around at the ranch waiting for Tammy to call.

“You coming with us, Dad?” I asked.

“Guess it would be better than sitting on my ass here,” grumbled Travis.

We drove the five miles to the north end of town to one of the busiest places in the entire county. We got ourselves a booth and a couple pitchers of Miller and we were minding our own when the feds walked through the front door.

“The feds are here,” I whispered to Billy.

“Shit. I tried to send them back to Idaho this morning. Guess they haven’t gone yet.”

Agents Chapman and McBain stopped by our table and stared at us. “Those boys old enough to be in a roadhouse?” asked Chapman.

“Old enough if I say they’re old enough,” snapped Travis.

“Where’s your daughter?” asked McBain. “She not with you tonight, Sheriff?”

Travis got up and went to the men’s room.

The feds moved on and got their own table, and it was a good ten minutes before Dad came back from the washroom. His face was white as paper, and I figured he’d been throwing up again.

Savanna came in later, saw us and walked over to our table. She squeezed in next to Billy and asked about Tammy.

Travis kept his head down and Billy said, “We haven’t found her, but we know she’s alive and got away from her kidnappers.”

“How do you know that?” Savanna looked to Travis for an answer, and he looked away. He was a long way from talking about Tammy.

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