Page 89 of Midnight Ride

“You’re already the best wife a man could have, Tammy. I’m the luckiest man alive, and I know it.”

“I’m pretty lucky to have you, Eldon. I won the lottery.”

Mountain View Motel. West of Calgary.

After playing cards until midnight, the three of us went back to our own room. Me and Virge took one of the queen beds and gave Lucy the other one.

For a while we watched TV, and when we turned out the light, we didn’t go to sleep right away. We talked and laughed in the dark for a long time and still weren’t tired enough to sleep.

Lucy tip-toed across the carpet and crawled into our bed and squeezed in between us.

“Not a good idea, Luce,” I said.

“Come on. I can’t sleep. Let’s cuddle up and sleep together. Don’t make me go back to my own bed. Who’s going to know?”

“We will,” said Virge. “But I’m not against the idea.”

Chapter Seventeen

Wednesday, September 18th.

Mountain View Motel. West of Calgary.

I woke up when I heard pounding on the door of our room. “Come on, kids. Are y’all dressed? It’s time to get started.”

Lucy jumped up with a squeal. “Coming, Mommy. We’re almost ready.”

Virge sat on the side of the bed reaching for his smokes on the nightstand. “That is such a fuckin lie. I feel like I never slept at all.”

No time for showers, we threw our clothes on, packed up our bags and ran for the truck.

Travis and Annie were sitting in the truck waiting for us and they both had coffee containers in their hands.

“Where did you get the coffee?” I asked.

“Down the road,” said Annie. “I’ve been up for a while. Hope you kids slept well.”

Fontana Residence. Sicamous. B.C.

I cooked breakfast for us while Eldon phoned around trying to get us a load to haul east. He could only take loads for Canadian destinations and that limited him a lot. A lot of the loads were Canada to the US and Eldon couldn’t cross the border anymore.

I felt bad for him.

I turned off the stove and was about to put our breakfast on plates when I heard it. “That sounds like a car or a truck out front, Eldon.”

“Can’t be. I don’t have visitors ever. I’ll go see.”

I turned off the stove and followed Eldon to the front door to see who it was. We hadn’t seen a single person since we came home to the cabin.

A tall guy with his hair pulled back in a ponytail was getting out of a dark blue Jeep. As soon as I saw he was packing, I ran to the bedroom and got my gun out of the nightstand drawer.

I ran back and the guy was pointing his Glock at Eldon’s head. “Put the gun down, fucker,” I hollered as I ran out the door and down the porch steps.

“No can do, lady. I’ve got a warrant for Eldon Fontana’s arrest and I’m taking him into custody. He has to stand trial in Texas for killing three people.

The three welding guys who raped his wife.

“You’re too late, buddy. I’m a sheriff and he’s already in my custody.”

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