Page 51 of Ride Hard
Sloane
Chaser saidwe needed to cross statelines.
Leaving another two bodies behind hadn’t helped our chances of reaching California without being pulled over by the cops, but getting out of this place was the first step at wiping the slateclean.
Honestly, I didn’t even know where we were anymore. Every stretch of highway, every motel room, and every sunrise was the same as the last. At this rate, I was sure our road trip would neverend.
As soon as we were ready, we were back in the car, hurtling across the country. The murky dawn morphed into daylight, and we didn’t speak. The car seemed to be a dead zone for feelings, and after last night, neither of us was making an effort to define what hadhappened.
A cedar forest bordered the highway on our left, and on the right was a great deal of open space that held old farmhouses and empty fields with brown grass. Every so often, the forest would thicken on either side of us. There wasn’t much else to lookat.
Leaning my head against the window, I stared into the side mirror, half looking at myself with my blue aviator sunglasses and half looking at the road in our wake. A truck sat a few hundred feet behind us, but I couldn’t make out anything else. The mirror was toosmall.
I was a great deal calmer about our situation now Chaser and I had fucked like animals. Several dead bodies had been left in our wake, I’d been attacked, shot at, threatened, and I was surprisingly mellow about the whole thing. Maybe it had something to do with growing up around a bunch of bikers with loosemorals.
I was ten when the first dead body dropped into my life. Sometimes, you’ve just gotta turn off all the bits inside you that care to get through the shit storm of life. I didn’t know if that made me a survivor or a fruitcake, but it was what Idid.
A billboard flashed past, and I had to do a double take. ‘Largest selection of jigsaw puzzles RIGHT HERE!’ A red arrow was pointing down a side road in the middle of nowhere, and I wrinkled my nose. It had serial killer written all overit.
Man, there was some weird shit outhere.
“I didn’t mean what I saidyesterday.”
I glanced at Chaser, hyperaware of the fact I ached everywhere. Mostly between my legs, but my thighs and lower back throbbed at a good clip,too.
“Which part?” I asked, my voice hoarse.Must’ve been all thatmoaning.
“About the night you were attacked.” His jaw tightened, but he didn’t glance away from theroad.
“The going slackpart?”
“Sloane.”
“I deserved that one,” I muttered, looking out thewindow.
The road noise was the only sound between us. Chaser wasn’t used to whispering sweet nothings or apologizing by the looks ofit.
“I panicked and gave up,” I said. “But I was too cowardly to end itmyself.”
“Don’t say that,Sloane.”
“I say a lot of stupid shit. Most of it I can’t back up. Does hearing it satisfyyou?”
“No.”
“That would be afirst.”
“You didn’t deserve it,” he said. “Never say that shit to meagain.”
Turning my head, I stared at him, confused to the millionthdegree.
“What?” he snapped, glaring at me out the corner of hiseye.
“Keep going on like that, and I’ll start to believe you actually care forme.”
“I already said Idid.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t believeyou.”
