14
We rode on, taking low traffic routes when we could, then I’d switch it up. Being in public might be a good thing. I needed to make up for the time lost with the stops we’d made. Plus, stops made it harder for her to get back on and ride. I grit my teeth every time I saw her squirming on the seat.
Two bikes riding together appeared in my left rear view mirror, and my pulse picked up speed along with my throttle. I was suspicious of everyone and everything. They turned off on an exit after at the next town.
We made it to South Dakota.
I turned off for Route 50 to find a gas station and something to eat.
A crooked sign hanging from a tall rusty pole blazed in the late afternoon sun over the entrance to the small lot. Tipson’s Gas Stop. A lone forest green SUV sat in front of the store. I parked in the back and lifted Serena off the bike. She gripped my neck, and I held her in my arms, savoring the feeling of her holding onto me, pressing into me, needing me. Everything would be okay. It fucking had to be.
“Want a big steak dinner?” I laughed, knowing the only thing we’d find inside were chips, cookies, bad muffins, cardboard nachos, and candy if we were lucky.
She only shook her head in the crook of my neck.
I put her down and took her hand. “Let’s go inside. Come on.”
Bike engines from out front cut through the heat in the air and Rena stopped in her tracks, her eyes widening.
I squeezed her hand. “We don’t know who it is. There are plenty of riders out here.”
“It’s over. It’s over. It’s over,” she chanted. Serena took out her gun, and I ripped it out of her strong grip.
“No. No!” I pushed her against the back wall of the gas station. “Where’s the girl who wanted to live no matter what?”
“I’d rather do it myself than give them back the opportunity!” Her voice was a snarl.
“You’re scared. I am too. I am.” My pelvis pressed into hers. “Baby, come on. We’ll get through this. We will. Stay with me here. Just a little longer. Please.”
Her muscles eased one by one, and she finally curled herself into me. I let out a heavy breath, holding onto her tight, sliding her gun down my jeans with the other.
I pulled and pushed on the knob of the bathroom door to the left of us but it was locked. I yanked on my wallet chain, grabbed the mini knife I had hanging there and jammed it into the lock, jimmying the old piece of shit. The door opened, and I pushed Rena in there. “You stay here while I go into the store.”
“I should go in. You’re a little memorable.”
“And you’re either gonna pull a weapon on the cashier or collapse. You stay here.” She lowered herself onto the dirty tiled floor of the bathroom, her head in her hands, the door ajar.
I hid my bike behind a row of tall recycling bins.
I couldn’t get back on the road with Serena like this. I had to calm her down. See to my cuts, get her food. Something. Maybe we should get on a fucking bus?
Keep your shit in check.
A woman in her early twenties with shiny black hair, wearing jeans and a tie-dyed blouse stood in the doorway of the bathroom, her body rigid. Large dark eyes swallowing us in.
Fuck.
“Hey. My girlfriend’s sick,” I muttered, crouching by Serena, my hand on her head, ready to pounce. If I had to kill someone else, I fucking would.
Serena slumped over onto the floor.
“Oh my God! Is she okay?” The girl squatted down next to me.
I scooped Serena up in my arms. “Baby!”
Nothing.
Dark Eyes reached out and touched her face.
“I got her. Don’t touch her! Don’t you touch her!” ripped out of my throat.
The girl let out a gasp. “Oh my God, the bruises on her face—”
“It wasn’t me.”
The girl jumped to her feet, stepping back. “I should believe you? What, are you drug addicts or something?”
“No, dammit. I got her away from her ex. He’s been beating on her, doing shit...” I hoisted Serena up in my arms and leaned her against the wall. “He’s after us now.”
Serena’s head wobbled up, and her arm slid around my neck.
“Are you okay?” the girl asked her.
“Please. Please, help us,” Serena said, her voice small. “Help him.”
Footsteps crunched on gravel. The girl glanced at me, and I put my hand over Serena’s mouth. Dark Eyes pulled the door closed behind us, but a hand planted on the door stopping her. A ringed, tattooed hand.
“Hey, excuse me?” said Dark Eyes standing in the slit of the doorway, her tone full of vinegar.
“Sorry, uh, thought this was free.”
“Obviously not. Think you can wait?”
“You alone in there?”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
Go, girl.
“Are you, honey?” The man’s shadow filled the doorway, his low chuckle rolling through the space.
I pressed Serena’s gun against the hand Dark Eyes had on the knob. She took it and released the safety, making a show of it to the guy. “No, honey, I’m not alone. Now back the fuck off so a girl can pee without having to call 9-1-1.”
“Yeah, yeah, easy there. All right.”
“All right what, exactly?”
“I’m leaving!”
“That’s good.” Dark Eyes slammed the door shut and locked it. I motioned for her to come get Serena. She handed me the gun back and took Serena in her arms while I stood by the door and listened. Muffled voices. Gravel crunching.
We waited in that grimy bathroom. The seconds ticked by in our drumming heartbeats, our tight breaths, the stifling stench of dried earth and piss.
Was this it? They’d be back, they’d be circling. Two sets of pipes blared, popped, and raged off into the distance.
My head dropped, the gun sticking to my sweaty hand.
I turned back to the women, both of them clinging to each other, faces grim.
“We got to get outta here,” I said barely above a scratched whisper.
The girl held my gaze. “I’ll help you.”
I eyed her. No screams, no freak outs, no crying. Just an offer to help.
Thank fuck.
“What’s your name?” I asked her.
“Tania. What’s yours?”
“You don’t need to know, Tania.”
“Since you’re the one with the gun, I’ll go with that for now. But that’s going to have to change once I get you two in my car.”