KATRINA

 

Blake had taken me to the middle of nowhere. Trees in every direction made it impossible to see what was beyond. Even the road that led back to the main highway seemed perilous.

Despite that, the cabin was just as Blake suggested. There were multiple rooms inside of it and the amenities were surprisingly luxurious. My bed was soft. The wood was insulated from the cold. There was even some electricity provided by a generator. And there was enough canned food stocked in the kitchen to last for a good amount of time.

I woke up in my room later that morning to the sound of my phone vibrating. Jordan called me to make sure that I was all right. I reassured him and he explained his side of the situation. Apparently, Garnet and the rest of the Black Reapers had gotten in touch with him.

Jordan maintained that he had nothing to do with the accident. I told him it didn’t matter. I couldn’t go back to Ivory until things had been worked out.

There was no sign of Blake in the cabin. I searched every room but all I found was a messy bed where I assumed he spent the night.

“Blake!”

I called out his name when I stepped out of the cabin. His bike was still parked outside, so I knew he hadn’t gone far.

“Blake!”

I shouted out again as I searched the nearby woods. As I got near the trees, I could see between them. Just a few meters ahead of me was another forest clearing. I made my way through the brush and saw that the clearing was more sprawling than I expected it to be.

“Wow…”

There was a giant lake in front of me. The water stretched for more than a mile, surrounded by trees. The sun was bright and reflected off the water. The scene was like nothing I’d ever seen in Ivory before.

Blake was standing on the edge of a pier above the lake. I got closer to him and got a better look.

He didn’t have his shirt on, the tattoos on his arms and chest on full display. The way the sunlight shined on his tan skin highlighted all of the cuts and muscles on his body. In nothing but a pair of jeans, Blake stood on the pier with a fishing rod in his hand, whistling softly to himself.

I walked up behind him and looked out into the water.

“I talked to Jordan,” I said.

“Me, too.”

“You did?”

“He has my number after you called him the other night, remember?”

“Right… What was that conversation like?”

He looked at me and smirked. I couldn’t help but smile. Knowing my brother, I was surprised he hadn’t reached through the phone and tried to strangle Blake.

“It was pleasant,” he said.

“Pleasant? That’s surprising.”

“He said to make sure you’re all right. Of course, I told him he had nothing to worry about.”

“Makes sense.”

“And he said if anything happened to you, he’d cut my balls off and shoved ‘em down my throat.”

The smirk on Blake’s face grew even wider before he turned back to the lake.

“What did he say to you?” Blake asked.

“He just wanted to make sure I was all right. He also told me that he started talking to Garnet. He said if getting to the bottom of this will get me back to Ivory, then he’s willing to do it.”

“The two clubs working together will figure this out.”

“I also asked him if he had anything to do with it.”

“I figure Harris maintains his innocence.”

“He maintains his innocence because he is innocent. He’s no angel but I know he would never pull something like this.”

“I know,” Blake sighed. “He is your brother after all.”

Blake whistled as he calmly continued fishing. I stood next to him, going over everything in my head. There was nothing more either one of us could do at the moment. All we could do was wait for the situation back in Ivory to resolve itself.

With my thoughts starting to clear, a slight hangover throbbed at the front of my head.

“Damn,” I sighed.

“What’s wrong?” Blake said as he turned to me. “You okay?”

“It’s nothing. I… I drank last night. Not a lot but my body isn’t quite used to it.”

“Why don’t you take a seat over there? It’ll only be a few more minutes until breakfast is ready.”

“Breakfast?”

The rod started to bend. He reeled it in and just a few moments later, there was a fish flopping back and forth at the end of the line.

“Breakfast,” he said as he held it up.

Seeing Blake standing there, his shirt off and the fish in his hand… He was unlike any other man I’d ever met before. I’d been to the big city. I’d been to Ivory. But Blake was the picture of a man I didn’t know existed.

I watched him catch a few more fish before heading back with me toward a nearby picnic bench. I watched as he washed the fish off with some bottled water in a nearby cooler. After that, he got some matches to light a small bonfire in front of me.

“You seem to know your way around here,” I said. “You’ve been here often?”

“I like to come here from time to time. It’s nice to get away from Ivory when I get the chance. The simple life, you know?”

Blake was handier than I’d imagined. He skewered some of the fish on sticks and roasted them over the open fire. I watched in slight amazement as he prepared breakfast in a way I’d never seen before.

“Biker, mechanic, fisherman, cook,” I said as I shook my head. “Is there anything you can’t do?”

“Don’t ask me to fly.”

“Why not? You’re going to fly back to Ivory and leave me here?”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

He winked as he handed me one of the sticks with the roasted fish on it.

Steam rose from the meat and filled my nostrils. I just now realized how hungry I was. Blake took a seat on the ground in front of the fire while he burned his fish to a crisp.

“How did you find this place?” I asked.

“I used to go out with friends,” he said. “We used to go camping all the time. Not here but places like it. It was something I got used to. And I guess I just never grew out of it. I found this place and thought it would be nice for an escape. I invited some of the club members. But most of them are used to Ivory life, so they don’t come out here.”

“What about your family?”

Blake didn’t answer immediately. He just stared into the fire, lost in whatever thoughts were running through his head.

“Never went camping with my family,” he said.

“Did they not want to go?”

“I don’t know,” he said with a shrug. “I never asked. My parents were used to the town life and my brother…”

His words trailed off. I waited for him to finish but he never did. I looked into his eyes and they were still lost. It was like he was somewhere else. I watched the flames dance in his pupils before he cleared his throat and sighed.

“What about you?” he asked. “You go camping often?”

“Me?” I said with a laugh. “I’m not much for camping. I need television. I need electricity and wi-fi.”

“Civilization is nice,” he said, chuckling with me.

“But it is nice to get out here, too. This a hell of a place to be held captive.”

He winked at me as he pulled his burned fish away from the fire.

I started picking at the meat with my fingers. The fish was more tender and juicy than I expected it to be. Maybe I was just hungry, but I found myself craving more of it with every bite.

Blake and I sat next to the fire and basked underneath the warmth of the sun. I’d gotten so comfortable that I forgot about the circumstances about why I was here.

“Didn’t you say you wanted to open up a flower shop or something?” he said.

“That… That’s right,” I said, slightly confused. “You remembered.”

“Of course, I did,” he said with a smile. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“I don’t know. I just didn’t think it was that interesting.”

“Well, I like to spend time out here. I’m surrounded by trees and flowers. I figure this must be nice for you.”

“Now that you mention it, there is some nice shrubbery you don’t see in Ivory.”

I examined my surroundings and they seemed even more foreign than they did just moments ago.

“Jordan would hate a place like this,” I said.

“Why’s that?”

“He’s just like me. Can’t live with all of the things we’re used to. Civilization, as you put it.”

“What’s the point of riding a chopper if you can’t enjoy the freedom of the open road?”

“Good point. I’ll mention that next time I talk to him. Maybe I can convince him to take me out to a place like this.”

“If he doesn’t, I wouldn’t mind taking you out here again.”

I saw a smirk forming on his face. Blake was so cocky, so confident. But the way he looked at me was charming, too. I hated not being able to look back at him.

Dammit.

As the heat rose in my cheeks from embarrassment, I stuffed another morsel of fish into my mouth and waited for the moment to pass.

Blake caught enough fish to last us for a long time. I ate my fill and before I knew it, my full stomach bothered me more than my hangover.

I leaned back in my seat and sighed. It was still in the morning and I had the whole day ahead of me. Even though I was out here for the worst reason, I couldn’t help a contented feeling I had.

“Now what?” I asked.

Blake was busy picking at the scales from his last piece of fish.

“What do you mean?” he said.

“I mean, I can’t spend all day eating fish. I have to do something.”

“What do you usually do back in Ivory?”

“What do I usually do?”

I immediately felt embarrassed when I thought about it.

My life in Ivory was the opposite of interesting when I got back to town. With no job and my friends in other towns, most of my time was spent in my apartment, reading or watching something. The most exciting thing in my life was Blake himself.

“I, um… I guess I don’t do anything, now that I think about it,” I said.

“You have to do something,” he said, smiling his handsome smile at me. “You said you drank the other night.”

“That doesn’t count. Everybody in Ivory drinks. That’s just what people do in town.”

“It’s something.”

“It’s not much… What do you do? I mean, you don’t come out here all the time.”

“I like to relax,” he said. “I work at the clubhouse. I spend time around the club. I’ll drink.”

“Of course.”

“And I like to ride.”

“Yeah, that makes sense…”

I stared at Blake and noticed how relaxed he was. The same assuredness I always saw was still there. But I was growing more comfortable around him. I’d only known him for a few days but he already felt so familiar.

“What is it about riding?” I asked.

He glanced at me, his brow twisted in confusion. He kept his eyebrows raised as he nodded.

“I guess it makes sense,” he said. “You’ve got a brother in a club but you’ve never actually driven a chopper yourself.”

“No, I can’t say that I have. It is nice feeling the rumble of an engine underneath me but—”

“There’s nothing like being in complete control. Just you, the open road, and the wind in your face.”

The way Blake spoke about it made it sound so poetic. There was an almost music-like quality to his voice.

“I’ll take you for a ride,” he said.

“You’ve already taken me for a ride. And it’s been one hell of a ride so far.”

“A real ride,” he said with a smile. “Not one where we’re trying to escape. Just a ride.”

“…Yeah,” I said, nodding softly. “That sounds nice.”

He stood up straight. He kicked some dirt on the fire in front of him as he dusted his hands off.

“In the meantime, we should probably find something to pass the time.”

“What else is there to do around here?” I asked.

“We just had a big breakfast. You feel like walking it off with me.”

“I don’t know if I have the strength for that right now,” I said, snickering with embarrassment at myself.

“Just a bit. Once you’re tired, you can head back into the cabin to read and watch whatever it is you usually do in Ivory.”

He held his hand out to me with his eyebrows raised. As the grin grew on his face, I couldn’t help but smile back at him.

“The scenery is great this time of day,” he said. “Maybe it’ll give you some ideas for your flower shop.”

I didn’t say anything. I took his hand to get up to my feet.

“Right this way.”

Blake led me down a path back through the trees.

There was no telling how long I would have to spend out here with him. I figured I would enjoy every moment of it and look forward to what was next.