Her memory clicked into gear.
There was the pass beyond the bridge, the factory coming into view, the snake with its bleeding mouth.
Angeline was forced back to the first time that she had seen it.
***
She wore a blue dress, her curls high over her bare neck. Brent was sleeping with a full stomach, and Angeline waited on a lonely porch.
He wasn’t coming. He had lied. She was nobody’s fool, least of all his. Better to get to bed and forget him…
In what felt like a split second, Kane was there. He brought his bike to a stop and hopped off the seat. Lifting his helmet, Kane held out his hand, winking as he smiled.
“So we going for a ride or what?” Kane asked.
Mounting the bike, Angeline forgot any fear as the leather pressed into her thighs. As he revved up the motor, Kane reached behind his back and took her hand in his.
“Let’s go,” he said.
Under her own helmet, Angeline still felt the whip of the wind brushing against her face. Kane weaved through the streets with the force of a hurricane, and as she gripped his waist tighter, she began to understand the appeal. It was as close to flight as anyone could come without boarding a plane, and as she tossed her head back, the brightly lit streets passed before her in flashing, unformed waves. What must it be like for him, to control their journey with the skill of a shooting star that raced through the heavens, knowing just where it was meant to land?
She made a quiet wish that, some day, he would teach her how.
“Come on,” Kane whispered on arrival. “Just want to show you off.”
He lifted her off the bike, she smiled as she nodded.
“How do I know you won’t sell me out for a pack of smokes or something?” she teased.
Her sweet, bad boy.
Kane’s hands surrounded her arms.
“No gonna happen,” he said. “’Cause once you’re inside, you’re mine.”
While she didn’t relish the notion of being property, it felt right if he held the deed.
Still…
“And if anyone looks at you the wrong way…” Kane started.
Angeline felt sure and brought her hand to his face.
“Don’t you think that I can take care of myself?” she asked.
He kissed her neck and whispered.
“Isn’t it better when I do it?” he answered.
He had to be in charge. Here, on his turf, she would let him. But later, when they were alone, she would show him all the ways in which she belonged on top.
And that was the best place to be.
***
“This,” Terri asked. Demanded. “Are we here?”
Angeline recognized the spot on sight and nodded.
“And you still want to see if he’s here, right?” she asked.
If he was free, alive, there was nowhere else that he would go. Noel had to be here, too, and Angeline knew that she’d have to deal with her transgression.
But to just see him again…
“Absolutely,” Angeline said.
The door opened on the stench of smoke. Just at it been when she first passed through. But then she had Kane’s firm around her waist, and with his touch. Steeling herself for battle, Angeline looked for him now. She saw Waldo, Ben, a bunch of other men who had slapped Kane’s back and congratulated him on his new old lady. Angeline remembered how she had blushed at the term, but then Kane pulled her closer with a whisper.
***
“What’d I tell you?” he said. “All mine.”
“Yes, sir,” she teased as they stepped deeper into the breach.
Someone offered Kane a beer; Angeline was quick to ask for one of her own, and the boys cheered when she chugged with the rest of them. In many ways, this was the most refreshing date she had ever found herself on. No laborious small talk, no one asking her what she did or what she might do. And Kane had been right; these guys weren’t all bad, and when she bested Ben at a game of pool, her conquest seemed complete.
“Nice,” Ben said to Kane. “Girl is alright.”
And she felt that, all the way. Sure there was the man with a scar, the man she would learn was Noel, lurking in a corner until she was on her third bottle, but when Kane ushered her to his side, she smiled widely and took his hand like a man.
“So I hear you’ve looked after Kane for a long time,” Angeline said, wrapped in Kane’s arms and cuddling close to his chest.
“That’s right,” Noel said, his voice think, his eyes wary.
“Well,” Angeline started, the buzz enveloping her brain, “Thanks for keeping him intact for me.”
The boys whooped and whistled, and Noel stepped forward. Avoiding Angeline’s eyes, he stared hard at Kane.
“You gonna let her talk about you like that, kid?” Noel asked with a trace of menace in his voice. The room fell silent, everyone waiting for what Kane would stay. Angeline started to speak when Kane pulled her closer.
“She was talking to you, man,” Kane said.
On cue, Angeline pressed closer to him. Taking him in her arms, she kissed him deeply in the presence of his friends, and the silence was broken by cheering hollers. As their lips parted, she narrowed her eyes at Noel and winked.
“And that was for him,” Angeline said.
Noel was slow to smile, but he finally slapped Kane’s back, as his eyes lingered on Angeline’s face.
“Best keep an eye on this one, boy,” Noel said.
“No doubt,” Kane answered.
Noel lit a cigarette and walked way without another word. Something about him brought a slight turn to her stomach, but like Kane said. She had him here, and that was everything.
***
Now she only had Terri. Looking at her wide belly, Angeline wondered if bringing a pregnant woman to this place was the best of ideas. She could go into labor at any moment, and they were miles from a hospital. Add to that, she couldn’t really be sure if the boys wanted her back. After all, she was why Kane was taken away from the fold. But it had been his choice; he must have told them that. Growing bold, she moved to Ben and smiled.
“Long time no see,” Angeline said.
Ben seemed uneasy, like he didn’t know what to make of her presence. But if Kane was alive, he would tell her, and she would find him.
“Hey, Angeline,” Ben said. “What brings you to these parts?”
He sounded strange, like her being there was right and wrong in the space of the same second. If Kane was dead, what real reason had she come to back? If he was alive, what had taken her so long?
“I—”
A figure appeared through streams of tape. For a moment, Angeline hoped, thought that it was Kane, and even as her mind filled with questions as to what the hell had happened, she moved forward to touch him.
“You,” she said as the man came into focus.
Not Kane. Only Noel.
Seeing him again, Angeline bit down on her lip as hate filled her heart. Terri crept closer to her side and took hold of her arm.
“Is that him?” Terri asked.
“Yes,” Angeline said. Maybe she should cry, run away, but he wasn’t getting off that easily.
Noel White pushed his hands into his pockets. His teeth were yellow, his breath reeking, and Angeline winced. But she wasn’t letting him off without a fight. The fight that she should have put up in the first place.
“What’s the deal?” Noel asked. “Coming back for seconds? Angel?”
Raising her hand, she slapped him. Noel drew back as he clutched his cheek, and her eyes burned at the sight of him. Terri would never play a cruel trick on her, but Noel would. He did. As the man regained his footing, the whispers of the other boys hitting her back, Angeline took a deep breath.
“Noel, tell me where he is.”
He smirked as Angeline moved closer.
“I asked you a question, you son of a bitch,” she said.
Noel touched her chin. Angeline’s body braced under the feel of his fingers, but she held her ground as his hand moved down her neck.
Try it again, and I’ll bite your face off.
“What about me?” Noel asked. “You loved my hands.”
Noel smirked as he touched her. Touched her like only Kane should. Moving past his fingers, she focused on his eyes. They were leering and dark, and but she would not let him hurt her again. Ever.
“Where is Kane?” she demanded.
Noel laughed and starred to spin the story in another direction.
“Around and about,” he said. “But he thought you’d moved on and—”
“Where did he get that idea?” Angeline spat.
“Truth hurts,” Noel said.
Just like that, Angeline saw nothing but red.
And she plowed forward.
“What truth?” Angeline screamed as she pounded her small fists into his chest. “Did you tell him how you raped me? You had no fucking right—”
Noel captured both of her hands in his, and she yelped when he pulled her closer.
“So you say,” he said. “Ain’t what it was, and now he sees you for what you really are. A lost cause that should stay gone.”
Angeline kept struggling, kicking, scratching, clawing. Kane’s boys made no move to help. Glancing at Ben, she saw him and the others unsure of what to do. It was like they didn’t know if they should defy their leader if Kane’s claim to her was in doubt, and as she fought against him, Angeline had to admit to herself that she needed help.
She suddenly had it.
“Let her go!”
Terri’s voice was nothing compared to her wide belly pushing between them. The blow that Noel was ready to land around Angeline’s jaw came to a quick stop when Terri fell into his line of sight.
“Who the fuck are—?”
Terri stepped forward and stood toe to toe with Noel. To Angeline’s horror, he raised his fist to strike.
“Don’t!” Angeline cried. “What’s the matter with—?”
Her scream stopped as Terri flicked her wrist in the air. Angeline paused as Terri gripped Noel’s arm. The man’s cry rang through the one-time factory, but no one, not Waldo or Ben or any of the men that Kane believed in, were about to stand in the way as Terri’s other hand hovered over Noel’s falling face.
“I’m about to drop a kid in your hands if you don’t come clean!” Terri said.
Noel looked from Terri’s belly to Angeline and back again. Staring hard at the unborn child, Noel shot Angeline a nervous stare. She stood tall and thought of how Kane, suddenly more alive in the space of Noel’s eyes than ever, would react when he learned what his supposed friend had done.
“Okay,” he said, wincing at the sight of Terri’s swollen stomach. Noel backed off and wound his fingers around his neck. He shot Angeline a smirk as he looked back to her friend.
“Guess you never speak up for yourself,” Noel said. “Have to let everyone else do your dirty work.”
Angeline raised her hand to hit him, but Terri banged her fist to the table and glared into Noel’s eyes. He turned his gaze back to Angeline and smiled.
“What the fuck does it matter now?” Noel asked with a leer.
Now Angeline brought her hand down on the table. Waldo and Ben and the others still hung back as she spoke
“It matters because I want to see him. Where is he?”
Noel was too slow, cruelly deliberate as he scribbled something on a scrap of paper. Something in his action chilled Angeline’s heart. He seemed so sure that things would go down the way he wanted. But he didn’t know what she and Kane were to each other.
And he never would.
As she started to take the paper, Angeline paused before Noel and watched his lips curl into a smirk, and his hand clamped down on her wrist.
“Let me—”
“Let me tell you something.”
Noel pulled her closer to his chest. He pressed his hands about her hips and leaned into her ear.
“He’s not going to want anymore,” Noel whispered. “I set your guy straight.”
Swatting him back, Angeline rushed away from him.
“No,” Angeline said. “He’s going to hate you for what you did to me.”