Chapter 7

“This is what we have to do,” Joe said as he stared over the large cliff into the ocean beneath. The drop off from the Pacific Coast highway was a beautiful sight, but it could also be terrifying if you happened to be unlucky enough to send your bike careening over the edge sometime. It happened a few times a year.

“Are you serious?” Alicia asked.

“As a heart attack. There is no other way,” Joe said.

“I just can’t do that. I have a life,” Alicia said.

“I’m sorry. I dragged you into this mess. It’s all my fault, but this is the way it has to be,” Joe said.

Alicia stepped close to him, her warm, soft body brushing against his as she ran her fingers through his hair. He loved it so much when she did that. She stared deeply into his eyes. He let his gaze linger there, allowing the moment to be shared and enjoyed as she leaned forward and brushed her sweet lips against his.

“It’s ok; I’m glad I met you and I wouldn’t change that for the world. This is not your fault. I got out of that bike. You told me to stay put.”

“Well, you are stubborn aren’t you?” Joe teased.

Alicia smiled. “You love that about me don’t you?”

“Actually, yea. I do.”

Alicia lowered her gaze and then looked out at the ocean. “It’s crazy. I was just starting to get my life on track. I thought after I ran away from my drunk mom and her dirt bag live in boyfriend two years ago that everything was going to be ok. I moved out here and started working odd jobs waitressing and made a few friends. One of them let me room with them. I’m going to miss her and our house. It was nice. She’s a good friend. I just started school and everything was going so well…”

Tears began to roll out of Alicia’s eyes. Joe tried not to look at it because he could already feel his heart breaking as she went through the list of things that she was going to have to give up. It was rough, and he knew that, but it wasn’t until somebody spilled their life out to you that you began to realize who they are. Alicia had people in the world who were going to miss her; she had things in life she wanted to do and accomplish. She had hopes and dreams.

But life was not always so cut and dry.

“If we don’t do this then we will eventually be killed. They will never stop looking for us,” Joe said. He was trying to be cold and trying to be strong because this situation warranted such behavior. He had become a master at compartmentalizing his feelings over the past few years and now he was going to put those skills to good use to save his life and Alicia’s life.

The idea to fake their deaths had come to him in the dream he had right before Roland Dean woke him up and tried to kill him. Joe had been wrestling with dark thoughts and feelings that he had tried to bury deep inside himself. He didn’t often have dreams like that but when he did they were pretty intense.

Alicia was resistant to the idea, as he knew that she would be. But there was no other way. There was no possible way that he could get to the Carliss family all by himself and pick them off one by one like you saw people doing in the movies. This was real life and in real life people got killed real quickly trying to do some Steven Seagal stuff.

Joe knew a guy who was a forensics geek. He’d asked Joe to do a favor for him once when he was about to get beat up in a bar. The man’s name was Kyle Hager, and in addition to being a forensics geek he was a bit of a ladies man. One night when Joe was chilling in a bar Kyle hit on the wrong woman and was two seconds away from being beaten to death by the girl’s boyfriend, a burly biker.

Joe intervened and the biker backed down. After that Kyle told Joe that if he ever needed a favor to let him know. Well, Joe needed a favor now.

Joe did not go into specifics with Kyle, but when Kyle investigated the crash he was going to “tamper” with the forensics and conclude that the crash victims were definitely Joe and Alicia. Joe did not ask Kyle to describe to him exactly how this would happen, but Kyle told him not to worry he would take care of it. That is what would be reported on the news and everyone who knew them would basically be led to believe that they’d had a bit too much to drink and lost control of the bike.

“Are you ready?” Joe asked Alicia.

“No, but I don’t think I ever will be really. I’ve enjoyed being Alicia Watson, despite all of the bullshit I’ve had to deal with in my life. I got used to being me.”

“You are still you,” Joe said. “You are just going to be a different you.”

“That is one way to look at it, I guess,” Alicia said.

“It’s the only way you can look at it and expect it to work,” Joe said.

Alicia sighed as she ran her hand down the side of the bike.

“It’s going to be a shame to destroy such a beautiful bike,” Alicia said.

“It’s just a bike,” Joe replied.

“But it’s one sexy machine.”

Joe laughed.

“Yea, it is that.”

Without another word Joe reached turned the key and kick started it. The bike roared to life. He was going to miss that sound. This bike had been a dream of his for a long time and he would never forget the moment he actually slid onto the seat for the first time the day he bought it. It was surreal, like what he imagined one might feel like watching their child being born.

Joe revved the engine, enjoying the sound.

“I’ll see you in a second,” Joe said.

The bike began moving rapidly down the embankment. Joe had to time this perfectly or he would be toast. It all happened so fast even after it was over he wasn’t totally sure how he did it.

A split second before the bike hit the edge of the cliff Joe pushed himself backwards falling off the back. He landed hard on his feet, the momentum flipping his body to the ground where he rolled over a three times, coming to a hard stop. The bike engine was racing, kicking back huge gulfs of exhaust smoke polluting the clear California evening as he watched it fly over the edge.

Joe could hear the destruction happening as the bike bounced down the side of the cliff. It was so much louder than he thought it would be and he could smell smoke, like something really burning that wasn’t just exhaust fumes. He didn’t want to watch it. He was happy standing far back at the start line where he had decided to let his former life die.

A hand curled around his just then and he looked down to see Alicia standing beside him, hugging his arm and holding his hand. He couldn’t help but smile at the sight. He loved the way she felt right up against him. She was so strong. She might have been the strongest woman he had ever met. She was going to have to be if she was going to put up with his ass.

“Come on,” Joe said as he climbed onto the other motorcycle. It was another Harley, but not quite as special as his first one.

Alicia hopped on behind him and wrapped her arms around his torso.

He fired it up and they headed off down the road into the night.