Chapter Twelve
Slater
Even though I’m still entertaining my grandparents, allowing them to believe that I still have no idea where she is, I didn’t miss the movement in the loft just a few minutes ago. She really needs to work on her incognito skills because I seem to have no problem finding her.
Knowing she’s in the loft makes me want to send my grandparents back inside and climb that fucking ladder and yank her out of her hiding spot. Jesus… my dick just twitched thinking about her spit-fire attitude and what she’d say if I did. I can almost imagine her heated face as she’d pretend to be unaffected by my touch.
“We need to create a distraction so I can get her out of here. Can you both handle that?” My grandparents aren’t used to what happens in my life and I’m pissed at myself for bringing it to their door.
“Sure can. I’ll send your grandma out to the store in the car and I’ll head out in a wheat truck. Maybe he’ll suspect that she’s with one of us and you can take my truck.”
“Thanks.”
“Blake. I want to meet this girl when this is all over.” My grandmother is just excited to see me bring someone to their house. I’ve never in my life brought a woman home to meet them. She always mentions that to me when I call to check on them.
“I’ll have to see how all of this goes.” I don’t make any promises I can’t keep. My intentions have always been to deliver her to her father because I know she’ll be safe there and my job will be done. I’m not sure how all of this will play out now that he’s given me a sign that it’s not safe to go through with the plan.
“I’ll leave the keys in the truck before I leave. Be safe, Son.” My grandfather pulls me against his chest for a hug before my grandmother follows his lead and does the same. She points to the loft giving away Harley’s hiding spot just as she lets go of me and I nod that I already know where she is.
They slide the door closed before I start my way up the ladder to the loft. Hay bales surround us, but thankfully I already know where to find her. She’s completely out of sight up here and if I hadn’t already seen her, I’d have no idea where to start.
I take my final step up on the hay bale she’s behind and smile down at her as she realizes she’s been found. The tears on her face have collected pieces of straw, making her look miserable and out of her element.
“Please just let me go. You’ve done nothing but make my life hell since the moment you insisted on helping me. I don’t need or want your help.” I reach down and lift her from the tiny space, setting her on her feet on the hay bale just higher than the one I’m standing on. This makes her slightly taller than I am and brings an entirely new light to the angles on her face. Before she has a chance to speak… and before my body has a chance to react to her, I grab her by the waist and toss her over my shoulder. I only get a few bales down before she starts screaming at me.
“Shut the fuck up.” Her body slides down mine as I pull her forward until she’s standing on her feet in front of me. “Do you want that asshole to hear you?”
“Do you mean my brother, who only found me because he knew you had family here. It seems like if I had lost you in the first place, I’d be just fine right now.” She’s delusional in thinking this way and I’m going to have to clear everything up with her very soon. She obviously has no idea how much trouble she’s truly in. “Do you really expect me to trust you when you’ve kept things from me?”
“We’ll talk about all of this when we get out of here.”
“No Slater. Or… Blake… whatever your name really is. I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“Yes, you are. If I have to drag your sexy fucking ass kicking and screaming to the next stop, then that’s what I’ll do. But if you’d stop being so goddamn loud, we may have a better chance of getting out of here without that asshole following us out of here.” She stops herself from saying whatever it was she was about to scream at me. Her voice quickly becomes a whisper.
“Do you think he’s still here?”
“We have to assume he is. He knows I’m supposed to have you… but my drop off day wasn’t supposed to be for a few days.”
“Drop off day. Drop off day. You act like I’m a fucking package you’re scheduled to deliver. Fuck this.” She yanks her arm out of my grip and begins to stomp her way down the stairway of hay bales.
“I’m not delivering you to anyone if you’d just fucking stop and listen. Obviously, something is off with your father and now that I know your brother is involved… I won’t do anything until I know you’ll be safe. I’m not in the business of ruining lives, Harley.”
“Well, you’ve done a damn good job of trying to interfere with mine. How do I even believe a word you say when all this time you had planned to take me to the one man I despise the most. He left my mother high and dry when I was a baby and didn’t even try to be a part of my life. Sending money as if I can be bought.” She huffs in frustration, her hands on her hips and anger in every single word she spews. “Too little too late. I needed that money when my mom was dying. Where the hell was he then?”
“I have no idea. I just work for him.”
“Which is exactly why I can’t do any of this with you.” She turns around and starts down the ladder, leaving me a view straight down her shirt and even though this is a terrible time to be attracted to this woman, I can’t help but notice every damn thing about her. I’m still standing distracted at the top of the ladder when the door to the barn slides open. One of Charley’s thugs slides in, surprising us both with a gun in each hand.
“What the fuck do you want?” My body clenches with the thought of her being on the ground while I’m still this high up. I can’t save her from up here and there’s no way in hell I’m going to turn my back on this idiot and go down that damn ladder. I’m about to fuck my body up with this fall, but I see no way out of it. I just hope to hell he doesn’t get a shot in while I fall.
Before I have the chance to jump, Harley pulls a gun on him so I take the element of surprise and run with it. Jumping so that I land directly on this asshole sounded like a great idea… until I find myself tangled with his stank ass and the two pistols he refuses to release. He struggles against me until we’re all frozen in shock from the sound of a shot gun.
I look to the door and see my grandfather aiming directly at this guy’s head. “Girl. Why don’t you come over here? I wouldn’t want to get blood on you when I blow this piece of shit against the wall.” Harley catches my attention as she slides past us, hiding behind my grandfather’s large frame. Her eyes are wide; I’m sure she’s less used to this kind of bullshit than I am. I wrestle the other pistol free and step back, leaving a perfect path for a bullet if my grandfather tries to send one his way.
“Son… You two get out of here. Take the truck.”
“What about…” He interrupts me before I can fully ask a question.
“We’ll be fine. Go.” Just as my grandfather’s voice gets louder, the guy begins to move and my grandfather doesn’t hesitate pulling the trigger. Harley lets out a small scream just as I pull her against my chest trying to shield her from the scene.
“Get going. There’s liable to be company soon.”
“No fucking way. This is my battle.”
“He was an intruder. He attacked me in the barn, so I shot him. I’ve lived here my entire life. There’s not a single cop in the area that will arrest me.”
“Pops, I never meant to bring you into all this.”
“I know. Just get out of here while you still can. The last thing you need is for someone to show up and see you both. Your grandma and I can handle this.” I look at Harley and we both hesitantly grab our bags and leave the barn. I know they’ll be able to convince the authorities that the guy was an intruder, the two pistols in his hands will help with that, but my stomach is churning with the realization that I did this. I took danger straight to their home, without even considering the option that we had been followed.
I need to get my shit together and figure out how to deliver Harley to her father safely and then get the fuck out of the club scene forever.
Harley follows me to the house and into the garage. The keys are in the truck just like he said they’d be. “Why don’t you duck down… just in case anyone else is here watching.” Her frantic eyes meet mine and I know I have to be giving her a similar expression. She moves after a few seconds of hesitation, laying her head on the seat next to where I’m sitting. Maybe if I wasn’t on full alert of being seen by an insane asshole I’d make a sexual innuendo about her in this position.
Neither of us say anything as the garage door opens and I slowly back the truck out. I glance down and see that she’s clinching her eyes closed as if she’s waiting for the inevitable attack as I turn us out of the driveway.
Watching closely out my rearview, I wait for any sign of someone tailing us. Once we’re a few miles down the road, she finally says something.
“I’m not going to my father. You can either kill me and take my dead body to him, or I’ll kill you for trying.” Her spunk still surprises me at times, although I’m not sure why. She’s been very apparent with her independent personality since the first time I laid eyes on her.
“He can help you get out of this situation.”
She sits up quickly before I have a chance to continue. “He’s the reason I’m in trouble in the first place. He’s a monster and there’s nothing good to come of me going to him. I’ve managed to keep him out of my life all these years and I’m not about to allow him in now.”
“You have no idea, do you?” She looks at me as I continue to speed down the road, trying to ensure a good distance away before I consider letting up my pace. The naïve look on her face only verifies what I’m thinking.
“Your father will always get what he wants. He has loyal men to help make sure of it.”
“I know just how powerful he is. I also know that a man who would leave his daughter and her mother out in the cold like he did is a spineless asshole, who doesn’t deserve a minute of my time. I don’t need him, Slater. I’d rather die trying to make it on my own than go to him for help.”
“But you said this was all his money.” I point to her bag, simultaneously taking in her murderous glare in my direction.
“He sent this money to me after she died. He never once tried to help when we needed it most. If I have to use this to start a new life… then so fucking be it. I’m not going to answer to you or anyone else about doing what I have to do to survive. It’s no different than you trying to retire on the dirty money you’re making doing bullshit jobs for the clubs.” She sits back against the seat and crosses her arms. The heaviness of her anger filling up the cab and making my head spin as I try to sort out a new plan for us now that she has no intention of going to her father and I can’t even pressure her into it as of right now because I don’t know why he was acting strange on the phone earlier.
“Where’s that flash drive that I found in your apartment?”
“In my bag.”
We’re going to stop in the next town and buy a cheap laptop so we can see what we’re up against. We’ll keep driving until we have to stop for the night. Don’t make any calls or do anything that can track us.”
“Don’t you think we should drop your grandfather’s truck as well?”
“Shit. Yes, probably. But we need to get further away before we take our chances. We’ll probably end up with a piece of shit if we try to trade now. We aren’t exactly in the wealthiest part of the state.” I nod my head at the collapsed barn as we pass. This is farm country. The houses are few and far between, leaving land between them vacant of any standing homes or barns anymore.
“I don’t even know if I want you to see what’s on the flash drive when I look. It doesn’t even matter what’s on it anyway. We’re going to have to go our separate ways soon and it’s honestly best if we just do that now.” She starts to push me away already talking about going our separate ways and it instantly lights a fire inside me that makes me want to scream and yell to get her to listen.
“There’s at least two organized groups after you. You’ve just left every shred of help you’ve ever had behind you besides me. What do I have to do to prove to you that I’m here to help you?” I can’t consider letting her out of my sight now that I know Charley is also after her. “Your brother is insane and I don’t like how he wanted me to just hand you over to him. We need to be careful with him.”
“You planned all along to give me to my father. What was your plan? To act like a damn barbarian and just throw me over your shoulder and haul me to him?”
“I had no idea how you felt about your father until we were already on the run together. I’m not going to just fucking leave you for the assholes to all fight over you. I’ll make sure you’re fucking safe.”
“You’ve already done enough. I’ll be fine on my own. I’ll be so careful that I’ll never leave my hideout. They’ll never find me where I’m going anyway.” She’s still responding with unrealistic sass and it finally pisses me off enough that I slam on the breaks and pull into a field. “What are you doing? We have to keep moving.” I hide the truck between some trees and an old barn that’s about to fucking collapse, making sure we’re mostly out of view if anyone drives by.
“I’m gonna fucking make you listen to me if it’s the last thing I do today.”