SANDRA
Friday night. Check. Road trip. Check. Run out of gas before leaving the city’s limits. Check. Get stranded in one of the worst parts of town. Check, check, and check.
How could she ever have been so stupid? Why hadn’t she thought to gas up before they left? Why did she wait until it was so late to get on the road? Why couldn’t she seem to get a handle on the smallest of things, let alone the big shit? Life. It was fucking tough for most, and lately, it seemed almost impossible. People called it adulting. Apparently it was a skill she didn’t have.
“Mom? What’s going on? Why did we stop?”
Sandra Johnson’s hands strangled the steering wheel. The fucking car was ancient, but it was all she could afford. Generally it ran well. The gas gauge though, she knew it didn’t work. It stopped over a year ago. She’d just been too preoccupied. Alex had been so excited about going to her parent’s farm. She’d been so busy packing, she just forgot.
Just fucking forgot.
“It’s nothing, honey. Uh- we just- the car…” Her hands tightened. She closed her eyes. There wasn’t much she’d lied to Alex about over the years. At eight, he was smart. Crazy smart, actually. His teachers wanted to skip him ahead a grade, but Sandra didn’t want that. He was street smart too. He had this instinct that wasn’t entirely natural.
Just like his father.
“We’re out of gas, aren’t we?”
Sandra’s eyes popped open. She glanced at the doors to make sure they were locked. “Yeah. We are.” She reached for her phone in the passenger seat and flicked it on. One glance at the GPS told her they were right in the heart of Serpent and Scythe territory. Not exactly a place anyone should be. Everyone in the city knew about the infamous motorcycle club. The area of town was bad shit. The kind of place no one should go in the daylight, let alone find themselves trapped in after dark. She knew it was their territory, given that she’d passed the club house a few blocks away. The brick building was notoriously surrounded by concrete walls and barbed wire. She’d glimpsed a string of bikes on the street and a few leather clad men walking around. She’d passed it before. Nine years ago, she’d driven by, wondering why the life those men led was so much better than her.
Was the allure of evil so much greater than the love in her heart?
She’d passed it a few times over the years and every time she did, she wondered if he was still alive. If he was well, what had happened to him. She thought that if he was dead, truly gone, she would have known.
“What are we going to do?” Alex’s seatbelt clicked off. The whir as it retracted focused Sandra’s thoughts. She imagined her son climbing out of the car, saying he’d go find help, because that kid wasn’t afraid of anything. He was eight and already he promised her he’d take care of her. It made her so damn proud, but it also broke her heart. He shouldn’t have to be so damn grown up.
“Stay where you are, okay baby? The doors are locked so we should be fine.” She knew a door lock wouldn’t stop someone who wanted to get inside. They wouldn’t hesitate to smash the window. The back was tinted, the front not so much.
Thinking fast, Sandra grabbed her purse and her backpack and crawled into the back seat. She was tall, but slim. Always had been. Her mom once rudely told her that no one who had a kid and worked as much as she did should look that good. She’d also said dryly that women lost their value after thirty, but annoyingly enough, Sandra didn’t look her thirty-three years.
That was her mom in a nutshell. Always one for the compliments. Sandra swore up and down that if she didn’t have Alex, her parents wouldn’t have anything to do with her.
“I’m going to call a taxi. It will come and pick us up and we can wait somewhere safe until a tow truck comes.” She mentally worried about how much that was going to cost, but outwardly she kept a smile on her face.
“Sweet. I’ve never been in a taxi.” Alex was right. He hadn’t. “And a tow truck? That’s cool! I wish we could stay and watch.”
“I think they just bring a gas can. I’ll ask that they pick us up along the way. It could be hours though bud. We’ll go back home and wait, but we might not get out to the farm until tomorrow now.”
“Awww! Grandma and grandpa wouldn’t care if we get there late.”
Sandra worried her lower lip. She stopped when she gnawed a flap of skin off and she tasted the coppery tang of her own blood. “We’ll see, Alex. I’m sorry. I- I was going to get gas at the edge of the city so we wouldn’t have to worry about it until we were back. I completely forgot. The station would have reminded me, since we always pass it.”
“It’s okay, mom. Everything will be alright. I don’t mind being late.”
Sandra shut her eyes. Her son deserved better. Better than the tiny apartment she could give them. Better than the life she worked her ass off to provide. Better than… better than her?
No. Tears burned the bridge of her nose. She tried to be a good mom. Even though they didn’t have much, she was always there for Alex. She’d made mistakes in the past. Dated men who weren’t appropriate. She could have had a good life. Could have provided anything Alex wanted, but it would have cost her and she wasn’t willing to pay the price.
Steven was just her latest in a long line of mistakes. The six voicemails she had on her phone proved that just because he was in the past, didn’t mean he wanted to stay there.
Her stomach clenched and she couldn’t pretend that she didn’t feel sick.
A knock at the side window startled her. She froze, fear crawling up her throat. She felt like she’d just been kicked in the chest, as all the air rushed out of her lungs. She gasped and her eyes flew to Alex’s face. He was a good looking kid. He had the darker skin tone of his father, the same dark hair and eyes. He had her oval face shape though, her nose and lips and jawline. He was tall for his age. He’d probably be over six feet, also like his father and not at all like her.
“It’s okay. Just- it’s okay.” Sandra palmed her cell. She flicked the screen on, ready to dial for help if she had to. The knock came again. Apparently the windows weren’t as tinted as she thought. The car was old school and that included the window crank she had to turn by hand. At the moment, she was thankful for it. She sure as hell wasn’t going to open the door and she wouldn’t have been able to turn the car on anyway.
She cranked the window down a crack, since whoever was there wasn’t going away. The face on the other side was obscured by shadow. She made out the hint of dark stubble. Strands of dark hair fell forward, concealing the man’s face. His voice was thick and gravelly.
“Do you need some help? I saw your car roll to a stop. It didn’t appear to be running when you pulled in. You’re parked half in the street.”
Sorry that I couldn’t execute a perfect park when everything went dead. I was lucky enough to get anywhere near the side of the road.
“Out of gas?” the stranger asked.
“Y-yeah,” she stammered. She wished it wasn’t so dark, that she could see his face.
“I’ll go get you some.”
“You said you were walking though.”
“I have transportation nearby. If you keep the doors locked and windows up, I don’t think too many people will bother you. It’s not late enough yet. In a few hours though, you’d have a real problem. If you want to keep your tires and your windows, I suggest letting me help you.”
“O- of course. Thanks.” She wished she could form a coherent sentence without stammering like a bimbo. She wasn’t afraid of the man on the other side of the two inch crack. Something about him was unnerving. Disconcerting. The latent authority in his deep voice? The crackle of leather as he shifted? The fact that she couldn’t see his face? Probably all of it. “We’ll wait here. The doors are locked.”
“Good.” The man nodded. “I’ll be back within the hour. Anything happens, you take that phone and call for the police. The closest address to here is sixty-three St. John Street. Just describe your car. You got that?”
“Yes.” At least that came out firm and clear. Before she had time to offer her thanks again or ask him why he was willing to help her at all, the man disappeared. She watched his back as he retreated down the sidewalk and out of sight. It didn’t take long. A few seconds, but in that time, she was able to recognize a black leather jacket and dark pants. Broad shoulders. Massive, hulking size. Long dark hair.
“Who was that man, mom?” Alex leaned into her after she sealed up the window. She put out an arm and drew him close. She took comfort in the warmth of his small shoulders. If she’d done anything right in her life, it was having him. It might not have worked out with his father. She might have spent the past nine years wondering what could have been if he’d just been different. Been a better man. Made different choices.
Sandra slowly shook her head. “I’m not sure. Just a nice person out to do something kind, I guess.”
“That’s nice of him. why would a stranger be willing to help us?”
“I- I don’t know. I’m just glad he was. We’ll be able to get to the farm tonight.”
Alex grinned back at her. He flashed her a thumbs up sign before he turned into her and closed his eyes. She let him rest there, where he felt safe.
Oddly enough, just knowing that the man was out there, her kind stranger, was enough to make her feel safe as well. It was no doubt a false sense of security, but she was willing to take even the smallest scraps of kindness at the moment.