Hard Roads (27 page)

“No.” She heaved. “I’m okay.” I heard the faucet turn on and the steady stream of water against the sink.

Leaning my head against the door, I knew that she’d remembered something, had suddenly returned to a place that was outside of my reach, a place where I couldn’t step in and make all the bad stuff go away.

I didn’t move until she opened the door, taking her into my arms almost instantly and wrapping myself around her like a shield. It angered me each time this happened, not because she’d done anything wrong by going through it, but because I was partially responsible for those memories being there at all.

“You okay?”

“Yeah.” Her voice was so small it hurt to hear it. I liked her most when she was loud, when she was cussing me out and kissing me all at the same time. I loved when her spirit was wild and carefree.

We stood silent for a few seconds before I asked, “Do you want to go back to sleep while I talk to Henry?

She nodded, wrapping her small arms around me to give me a weak hug before padding off to crawl in bed. Sitting down on the mattress beside her, I leaned over to kiss her on the forehead and her lips.

“I’ll be back in a few. If you need anything, call me and I’ll be here. Okay?”

“Yeah, babe, I’m fine. Tell Henry that I’m sorry. I don’t feel good.”

I tucked her under the blanket before walking back out of the room. Henry looked up at me from where he was sitting on the couch. His foot was propped up on the table and the bottle of whiskey I’d been nursing earlier was wrapped within his palm. Nodding his head in the direction of the bedroom, he asked, “She alright? Please fucking god, tell me that girl isn’t pregnant.”

If Holly hadn’t already had her period, the thought would have had me bolting to the bathroom to puke.

“No, she’s not. I think she remembered something. That happens sometimes.”

He nodded in response, lifting the bottle to his lips and swallowing the amber liquid down. Placing the bottle on the table, he looked at me, “Other than that, is she normal again?”

His question sounded crude, but it wasn’t intended to be mean. Henry was blunt. He didn’t bother beating around the bush with flowery language.

I sat down at one of the dinette table chairs. “Yeah.” I was quiet for a second, my mind not wanting to accept what Henry’s presence meant. I was scared shitless that it was the end of the road for Holly and me. Despite the fact that we promised to head east together, I wasn’t sure it was in the cards. I couldn’t hide from finding out what would happen even though I wanted to bury my head in the sand and pretend that we could stay in this place forever.

“Did you find Joker?”

Nodding again, he said, “Yeah, I did.”

“And?”

Without looking in my direction, he said, “And you’re going to return his daughter to him. We’ll head out tomorrow and meet him in Nevada. I talked to him to explain everything that happened and I think he might be nice enough to let you live.” Finally looking over at me, he added, “Which is kind of him because the truth be told, if I were him, I’d kill you as soon as I fucking laid eyes on you. You don’t steal a man’s daughter, toss her to men like Diablo and Hector and not expect him to put a bullet right between your fucking eyes.”

Noticing the anger in his voice, I commented, “You’re still mad.”

He took a long swig, pulling the bottle from his lips to respond, “You’re damn right, I’m still mad. Because of your dumb ass, I have to go around pretending like I’m dead so that I don’t have Hector rolling up on me wanting his fucking money. Do you know how hard it is to be dead? The shit fucking sucks.”

I chuckled and he scowled. “Sorry man, I’m not laughing at the situation, just the way you’re explaining it.”

Leaning against the couch, he let his head fall back. “Tell you what, son. I’m fucking beat and I don’t want to talk anymore about this tonight. We’ve got all day tomorrow to discuss the specifics before we have to leave.” Looking up again, he said, “And I’m taking the couch, so I guess your big ass will be sleeping on the floor.”

Standing up, I stretched my arms out above me, yawning as I brought my hands down to smooth over my head. “Won’t be necessary. I’ll sleep in the bed with Holly where I’ve been sleeping.” I knew the statement would piss him off, but I figured introducing him to the fact that Holly and I were a couple was better when Holly wasn’t present.

Just as I thought, his eyebrows reached so far on his forehead that his skin wrinkled up above his eyes. “Are you fucking shitting me? What the fuck is wrong with you? After everything that girl has been through…”

“She’s tougher than she looks.” I interrupted. “She wants to be with me. I didn’t force myself on her or take advantage of her. She made the first move. All that woman has gotten from me since we’ve been here is respect, so don’t go raising your voice and waking her up because I’ll have to beat your ass for it.” Even though I kept my tone calm, the threat still laced my words like a sharpened blade.

His expression went blank before he shook his head in disbelief.

“Goddammit, JD. I just convinced her father not to shoot you and then you go off and do something like this? Did your father give you drugs as a child and I didn’t know about it? Because there is no other fucking explanation for how stupid you are. The plan was for you to fix her and give her back to her dad, not fuck her and leave her.” He slammed the bottle on the table after polishing off the rest of the whiskey in one large swallow.

I had a lot of respect for Henry and that was the only thing keeping me from launching myself across the room at him. Walking slowly back towards the bedroom, I kept my voice as friendly as possible. “I care about Holly a lot and I don’t expect for you to understand it or even approve of it, but you sure as hell won’t stop it. Not you, or her father or anybody else. I promised that girl that I would watch over her for the rest of her life if she’d let me. There’s nothing in this fucking world that will stop that.”

His brown eyes locked on me and he looked at me long and hard. “’Cept maybe a bullet.” Pausing, he allowed a few seconds for his words to sink in. “I won’t stop you, JD. I don’t give a shit what the two of you do as long as it’s mutual. I’m just worried about what’s going to happen when that little girl has to make a choice between you and everything she has ever known. I’m worried about you if she makes the choice you’re not expecting. It’s easy to fall in love out in the middle of nowhere when you don’t have other people mixed into the equation, but that girl has a family of about 200 bikers who raised her and have taken care of her. On top of that, all those men know you’re the one who stole her and handed her over to Diablo and Hector. Let’s not even add in the fact that you killed two of them. Do you see where I’m going with this?”

I nodded, not having anything to say about everything he’d just listed.

His voice softened when he finally said, “There are more ways for this to end up bad than there are good. I just want to make sure both of you understand that before we roll out of here.” Giving me a pointed look, he moved to kick off his boots and lay back on the couch. “Now get some sleep kid, the three of us already had a lot to discuss in the morning, but now with this new fucking development, we have more to think about.”

I knew when I’d been dismissed so I didn’t respond. Pushing the door open, I walked in quietly, hoping not to disturb Holly as she slept. I walked to her side of the bed, making sure that everything she needed would be in reach. Once I was satisfied that all was as it should be, I rounded the bed, placing my gun beside me on the table and stripping my jeans off to climb beneath the blankets.

Wrapping my arm around her, I pulled her to me, molding my body to fit perfectly behind hers. She snuggled into me, breathing out a deep sigh before falling back into a deep sleep. I buried my face in her hair when I thought about all the issues that Henry had mentioned.

I knew it wouldn’t be easy and I knew that I could lose her as fast as I’d found her. My heart sank when I realized that tonight might be the last night I had to be with her. But that was her decision and one I would respect no matter what. Closing my eyes, I fell asleep beside her, thanking the stars that I’d had the chance to be with her at all.

Chapter twenty-eight

~ Holly ~

“Ow! Sonofabitch!” Sticking my thumb in my mouth I tried to suck away the pain of the bacon grease that had just popped up to bite me while I was cooking. I’d intended to just have cereal for breakfast, but when I opened the fridge I saw that Henry had brought some groceries with him when he’d arrived last night. Both he and JD were out cold and the sun hadn’t yet broken over the horizon, but I was up and awake, scared and timid about how the day would play out. My stomach growled like a motherfucker when I woke up and I remembered throwing up the night before.

It had been traumatic seeing Henry’s face. I didn’t realize he was the man who’d come to me when Hector had me. Even though JD had told me bits of the story time and time again since we’d been here, I’d never made the connection. To be honest, I didn’t think even JD knew the extent of what Henry had done to get me away from Hector, but the story seemed to click together for me as soon as I’d seen his eyes in the low light of the porch.

As I was cooking, a throat cleared behind me and I turned to see that Henry had finally cracked his eyes open. I was instantly shy, not knowing what to say to the man who had apparently saved my life. I felt like a timid animal, not moving or making a sound as he sat up on the couch, running his hand over his face before turning his attention on me.

“Mornin’. You’re up early.”

“Y-yeah…” I steeled myself to make my voice stronger as I spoke to him. This man wasn’t looking to hurt me, in fact, he’d saved my life, but I was still nervous to be around him and that spoke volumes about how screwed up I still was after everything that’d happened. I’d never been shy around strangers before in my life. But now, feeling how my muscles clenched and my throat swelled up to have to talk to someone I didn’t know, I realized that I’d been fundamentally changed over the past two months. “I couldn’t sleep anymore and I was hungry, so I thought I’d eat something. Thanks, by the way, for the food. Bacon and eggs is a hell of a lot better than stale cereal with water.”

He smiled and the kindness I remembered in his eyes was now written all over his face. “I figured you kids were probably running out, so I brought a few things with me and put them away while you were getting…well, while you were in the bathroom last night.”

Nodding, I staggered in place trying to think of something to say. “I hope I didn’t wake you up. I know it’s early.”

He chuckled, the sound rough because he was still half asleep. “No worries, Darlin’. I needed to get up anyway. We have to ride out tonight and I found out we have a lot to discuss before doing so.”

My heart sank into my feet. I knew what Henry was doing while JD and I had been in this cabin and the last thing I wanted to hear was that he’d found my father.

“You found him, huh?”

His voice was solemn when he answered, “Yeah, I did.”

“He didn’t happen to be six feet under by any chance, was he?”

Another chuckle rumbled up from his chest as he stood to stretch out his arms and legs. “Nope. ‘Fraid not. He’s alive and as crazy as ever, but he was happy to hear that his baby girl wasn’t six feet under either. It’s probably the only reason he agreed to let JD live.”

My eyes shot to his and I didn’t react to the bacon grease that was popping up and onto my arm. Fear shot along my spine and I stared at him open-mouthed, not able to voice all the questions that were suddenly bouncing around violently in my head.

“Judging by the fact that you just turned white as a ghost, I guess I need to explain what I just told you.” His steps hit heavily against the floor when he walked over to take a seat at the table. “Would you do an old man a favor and throw me a beer from the fridge?”

Looking over at the window I noticed the first bits of gold and pink breaking through the trees and I looked back him in question. “The sun isn’t even up all the way.”

He laughed. “Woman, you’ve grown up around bikers. I can’t believe you’re surprised to see me drinking so early in the morning.”

Reaching into the fridge, I grabbed a cold beer and tossed it in his direction. “Yeah, but from what JD has told me, you’re not part of Hell’s Rebellion anymore.”

Laughing again, he popped the cap on the side of the table. “Yeah, well, I guess you can take the biker out of the club, but you can never really take the club out of the biker. Ain’t nothing better to cure a hangover than a beer first thing in the morning.” Downing half the bottle in a couple gulps, he placed it back down on the table, spinning it around on the surface with his hand. “It’s none of my business and I hate to have to bring this up, but JD tells me you two are an item.”

Turning the bacon with a fork, I sighed, the sound disguised by the meat popping in the pan. Before answering, I pulled it out and placed it on a plate I had sitting nearby before breaking the eggs over to let them fry in the grease. “Is that a problem?”

“Think it will be for your daddy. JD is not a favorite person with Dominion at this point and I’m not sure you know everything that’s going on. I’m not one to blindside people or allow them to walk into situations where they don’t have all the information, so there are some things you need to know before we go rolling out of here.”

Before I could respond, another baritone voice that was rough with sleep answered. “It’s good to see you’re talking about me outside of my presence, Henry. Damn, you can’t even give a man a chance to explain himself can you?” A set of strong arms wrapped around my stomach and lips were pressed to my cheek. “Good morning, beautiful. How are you feeling?”

“I’m good.” My words came out on a whisper while my thoughts were still locked onto what Henry had said. What didn’t I know? What had JD kept from me?

With his arms still wrapped around me, JD bent his head low to whisper in my ear, “Sorry you heard that from him. I’ve been meaning to tell you. I just never found the right time.”