Nine Minutes (10 page)

Chapter Seventeen

“It’s not
why you think,” I quickly added, face flushing. “I just got my period and don’t
have any tampons. I was going to go and find Moe, maybe see if she has
anything.”

     
Before he could
answer I lifted one edge of the towel wrapped around me and showed him the
light pink smear. I didn’t bleed heavily the first day of my period, but I
still would need something.

     
“Fuck!”
Grizz
yanked off the sheet and jumped up, stopping me. “You
can’t go out looking for Moe in a towel.”

     
I looked away as
he stepped into his jeans and pulled them up. But not before I noticed what was
under the sheet. I guess it was true, at least in
Grizz’s
case. Big man, big—well, you know. The little
billy
-club
was actually smaller
than him. I shivered.

     
He quickly
returned with a partial box of tampons, and I retreated to the bathroom. I
subconsciously knew I would have my period around now. I’d finished up my birth
control packet, so I knew it was coming. But in all the excitement of the last
few days, it was the last thing on my mind.

     
I came out of the
bathroom dressed in my nightshirt. Thank God
Grizz
wasn’t waiting for me on the bed. Good—me having my period wasn’t
appealing to him. Hopefully, that meant another week’s reprieve.

     
I found him in
the little living room. He was sitting in his recliner flipping through the few
TV stations available.

     
“You’re back
early. How was your business?” I asked, perching on one arm of the sofa.

     
He turned the TV
off and looked at me. “Heard you had a bit of drama while I was gone.”

     
“Yeah, about that.
I want to tell you why Grunt—”

     
“Doesn’t matter.
I talked to Grunt. The guy had it coming.”

     
I was relieved. I
was still a little angry
with
Grunt because of how he
handled the situation. It was a cruel thing to do. But
Grizz
seemed to think it was justified, so I dropped it.

     
“I got to meet
Blue’s wife,” I said instead, giving him a level look. “What a sweetheart.
Thanks for asking him to take me home. I think I would have been better off if
he’d locked me in the lion’s cage at the zoo.”

     
Grizz
started laughing then and suddenly I couldn’t help
myself; I laughed with him. I plopped down on the couch, and after a few
minutes he filled me in on Jan.

     
Blue had met Jan
about five years earlier. He had been involved with another woman at the time,
but she was “crazy,” according to
Grizz
, and Blue
broke it off. Poor Blue. What was it with him and women with emotional
problems? He met Jan at a bar a few months later, and it was love at first
sight. I could understand that. Blue wasn’t as attractive as she was, but I
think she found the tough guy persona appealing.

     
They had a very
quick romance and married soon after. They bought a little house in an older
section of Pembroke Pines. I knew where he was talking about. It was called
Summer Wood. They were older and smaller homes, but it was a nice neighborhood
that appealed to young families just starting out.

     
It wasn’t long
after they married that Blue noticed the change in her and immediately regretted
the hasty decision to wed. She was quick to lose her temper. She would pick
fights with him. She would dare him to lay a hand on her. She constantly
provoked him until he would walk out. When he got home, she went into fits of
hysterical crying and begged for forgiveness.

     
Eventually, she
started picking fights with the neighbors. It got even worse when she started
threatening the neighbors with her husband’s status as second in command of a motorcycle
gang.

     
Word got back to
Grizz
, and he told Blue to take care of it. I wasn’t sure
what he meant by that. But it didn’t matter. She pulled an ace out of her
sleeve just in time. She was pregnant.

     
So Blue settled
for moving her to a nicer part of Pembroke Pines. I wasn’t a real estate
expert, but I was certain a telephone lineman’s salary wasn’t equal to the
upscale home I visited. I guess that’s where his extracurricular activity with
the gang came in, enabling him to afford it. She saw a doctor and was taking
medications that seemed to help. The only time they had trouble with her was
when she got pregnant again and stopped taking the medications. Blue
practically had to monitor her 24/7, and
Chicky
,
Willow and Moe spent a lot of time with her when Blue was working.

     
“So she freaked
out on you, huh? I wonder if she’s pregnant again and off her meds?”
Grizz
looked thoughtful.

     
“I don’t know.
She didn’t say anything and she didn’t look pregnant.” I told him everything
she’d said
to me and what I said to her in return
.

     
He chuckled. “You
really said that to her?”

     
“Yes, and I can’t
say I’m proud of myself. You’ve obviously had a terrible influence on me.”

     
He just laughed. “Well,
if it’s anything like before, she’ll have a meltdown and start crying and
wanting to see you to beg for your forgiveness.” He didn’t seem the least bit
concerned with his status as leader of the gang or the threats made to me.

     
Grizz
and I spent the rest of the night watching TV and
went to bed. I no longer slept on top of the covers, but I still slept with my
back to him. He no longer slept on top of the covers either.

     
But he also never
slept in his jeans anymore. I knew he was nude, and prior to earlier that
evening, I had never looked. I’d made it a point to pretend to be asleep if he
got up before me. If I got up before him, I just made sure I wasn’t in the room
when he woke up.

Chapter Eighteen

I woke up
the next morning in a pool of sweat. Oh my goodness, it was hot.

     
Grizz
wasn’t next to me, so I got up and went looking for
him. I peeked out the door and saw him in conversation with Chowder on the
walkway a few units down. He heard me open the door and called out, “A/C unit
is on the fritz.”

     
So that explained
the heat. This was June in South Florida, and it didn’t matter that it was nine
o’clock in the morning. It was blazing. The humidity alone could suck the life
out of a room.

     
I went back to
the bedroom and dressed in the coolest outfit I owned: a pair of cut-off jean
shorts, the yellow bathing suit top from Jan and my sandals. I made a piece of
toast and sat on the couch to eat it. I had finished and was rinsing out my
orange juice glass when
Grizz
came back.

     
“C’mon, let’s go,”
he said, standing over me.

     
“Where?”

     
“Just c’mon, and
grab your helmet and sunglasses.”

     
We walked to one
of several Harley-Davidsons parked in front of the motel. He took a dark blue
bandana off the handlebar and wrapped it around his head, then straddled the
huge bike and started it. He put his sunglasses on and looked at me. Staring at
him, I had to admit he was a magnificent specimen. He was wearing the same
thing he’d worn the first day I met him—blue jeans, biker boots and a T-shirt
with the sleeves ripped off. His hair had gotten longer in the last month. I
put on my helmet and sunglasses and jumped on the back.

     
Grizz
took me down to the beach. State Road 84 was a
straight shot toward the ocean. We made a left on Federal Highway, then headed up
to 17th Street Causeway. A right on the Causeway, and then we were going over a
big bridge that spanned the
intracostal
. On our
right, all kinds of huge ships, cruise and military, were docked. The left
harbored personal yachts.

     
I loved this part
of Fort Lauderdale. We followed the Causeway down toward the beach where it
meets A1A. We slowly rode north on A1A, which parallels the Fort Lauderdale beach.
It was summer and the beach was packed.

     
I immediately realized
we were noticed, especially by the girls. I have to admit I sat a little taller
and wrapped my arms around
Grizz
a little tighter. I
rested my chin on his shoulder. I was never the type of person who craved the
spotlight. Before, I was always content to sit in the shadows and do my own
thing. I think that’s because I was so completely satisfied with knowing
myself. No soul-searching for me. I knew who I was and what I wanted out of my
life.

     
Until now.

     
Being on the back
of
Grizz’s
bike was a new experience for me. I’d now
ridden once with Monster and twice with Blue. It was nothing like I felt with
Grizz
. My whole demeanor changed. I liked that I was
envied. I liked how he gently squeezed my thigh just above my knee as we idled
at a crosswalk. I liked how he lifted one of my hands to his mouth and softly
kissed the inside of my wrist. And I especially liked that I could read the “I
wish that was me look” on every female who walked by.

     
It occurred to me
that several days had passed without me thinking about going home. I remembered
the first night Monster had brought me to the motel. He’d told me, “Time to
meet your new family.” Maybe he was right. Maybe I was meant to be with
Grizz
.

     
The realization
stunned me.

     
We finally turned
left at Sunrise Boulevard, passed Birch State Park, over the intracoastal again
and then south on Federal Highway.
Grizz
pulled up to
a rundown tattoo parlor. We parked and got off the bike, and I hung my helmet
on the handlebars. He told me to leave my sunglasses on until we got inside.
Good thing I was allowed to take my glasses off when we got inside because it
was so dark I couldn’t see that
Grizz
, who was
walking in front of me, had stopped. I walked right into his back. He turned
around and grabbed my arm to steady me.

     
“You can take
your glasses off now, Kit. Eddie? Where are you?”

     
A small, tattooed
man came out of the back room.

     
“
Grizz
, my man,” Eddie said as he walked toward us. I could
smell the alcohol on him before
Grizz
could reply.

     
“Need an I.D.”
Grizz
gestured to me.

     
“Sure, man.
Stats?”

     
Grizz
told me to tell him my height, how much I weighed.

     
Then Eddie asked,
“How old?”

     
I opened my mouth
to answer when
Grizz
cut me off. “She just turned eighteen
in March.”

     
“You got it,
Grizz
. C’mon back here.”

     
We followed him
to a back room. Eddie had me stand up against an empty wall. He was getting
ready to take my picture when
Grizz
stopped him.

     
“No bangs.”

     
Eddie went to a
desk drawer and pulled out a headband. I secretly thanked God that he didn’t
pull out scissors. I put on the band so my bangs were pulled back. A quick
glance in the mirror showed me I looked a little less like myself. More like
some other girl.
An older girl.
Different. The kind of
girl who might like sitting on the back of
Grizz’s
motorcycle, his hand casually squeezing my thigh.

     
Eddie took the
picture and said, “Give me an hour.”

     
As we walked out
the door,
Grizz
grabbed a pink bandana off a pile by
the cash register.

     
“We’re going to
lunch,” he told me when we got to the motorcycle. “When we get to the
restaurant, I want your helmet off and replaced by the bandana as quickly as
possible. Leave your sunglasses on, even in the restaurant. Got it?”

     
I got it.

     
We went to a
little place called Southside Raw Bar. We sat outside on the docks that
overlooked the water. I remember not being able to read his expression after I
blessed myself and said a quiet prayer before eating. He’d watched me do this
before and had never commented. I don’t remember what we ate. We chatted
comfortably about a lot of different things, purposely leaving my abduction and
anything to do with the motel out of the discussion.

     
The conversation
only turned personal in regards to our likes and dislikes. Standard stuff. Music,
movies, books. It was lighthearted and casual conversation.

     
Then it occurred
to me. “Hey, we didn’t tell Eddie my new name.”

     
“We don’t get to,”
Grizz
informed me. “Eddie has been in this business
for years. He’s very organized and has his own list of pre-approved names.”

     
“Really? Sounds
like the people that name the hurricanes.”

     
He smiled at me.
My stomach fluttered. He really had a beautiful smile.

     
“Yeah, I never
thought about it, but I guess it kind of is like that.”

     
“I’m really curious
what name he’s going to give me.”

     
“Don’t worry,
Kit. Nothing could ever be as bad as your real name.”