We ran through the kitchen into a white hallway, the servants quarters. It was long but turned sharply too many times.
We ran until we found the last door in the hall and burst through it into the garage.
The hot night air hit our faces from the open garage. I pointed to the hooks and he searched frantically. He grabbed the keys to his blue Cadillac convertible.
I jumped in as he turned over the engine. We kept the lights off as we headed down the drive.
The fear and apprehension seemed to be magnetized to my home. The closer we got to the opening automatic gate the less I felt of them. Tires squealed on asphalt as we spun onto the road.
I laughed with exultation and lifted my arms in freedom. William’s hand rested on my knee as I stared into his face.
He didn’t have a trace of doubt. Electricity passed between us as our eyes met. He pulled me across the bench seat, kissed my hair, and pushed us faster.
“They're going to try to catch us,” he whispered over the wind into my ear. I heard no fear in his voice, simply a defiance that matched my soul.
Chapter 15- Wildflowers
He drove us north for a little less than an hour. We stopped at an ATM and he emptied the money from his account. I had a feeling he knew what he was doing and had disappeared before.
"William?" He turned his gaze to me. I had never seen his eyes so bright. "Why are we trying to hide? Mother's not going to suddenly start worrying about me. Can't we find an apartment in Frankfort by your restaurant or something?" I didn't want to sound naive but thought he was over-reacting.
"Not yet." The smile he gave me was comforting, but the underlying sense of his need to protect me sent a tremble of fear down my spine. What kind of nightmare does he expect to chase us?
My fingers linked with his as he fastened his seatbelt. His strong hand against mine felt invincible. Nothing could break us regardless of what he feared.
We drove west until the waking sun gleamed in the rearview mirror. Eventually, we stopped at a cheap motel. William paid with cash and used a fake name. When he got our room key we pulled the car around to the back of the building to keep it out of sight of the street.
We crashed onto the bed and I wondered what we would do from there. Our possibilities were endless. He pulled me onto his chest as my eyes slipped closed.
The room was dark when I woke. The bed was still warm next to me as if William had recently gotten up.
I was stiff and sore as I pulled myself to a sitting position. I smiled, seeing my shoes by the door and the tattered blanket draped over me.
Slowly, I made my way to the tiny bathroom. The yellow flickering light accentuated the rust on the fixtures and brown stains in the bathtub that had me imagining someone being murdered. The mirror above the sink was cracked, distorting my reflection.
It was me in the mirror, not the half-living imposter of a princess I had grown accustomed to seeing. My hair was tangled and the claw marks across my throat were crusted in dry blood. My shirt was wrinkled and I was spotted all over with bruises.
This is who I was meant to be, I thought to myself with awe. I saw the light in my eyes. It was almost arrogant but dazzling.
I scrubbed my face with a thin washcloth and freezing water. I dabbed gently at my throat until the stinging gashes were clean. When I clicked off the light and headed back into our room William was sitting on the bed with his legs pulled under him and a hand in a bag of hot fries.
He grinned at me devilishly and offered the onion chips he knew I loved.
“The sound's broken,” he said between bites, gesturing to the television. We sat and ate as I asked what we should do from there. “I guess find somewhere that even fugitives can get a job,” he said slowly, eyes glued on the television.
I rolled my eyes and laughed. "We aren't fugitives, William. I doubt Mother has even realized I'm gone." My own words sunk into my heart like lead. "I don't know what she'll do when she sees you are, though."
I realized he had stopped eating. He didn’t blink as he stared at the screen. I turned to see what caused the climbing paranoia in his expression.
The pictures on the screen were slightly blurry but they were our faces. The captions across the bottom flew by but I caught the words 'unstable', ‘missing’, and 'blue Cadillac'.
My heart tumbled as I turned back to him. He stared at me silently, watching for my reaction. "Mother noticed. She reported you missing."
The crumpled bag of chips fell from his hand before he wrapped his arms around me. The firmness of his grip and his love pacified my sore heart.
"I can't trust taking you back there." His brow was drawn and his lips tightened at the thought. He understood the intense possibilities of what Mother would do to me.
She had said I wasn't her daughter anymore. I thought back to the way she had treated me even when she did claim me as her spawn.
I didn't feel safe at the thought of being around her. She was sure to torture me for the heinous things I had done to her brother, despite my love for him. He was the reason she had called the police, I was sure of it.
I could stay gone for the rest of my life and nothing would make her happier. If I ever did see her again I was sure her face would be the last thing I saw.
“I've got you,” he whispered in my hair. Determination filled his voice as if our thoughts were connected.
“They know our car.”
A slow, creeping grin spread across his lips and excitement sparkled in his eyes.
“There's a small town a few miles down the road. I have a few friends who can drive up there and meet us with a clean one but,” he seemed to worry about how I might react if he finished his statement. “We can borrow one of the cars here for a while.”
“You’ve definitely done this before,” I decided. His smile pressed to mine in a devious, sweet kiss.
✷✴✷
I waited as he trudged down the road to a gas station. There wasn’t much to do other than watch the television and make up the script for an old movie. Every half hour our faces would flash across again and I would turn the channel. I gave up and pulled the plug from the wall after I flipped through the five available channels to see our faces flash past on every one of them.
I threw myself down onto the bed with a huff. I was staring at the ceiling when William opened the door.
The sky outside was starting to brighten. He threw me a bottle of orange juice and waved for me to follow him.
We sat on the walkway leaning against the door to our room. He nodded toward a man smoking in an old car in the back of the parking lot. The stranger didn't seem to notice us.
“I heard him yelling to someone over the phone about how he pulled a double.”
“So we threaten him to give us his car?” My nerves jumped at the terrifying scenario though the idea did seem intriguing. It seemed to be the way people always did it in the movies.
“No, it means he'll be leaving soon and someone else is going to come to start their shift.” His eyes widened as if expecting me to know why the information was crucial. “Whoever is about to pull in is going to be inside for about six hours, if not longer. They won't notice their car is missing until we are long gone.” His voice was patient but tinted in pleasure. He was trying not to enjoy teaching me how to be a criminal.
I knew the thrill of corrupting others. It was the feeling of ultimate supremacy.
We watched discreetly, talking quietly as the sun peaked higher in the sky. Soon another car came rolling to a stop next to the impatient employee.
He turned over his engine and pulled out of the parking lot, flicking the butt of his cigarette toward the other car. His car clanked as black smoke poured from the exhaust. I was glad we were going to take the healthier, though still old, gray Camry.
The older woman walked right past us without even glancing down, as if she were used to people loitering outside of their rooms. William waited until she was around the corner.
He leap
t up like a cat.
My heart quickened with adrenaline. “Now?” I hissed.
His curls shook with his head as he motioned for me to stay quiet before slipped into our room. He came back to sit with me on the sidewalk, my shoes in one hand and our luggage in the other.
He slid back down next to me, leaving the key dangling in the motel room door. He pulled me to him, kissing me with a new kind of exhilaration.
We waited until the sun was almost fully up and the street was busy with morning traffic. “We'll blend in better,” he explained.
When he decided it was time we walked calmly to our new car.
I wanted to run wildly but tried to match his relaxed expression. I was sure that if anyone were watching us I would be obviously suspicious with the way my eyes darted around. I forced myself to keep my gaze on the car and loosen my stiff legs.
William forced his eyes away from his car at the far end of the lot.
The shame of his continuing sacrifices for my sake, still, made me want to tell him to stop, take me home, and let me suffer the consequences. He turned to find me frozen.
"Come on." The fear in his face was overwhelming as it grew. He wasn't looking around, worried we were going to be caught. Realization darkened his face as he saw that I was on the edge of giving up. "Ruth, stop it." He shook his head and stormed towards me.
"You love the Eldorado."
"It’s not as important." He bent to brush his lips against mine.
"You've lost enough already because of me. This isn't right. It's not fair to you." I felt the crumbling of my soul as I decided what to do.
"We do this together," he answered. I tried to push him away from me as he threw my own words back at me. I was incapable of watching him suffer because of my own decisions. "Please don't make me give you up, too. Please look at me, Ruth."
His fingers pressed to my chin, tilting my face to his. I tried to glare and show him he couldn't sway me, but the torture engulfing his eyes made me surrender.
"Ok. I'm sorry." Relief overwhelmed his features. He grinned as he pulled me solidly against him. "She'd kill me if I came home with or without you anyway," I reminded myself aloud.
William's kiss told me that he agreed.
I walked around to the passenger side as William had instructed me to do. It would be the normal way for someone to behave.
I lightly tugged the handle of the car while watching in the mirror for any movement and strained my ears for someone to be screaming at us to stop. My side was locked, but William pulled the driver’s side door open easily after some fidgeting.
He flashed me his devilish grin before climbing in and reaching over to open my door.
He threw our bags into the backseat and we locked the doors. He scanned the parking lot while retrieving the flathead screwdriver he had gotten at the gas station from the waist of his jeans.
He used it to tear off the plastic case around the ignition before slamming it in like a key. He laughed maniacally as the car started with a hard turn of the handle.
We pulled out onto the road, blending with the traffic as he predicted.
✷✴✷
We stopped at a busy supercenter. I remained in the car as William ran in to buy what he called a ‘burner phone’. It was prepaid and nameless with an untraceable number and a certain amount of minutes.
He jumped back in the car and immediately dialed a number. He held the phone to his ear and we waited for so long I thought the other person wasn't going to answer.
“Reese? It's William,” he announced. “Do you have plans for the day?”
William instructed Reese to meet us at the river wall with a car with a clean VIN number. He glanced at me before answering the next question from the mysterious person on the other line. “Yeah, we might need it.”
We headed toward the little town tucked between the rivers of western Kentucky. It looked as if it were a hundred years old. One stark white building and freshly paved parking lot stood out among the weathered buildings.
It took twenty minutes to drive through the town before we reached the river. The buildings in the downtown area looked even older than the ones we had passed and the sidewalks were made of old fashioned bricks.
We parked in a small lot, surrounded by other vehicles that belonged to people strolling down the wall to admire the murals or picnicking beyond it while watching tug boats disrupt the currents of the water.
"Reese will be here in a few hours." He looked around before he got out of the car.
We walked hand in hand, stopping to read the plaques on the murals. I knew anyone who walked past us would think we were simple tourists with the way we looked around, laughing and peeking into the varying antique shops.
William stopped at a small store down a tiny alley. There were beautiful chocolate-covered treats, petite fours, and macaroons in the display window. The sign read appropriately 'The Chocolate Factory.'
William pulled me in and had me taste the most divine sweetness I had ever had in my mouth aside from him. When we left the shop and turned back onto the main street I noticed a large group outside a corner building.
Most of the crowd were elderly and covered in tattoos. The men had long, bushy beards with handkerchiefs around their heads and the leather-clad women were equally intimidating. They all mingled in front lines of motorcycles.
“Is it a convention?” I asked William.
He shook his head. “It's a church.”
I had never heard of a motorcycle church but their Wednesday night service had recently let out. The way a few of them stopped to point at us made me uncomfortable. The men started to gather in a crowd and we backed away.
"Do you think they recognize us?"
One of the men called out to us, but I couldn't understand him through the buzzing in my ears.
"No, they're worried about you." He pointedly looked at my legs.
The large bruise peeking from the bottom of my shorts made me blush. He smiled, though his eyes were blackening, and kissed me sweetly before waving to the men.
We walked calmly away, hand in hand. When we were out of sight I pulled my shorts as low as they would go on my hips, trying to cover anything suspicious.
William's jaw seemed to drill itself closed as the memory of my fall resurfaced. As we headed back to the river wall William pointed to two men leaning against a black car, chatting and looking around.
The shorter, dark-skinned man saw us first. He lifted his arms and jumped into the air. His perfectly white teeth practically shimmered against the sun and the joy in his eyes made William chuckle.
The other man looked up from his feet and waved. He was tan with narrow, bright green eyes and dirty blond hair pulled into a messy bun of dreadlocks on the top of his head.
“Reese,” William greeted the petite black man with the manliest hug one could give while still expressing their happiness to seeing the other person.
The giant came up behind William and with no hesitation hugged him tightly from behind, not seeming to care if he looked emasculate. I assumed it was because he was so colossal.
He was muscular enough to look like he could take on a bull and tall enough to tower over William. I thought he could have taken on the entire motorcycle church.
“I missed you too, Dizzy.” William reached a hand around and grasped him around the neck.
William pulled away and reached for me. Dizzy stuck out his tattooed hand to shake mine.
“He doesn’t talk,” Reese explained.
I noticed they both wore matching tattooed snakes wrapped around their hands in a faded, homemade fashion.
William retrieved our belongings from the stolen car and put them into the trunk of our new one.
He sat in the back seat with me with one arm wrapped around my shoulder and the other rubbing my thigh absentmindedly.
Reese drove us back through the town. When a tiny mall passed our window I asked, “where exactly are we going?”
William
flashed me a smile and Dizzy turned to grin at him.
“Where we will simply be another pair of hooligans in a vast sea of offenders,” William told me.
“Where's that?”
Reese turned in his seat, jerking the wheel for a fraction of a second. Dizzy thudded a large fist into Reese’s chest. “Alright,” he held up a hand as if to say he'd behave on the road. He glanced into the rearview mirror, meeting my eyes.
“Memphis.”
Chapter 16- Iris
We neared the unique skyline and skirted the heart of the city. Reese turned down a back street where the dilapidated buildings were tiny, though a few were mere casts. Many people sat on their front stoops, some with box fans pointed on them to give relief from the heavy heat.
Our car pulled into the driveway of the last house on the left side of the road. The wrought iron fence was rusty and the gate hung off of its hinges. We climbed out of the car and breathed in the humid night air.
The fragrance of the city smog mingling with freshly mowed grass was a strange combination. As we climbed up the rotting boards that made makeshift steps I noticed the peeling white paint of the house.
The stale air inside smelled of mold, dust, and weed. Dizzy flicked on the switch next to the door. I looked around at the peeling, dirty green wallpaper and dull wood floor. Under the window was a bed pushed against the wall that looked out of place with its covers pulled up.
“Y’all sleep in here,” Reese clapped William on the back before offering to show me the rest of the house.
It had one small bedroom with a full-sized bed. There was a bathroom between the living room and bedroom with pink and baby blue porcelain tiles on the walls and floors. He leaned over to show me that the hot and cold of the shower were opposite of what they were supposed to be. A tile lifted under his foot with the shift of his weight.
The kitchen was impressive. The red paint looked sloppy but fresh. The shiny, new-looking appliances made William light up.
Dizzy and Reese left the house, claiming to have a meeting. William didn’t question them though I doubted it was a business meeting considering how they were dressed.
Truth: Book Two of the Taboo Series Page 10
