Highway Don't Care (Freebirds)

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  Holding on to the edge of the table with one hand, I buried my head into the crook the elbow of my other arm and willed myself not to scream. This was torture in its truest form. I was working up to one hell of an orgasm, and I needed to be quiet. This could get me fired in a heartbeat. I loved this job, but nothing short of death could stop me right at the moment. Any second now, I would blow, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold in my scream.

  I could still hear the two people speaking with only ten feet and a flimsy door between us, but in the next instant, they weren’t even on my radar. Gabe must have sensed that my orgasm was imminent because he reached his hand around and covered my mouth, trapping the scream that was about to pour out of it.

  Once my orgasm made itself known, Gabe started to slam inside of me, just how we both liked it. Again and again, he pounded into me, spurring my orgasm to continue. Gabe grunted and slammed into my one final time, planting himself deep inside of me before pouring his come deep inside of me.

  He let go of my mouth, and my face dropped to the leather of the training table underneath of me. Gabe slid slowly out of my body, and tucked himself back into his jeans, zipping and belting them up.

  I watched with my face still planted on the table. That was exhausting, and I could really go for a teensy tiny nap right now, but it was not in our cards. He gave my ass a good slap before backing away and heading to the door. I squeaked and hauled my undies and pants back over my ass.

  “I wasn’t going to open it; I just wanted to hear if they were still out there or not. You were pretty loud there towards the end, I wouldn’t be surprised if they heard you.” Gabe teased.

  “It wasn’t my fault! It was your fault. None of this was my idea!”

  “I didn’t see any fight on your part!” Gabe chuckled.

  I’d rather forgotten about the messiness that comes with sex, so now I could feel all the wetness leaking out of me and onto my pants. I’m sure there was a nice little wet spot on the crotch of my Spanx.

  “Let’s get out of here so I can go change my pants. I’m leaking.” I said before heading to the door.

  Gabe’s arm hooked around my waist before I could get it open and I was hauled back into his arms. His lips skimmed down my exposed neck and goose bumps puckered up all down my right side.

  “Are you saying you feel dirty?” he asked quietly.

  “No, not dirty. Just squishy.” I laughed out.

  “I happen to like it there, I like knowing I’m inside you.” He whispered into my hair, and then gave me a three tap on the butt that meant it was time go.

  Gabe did the three tap a lot. When he was leaving, he would tap my butt three times before he let go of me and left. In addition, when I was sitting on his lap, he would tap me three times to let me know he wanted up.

  Disentangling myself from him, we walked hand and hand down the corridor, and out into the scorching heat of the Texas sun. If you think you’ve experienced heat, you haven’t. Yes, there are those places that reach higher than Texas’ one hundred and ten degrees, but that’s dry heat. Here you have humidity on top of it. All you had to do was walk outside and you were drenched in sweat.

  We walked to the Death machine, and Gabe swung his leg over, mounting the bike. He kick started the engine and that familiar vibration rocked my body. Adrenaline poured through my veins, and I hopped on, wrapping my body around his. He handed me my helmet, and we both strapped our on before he took off.

  He took the turns low, and my body swayed as one with his. I loved being on the back of his bike, my arms wrapped around him. It felt like everything was okay. There were no death threats from gangs, no coaches trying to push my kids too hard, and no crazy chicks making nutty eyes at my man. Pure perfection. But of course, my dear Gabriel did ruin my high.

  We got to Free and pulled up into the main garage area. He hauled me off the bike, walked me over to the toolbox, dropped my hand and said, “Fix it.” Before he turned around and left me standing there. I did get a good laugh though.

  Chapter 8

  Losers all whine about their best. Winners go home and fuck the prom queen.

  -The Rock

  Ember

  While cruising the aisles at the super Walmart, I was at a loss on what to have for dinner tonight. I hated cooking, and I only knew how to do so many things. I pulled my phone out and texted Gabe without looking. My eyes were on the cupcake display that was right directly in front of me.

  Me: “Chicken fajitas okay for dinner tonight?”

  I piled in two six packs of cupcakes, one vanilla with whipped icing and one vanilla with buttercream icing. I couldn’t decide which sounded better, so I just got both. This was also why I wore Spanx. I enjoyed Chick-Fil-A and cupcakes too much. I also didn’t work out as I used to.

  “Jesus, are you eating for two there, Ember?” Cheyenne teased as she bumped my cart with hers.

  “Nope. I know how to use contraception. No babies until I want them. Unlike someone I know.” I said giving her a meaningful glance.

  She blew a raspberry at me and made sure to add some spit to it.

  “Sicko.” I said as I wiped my face with my sleeve.

  The phone chimed in my hand and I slid my finger over the screen to unlock it.

  Gabe: “Yuck.”

  Feeling baffled, I was about to reply asking him why when I re read my first message and then burst out laughing.

  Cheyenne took the phone out of my hand, read the messages and then burst out laughing herself.

  “Chicken Vaginas? Is that a new recipe?” She asked while snickering.

  “Yep. I saw it on Pinterest.” I said.

  “What did you mean to say?” Max said from behind me, making me jump only a little bit.

  “Jesus. This was an A and B conversation. C your way out of it.” I answered rudely.

  I wasn’t really upset that he listened to our conversation though. I just liked giving him hell. That’s what a little sister is for, right?

  “It could have only been one of three things. That’s all she cooks is spaghetti, chicken fajitas, or sausage casserole.” Cheyenne supplied helpfully.

  Ignoring them, I made my way to the produce section, trying to escape the twin terrors that were following in my wake. I didn’t succeed though. They still found me in front of the bananas. Watching them out of the corner of my eye, I chose a bundle of bananas, and then texted Gabe back.

  Me: “I meant chicken fajitas. Does that sound okay? LOL.”

  My phone immediately pinged with his reply.

  Gabe: “Good. I only want one and it’s yours.”

  Feeling my face flush, I shoved the phone back into my bra and turned towards the twins in time to see them each grab a kiwi from the bottom of the pile. Of course, you can guess what happens next. Yep, the whole fricking thing came tumbling down, and they each found it hilarious.

  “Cheyenne! Your kids just dropped all the kiwis to the floor.” I whisper yelled to her when she rounded the corner.

  She stood there, wondering what the hell she was supposed to do. There were literally hundreds of kiwis spread throughout the produce section. Max fixed it all by scooping up the girls, depositing one in each of our buggies, and then taking said buggies and guiding them out of the produce section. Cheyenne and I both looked at each other, and then sprinted after him.

  Yes, it was wrong, but it was an accident, and I really didn’t want to get down on my knees and pick all those bastards up. Just as we were leaving the Walmart, my phone dinged again. I didn’t look at it though until after we’d loaded sixty-seven bags of shit into the back of Sam’s Suburban. Yes, that was sixty-seven bags. I counted.

  Gabe: “Won’t be home until late. Got some shit to take care of. Leaving now.”

  A man of few words. What the hell was that? We’d spent every night together for the last two and a half months. It’d been quite a few weeks since the football player had had heat stroke. I’d practically moved in. Nearly all of my clothes were at Gabe�
��s place. Unofficially, I moved in with him. Everyone referred to Gabe’s as “Our Place” but he’d yet to ask me to move in.

  Deciding not to make too big of a deal of it, I gave him the space he seemed to want tonight. I didn’t text him back. Thinking about it now it would be somewhat nice to get in some girl time.

  “Cheyenne?” I called to her.

  She turned her head and regarded me with a raised eyebrow.

  “Do you want to go into Longview tonight? Catch a movie, have a cookie monster?” I asked.

  “Perfect! I’ve been craving one of those like crazy. What do you want to go see?” she asked.

  “I hear Magic Mike is still at the dollar theater. How about that?”

  “For the love of all that’s holy, please, anything but that. I don’t want to see that shit.” Max grumped from the driver’s seat.

  “That sounds perfect! Max. Go to moms and let’s drop off the girls. Then we can go drop the groceries off, get dressed and head out.” Cheyenne demanded.

  Perfect. Maybe a little Channing Tatum and his hot ripped abs would go a long way to ignoring the fact that I’d rather be with Gabe tonight.

  Ω

  An hour and a half later, we found ourselves in Gabe’s room getting ready. At least I was anyway. Cheyenne was practically dressed.

  “Does this look okay?” I asked Cheyenne while checking out my ass in the floor to ceiling mirror.

  I didn’t want to look like I had a muffin top or anything. I had on a new pair of Wrangler Rock 47’s that I’d bought just last week, paired with a white wife beater. My bra was a bright neon yellow, and was definitely noticeable under my tank top, but I didn’t really care. It was the only one I owned, and I wasn’t going to go out and buy a new one when what I really wanted was to lose the bra all together. My hair was down in loose waves down my back. No makeup though. I didn’t like the way it made my face feel greasy.

  “Yea, your ass looks great in those. Where’d you get those?”

  “I went to Baskin’s last week. The jeans were forty percent off. Good thing too, because I wasn’t going to drop a hundred bucks on a pair of jeans. I had to lay on the bed to get them buttoned though.” I answered.

  “They’re awesome. My pants already don’t fit.” She said while gesturing to her jeans that only had three of the five buttons done up.

  “Funny. I seem to be losing weight. I’ve been the same weight since high school, but ever since I started staying with Gabe I seem to fit into my clothes a lot better.” I said cheerfully.

  It really was awesome. When I’d hurt my knee, I’d lost all my muscle and gained a ton of weight. Not working out and sitting on your ass would do that to a person. Especially when I ate like shit.

  “You’re such a hoe bag. Why would you rub that in my face? Just look at this!” She said pulling up her shirt to expose her belly.

  Not that I hadn’t already seen it. With the tight shirt she was wearing, you could make out the bump of the baby inside of her. The bottom two buttons on her jeans were undone, and her belly seemed to bulge out from between the gap in the jeans. Studying her predicament for a moment, I went to the bathroom, and grabbed two black hair ties and came back.

  Going down on my knees, I bent close to her pants and looped a hair tie through the buttonhole, then stretched it across the opening and fit it around the button. I repeated the process for the other hole and was about to sit back up when I was interrupted.

  “Should I come back?” Sam said.

  Willing my heart to stop trying to pop out of my chest, I said “Yea. Just need a couple more minutes. It’s my turn next.”

  Cheyenne laughed, and then turned her body so Sam could see what I was actually doing down on my knees.

  “Ember’s a fucking genius! Look what she did to my pants.” Cheyenne demanded, thrusting her stomach out.

  She looked like a goober, but who was I to say anything? I was a nut too. That’s why we were best friends.

  “Looks good.” Sam said as he rubbed Cheyenne’s belly.

  I walked into the living room, giving them a few moments of alone time. I grabbed the purse Cheyenne let me borrow and shoved my keys, a tube of Chapstick, and some of the candy that I’d bought at Walmart that day, along with a coke.

  Cheyenne came up behind me and shoved her own drink in. Apparently, she wasn’t bothering with a purse since I was carrying one. Sam hooked an arm around both of our necks and pulled us in to his chest giving us each side hugs.

  “Don’t leave Max tonight, got it?” He asked.

  “Aye Aye, Captain.” I saluted.

  Rolling his eyes, he let us go, and walked us out to Max’s Blazer. I hoisted myself up into the front, and then crawled to the back since the seat no longer slid forward, all the while praying I didn’t rip my pants, seeing as they were so tight. It was about ten minutes into our drive that Max nearly killed us.

  “Titties!” I screamed out at the top of my lungs.

  Max gripped the steering wheel tight.

  “Jesus Christ! Was that fucking necessary?” He fumed.

  “Max, I really don’t know why that surprised you. We say it every single time. Every. Single. Time. I’m not sure why that was so surprising. We’ve been doing this for forever.”

  The titties in question were actually known as the Texas Titties to the locals. LeTourneau Technologies used to produce bombs in the dome shaped buildings. From the air, they look like boobs. Nipples and all.

  “Y’all know better. Now seriously, shut up and leave me along for ten more minutes. Y’all are already making me go see a man stripper movie. Don’t make me kill myself beforehand.”

  We gave him the peace he was looking for, but only about three minutes or so before we lost the desire to make him happy. The movie was beyond our expectations. I don’t think I’ll ever listen to ‘Pony’ by Ginuwine ever again and not picture Channing Tatum stripping to it. I might’ve had to take off my sweater because I got a little hot.

  Max on the other hand, did not like it. He thought it was trash. He said it had no story line, and was practically porn minus the penises and boobs.

  “It would have been better if they’d have shown some boobs at least. This was like a really bad porno. They had the bad story line, just forgot to show dicks and tits.” Max stated.

  That was my brother, crass and blunt. I loved him anyway though.

  “Let’s go to Cheddar’s now. It’s heading towards eleven, and I’m about to keel over. Gabe doesn’t let me get much sleep.” I stated, mostly to rile Max a little bit.

  “Oh my God! My ears! For the love of all that’s holy. Please never speak of that with me around again. I just can’t deal with that shit.” He pleaded.

  We kept right on talking though.

  “Sam does that to me too. It’s as if I go to sleep after just having some of him, and I wake up with his hands-” Cheyenne said before Max interrupted her.

  “Shut up!” Max barked. “Fuck.”

  We both laughed. Payback was a bitch unfortunately. He got us good in the car.

  “I have a feeling something bad is gonna happen.” Max stated.

  Immediately Cheyenne and I both covered our noses with our shirts. When we were younger, we watched a movie called Stick It. One of the main characters said the same thing right before he’d farted in the car. This was a running thing for James and Max to do to us since we were fifteen. This time was no different.

  We arrived at the Cheddar’s minutes later, and then poured out of the Blazer gagging with tears in our eyes. Max’s booming laugh proceeded us, and I slammed the door in annoyance. He was a mutant!

  I hooked arms with Cheyenne, and we were weaving through the cars when I saw him. Stopping so fast, I rocked back on my heels and collided with Max’s chest. My eyes locked with Gabe’s and I saw immediate understanding flare in his eyes. My heart felt like it was being ripped from my chest.

  A large bubble sat at the base of my throat, making it hard to swallow. My eyes stun
g with tears, and I turned and ran in the opposite direction, weaving through the cars as if the devil was on my heels.

  I knew I wouldn’t get far though. He’d seen me. He knew I’d seen him with another woman, his arm around her shoulders laughing with her. How could he do this to me? Never did I see this coming. Never.

  Ω

  Gabe

  “Alright. You’ve got your new information memorized, right?” I asked.

  “Yep. Thank you so much for helping me. I feel like I can finally breathe again. You are sure he won’t find me here?” Lark asked.

  “As sure as I can be. We’ve practically deleted you. When Lark was born, Libby became non-existent. All of her old life, her job, her credit cards, her bills, everything is gone. Even if you wanted to go back, you couldn’t. It’s easier when there is no family to remember you. In your case, since you had no family, you pretty much ceased to exist. There are plenty of fail-safes just in case your husband ever tries to come looking for you though. Try not to worry.” I said to her, giving her a one armed squeeze.

  Lark was definitely a survivor. She was married to a very abusive man for ten years. She’d had two kids, and then killed both of them in front of her, threatening to do the same to her and anyone else if she told. He was a sick man, but extremely powerful. This is why Free existed. To get these individuals out before they were killed, or hurt worse than they already were.

  “Whew. Now if I could just get used to the weather!” Lark said as she fanned herself.

  I laughed. It was now a year plus since I’d moved to East Texas. I still wasn’t used to it. It was a long way from Michigan. I gave her shoulder a pat. I was just dropping my hand from around her shoulder when movement caught my eye.

  Turning my head, my eyes met those beautiful ones I loved so much. Ember. Bone deep pain showed in her eyes. Seeing that there made me sick to my stomach. Ember was my world. Seeing her in pain killed something inside of me. It was also my fault.

  Cursing under my breath, I took off at a sprint. It was obvious that she’d misunderstood what she saw. I hadn’t told her what we do yet, it just never came up. I was about to let her in on that detail, as soon as I caught her that is. Max started to go after her, but stopped himself when he saw I was going myself. I made sure to yell to Max to take care of Lark, but I didn’t really care if he heard me. She’d be all right; Ember might not.