Riding Danger

by Candice Owen

  “What?” Greg literally choked, “You lying sack of shit.”

  Blaine pulled the scarf down, “Say hello to your daddy.”

  “Daddy, help me!” The cry was heart wrenching, and Blaine felt like an asshole; but, this had to be done. There were other people’s lives at stake—and she would be returned completely unharmed. He had a lot of bad shit under his belt, but he was not a murderer—no matter what his rap sheet said.

  Greg said, “I’m going to kill you.”

  “If you try anything, you are going to be burying your daughter.” Then, he hung up the phone. He also tossed it right out the window. Next, he did a quick pat-down of Felicity and found her phone. That phone also went out the window. Blaine knew that Greg thought he was clever. He thought nobody knew about the apps and software that were installed in every phone he gave to every person who worked for him.

  Those apps and that software would ensure that Greg could open a laptop and find whoever he was looking for with the touch of a button. The day in the diner Blaine had found out about that rather inadvertently when Greg had opened up his own cell phone and checked on the whereabouts of his daughter, or rather her whereabouts earlier that day.

  Blaine saw then exactly how paranoid Greg could be. If he was willing to keep a digital leash on his own kid, he would be willing to keep tabs on the guys that worked for him.

  Felicity chose that moment to try to attack him. Her teeth were sharp, as she tore into him. He had to pull over to subdue her and retie the makeshift gag around her mouth.

  He had to dump the truck. It was too recognizable, and he needed money. He could say all he wanted to Pasquale; but, the truth was he was just buying time—letting Marie get out of dodge.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Blaine had taken the dope somewhere safe, knowing that for a man like Greg Pasquale, it was just a means to an end. He would have probably killed Marie anyway. She knew too much, and she was getting old.

  There were plenty of burned-out-Betty types right there for him to choose from. He’d probably been planning on replacing her for a while and just saw his chance. Blaine didn’t know what the particulars were, and he doubted that knowing them would make any difference at all.

  He did know Marie was smart. She had her own contingency plans no matter how scared she had been to put them in motion. He had a feeling she had ditched her car, hopped a ride, and was in the city across the desert looking for the nearest bus station out.

  He had a feeling that was what she had done because one night, very late, and after almost everyone else had gone, she had set a beer in front of him and said, “You don’t belong here, Blaine.”

  “Neither do you.” He had picked up the beer and blew the foam off the top.

  “Yeah, I do. Look, get yourself out of here.” She had ended by telling him exactly what he was hoping she had done. From the way she had said it, intently and with detail, he knew she had thought—often—of doing the exact same thing herself. Well, now was her chance. He hoped she had taken it.

  He pulled the truck up behind a sagging, green-felted fence. He killed the engine and looked over at Felicity. She was crying, and he wanted to reassure her; but, right now, he needed her scared so that she would cooperate.

  He had a ratty car stashed. It was a little sedan, not fast or pretty, and it was just what he wanted. It was new enough that it would blend in with the other cars on the road and old enough that it would be utterly unmemorable.

  The dope was in the car, which was incredibly risky, but it was the only chance he had right now. He dragged Felicity out of the truck and to the car. She tried her best to stop him. She let her weight hang, and she fought; but, he got her there and inside the car.

  “Listen. I don’t want you here anymore than you want to be here,” Blaine said, as he cranked up the car. “I’m not going to hurt you, and I’m going to let you go home. I just need some insurance until I can get things straightened out.”

  Felicity glared at him. Now, not only was she terrified, she was angry because he saw her as nothing more than some insurance policy. None of this was how she had planned to spend her day, and she wasn’t very happy about being gagged and tied up. But what was really bothering her was the conversation that Blaine had with the old lady from the bar. That woman had worked for her dad for about five years now. Why was she so afraid of him? He had always been good to her.

  Blaine took off, heading for the road that would take them through the desert. He knew it was risky. It was the only road through the desert. If he got caught out there, then there would be nowhere to hide.

  He knew that the other guys would assume at some point he’d gone through the desert. There would be nowhere to go in this city, so he would have to strike out for the other one. He had a plan though, and he hoped it was a good one.

  They took the loop and wound up about five miles deep into the desert, pretty close to where the prison bus had dumped him out. As they passed Interstate 40, he saw Marie’s car sitting on the side of the road.

  She had got away then, damn. He wanted to stop but he was sure that there was no reason to. If they had found her, he couldn’t do anything at all to help her. Before he got past her car, he saw the car door open, and Marie came flying out of the car. Her face was awash with perspiration and tears.

  She made it to the car, looked in, and saw Blaine and Felicity and said, “Isn’t this a bitch?”

  “What happened?”

  “My car overheated. I was sure that any minute they would come flying down the highway, guns drawn and emblazoned.”

  “They still might.”

  Felicity looked from one to the other. Marie had jumped into the back seat, and she was staring out the windshield with a look of fear on her face too real to be anything but. “I know. Blaine, you need to dump her before she gets you killed.”

  Dump her? Felicity ground out an expletive through the gag.

  Marie said, “I can’t stand it. It’s not right to have her gagged like that Blaine.”

  As soon as the other woman’s hands touched her face Felicity attempted to bite her. Marie yelped and one of her fingernails hooked into the delicate flesh right above Felicity’s jaw line. It was an accident, but it didn’t seem to matter, at least not to Felicity. She was furious, and she was scared. As soon as the gag came down, she began to scream.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you? You two just kidnapped me! You better get me home right now or… Or…!”

  Marie said, “We can’t take you home, darling. Your daddy is out for blood. Ours to be exact. I don’t know about you, and I don’t really care, but personally I want to live to see forty.”

  Felicity’s eyes widened. She’d always thought Marie was old, in her sixties at the very least. How old was she? Before she could stop herself from asking, Marie said, “I’m thirty-nine.”

  “There’s no way.” Felicity realized that she was being rude and blushed. She stammered, “I’m sorry. I know that sounds really callous, I didn’t mean it to be it’s just that…”

  Marie said, “Girl, you got a lot to learn about the world. While you been holed up there in your daddy’s ivory tower, the rest of us here on earth do his dirty work. You think I look old? I should. I just spent the last ten years knowing that every single day might be my last. That will cause anyone to lose sleep and get a few lines on her face.”

  Blaine knew he should stop Marie from telling Felicity the truth. What good would it do for her to hear it? She loved her father, and she was loyal to him and that was exactly how it should be. But he didn’t try to stop Marie because loyalty was one thing, but loyalty to a man who didn’t deserve it was entirely another.

  Felicity glared at the older woman and yelled, “You’re a liar! You’re probably on dope or something, just like the rest of those women at that bar.”

  Marie asked, “And just who do you think serves up the dope that keeps them working there, sweetheart? Your daddy, that’s who. Him and his cronies turn wom
en out by hooking them through the back. With me, it was crack. With some of the other girls now, it’s meth. There’s even a few smackheads around.

  “He gives you just enough to make you come back for more. It’s always free, at least at first. He gets you to the parties, then he gets you into their colors. Once you wear their colors, you know you are theirs. And at first, for a lot of us, it feels good. It feels special. I didn’t have a family when I met your daddy. My mom and dad died when I was just a kid, and I grew up in the foster system. I had nobody and I needed a family.

  “By the time I figured out that he wasn’t my family, he was my pimp. It was too late. He had me turning tricks out of the back room of that bar and snorting lines off the cases in the stock room.

  “I was lucky though, I was smarter than the other girls. I figured out a way to stick around long after I wore out my looks and my welcome. I did a lot of his dirty work, and he only thanks I got was a hit on my head.”

  Felicity screamed, “You’re lying! You’re just mad, and you just ripped him off, and you’re just trying to justify everything that you did!”

  “The money that is in this bag. It is the money that I was supposed to use to pay the guys that come around with the dope for the girls. There’s new girls coming in tonight, some of them may never have been high in their lives. If you don’t believe me, when you get out of here today, take your ass down to the bar and watch them come in. Some of them aren’t even eighteen yet.

  “Your daddy might treat you like a princess, but he treats the rest the women in the world like whores.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Felicity refused to talk to her anymore. She stared out the window, her thoughts in chaos. Blaine reached out and put a hand on her arm, and she flinched. She didn’t want him to touch her; but, as soon as he took his hand away, she wished that it was back.

  Blaine and Marie were both incredibly tense. The desert unfurled around them, the long strip of highway ran through it like a gray slash in the neutral landscape. A few cacti stood sentinel along the way and the occasional vulture popped along the shoulder, looking for carrion.

  The sun was a bright hard disk in the polished blue bowl of the sky. In the city it was already sunset, but here the sun set slower. The air conditioner in the car died with the wheezy rattle and Marie said, “I hope that’s not an omen.”

  Blaine shot her a look in the rearview mirror and then opened the windows. Hot air immediately blew through, bringing gritty dust along with its touch. It was better than nothing though and none of them complained.

  Every time he topped a small rise or went around one of the snaking turns, his hands clenched on the wheel and his heart stood still in his chest. He kept expecting to see Benny and his crew pulling up on his ass every time he looked in the mirror.

  Marie had the same expectation, and it showed in her face. Blaine knew why Felicity had thought that Marie was so much older than she was. It was the same reason he had thought she was older when he had first seen her. This was what Greg had done to her. He had stripped away her beauty and her innocence, and he had left her a burned-out husk.

  She was determined to make a new life for herself though, and it showed. Marie was one tough woman, and he admired and respected her for that. It had somehow fallen into his lap to care for her and that had never been his intention. He had known if they split up they would both stand a better chance, but Fate had thrown them back together.

  The sun did begin to sink below the horizon, sending bands of crimson, gold, and a startling orange across the sky which was turning indigo and lavender. The shadows began to creep out across the highway, leaving long bars that reminded him of the shadows cast in prison at night.

  He had never deserved to be imprisoned, not really. He had owned up to his responsibility though and taken his punishment because that’s what men did, and he was a man. He had never run away from it, and he had never asked for mercy.

  He was running away now though and that bothered him; but, at the same time, he knew that there was a time for a man to just simply decide it was time to leave behind a situation that could only work out badly.

  Does Felicity think I’m a coward for running away? He was fairly certain that she did and while he wished to that there was something he could do about that, he knew there wasn’t, short of turning around and going back.

  And really, would her life ever be the same again either? If I vanished, and I will vanish, there is no doubt about that, would she even ask what happened to me or would she continue to pull the blinders over her eyes and pretend that her father was just a businessman who happen to hire convicts?

  Night fell, and the wind turned cold. Felicity began to shiver, and Blaine rolled up the windows. They reached the outskirts of the larger city, its lights a welcome beacon. Whereas the city that Felicity lived in had a population of about two-hundred-thousand, this city that they were pulling into had a population in the millions.

  It would be easy to get lost in the city, and Blaine knew it. So did Marie; but, neither of them had any intention of sticking around. There were too many people here who were allies and friends of Greg. While they might live the rest of their lives here in this city and never run into any of them, there was always that possibility that they would.

  Marie said, “There’s a train station.”

  Blaine didn’t ask her where she was going, there were two reasons for that. First, he didn’t want to know. If they found him, they might just try to get it out of him. While he prided himself on being tough, no man can guarantee what he would do under some kind of torture. And even if that did not happen, Felicity might tell either unwittingly or knowingly.

  He pulled into the train station, and Marie got out of the car. She ducked down so that her face was near his, and he rolled down his window. Her eyes were shiny with tears and for a moment he could see the young pretty girl she had been in her tired and worn out face. “I hope you get where you’re going, Blaine. I really do; but, take my advice and put her out somewhere near hotel or something. Let her daddy come get her back. Don’t just do it for your own sake, do it for hers.”

  Blaine assumed that Marie meant that it would be easier for Felicity to go back to her life, if he dropped her off sooner rather than later. He nodded. Marie nodded back to him to him, and she was gone, walking through the crowds that were mobbing the train station’s entry door.

  “She was a really good friend of yours, wasn’t she?”

  “Yes, she was.” Blaine did not want to talk about it. He doubted Felicity would understand anyway, “Since you know about your daddy, I’m going to tell you what we’re doing next.”

  “What is that? Are we going to look for some young girls to turn out?” Felicity knew that she was being a bitch. She didn’t believe a single word that Marie it said, she was lying. She had asked her father one time why the women worked at that bar, and his answer had been sincere, “They work there because they like the money.” I believed that then, and I believe it now. There is no way Daddy is giving women drugs and then forcing them to dance naked on stage just to get more. That is absolutely crazy!

  “No, we’re going to go sell the dope he had me steal from the police evidence locker last night.”

  Felicity’s mouth fell open. He has to be kidding!

  But he wasn’t, she had seen that on the news just that morning. It had been the talk of the town actually. Someone had stolen a whole bunch of crystal meth, and the cops were looking really stupid about it.

  She didn’t have anything to say about that. He has to be lying! Not about stealing the dope, he probably had done that. He is a criminal after all! He is just saying these things to try to make Daddy look bad, but I’m not buying it.

  Or am I? Felicity was not a fool, and she had been asking herself a lot of questions lately. Blaine had stirred up a lot of those questions long before he kidnapped her. She’d once overheard him ask her father about the kind of guns that her father wanted him to take. She
had thought at the time that it was a joke. Her father didn’t own any guns.

  If this was a kidnapping or something, then why had he thrown out their phones? Why was Marie so scared of those guys? And the truth was, they had been going after Marie — I saw that with my own on eyes. What did she do to get in trouble? She didn’t have anything at all to do with my kidnapping. In fact, as soon as she saw me, she practically freaked out.

  Blaine knew some guys from prison who knew bigger guys. He kept in touch with them, and it wasn’t hard to find one of them. As soon as the guys saw Felicity in the passenger seat he asked, “Is she for sale, too?”

  “No, and if you ask again you will be walking around here with your teeth missing. Do you understand me?”

  “Of course, I understand.”

  “Then, let’s get to business.”