“Don’t do anything stupid. I don’t want to come chasing after you again.”
“You didn’t have to this time,” Carrie replied. “I’m old enough to look after myself.”
“I’m serious,” he went on. “Just concentrate on your studies. Getting some qualifications is the best thing you can do for your life. Chasing after a dream isn’t going to get you anywhere.”
Carrie wasn’t sure that was true, but she was in no mood for a public disagreement with her father.
“Sure,” she agreed and leaned forward to kiss him on the cheek.
“And keep in touch,” he shouted after her when she walked towards the door of the bus.
Carrie lifted her hand in acknowledgement of his comment without even looking as she stepped on board and went to find somewhere to sit. There were only a few passengers and it made it easy to get two seats for herself. She dumped her bag on one then sat down on the other to the sight of her father at the window. He stayed where he was and she willed the bus to get moving. She waved goodbye to him when the journey began and didn’t even need to look to know that he would be staring in her direction until the bus left the station. It was infuriating that he was so protective, but at the same time it made her love him all the more.
“Bloody parents,” she mouthed quietly.
The trip seemed to pass by in a flash as her mind played over the last few days. She’d left the college with just the hope that things might work out for her and was disappointed to be returning in pretty much the same situation. Being with Crash, even if it was for no more than a day, made her realize how much she wanted him, but the prospect of getting together seemed to be just out of her grasp. As the journey came towards an end, she brought her phone out of her pocket and switched it on for the first time in a while. She deleted the large volume of missed call messages without even really looking at who they were from.
Taking the piece of paper from her pocket, she keyed the apartment number into her phone and couldn’t resist making the call. She wasn’t surprised when it just rang out, but it was still a frustration. A few minutes later the bus arrived at the station and she rose to her feet to get off. It was early evening when she got to the college, but she suspected that her student counselor would still be in his office and went to inform him of her return. The discussion didn’t last long and she felt slightly guilty at lying to him again.
When the brief meeting was over, she made her way to her dorm room and threw herself down on her bed when she was inside. It was slightly surreal to be there and she couldn’t resist getting her phone out to try Crash’s number again. She was unable to stop the irritation welling up when the call went unanswered and dropped the phone on the bed beside her afterwards. The knock on the door twenty minutes later came as a surprise, but the light being on revealed she was there and she decided not to ignore whoever was calling on her.
“I’m sorry,” Darlene said straight away when the door opened.
“How did you know I was here?” Carrie asked.
“I didn’t,” Darlene admitted. “I’ve been knocking on your door every night since I told your sister the story of what you were doing. I just wanted to apologize.”
“You don’t have to,” Carrie went on. “If the tables were turned and your family got in touch with me worried about where you were, I would have told them.”
She stood aside to let her friend inside then closed the door. The pair of them walked across to the bed to sit down.
“Did you get in trouble?” Darlene asked.
“Well, my sister told my dad and he ended up finding me in San Francisco,” Carrie replied.
“Oh shit,” Darlene let out. “Was he mad?”
“At first,” Carrie admitted. “But he calmed down.”
“And the man you went to see?” Darlene queried.
“I found him and lost him,” Carrie said with a rueful smile. “The address in San Francisco was correct, so I caught up with him.”
“And what happened?” Darlene went on.
“Well, he’s not married any more and lives alone,” Carrie replied.
“So, what are you doing here?” her friend went on with a smirk.
“We spent a great day together that ended up with me seducing him in the shower and finding that the reality of being with him was better than my years of dreaming.”
“So, what the hell are you doing here?” Darlene repeated.
“He disappeared,” Carrie said.
“Huh?” Darlene let out. “Disappeared to where?”
“Good question,” Carrie replied.
“He went out of town for work and said he would return the following day,” Carrie told her friend. “And he didn’t.”
“That sucks,” Darlene commented and was quiet for a few seconds before going on. “Do you think he just saw the opportunity to take advantage of a pretty young girl for a quick fuck?”
Carrie let out a sigh, but shook her head.
“It’s not the impression I got,” she replied. “He appeared reluctant about getting involved, but I guess the shock of me turning up out of the blue after so many years wasn’t particularly easy for him to handle. I suspect the age difference didn’t sit well with him either, although thirteen years isn’t all that much as far as I’m concerned. He told me I should go back to college and find someone my own age, but his protests seemed like a front. It was as if he couldn’t quite make up his mind about us getting together and thought it would be easier to push me away before things went too far.”
“Do you think that’s why he stayed away?”
“I wish I knew,” Carrie said and threw herself down on the bed.
Darlene looked down then reached out to grab the braid of strawberry blonde hair and stroked her fingers along it.
“You can still switch sides and forget about the opposite sex altogether,” she teased her friend. “You know I’ll love you more than any man ever would.”
“Shut up,” Carrie said, but let out a laugh.
There were a few seconds of silence as they stared at each other.
“So… what happens now?” Darlene asked.
“That’s a very good question,” Carrie answered. “The truth is I have no idea… but I’m not giving up yet.”
Chapter 12
“Praise the fucking Lord,” Patch let out and pumped his fist in a show of celebration that was only half mocking.
“I thought you’d be happy,” Six said with a grin.
“What’s the news coming to you from the boys in San Francisco?” Crash asked.
“Just that the heat has now gone out of the situation,” Six replied. “Our informants in the police are saying the infighting story is the one being accepted for the gunfight that took out the two Mob guys. Supposedly the cops aren’t exactly pouring resources into solving the crime, which doesn’t really surprise me. They’re hardly going to bust a gut trying to find out what happened to a couple of career criminals. It’s probably not case closed, but the fact that we haven’t been implicated so far makes it unlikely that we ever will be.”
“What about the Mob?” Crash went on.
Six shrugged his shoulders to show he wasn’t particularly concerned.
“Their men were casualties of a street war,” he said. “The rhetoric in the immediate aftermath of that is always about getting revenge, but that eventually dies down. The Mob can handle the loss of two men in much the same way the Roadrunners can. They took a chance on ambushing us and it backfired on them. I think if they could kill us, they happily would without a second thought, but they’re not going to lose sight of their main business priorities over it. In other words, I don’t think they’ll be going out of their way to hunt us down.”
“So it’s safe to go home,” Patch said.
“Well, as safe as it will ever be,” Six replied. “Just keep your head down, your wits about you and everything should be fine.”
“When do we leave?” Crash asked.
“
We might as well set off tomorrow morning,” Six told them. “Just get some rest tonight and we can make an early start.”
“What about the guns?” Patch asked. “Do we take them with us?”
“The boss said to leave them here,” Six answered. “The fall out from our encounter with the Mob put the Disciples’ deal off the table, but it might be revived from what I’m hearing.”
“After five weeks?” Crash said.
“That’s the talk at the moment,” Six went on. “We got the weapons across the border into Oregon, so they might as well stay here. They’re well enough hidden here and if the deal does go ahead it should be simple enough to pick them up and deliver them.”
“It wasn’t simple at the first time of asking,” Patch pointed out with a shake of his head.
“Well, it’s not our problem now,” Six said. “The weapons stay here, but we can go home.”
“I’ll check on the truck,” Crash said. “It hasn’t moved for five weeks now.”
He walked along to the kitchen to grab a couple of beers then went out to the vehicle. Popping the cap from a bottle, he took a long drink then wiped his hand across his mouth.
“Let’s see how you’re doing,” he said as he opened the door of the truck to slide into the driver’s seat.
Slipping the key in the ignition, he turned it and listened. The engine turned over a few times, but eventually sparked to life. Crash pressed his foot on the accelerator pedal to listen to the revs then left the motor running as he got out and lifted the hood.
Thirty minutes of tuning up got the engine running more smoothly, and he was sure the vehicle would be fine for the following day’s trip. He walked inside afterwards to wash his hands then went to find the other two men. They were sitting in the lounge drinking and he joined in the conversation when he sat down. It was more animated than it had been in days as they looked forward to resuming life as normal. The three of them went to get some rest when the fridge was emptied of the last bottles of beer and they were up early the following morning. Crash went to drive the truck out of the garage and was waiting with the engine running when the other two locked up the property then got in the passenger side of the vehicle.
“Let’s go home,” Six said.
“And stick to the main highway,” Patch said and laughed. “I’m in no mood for another trip on some shitty country roads.”
“The highway it is then,” Crash said as he got the truck moving.
He stopped at the first gas station he saw and watched the other two walk inside the store while he filled up the tank. When he went to pay, he bought himself some breakfast then went to join the other two on a bench to eat.
“This is bloody déjà vu,” he said as he remembered them stopping and eating breakfast on the ill-fated weapons transport.
“Just don’t tell me you saw any black sedans following us,” Patch commented. “All I want is a nice, smooth journey home, with no gunfights involved.”
They ate quickly to get on the road again and Patch’s remark stuck in Crash’s mind. He found himself nervously scanning the vehicles behind as he drove, but there was no sign of anything suspicious. For some reason there was no shaking off the anxiety, and he could sense it in the men sitting beside him as they approached the outskirts of San Francisco.
“Home sweet home,” Patch said, but there seemed to be an edge to his voice.
Crash continued to watch for any signs that vehicles were following. He knew the chances were slim to none, but couldn’t stop being watchful as he drove. The volume of traffic around them began to build when they moved on to city streets, but they negotiated the remainder of the journey without any problems and eventually arrived at the Roadrunners’ building. There was a palpable sense of relief when the gates of the parking lot closed behind them and Crash stopped the truck at the door of the building.
“You’re not coming inside?” Patch asked.
“I’ll take the truck to my workshop,” Crash replied. “I have the proper tools here to make a better job of the bodywork repairs I did at the safe house.”
“You’re going to start on that right now?” Six asked.
Crash shrugged his shoulders. He was really in no mood to go to his apartment. He was sure there was absolutely no chance that Carrie was still there, but there was still a nervousness about going home that he couldn’t shrug off.
“I might as well,” he said.
The other two looked at each other, but said no more and got out of the truck. Crash then drove the vehicle to its final parking spot for the day and got out. He walked across to the fridge and opened it up with the intention of getting a beer then decided not to. Instead, he went to gather the auto body tools and equipment then began the job of restoring the truck bodywork to its original condition. It would remove all signs that the vehicle was in a collision just in case the police ever did come sniffing around it.
A couple of hours passed quickly as he concentrated on what he was doing, but he gave up when tiredness began to creep over him. He washed up then went looking for Patch and Six. His search ended up in the recreation room, but there was no sign of his friends and he guessed they’d already done what they needed to then gone home. He decided to stick around to have a beer and talk with some of the other men, but he eventually decided to call it a night.
It was dark when he walked out of the building to the parking lot. The crash truck was where he left it five weeks before and the engine cranked slowly when he turned the key in the ignition. It eventually caught and he revved the engine a few times before putting the vehicle in gear and driving over to the gates.
“Heading home,” the man beside them said.
“First time in five fucking weeks,” Crash replied.
“Yeah, I heard you were lying low in Oregon,” the man said. “Things have calmed down though.”
“So they tell me,” Crash replied and gave a quick wave of his hand when the gates opened.
The nervousness returned as he drove in the direction of his apartment. His palms grew clammy as he approached the building and he cursed the fact that the lamps on his street were still out of order. It only served to remind him of the evening that Carrie came back into his life, and the darkness of the scene around his home added to his trepidation. He brought the truck to a stop in its usual spot and saw no light in the window of his apartment when he glanced up towards it.
“She’s gone,” he let out under his breath, but his nervousness wasn’t only about Carrie.
Things might have calmed down, but he couldn’t get the idea out of his mind that the Mob would want revenge for the loss of its men. It made him stay in the vehicle longer than he normally would, and he glanced around to check for any suspicious activity. There was none as far as he could make out, but he still slipped a hand inside his pocket to the butt of the gun he was carrying when he got out of the truck.
He was quick to cross the street and climb the stairs to the building entrance. Once inside, he made his way up to his apartment and only started to relax once he was inside. A quick look around showed no signs of Carrie or any of her belongings, and he guessed she must have packed and left when he didn’t show up as intended. His intention was never to treat her badly, but he couldn’t help thinking that the way things worked out might be for the best.
He wasn’t sure there was a future for him and Carrie, and there seemed as many things stopping them getting together now as there were when she was a teenage flirt teasing him at the army base. At least in his mind there were plenty of problems he could see that would make a relationship difficult.
“Just forget about it,” he tried to convince himself. “She’s gone and you don’t need the hassle of her returning.”
He walked to the kitchen and looked in the fridge, but there wasn’t much in it. That meant if he wanted to eat, he would need to go to the store. His only meal of that day was breakfast at the gas station and thinking about food made him hungry.
“Should h
ave got something before you came home,” he berated himself, but there was no choice now and he went to get his jacket.
His fingers curled around the butt of the gun when he walked out and shut the door, but he was only a few steps away from his apartment when he heard the sound of the phone ringing. It made him stop and he listened for a few seconds as he debated going back. In the end he suspected that the person would more than likely ring off before he got there and decided not to bother.
“They’ll call again if it’s important,” he muttered as he carried on to walk down the stairs and left the building to go to the store.
Chapter 13
“Shit,” Carrie snapped and drew her hand back as she pulled the phone away from her ear.
Club Property: Adults Only Motorcycle Club Romance: Roadrunners MC Page 12
