“That’s good,” I said.
“Good? What’s good?”
“They aren’t cops. If they’d been cops they’d have pulled in behind us and we’d have found out what this was all about.”
“Why does them not being cops make it a good thing? If they’d been cops it’s a lot less likely that they’d hurt us.”
Her statement made me pause for a moment. “Do you know a lot of people who want to hurt you?” I asked.
Her eyes grew big and she swallowed hard.
“Listen, Sasha, I know you said you didn’t want to get to know each other. I’m just giving you a ride. But the way I see it you’ve got three choices. You can tell me what’s going on. You can tell the cops. Or you can take off on your own and hope you don’t run into those guys. Your choice.”
She looked down at her hands in her lap. She suddenly no longer looked like the tough girl she tried to portray. She looked like a little kid who’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Trapped with no way out.
She looked up into my eyes. “There is no way he could know I was here. No way. I was careful. I didn’t tell anyone where I was going. No way could he track me.”
“Who?” I asked as I held my breath.
Sighing loudly she wiped at her eyes. “My father.”
I let out my breath. Relieved. An angry father could be dealt with. I hadn’t touched her. Besides. This meant it wasn’t me they were after.
“Why. How old are you?” I asked, suddenly afraid of the answer. If she was fifteen I was going to croak right here in the parking lot.
“Eighteen,” she snapped, daring me to not believe her.
“Well, if you’re eighteen what is he upset about. It’s not running away. Most people call it leaving home. You know, like everyone does.”
“My father’s not like most people,” she said with a heavy sigh as if that was the understatement of the year.
“So why’d you leave. It must have been pretty bad to decide to take off and hitch across the country. What? Did you figure he’d come to his senses and forgive you for crashing his car or something?”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about. Why don’t you do the smart thing and just shut up.” She said as she stared at me with hateful eyes.
“The smart thing would be to dump you on the side of the road and take off. We’ve already decided that I’m not too smart or I’d never have stopped and given you a ride.” I know it sounded mean but I was getting upset. People I didn’t know were following me. She was holding out on me and I was tired of it.
“Screw you,” she said as she fought to open her door. The girl was really going to take off. She’d rather risk those thugs in the BMW than sit here and listen to me bitch.
“Hold on,” I said as I lunged across my truck to stop her. “Please Sasha. I’m sorry. Let’s think this through okay?”
The thought of her on her own sent a chill to my bones. Where had that sudden fear come from? This wasn’t only about her out there in the world. It was about her being in a world that didn’t include me. God, if she ever figured out that I cared what she did she’d be gone so fast I’d be left with the faint whiff of vanilla and coconut and nothing else.
Looking down to where my hand covered her slender fingers on the door handle she raised one eyebrow back at me. My god the girl could say a million things with a simple expression. Right now she was saying ‘Remove your hand or lose it.’
I smiled and pulled back. Immediately a sense of loss flowed through me. That was the first time I had touched her I realized. It was true, an electrical buzz could travel between people.
She watched me pull back with a disdainful eye. Careful, the wrong move on my part and she’d bolt. She stared off into the distance for quite a while. I waited, trying to keep my heartbeat to some kind of normal. Finally, she came to some kind of decision. Nodded her head but did not smile. Instead, she scanned the parking lot then sighed as her shoulders slumped in defeat.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for you, or anybody really, to get mixed up in this. It’s not your problem. Maybe I should just leave. It’d be for the best.”
My insides relaxed. At least I’d get the opportunity to convince her. “You can take off if you want to.”
Her eyes widened. Probably surprised I wasn’t hitting her on the head and throwing her over my shoulder. Demanding that she be mine forever.
“Listen,” I continued “I don’t know who these guys are but they’re probably finding out everything they can about me and my truck right now. They’re not going to know you took off. They’re going to track me down whether you stay or not.”
She seemed to slump in on herself.
“How far east are you going,” I asked.
“Philadelphia. You?”
I could tell she was holding her breath waiting for my answer. “New York for now. Boston later this fall.”
She started breathing again. Probably afraid I was only going as far as St Louis and she’d be on her own. But of course, there was no way Ms. Tough Guy would ever say that.
“Okay, I’ve got a plan,” I said. “How much money do you have on you?”
Even in the weak light from the street lamps, I could see her face grow a little pink. She stared at her hands again and said, “Twenty-Six dollars.”
My jaw dropped. “What? You planned on crossing the country on Twenty-Six dollars and a smile?”
Her shoulders squared themselves as she stared at me with that - I want to kill you look - of hers. She was even prettier when she got mad.
“My friend drove me to Bakersfield. I was going to catch a bus there. If I took a plane he’d have someone waiting for me when I got off. I figured it was far enough away that if he found out he couldn’t stop me. But the prick had turned off my credit cards. I was going to use them to get to where I need to be.”
“So you went anyway?” I asked. I could not believe it. How naive can a person be?
“I thought I’d work along the way. You know truck stops and stuff.
That’s how naive. “Oh Sunshine,” I said before I could stop myself. “The way you look. The only jobs you’d have found would have been flat on your back.”
She looked at me shocked and hurt. Then her eyes began to burn holes into my soul. Obviously not the right thing to say. That awkward silence fell between us again. I wondered if we’d ever get past that awkward stage. What was the next stage I wondered? I might have done okay with the ladies, but never long term. What did it take to get to where they weren’t all mad at you one moment and turning you on the next?
She was quiet as she looked off into the night. “I still can’t figure out how they knew I was here.”
“Let me see your cell phone,”
“Why?” She asked as she handed it over. “I didn’t make any calls.”
“You don’t have to make any calls. These things are tracked whenever you get into range of a cell tower. They probably tracked your progress every step of the way across the desert,” I said as I removed the batteries and handed them back to her.
She looked at the pieces in her hand and said, “I didn’t know.”
“Well, now you do. Don’t put the batteries in unless I tell you it’s all right.”
“Yes Boss,” she said with a sneer. But I noticed she put them back in her bag separately.
“Okay, let’s see if I’ve got this straight, you left home a couple of days ago with twenty-six dollars to go across country. Your rich father doesn’t like the idea of you out here on your own. I can’t really say I blame him I might add.”
She shot me another dirty look.
“He turned off your credit cards,” I continued. “And you need to get to Philly without being seen or stopped. As far as you know the cops have not been brought into it yet. Is that it? Is there anything more? Drugs? Bank robberies? Alien abduction?” I was trying to bring a little levity to the situation and failing miserably.
She shook her head no
but didn’t say anything. There had to be more. There always was with pretty girls. Drama seemed to follow them around like lost puppies.
“What’s your last name? It’s not Kardashian or something. You’re not famous are you?”
“No, I’m not famous.” She said almost wistfully. I wondered what her dreams had been growing up. It couldn’t have been to be trapped in a pick-up truck in beautiful Kingman Arizona with some guy she just met.
“My last name is Stanislav. Natasha Stanislav.” She said while she stared at me defiantly as if daring me to use the power she’d just given me.
“Stanislav. Your dad’s not in the Russian Mafia is he?” I said with a laugh.
Unfortunately, she didn’t laugh back. Instead, a little speck of fear jumped into her eyes.
Crap! What had I gotten myself into? She must have seen the huge speck of fear that had just jumped into my eyes because she held up her hands and said. “No, No, He’s just a businessman.”
“But?” I asked. My mouth had gone very dry and it was now impossible to swallow.
“But, he knows people.”
“What kind of people?” I asked. My guts were now tied into a granny knot.
She hesitated a moment. “People with guns. They visit him sometimes. He always makes me leave the room when they’re around. Never introduces us. Hey, I’m not an idiot. He’s a Russian émigré. Very wealthy. Export/Import stuff. I can put two and two together.”
I sighed to myself and focused internally. I couldn’t look at her and think straight. Okay, Michael, you’ve really stepped in it this time. You left a nightmare to get away from drama and tension. To try and find some kind of normal life and you jump into a fiasco with a Russian Princess. Next thing you know the KGB will be involved and that means the FBI and that is not good. You do not need them snooping around.
Maybe the best thing would to be to just tell her to get out. You didn’t owe her anything. No promises made. No obligation.
“Hey, Maybe I should just leave,” Sasha said. I could see she didn’t want to but she wasn’t going to beg either.
“No, No, give me a second. I’ve got an idea, maybe.”
She looked at me with big open eyes. For the first time, I saw a little hope in them. A little of the real Sasha behind the brick front she put out for everyone to see.
Yep, I’d really done it this time. I was going to help her and would probably regret it each and every day. But not near as much as I would if I walked away.
“Come on,” I said as I started the truck and put it in gear. “Like I said, I’ve got a plan.”
She smiled. It was a weak smile, but at least it was a smile.
Chapter Three
Sasha
Every car we passed made me jump. Every headlight. Each shiny black car made my heart want to jump out of my chest. What would my dad do? I was eighteen. He couldn’t do anything, right? My brain said yes but my guts said no.
I didn’t really know him. Not like I thought I did. He’d lied. My whole life had been a lie. What would he do to stop me discovering the truth? There was no telling. I’d never defied him before. There’d been no reason to really. He’d been a great dad. I thought I was pretty lucky. Until three days ago when I found out what he had done to my mom. The lies and deceit still burned like a volcano inside of me, making me wanting to erupt and hurt something. I should tell Michael, he deserved to know what was going on. Before I could get going Michael served into a grocery store.
“Here we are,” he said as he whipped around checking things out. Examining each one of the sixteen cars in the parking lot.
He pulled around to the side of the building and parked in a shadow. No one would see us here I realized.
“What are we doing here?” I asked.
“Supplies,” he said over his shoulder as he got out.
I got out and joined him. The night air gave me goosebumps. I really should have brought longer pants. Who knew my dad would cut me off. Especially that fast. Add it to the long list of things that was pissing me off.
The store was brightly lit with only a couple of bored checkers and even fewer shoppers. I scanned their faces looking for anybody who might be working for my father.
“Come on,” Michael said as he gently took my elbow. An electric shock traveled up my arm from where he touched me to the back of my neck. I shivered and it wasn’t only from the air-conditioned store.
He led me to the ATM machine and retrieved five hundred dollars. “That’s the most I can get in a day.”
“Won’t they be able to track that also? They’ve got your name. I’m sure my dad knows people that can get your credit card transactions. Won’t they find us,” I whispered? It felt dangerous even talking about them out loud.
“They already know we’re here in this town. It’s got to take a couple of hours at least before they can get their hands on this transaction. Even the cops don’t get stuff that fast. By the time they do, we will be long gone.”
“Oh,” I said. I could sound so intelligent at times. What was it about this guy that made me feel like a blithering idiot? Screw him, He wasn’t as smart as he thought.
Grabbing a cart we spent the next fifteen minutes getting enough food to feed a family of four for a week. I hope he didn’t expect me to cook it for him. What I knew about cooking could get a person seriously sick. Maria our cook had laughed the few times I’d tried. She’d eventually banned me from the kitchen after I scalded her favorite pan so bad she had to throw it away.
In addition to the food, he got a cooler, ice, a big paper map, and some first aid stuff. Using his debit card he paid for it. Over two hundred dollars’ worth of food and not a lettuce leaf to be found.
As we wheeled the full cart out of the store he stopped in the doorway and held a hand out to hold me back.
“What?” I asked.
He hesitated for a moment then his shoulders relaxed. “Nothing, come on.”
When we got to the truck he told me to keep lookout as he opened the back bed cover. A quick glance inside let me see an old green duffle bag. A brand new Nylon bag, a backpack, one of those mountain hiking kind with a gazillion pockets. A beat-up guitar case, and a couple of cardboard boxes. Is this it? I wondered, all of his worldly possessions? They didn’t even fill the corner of a pick-up truck.
He started loading the cooler first then poured the ice over everything. Shooting me a questioning look I remembered I was supposed to be keeping a lookout. I twisted around to face the parking lot. My stomach felt like someone had hit me with a sledgehammer. What would I do if I saw them?
“That should do it,” Michael said as he finished the last knot tying everything down. “Let’s go.”
I gave the street area one last look before jumping up into the truck. Where were they?
Michael turned the truck on but didn’t put it into gear. He gripped the wheel with both hands and looked at me.
“That’s it,” He said. “We’re off the grid from this point forward. No credit cards, no phones. Nothing that leaves any trace. We’ve got about seven hundred and twenty-six dollars for three thousand miles. After gas that doesn’t leave us much. You ready?”
I looked at him. Why was he doing this? Did he expect something from me? Was he going to demand payment at some point along a deserted road like that creep last night? And if he did? What then? Would I object? It surprised me to realize that I might not.
Taking a deep breath I nodded. My voice refused to work for some reason.
He backed out of our shadow and pulled out of the parking lot.
We hadn’t gone a hundred yards when we saw the black BMW pass us going the other way. The faces of both men lit up in surprise when they saw us. Michael floored it and the truck jumped as if someone had kicked it with spurs.
Looking into the rearview mirror he cursed under his breath and hung a hard right into a residential neighborhood. As we squealed around the corner I saw the bastards’ straighten from their own turn and race
to catch up.
Michael took a sharp left, throwing me up against the door. “If you kill us, it sort of defeats the whole purpose of getting away,” I said as I rubbed my sore shoulder.
He didn’t even acknowledge me as he took another turn. I had to grab the handle to stop from sliding across the seat. Did he have any idea where he was going or was this some kind of macho joy ride?
Before I could ask him, he turned down another street and immediately into a driveway beside a white pick-up. Did everyone around her drive trucks? Did he know these people? Could they help us? When did my life become a series of questions that no one ever answered?
I looked out the back, scanning desperately to see if the car was still on our tail. Without warning, Michael grabbed the back of my neck and pulled me over at the waist so that my lips were kissing the leather.
“What are you doing?” I hissed as I tried to push myself back up. Wondering if I could hit him in a sensitive spot from this angle.
“Stay down,” he said through gritted teeth as he leaned over. I could feel his full weight resting on me. “That blond hair and that stupid hat stand out like a lighthouse on a dark beach. Stay down until they’re gone.”
“Whose house is this?” I asked. Okay, maybe he had a plan. And I had to admit, he hadn’t been too rough about it.
Michael laughed. “I have no idea. Let’s hope they don’t have a shotgun or a pack of dogs.”
We lay there like that for several minutes, him twisted over me keeping me down. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. How long would we have to be like this? How would we know when it was safe?
At last, he relaxed and let me up. I didn’t put my hat back on. Instead placing it on the seat next to me. It wasn’t a stupid hat. It looked good on me. Michael took a breath and started the truck again. He rested his arm on the back of the seat and stared over his shoulder as he slowly backed out of the driveway keeping his lights off until we were a couple of blocks away.
He didn’t go back to the main road instead he wove his way through the housing division until he came out on the other side and then worked his way back to the main road a good five miles past the outskirts of Kingman.
First Love Page 11
