Road Tripping (10 page)

So her thigh
and Ethan’s were pressed up next to each other. Ashley wasn’t at all
comfortable with the feeling. She was even less comfortable when Ethan draped
his arm over the back of the seat to give her more room because now it felt
like he had his arm around her.

“Got to be
careful,” the lady, who had introduced herself as Mabel, was saying. “Don’t
want to get stuck in these parts. Nothing around for miles.”

Since they were
already well aware of that fact, they made polite noises of acquiescence.

“Young man,”
Mabel continued, “You should take better care of your sweetheart here. It might
have been hours before anyone happened along. Got to be careful with such
precious cargo.”

The precious
cargo tried not to giggle, and Ethan made some sort of incoherent mumble in
reply. But the look he aimed at Ashley was not one a man would give to his
sweetheart.

Deciding teasing
him was too much fun to pass up, Ashley leaned over and kissed him on his
temple. “He takes real good care of me. He’s my hero, really. But even heroes
slip up occasionally and forget to put gas in the tank.”

Mabel seemed to
appreciate this display of affection. “I’m sure glad to hear that, missy. Young
men these days...they’ve forgotten how to woo a girl. They’ll only do what they
have to do to get into a girl’s pants. All about fucking now. No romance
anymore.”

Both Ashley and
Ethan choked a little at Mabel’s choice of language. Those particular words and
that sweet-looking old woman didn’t match at all.

“So don’t make
that mistake,” Mabel continued, patting Ashley’s arm. “Don’t give him your body
unless he offers the whole package. His heart better be part of the deal.”

Silently, Ashley
admitted to herself that that was what she wanted. It was what she’d been
waiting for. Even before she’d resolved to go out of her way to be good, she’d
always wanted an old-fashioned love.

But Ethan was
looking a little irritated at Mabel’s assumptions about him, so Ashley wasn’t
going to miss an opportunity to take advantage of that. “To tell you the
truth,” she murmured to Mabel, as if in confidence—although she knew quite well
that Ethan could hear her. “He’s been making...advances.” She had to swallow
over her amusement when she heard Ethan’s grunt of surprise. “But I told him…” Ashley
started shaking her finger at Ethan as if she were chiding him. “That without a
ring on my finger he’d get nothing from me but a kiss.”

Ethan had his
lips pressed together in a delicious expression of repressed rage, so to drive
her point home, she leaned over and kissed him again. On the cheek this time.
She loved how he tensed up when her lips touched his skin—controlling his
annoyance, no doubt.

“Very wise,
hon,” Mabel said with an approving nod. “Don’t know what girls are thinking
nowadays. Sure, an occasional orgasm is awfully nice.” She seemed completely
oblivious to Ethan and Ashley’s dropped jaws. “But an orgasm won’t take care of
you when you’re hurt or in trouble, or hold you close when you’re scared at
night, or stand by you when no one else will. All an orgasm can do is give you
a few seconds of pleasure. Wouldn’t say no to one myself, but want a bit more
to go with it.”

Ashley was
speechless, stared at Mabel with wide eyes. Tried to think of something else to
say that would infuriate Ethan more, but couldn’t seem to get her mind to work.
Couldn’t think of anything but Mabel’s eccentric speech.

They were
almost to the gas station anyway. As they pulled into the parking lot, for some
reason, Ashley felt a heavy poignancy that wouldn’t seem to lift.

***

Now with a tank full of gas,
they were soon approaching Indianapolis. It had taken them five days to get
there, when it should have taken them about eight hours. Because they were
avoiding the interstates, they came into the city on the surface roads. And
because Gus’s map had only been of Kentucky, they didn’t really know where they
were going anymore.

They got
really, really lost. Yelled at each other a lot.

They stopped an
hour later, and Ashley jumped out to ask for directions. But the directions
were so confusing that it took them another hour to figure out how to follow
them. They stopped twice more for directions, but no one they talked to seemed
to understand how to explain a clear route.

They had
stumbled into a less desirable part of town, and Ethan was so frustrated he was
gripping the steering wheel like he might rip it off.

“We should have
turned right,” Ashley told him, on the verge of either screaming or bursting
into tears. It felt like they’d never get out of this horrible maze of a city.

“Right will
take us south,” Ethan said coldly. “We don’t want to go south.”

Ashley, who
never thought in directions, scoffed, “I don’t care if it’s south. We should
have gone right. I’m the one who heard the directions. Maybe we should ask
someone else for help.”

“Would you like
to ask the nice drug dealer on the corner there?” Ethan asked silkily. “I’m
sure the gentleman would be very happy to talk to you.”

She hated it
when he spoke in that tone of voice. She much preferred his roars of rage. She
tried to keep her tone equally biting as she said, “Maybe you should talk to
him instead. He’s your kind of guy, after all. Trading in illegal substances.”
Wow! It sounded even meaner than she had intended.

Ethan didn’t
respond right away. Then asked gruffly, “What the hell is going on with you
today?”

Ashley turned
and stared at him. Suddenly got tense. “What do you mean?”

“I mean what
happened overnight? Why do you seem to hate me again today?” They were stopped
at a red light, so he was studying her carefully.

“What makes you
think I ever stopped hating you?”

“All right,
let’s just say you seemed to hate me less in the last few days. But today,
we’ve suddenly become enemies.” He reached out and tipped her chin up with his
fingers. “I want to know why.”

There was no
way that Ashley could tell him. She had to defend herself. Couldn’t start
feeling mushy or swoony or weak. She would be hurt if she let her feelings grow
any stronger.

This was
self-preservation. And, for that, you sometimes had to fight dirty. So she said
something she knew was absurd, but that she was sure would get him off of her
back. “I was starting to think that you might be getting...too interested, so I
was trying to subtly give you a hint that I could never have feelings for
someone like you.”

Ethan made a
strange noise. Ashley couldn’t interpret it. She peered at his face, but it was
as hard and unyielding as concrete. “Is that what you thought?” he asked
softly. His eyes were totally blank.

She felt
horrible. Would give anything to take her words back.

She tried to
ease their way out of the situation by saying, “So I was wrong. I just misread
things. Clearly you aren’t interested.” This much at least was the truth. “So
I’m sorry I was crabby. Can we forget the whole stupid thing?” Her voice was
almost natural, quavering only a little bit.

“Of course,” Ethan
replied, in his cool, detached tone. The one she hated the absolute most. “It’s
forgotten.”

The light had
turned green, so he was looking at the road in front of him. Ashley couldn’t
see his eyes. Couldn’t read his expression. Had a feeling things weren’t really
forgotten.

She wouldn’t
forget them anyway.

They eventually
found their way through Indianapolis and started taking country roads once
more. They stopped at a little local restaurant—nothing more than hole in the
wall—to eat supper, and then kept going, trying to get as far as they could
before dark.

Their truck
seemed to be holding up well. They hadn’t had any further delays. Empty roads
were waiting before them. Everything was going smoothly for once.

Except they had
barely spoken ten words to each other since they’d left Indianapolis.

When the
silence threatened to suffocate her, Ashley said the only thing she could think
of. “At least the truck seems to be making it.”

Ethan didn’t
look over at her. Stared at the horizon, at the shifting colors in the dusk.
“The truck’s a keeper.” The same words he’d said last night. But for some
reason they sounded almost bittersweet now.

Ashley felt a
tear leak out of her eye and hoped the growing dark would help to hide it. This
was all wrong. Everything had changed between them. And it was because of her
own cruel words. “Someone like you,” she had said to Ethan. She knew how he’d
interpret it. Someone dark, dubious, dangerous—somebody bad...like him.

She had hurt
him. Hit him where he was the most vulnerable. She’d known how to strike out
against him and used her knowledge of his nature to her advantage.

It was
self-preservation, and maybe one day she’d be glad for what she’d done. But
right now it was all she could do to keep her composure. She pretended to
scratch her forehead and surreptitiously brushed away the tear.

He hadn’t
looked at her in over an hour, so she was pretty sure that he didn’t notice.

She had done
what she needed to do to keep her heart from being broken.

Screw it all.
Anything was better than this. “Ethan,” she began, embarrassed at the painful
crack in her voice.

He turned
quickly to look at her. Opened his mouth to speak. But before any words came
out, headlights approached them from behind, so quickly that Ashley gasped from
sudden terror.

Ethan stepped
on the gas as a familiar dark sedan roared up on their tail.

Neither Ethan
nor Ashley questioned who it was, for even a moment. They both realized that
they’d finally been found.

Their truck
picked up some speed as Ethan floored the gas pedal, but it was an old vehicle,
and it could only go so fast.

There was no
way they could outrun the sedan. No way to hide. No way to escape. The bad guys
were going to get them.

But Ethan was
still trying to accelerate as much as he could. When the sedan pulled up beside
them, he tried to push it off the road by steering into it.

The cars
impacted with a jerky thud, but both stayed on the road.

Then the man in
the passenger seat—the cute one Ashley had seen yesterday—aimed a gun out of
the window. Ashley had to bite her lip to keep from screaming. She huddled down
into her seat as she heard the shots ring out, although he wasn’t aiming at her
or at Ethan.

The truck
swerved wildly as the cute guy shot out one of the tires. Ethan tried for a
minute to hold it on the road as he gradually slowed the truck down, but as a
few more bullets were fired into the dark, Ashley felt the truck veer off of
the road.

They were still
going too fast, and Ashley screamed as she saw a grove of trees directly in
front of them. They couldn’t stop in time. Couldn’t turn. They just crashed
into the trees.

Ashley’s neck
snapped back as they finally jerked to a stop, her seat belt grabbing her
painfully in the midsection.

“Ashley,” Ethan
shouted. “Get out now. Run!” He opened his door and tumbled out onto the dirt.

She was
suddenly panicked by his urgent tone. She tried to do as he instructed and fumbled
with her seatbelt for way too long before she could get her fingers to unfasten
it. When she pushed on her door, she was gasping with fear and effort.

It wouldn’t
open. It had been crushed a bit by one of the trees, apparently too much to
open easily.

“Ethan!” she
screamed, heaving herself at the door with all of her might. “It’s stuck!”

She saw the
headlights of the sedan as it came back around to where the pickup truck had
crashed.

“Here,” he
said, leaning into the driver’s side. “Come this way. Hurry.” He reached for
her, and Ashley grabbed at him desperately. Ethan pulled her out through the
driver’s side.

Then he dragged
her by the arm and started sprinting away from the truck. It was all Ashley
could do to keep up. Her lungs were burning, she was dizzy, and she had no idea
what was going on.

Until Gus’s
old, reliable truck—that had stuck with them for two days—suddenly exploded in
a deafening blaze of heat and light.

They were too
close. Ashley could feel the furious heat from the explosion hit her like a
wave, and it felt like something pushed her violently down from behind.

She fell on her
face, tried to cover her ears and her eyes at the same time until the first mad
rush was over.

It all felt
like a nightmare. Or some kind of drug-induced vision. Ashley squeezed her eyes
shut. Saw spots of yellow and red. Felt like she’d been burned. Her head was
pounding so painfully she could hear it.

“Ashley,” she
heard over the drumming in her head. “Ashley, honey, are you all right?”

Hands were on
her. Touching her. Turning her over. But she couldn’t seem to open her eyes.

“Ashley,” the
voice said again. She was sure she recognized it—if only she could get her mind
to work. “Talk to me. Open your eyes. Ashley, don’t you dare be hurt.”

And the voice
sounded so rough and terrified that she felt like it was only humane to let him
know she was okay. She peeked through her lashes, saw Ethan’s face inches from
hers. Thought she should probably try to relieve his anxiety.

“I mean it,” he
said again, in that same raw voice. He was almost shaking her now. “Don’t you
dare be hurt.”

“Not my fault
if I am,” she croaked out, in an embarrassingly feeble voice. She managed to
open her eyes all the way and was rewarded by seeing the fear in Ethan’s face
transform into something like joy.

He pulled her
into a hug. Which felt very, very nice.

They’d both
momentarily forgotten about how they had gotten there.

“Very touching,”
came a pleasant voice from behind them. “But we don’t have time for romantic
love scenes. Stand up please.”