Road Tripping (12 page)

She spent more
money than they probably could afford, but they simply couldn’t keep going on
as they had been.

When she
returned to the motel room, she was shocked to find Ethan still asleep. She
hadn’t expected him to sleep so soundly. But when she went over to feel his
forehead, she was relieved to discover he didn’t have a fever.

She puttered
around the room for a few minutes, trying to organize things. Then she took off
her skirt and bra, kept on Ethan’s old camp shirt, and got into the bed beside
him. She spooned up behind him again and covered them both with a blanket.

Whether Ethan
wanted it or not, she was going to be there for him tonight. After all, someone
had to take care of the arrogant, infuriating bastard, who had almost gotten
himself killed. The dear, brave, tormented soul.

She didn’t get
much sleep. Just held him all night. Sometime around three in the morning, Ethan
turned over in his sleep. Reached out to unconsciously draw her toward him,
pulling her against his chest.

So they ended
up holding each other.

***

The following day at around
noon, they were on the road again. Ashley had used her first aid supplies to
treat Ethan’s injury that morning, but it needed more help than she could
provide. So once they were dressed in their new clothes—Ethan complained loudly
about the khakis—and in the car, Ashley had stopped at a little drop-in medical
clinic she’d spotted the night before. Since it was small and out-of-the-way, Ethan
had reluctantly agreed to go in.

They’d sewn him
up, bandaged him, and prescribed some heavy pain killers. Ethan had used most
of their remaining cash to pay for his treatment, but Ashley had insisted that
it was worth it.

He’d grumbled
under his breath the whole time, which Ashley took to be a very good sign. He
was definitely acting more like himself. Whatever he’d been dealing with the
night before had faded with the morning light. Neither of them alluded to the
strangeness of the previous evening.

Ashley was
driving again today—they’d had a brief argument about it, but she’d won by a
landslide. "I didn’t appreciate your explanation of the injury,” she said
mildly as they pulled back onto the highway, heading north once again.

“I had to tell
them something.” Ethan’s speech was a little slurred. “They seemed perfectly
willing to believe that you accidentally shot me as I was trying to teach you
how to use a firearm. You must look like that kind of woman.”

“A far more
appropriate explanation would be that I shot you purely out of rage after
putting up with too much of your smug, patronizing attitude.”

He gave her a
drowsy half-smile. “We still have the guns if you ever feel the need to do
something other than complain about me. I’ll even take the safety off for you.”

“Don’t tempt
me. You get smugger and smugger each day of this horrible trip.”

“And you get
more and more demanding. If we don’t kill each other before we get to Sioux
Falls, it will be a miracle.” He was grinning unsteadily, and his features were
almost too relaxed. His head was drooping back against the seat. “And I don’t
believe in miracles. Or anything else for that matter.”

Ashley peered
at him closely. “How many of those pain killers did you take?”

“A few,” came
the vague, mumbled response. “I have a lot of pain. Have ever since you came
back into my life.”

“Well, try to
sleep them off. We’ve got a long way to go today. Maybe we’ll actually make it
through another state.”

“I’ll drive if
you need me to,” Ethan offered, smiling at her endearingly. “Perfectly alert.
Don’t need a nap.”

Ashley
chuckled. “I think maybe you do. Go to sleep and stop bugging me.”

“Okay. Haven’t
gotten much sleep lately anyway.”

“You haven’t? We’ve
only had one late night.”

“Went to bed
but not to sleep.”

“You haven’t
slept? You slept last night. You mean you didn’t sleep the nights before that?
You didn’t sleep at all?”

“Nope,” Ethan
responded, clearly quite out of it now. “Not any of the nights.”

“Why not?” Ashley
was desperately thinking back. It seemed impossible that Ethan hadn’t slept. So
he’d just lain awake all night? Even when they’d been in the same bed?

“Couldn’t
sleep.”

“Hmmm,” Ashley
murmured, turning again to study his handsome face, which was so
uncharacteristically open.

“My
responsibility,” he added obliquely.

She was pretty
sure she knew what that meant. He had stayed awake in some sort of stupid,
noble attempt to make sure they were safe. Because he had gotten her into this
mess, and she was his responsibility.

Ashley drove in
silence for a few minutes, and then asked a random question. “So why did you
try to talk to me at the gas station?”

“What gas
station?”

“Back home. We
hadn’t talked in a year and a half. Why did you make a point of talking to me?”

“Couldn’t
resist. There you were, looking so pretty.”

“I was?”

“Of course.”

She felt like
squirming in pleasure. “Did you think I’d want to talk to you?”

“I didn’t know.
I didn’t know you hated me. Although it was smart of you.” He sighed deeply.
“Not good for you.”

He seemed to be
getting a little off-track, so she prompted, ‘Why didn’t you know I hated you?”

“I thought you
knew the truth.”

“What? What
truth?”

“I thought Mark
would have told you.”

“Told me what? About
how you were trying to get out of the moonshine business?”

He didn’t
answer

“Ethan? Was
that what Mark was supposed to tell me?”

He didn’t
answer again. When she checked his face, she saw he’d fallen asleep.

***

They had just crossed over into
Illinois when Ethan finally woke up. She had stopped for gas and a snack, but
managed not to wake him.

He clearly
needed to catch up on an awful lot of sleep.

When he woke
up, he peered over at her suspiciously. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing. You’ve
just had a nice little nap.”

He snarled mildly.
“No sign of...anyone?”

“No bad guys that
I’ve spotted.” She was inching over into the other lane of the two-lane road to
check for oncoming traffic before she tried to pass the tractor in front of
her. “These back roads are mostly empty—except for the farm equipment.”

Ethan rubbed
his face roughly and sort of shook himself off. “I should have just taken one
pill.”

“I could have
told you that.”

“What was I
mumbling about before I fell asleep?” he asked with a frown. “I seem to recall
babbling some sort of nonsense. I didn’t say anything stupid, did I?” He turned
suddenly to analyze her expression.

Ashley hid her
smile. “Nothing stupider than you normally say. I’ve learned to ignore most of
your babbling.”

He didn’t look
entirely convinced, but he said, “Good.” And then dropped into silence.

After a few
minutes, Ashley said, “This is the bad guys’ car. Do you think it could have
one of those tracking things in it that they use to find stolen cars?”

Ethan didn’t
answer immediately. Then he said soberly, “Maybe we better get rid of this
car.”

“Damn. I knew
this was too good to be true. Brand new car. Comfortable. In good shape. Handed
right to us. No way we’d be able to keep it for more than a day. Not with our
luck.”

When Ethan didn’t
say anything, she asked, “So where are we going to find another car?”

“I’m thinking.”

“Well, try not
to wear yourself out. You haven’t gotten much sleep lately.”

Ethan turned
quickly to stare at her. “What?”

“Oh,” she
murmured. He must not have remembered babbling to her about that. No use in
reminding him. “Never mind.”

“Ashley.” He
said her name slowly, his voice edged with warning.

He was trying
to intimidate her, but she was not going to be intimidated. But she thought it
would be good strategy to direct them back to the essential issue. “Another
car?”

She saw his
mind working, putting pieces together. But then she noticed something when she
glanced to her right.

She slammed on
the brakes and made a sharp turn into a gravel drive.

“What the hell?”
Ethan roared. “I knew I shouldn’t let you drive.”

She ignored
this rudeness and pulled up beside an old, run-down barn. Beside it was a
pickup truck.

“Would you like
to share?” Ethan asked.

“You wanted
another vehicle. I offer you this one. Look, it’s covered with dust and leaves.
Must not have been driven in months. If we can get it to start, I bet it will
be hours—even days—before anyone notices it’s gone.”

They wiped down
the sedan as carefully as they could to get rid of fingerprints. Then they walked
over to the blue pickup. It wasn’t as old as Gus’s truck, but it had clearly
not been driven in a while. Ashley peered in the window. In the passenger seat
was an old sleeping bag and a pile of folded blankets. “Look,” she said in
delight. “Those will probably come in handy. Especially if we can’t afford a
motel room tonight.”

Ethan had
opened the door and gotten into the driver’s seat. He leaned forward and
started fiddling with the wires under the dashboard. “We would have been able
to afford a motel room had you not forced me to go to the doctor. I would have
never thought you were so bossy and nervous about everything.”

“Well,” Ashley
said, feeling a familiar annoyance start to grow. Being injured and drugged
didn’t temper Ethan’s personality for long. “I wasn’t about to drag you around
wounded and barely functional. I have my own well-being to look out for, you
know. Much help you would be against the bad guys if you passed out from the
blood loss or got an infection that gave you a fever.”

Ethan muttered
a snide reply, but his face was under the steering wheel, so Ashley couldn’t
really hear it.

Then the engine
hummed to life, and Ashley let out a delighted little squeal. “I knew you were
good for something.”

Pretty soon
they were on their way again. This time in the blue pickup truck. They had left
the sedan neatly parked in its place.

The pickup
drove fine, and they made pretty good time for the next several hours. They
stopped early on to fill up with gas and get something to eat.

In fact, things
were going so smoothly that they were almost through Illinois by evening. It
had gotten dark, and Ashley was tired from a long day and very little sleep the
night before. Ethan kept drifting off into dozes, saying very little even when
he was awake.

Finally, at
about 10:00, Ashley said, “I’ve got to stop somewhere, Ethan. Or I’m going to
fall asleep at the wheel.”

“Any thoughts
as to where?” he asked, shaking his head as if he were rousing himself.

“I saw a sign
for a campground in a couple of miles. That will be cheaper than a motel. And
we have those blankets and sleeping bag…”

Ethan nodded,
although he didn’t look too happy. “Wonderful. Primitive camping in the middle
of Illinois. And it looks like it might rain. Just what we need.”

“How’s your
arm?” she asked, ignoring his sarcasm.

Ethan shifted
in the passenger seat. “It’s fine. A little sore, but that’s all. My body is
fully functional.”

Her mind
interpreted that in one very particular way—a way Ethan had clearly not
intended. Ashley felt herself blushing and hated herself for it.

For
distraction, she turned and tried to see his face in the dim light. She thought
he was probably telling the truth. He looked better after having slept for so
much of the day, and his eyes were clear and sharp again.

She was glad.
She’d been happy to take over the reins today, but she didn’t really want to be
responsible for both of them. It was hard enough looking out for just herself.

Well, Ethan was
now fully functional. So they could go back to looking out for each other. Things
worked much better that way.

***

A little while later, Ashley was
waiting for Ethan to finish up at the office of the campground. It was late,
she was tired, the campground was not of stellar quality, and she just wanted
to curl up and go to sleep.

He seemed to be
taking an excessively long time, and Ashley adjusted a bit as she leaned
against the stolen pickup.

There weren’t
very many people at the campground tonight, so Ashley was surprised to hear the
sound of voices and engines approaching her. They were loud and unruly and
rather obnoxious. She could tell even before she saw who it was.

It was some
sort of motorcycle gang. Or maybe calling it a gang was an unfair stereotype.
The ten or twelve men were wearing leather, weren’t well-shaven, and looked
like they hadn’t had showers in a while. But perhaps they would prefer to be
called a club or an association of motorcycle enthusiasts.

Whatever they
were, they were approaching her, and Ashley really, really wished that Ethan
would hurry up.

The particularly
greasy one with blondish hair seemed to be the leader. As soon as he noticed
her, he came over and stood a little bit too close.

Ashley was
suddenly scared. She was alone here, in the middle of nowhere, and her only
protection was a wounded Ethan and two guns under the passenger seat. Not a
convenient location at the moment.

“Well, look
what we have here,” the man said in a surprisingly tenor voice. “Beautiful
thing all by herself. Just waiting for me to take care of her.”

Now Ashley had
to fight rising panic. There were about twelve of them. All big. All somewhat
menacing. Probably carrying weapons. Visions of various horrific possibilities
flickered through her mind.

But she knew
better than to actually act scared. They might not have any malicious
motives—and there was no sense in antagonizing them unnecessarily.