Road Tripping (3 page)

Yet.

She was
flipping channels when there was a knock at the door. After peeking through the
peephole, she opened the door for Ethan.

“What’s going
on?” she asked, sitting back down on the bed.

Ethan sat down
on the other bed across from her.

When he didn’t
say anything immediately, she said, “So deciding to resign from a life of crime
isn’t as easy as you hoped.”

He made a face—somewhere
between frustration and reluctance.

“So it’s your
own guys chasing you?”

“My guys?”

“Your crew or
whatever. The moonshiners. Your cohorts in crime.”

He narrowed his
eyes. “You seem to have concocted quite a little drama about my activities.”

“Hey, you’re
the one who got my brother arrested, got chased by bad guys in black, and then
blew up his own boat, so don’t talk to me about drama.”

“Yeah. It’s a
mess. But it didn’t happen the way you think.”

She felt a
strange little kick in her heart at the idea that there might be some sort of
explanation for the good-hearted boy she’d known all her life turning into a
bad guy. She waited for him to continue, to explain it away.

But he just shook
his head and looked away. “Anyway, that’s not the point. If they were my crew
chasing me, they’d have beer bellies and chewing tobacco. And they wouldn’t be shooting
at me. These guys aren’t from around here.”

“So who are
they?”

“I think they
must be hired guns.”

“So who hired
them?”

“Jones, I
believe.”

“Damn Buster,”
Ashley muttered.

“My sentiment
exactly.”

“So why did
Buster send the hired guns after you? What does he want from you?”

“Originally, he
wanted my boat dock. Now, it’s complicated. He doesn’t like me trying to
extricate myself.”

“So what are
you going to do?”

“I need to get
to South Dakota. I might have a way out, but I need to meet with someone in
Sioux Falls.”

“Who is it?”

“He runs
distribution on the other side of the Mississippi. He’s basically at the end of
the distribution route.”

“Buster
distributes his moonshine all the way to South Dakota?” She was shocked, and
her voice showed it.

“Yeah.” Ethan
shook his head. “It’s a big business. That’s why he takes it so seriously.”

“So why don’t
you just call this guy up?”

“He’s paranoid about
Jones and refuses to talk to me on the phone anymore, and he refuses to do
anything over the internet. The only way to talk to him anymore is in person.”

“Well, good
luck with that,” she said sweetly, reaching for her phone. “I’m going home.”

“No.” Ethan’s
hand landed over Ashley’s on the phone, keeping her from picking it up. “You
can’t. You have to come with me.”

Ashley let out
a howl of frustration. “This is ridiculous. Why do I have to come with you?”

“They know who
you are. I made a few calls, and they definitely know. Your folks should be
okay, since they won’t be back in town for a couple of weeks. But you’re
definitely in danger. I made the mistake of underestimating Jones, but I’m
discovering he’s more ruthless than people realize. He’s not just a harmless
good-ole-boy. Moonshining has been his family’s business for ninety years. It
brings in huge money for him, and he’s not going to stand for anyone who gets
in the way of it. Until I can fix things, you’re definitely in danger.”

Her jaw
dropped. Her shoulders dropped. Her heart dropped. “And you need to fix things
in South Dakota?”

“Yeah. I can’t
let you go home and get kidnapped or worse so they can use you for leverage
over me.”

“But why would
they think I’d be leverage. Why couldn’t I just be a random chick you met at
the gas station?”

“Jones knows
me. He knows better than that.”

She didn’t know
what he meant by that, but maybe Buster knew that they’d grown up together.

“Can’t I just
hide out somewhere until it’s all over?” Her question was a little desperate,
but she was feeling a little desperate. Anything was preferable to being on the
run with Ethan for another day.

His hand was
still on hers. His touch was strong, warm, and steady. “Where would you hide? We’re
okay in this motel for one night, but they’ll eventually start searching. He’s
got people on the take all over that he can use for information. A fake name
isn’t going to keep you safe for very long. I can’t trust the police—you know some
of them are in Jones’s pocket—and I can’t trust anyone else to watch over you. They’re
definitely going to be coming after me, and they wouldn’t hesitate to use you
to get to me.”

Ashley gave up
and let out a huge sigh. She still trusted him. Even if she despised him, he
felt familiar, like family—sort of. “When do we fly to South Dakota?”

“We can’t fly,”
Ethan said with a resigned frown. “He’ll be watching the airports. He’s bribed
dozens of people who work there. We’ll have to drive.”

Groaning, she
pulled her hand away from Ethan’s. His touch was becoming unsettling. “How long
will it take?”

“It’s about an
eighteen or twenty hour trip,” he explained, standing up. “So we’ll drive
straight through tomorrow, I’ll meet with my guy in Sioux Falls, and we’ll clear
this whole mess up. Jones will be off my back. No more bad guys chasing either
one of us. With any luck, in two days this fiasco will all be a bad memory, and
we’ll never have to see each other again.”

His tone became
a little bitter at the end, but Ashley ignored it and concentrated on
essentials. Two days, he’d said. Surely her nice, tidy, good-girl life wouldn’t
be blown out of the water in just two days.

 “With my luck,”
she mumbled, rubbing her face with her hands. “It will take us two weeks to even
get to South Dakota.”

Ethan ignored
her pessimistic comment and turned to leave her room.

“Are we going
to rent a car?” she asked, before Ethan left. "Since they know Miss
Horner’s truck, we won’t be able to take that, will we?"

 “No. We can’t
take the truck, and I can’t rent a car. If I use my credit cards, they’ll be
able to track us. This trip will have to be cash only. We also can’t use our
phones, since they can track those too.”

“My purse flew
off the hood at the gas station, so I don’t have a phone or any money. All I
have is Miss Horner’s gas credit card.” She’d had it in her pocket when they were
first shot at. “How much cash do you have?”

“About a
thousand dollars.”

Her mouth
dropped open for like the fifth time that evening. “You carry a thousand
dollars of cash around with you? It’s like you belong in some James Bond
movie.”

“I thought it
was a Jason Statham movie. And instead of complaining about my habits, you
should appreciate the fact that we have any money at all.”

“How are we
going to get a car?” Ashley asked.

“We’ll think of
something tomorrow,” Ethan called back to her as he pulled the door shut.
“Don’t forget to chain your door.”

Ashley made an
irritated sound in response to his bossiness, loud enough for him to hear. But
after waiting long enough to ensure he was in his own room, she got up to link
the chain. Then she took off her skirt and top and got into bed.

This was the
most ridiculous, infuriating, frustrating situation she could ever have
imagined. This was as far as possible from the no-trouble life she’d been
trying to lead. But she was stuck. No way out of it now.

Unless she was
willing to betray Ethan by going to the police. Which she just wasn’t.

She was in a
motel in Dublin, Virginia. Ethan was in the next room. Tomorrow they would
start out on a twenty-hour road trip, while eluding an unknown number of hired
guns, brought in by sleazy, ruthless Buster Jones. They had to drive to Sioux
Falls, South Dakota in order for Ethan to contact some guy for an unidentified
reason—which she was definitely going to interrogate him about later.

And between the
two of them, Ashley and Ethan had no luggage, no toiletries, no change of
clothes, no car, no phones they could use, no usable credit cards, and only a
thousand dollars in cash.

If she didn’t
know better, Ashley would have thought she was a victim of some cruel reality
show. And the entire country would later watch her misery and laugh.

Ashley might
still trust Ethan, but her resentment was still firmly in place.

Lying in bed,
she tried to breathe deeply, clear her mind, and think of pleasant things—like
blank computer screens waiting to be filled up with words, fresh pots of
coffee, the smell of newsprint, the first page of a new book, Ethan’s eyes when
he smiled, his warm hand over hers…

And it was the
end of the first day.

Dublin,
Virginia

Ashley was awakened by the phone
ringing.

She sat up in
bed with a jerk, trying to orient herself, wondering where the hell she was.
She looked around at the neat, impersonal motel room.

Then everything
that had happened yesterday came back in rush, leaving her feeling kind of
shaky and nauseous. And the damned phone was still ringing.

“What!” she
barked, grabbing the phone on the ninth or tenth ring.

Ethan’s dry
tone was the last sound she wanted to hear right now. “Good morning to you too.
It’s time to get up. We’ve got a long trip.”

Ashley growled
out an impassioned and creative string of obscenities, feeling an inexplicable
delight at voicing her temper in such a tangible way.

“Someone should
wash your mouth out with soap. And then put you over his knee and spank you,” Ethan
said, after her inspiration had run dry. “Where did you learn that kind of
language?”

It was too
early in the morning and Ashley was too outraged to construct an appropriate
response to such a patronizing, superior attitude. She choked out an
inarticulate sound of rage.

“Exactly,” Ethan
replied. “I’m glad we agree on that. No more dirty words from you. Be ready in
twenty minutes, or I’m coming in to dress you myself.”

Then he hung up
the phone.

Ashley released
a very loud howl of fury—she was pretty sure Ethan could hear it in the next
room.

But she
wouldn’t put it past Ethan to follow up on his threat, so she stumbled out of
bed and into the bathroom. As she turned the shower on, she started chanting
out her morning mantra, “Coffee, coffee. I need coffee.”

The low-budget
establishment they were staying in didn’t even have one of those pitiful
two-cup contraptions. Even the watery, lukewarm stuff that was brewed by those
little complimentary coffeemakers was better than nothing.

The hot water
woke her up a little as she stepped under the spray, but it wasn’t going to do
the trick for long. Their first stop—even before they went to hunt for a
car—would have to be for coffee.

She took a
quick shower and then dried off in a rush. She had nothing she normally used to
get dressed in the morning—couldn’t brush her teeth, comb her hair, cleanse her
face, apply makeup, use deodorant, anything. So it didn’t take her very long to
get dressed.

She combed her
fingers through her wet hair, pulling out as many tangles as she could. She peered
into the mirror and noticed the dark circles under her eyes that couldn’t be
covered with makeup today. Her shirt was okay, but her skirt was wrinkled, and
the edges were a little dirty—from all the times she’d been thrown to the
ground the day before. And her hands and knees were skinned.

Oh well. This
wouldn’t be one of her pretty days. The only person to see her would be Ethan,
and she was sure he thought about her appearance so little that he wouldn’t
notice if she opened the door stark naked.

Not that she’d
do anything like that. Her parents were old-fashioned and had raised her that
way. She wasn’t inclined to greet guys, even those she liked, at the door
without any clothes on.

She was just
towel-drying her hair some more—no handy hairdryers attached to the wall in
these rooms—when there was a knock at the door.

It had only
been fifteen minutes.

“I have five
minutes left,” she called through the closed door.

He replied in
his most infuriating voice, “If you aren’t nicer to me, I’ll drink your coffee
myself.”

Ashley swung
open the door and nearly attacked him to get the large cup of coffee he’d
apparently bought from the fast food restaurant across the street. “I love
you,” she groaned huskily, as she lifted the cup to her lips and took her first
swallow.

Ethan chuckled.
“Well, that’s a shocking shift in attitude. I thought you couldn’t stand me.”

She glared at
him malevolently over her fragrant, steaming cup. “I was talking to the
coffee.”

Then she
ignored him and concentrated on drinking. It wasn’t the best brew she’d ever
tasted, but it felt a lot like heaven this morning. As she sipped, she made
some involuntary moans and sighs of sensual pleasure.

When she
glanced over at Ethan, she caught a peculiar expression on his face as he
watched her. She wasn’t sure how to interpret it, but it made her feel kind of
hot and unsettled. “What?” she demanded, to hide her confused reaction.

“Nothing,” Ethan
replied crisply, the strange expression immediately replaced by his no-nonsense
one. “We need to get going. You can make love to your coffee on the way to get
transportation.”

She ignored his
last snide comment and focused on essentials. “How are we going to get a car?
Will we try to buy one with some of your thousand dollars?”

Ethan shook his
head, pulling her by the arm out of her room. “That would take too long, and we
wouldn’t be likely to get a car in good enough condition to make the trip. I’ve
got a better plan.”

They’d made
their way over to the lobby, and Ashley waited as he went to check out of the
rooms. When he rejoined her, she prompted, “Well? What’s your plan?”

“I’ll explain
later.” Seeing that Ashley was about to vent some more frustration, he hurried
on. “What we need is a large parking lot where cars are parked for most of the
day—so not a restaurant or store or anything.”

Ashley wasn’t
sure she liked the sound of that, but she was desperate enough to accept
anything at the moment. Forgetting her resentment at Ethan’s high-handed ways,
she put her mind to the problem. “There’s nothing around here but fast-foods
and gas stations. But there was some kind of college further up the road. I saw
a sign for it.”

Ethan put a
hand on her back and propelled her forward, toward the main street. “That will
have to do. It’s already almost eight—we need to get going. I hope you don’t
mind a walk. I don’t think we should waste any money trying to call a taxi or
something.”

“Of course I
don’t mind walking,” Ashley said, although she had a sinking feeling that her strappy
sandals weren’t up to the task.

She was right.
Her sandals were definitely not made for walking. By the time they reached the
entrance to the community college, she had about eight throbbing blisters on
her feet.

Each step was
painful, but she would sooner walk twenty more miles than admit it to Ethan.

“Now, what
exactly is your plan?” Ashley asked, as they approached the half-empty parking
lot. It was still early in the morning and during the summer-school session, so
there weren’t as many cars as there otherwise would have been.

“Help me find a
car with a staff sticker, not a student sticker,” Ethan instructed.

Ashley peered
around dutifully and shortly said, “Here’s one. I’ve always liked this pretty blue
color.”

Ethan shook his
head. “Your pretty blue car is too new. We need an older model.

She rolled her
eyes and gestured toward a much older four-door Ford with an impressive cowboy
hat under the back windshield. “What about this one? Please don’t tell me we’re
doing what I think we’re doing.”

Ethan walked
around the car, eyeing it in a professional manner. He tried the door handle.
It was unlocked. “We’re requisitioning this vehicle.”

Ashley groaned,
thinking that if they got arrested she would blame it all on Ethan, say he
bullied her or something, so she wouldn’t have it on her very clean record. But
she got into the passenger side because it was an emergency and her getting
killed would upset her parents a lot more than her getting arrested. “I can’t
believe we’re doing this. How are you going to start the engine?”

He fiddled a
bit under the dashboard, doing something Ashley couldn’t quite see. “This
doesn’t work on newer model cars,” he muttered. Very soon, the engine was
rolling.

Ashley sighed.
Of course Ethan would be able to hot-wire a car. Why had she even doubted?

Ethan looked
inordinately pleased with himself and backed the car out of the parking space.

“What will we
do when the cops come after us?” Ashley asked as they pulled out of the parking
lot, turning right onto the main street.

“With any luck,
the owner won’t even know it’s missing until five o’clock this afternoon. We’ll
be in the middle of Iowa by then. I’ll make it up to the owner, as soon as we
get this mess straightened out.”

Ashley wasn’t
quite as confident as Ethan was, but she kept her mouth shut. They were going
to be stuck in this car for a long time together.

***

They rode in peaceful silence
for a while. The morning was clear and warm, and the mountain landscape was
lovely.

As they’d
turned back onto I-81 from Dublin, Ashley had questioned Ethan as to why they
were going south. Even she knew that South Dakota was to the north of Virginia.

Ethan’s reply
had been snotty. “We have to go south in order to meet up with I-77. Then we go
north.”

Ashley hadn’t
deigned to reply to that remark, mostly because she couldn’t think of anything
to say. She didn’t think she’d been on I-77 before. She hadn’t really been
anywhere in her life except Virginia—and Myrtle Beach for vacations.

In less than a
half-hour, they got on I-77, and the gentle scenic mountains suddenly got
harsher and steeper—making the highway much more winding.

In Ashley’s
estimation, Ethan was taking the mountain curves at far too high a speed. She
made sure her seatbelt was fastened and clutched at the door and the center
console.

For the last
year, she’d made a point of always going the speed limit so she wouldn’t get a
ticket. She hadn’t wanted even the smallest brush with the police, since it
made her think of the trouble Mark had gotten into.

“What’s your
problem?” Ethan asked irritably, looking over at her.

Ashley would
have preferred that he look at the road. “Nothing,” she mumbled, cringing a
little as they reached the top of a mountain, and Ethan accelerated down the
winding descent, steering with one hand and edging closer to what looked like a
thousand-foot drop.

“Don’t lie to
me,” he said, still peering at her. “You’re all tense and nervous. I don’t
think anyone is following us now.”

Ethan darted in
between a tractor-trailer and a minivan that was starting to pass it. The
driver of the minivan honked his horn several times in outrage. Ethan, of
course, ignored this.

“Do you think
you could slow down a little?” Ashley asked through her teeth, as politely as
she could manage. “These are mountains, if you hadn’t noticed.”

Wrinkling his
brow, Ethan asked, “Do you get car sick?”

“No,” Ashley gulped
as they headed for the sheer edge of a cliff before Ethan casually turned the
steering wheel. “But I don’t want to plummet into a ravine.”

He eased up on
the gas slightly and grumbled, “I didn’t know you were so uptight.”

She was being
smart and sensible, given her particular situation. It didn’t mean she was
uptight. She absolutely didn’t think she was uptight, and she hated when people
said she was.

Especially
Ethan.

She almost
shrieked when Ethan slammed on the brakes.

“What are you
doing?” she gasped as her head snapped back jarringly against her seat.

“Look ahead of
you. This is a damned toll road. We need two-dollars for the toll.”

***

Their stolen car was low on gas,
so they had to stop at a travel plaza off the interstate in Beckley to fill up.
Ashley went in with Ethan as he paid so she could go to the bathroom, and they
were walking out together when they saw a police car pulled not far from their
stolen car.

Two officers
were standing nearby, talking.

Ashley jerked
to a stop, her heart jumping into her throat.

“Don’t look so
guilty,” Ethan said, stopping beside her. “They’re probably not paying any
attention to us.”

“What if the
car was reported stolen?” Ashley crossed her arms tightly across her chest,
thinking about how all her hard work at being good over the last eighteen
months would be thrown out the window if Ethan got her arrested. “What if
they’re trying to act casual and are waiting to see who gets in the car?”

“I doubt that.
They look like they’re just killing time.” Ethan’s tone was laidback, but he
didn’t move forward to the car, so he must not be absolutely sure.

“We can’t just
stand here like this in the middle of the lot for no reason.” When she saw one
of the police officers glance their way, Ashley pretended to be straightening
Ethan’s shirt. “We’ll look suspicious, even if they’re not waiting for us.”

“I know that.
Pretend we’re having a conversation, and it got so intense we had to stop.”

Still fidgeting
with the buttons of his camp shirt, she couldn’t help but notice that the
t-shirt underneath was so thin it was almost threadbare. “You really need to
dump this stupid t-shirt.”

“What are you
talking about?” His body stiffened, like he was offended.

Leave it to
Ethan to not care when she insulted him or swore at him but get all upset when
she threatened his favorite t-shirt. “You’ve had it since you were in high
school. It’s falling apart. I’m surprised it even still fits, since you were
skinny back then.”

He frowned. “I
wasn’t that skinny.” Despite his frown, there was an unexpected warmth in his
eyes that she used to see there a lot.

“Yes, you
were.” She couldn’t help but feel a sudden wave of fond memory at the thought
of Ethan in high school. He’d made her laugh and teased her and had once gotten
into a fist-fight with a guy who had stood her up for the Christmas dance.

Even Mark
hadn’t done that much for her.