Chapter 13 Not Invisible Anymore #2
I should have remembered my place—a part of the saloon. This was an interrogation in disguise.
“Where are you from?” He pretended to watch the sun shift, but he was really studying me from the corner of his eye.
“How long have you been in Tombstone?” I shot back. I didn’t expect him to answer, but this week had drained me, and I was angry at myself for making more out of the situation than there was.
“I was in Tombstone for about two years before I went nomad. Came back fourteen years ago and been here ever since.” I felt his gaze as he asked me again where I was from.
“The Jersey Shore.” I curled my legs in to wrap my arms around my knees. I couldn’t get out of telling him something, but I was afraid I would reveal too much.
“It’s a long way from there to here, and you don’t have the accent.” He stacked one boot over the other, swinging them back and forth as he waited.
I said nothing, reminding myself this wasn’t about protecting me.
This was about minimizing the damage from that mother’s video.
Lulu had downloaded it and sent it to me.
It was cute, but I had been clearly visible.
They’d called me by my real name, and there weren’t many people named Roxy.
If anyone wanted to come find me, they knew exactly where I was.
“My father was career military. Tucson was his last station, but my mother liked to take us to Tombstone for a treat. It was only an hour, and she could wow us as kids with stories about cowboys and bandits. It’s probably why I came here when I was eighteen, begging to prospect.”
He’d given me a piece of himself. It wasn’t anything incriminating, but with how tight-lipped he normally was, I thought this might have been a piece of buried treasure.
I laid my chin on my knees, staring off.
My story wasn’t valuable, but I gave him a piece of me in return.
“My mother could barely take care of herself, and I didn’t know my father.
On the Shore, only the insanely wealthy or the mafia have accents—which is why that’s the first thing you notice. We were neither.”
The conversation tapered off, each of us staring past the overlook, lost in our own thoughts.
“What is a girl doing driving a car in the middle of the desert?” He’d phrased it openly, so that if I didn’t want to tell him, I could work my way out of this conversation, and he would let me.
However, I didn’t want to hide anything.
I wasn’t running from the law, and no one was looking for me.
If I bypassed the actual answer, I was just as guilty as he made me out to be.
“She dumped her boyfriend at a gas station and took off.”
“You running from someone?” he growled.
“No.” I could have left it at that, letting him think whatever he wanted. I didn’t owe him anything, but I’d had a niggling feeling in the back of my brain, and I needed someone to know, for my safety. “He might see the video and show up. It wasn’t an…amicable split.”
Silence. Not even the desert dared to whisper.
“Tell me, sweetheart.” His voice softened.
I wouldn’t hide from my past. Stretching, I moved my plate before turning and crossing my legs to face his profile.
“It was Jimmy’s bright idea. He sold it as getting out of Jersey, seeing the world, and making more money than we ever dreamed of.
I thought it was the stupidest idea I’d ever heard until he wore me down enough to say yes. ”
He laughed, turning his head towards me. “You really bought that shit? You’re smarter than that.”
“I’d never been over fifteen miles from the Shore, and like I said, he wore me down.
I was having a shit day, and when he brought it up again, it seemed like the answer to starting fresh.
North Carolina. South Carolina. Tennessee.
I always found work, but he’d always spend it until it was time to go.
Usually after a bar fight. I didn’t catch on until about Colorado. ”
His jaw ticked, and his eyes burned into my soul.
I knew enough about him to know he wasn’t judging me.
He couldn’t believe I had fallen so long for that gimmick, and truthfully, he was right.
I didn’t like to think about it because I should have seen the scheme sooner, even though it didn’t start out that way.
“Where’s Jimmy now?”
“Williams, maybe.”
Cactus sat straight up, his whole body turning to face me. “That’s Bear Canyon Disciples territory.” He shook his head. “What the fuck were you doing there?”
“Working their bar.”
His eyes widened, as if he didn’t believe me. “I’ve been in that bar. The brothers get so drunk, they openly fuck the waitresses. Any old lady is fair game as long as you have permission.”
“Did you have permission?”
“Didn’t want to touch for fear I’d catch something.”
“You were probably safer that way.” I let out a dry laugh, but it didn’t feel funny. “They’re not as bad as that, but they get handsy, grabbing anything they can. The night I left, they kept talking about how Jimmy was going to prospect. They couldn’t wait because then I’d be fair game.”
He muttered something under his breath. It sounded dangerous, even though I didn’t understand what he said. Not at me, but for me. I didn’t want to know the difference.
“How did you dump him at the gas station?”
I tucked a piece of hair behind my ear before I continued.
“I finished my shift, ran to the motel, and grabbed my stuff, but I took an extra minute to breathe. One minute too long, and that’s where I fucked up.
Jimmy knocked on the window, asking where I was going.
I told him I was tired, but I hadn’t stopped for gas.
He jumped in the car to ride for snacks, and when he left me to head inside, I took off. ”
“Do you think they’re going to come looking for you?”
“I don’t know.”
We settled back to watch the sun dip down below the horizon.
I’d told him everything I thought he should know, but there was still plenty buried beneath the surface.
I’d been on the road for a little over a year, and this was the first place I saw myself staying.
Building a life for myself that didn’t scare me.
When he walked me to my motel door, he stood in the doorway. I didn’t know what he was doing, so I asked if he was going to come in.
“Make sure you put the chair underneath the door.” He gave me one last look, tapped the door frame and was gone.
Shrugging, I shut the door and placed the chair under the handle. I wasn’t invisible anymore, but it would have been nice not to be overlooked.