9. 9
9
S avage sat across the table from Donna in the little diner a few blocks from the motel. Jailbait had gotten the keys to the SUV the girls had been driving and they’d come together but she had told Savage to get their own table. Donna had met her gaze, nodded and agreed. He didn’t know what was going on but suspected the two had done some talking, and Donna wanted to tell him something she wasn’t ready to discuss in front of others, specifically Dumbass.
Now, they’d placed their orders and sat across from each other, silent. He didn’t want to grill her, but he also didn’t want to talk too much and make her not comfortable telling him anything. It was a fine line, and he wasn’t sure he was walking it well.
He watched her a couple of moments longer then couldn’t take the silence any longer. “Where are you from?” he asked, looking for something to talk about, nearly anything, to break the ice so they could talk about what she wanted to, well maybe wanted wasn’t the right word. What she needed to talk to him about? Yeah, that felt better.
Donna opened her mouth, but stopped, looked down at her hands tangled in her lap then back up at him.
“Maybe it’s better to start there,” she said after a moment. She took a deep breath, he wasn’t sure if she was preparing herself or just taking in enough breath to talk for a while. “I grew up in west Kansas. I had a good family, but we’re not close. When it came time to go to college, I wanted to get away, to see the city. I got into CU Denver, moved into the dorms, and started school.” She looked away as she spoke then turned back to him. “Did you go to college?” She watched him as she asked that.
Savage shook his head. “I joined the military right out of school. I have a degree, but I got it taking classes online.”
“Then you’ve not seen how campus life can be.” The ghost of a smile flitted across her face for a moment before it was gone again. “Things were good. I made friends, went to class, partied a little, but not too much. During my junior year, my best friend and I heard about this group that had formed a commune.” She shook her head and looked out the window beside them as she told her story.
His heart ached for the woman sitting across from him, both at what she’d been through and at the way her ideals had been stripped from her so harshly. He couldn’t remember ever being so optimistic as thinking a commune where they all worked for the good of the group was an ideal situation, but he was glad she’d had that, or had once.
She continued talking, telling him some of what she’d gone through and how she’d escaped them, though he suspected she was leaving much of it out, until their food came. Afterwards, they ate in silence for a couple of minutes while Savage tried to figure out how best to put what he wanted to say into words, that hopefully wouldn’t scare her off.
“I want to help you. I’d like to say let’s get on my bike and go back to Arizona right now, but I can’t. I committed to this trip with my brothers, and I can’t back out of it now, not without some serious consequences.” He didn’t know what those might be, and he wasn’t ready to find out. But he’d help her get north if she wanted, or there were other options too.
“But I’ll take you with us north. We’re going to be just a little ways out of Gillette. We’ll be staying on a ranch owned by one of my brothers. You can stay with me.” She started to speak, and he held up both hands, stopping her long enough to finish what he’d been about to say. “No pressure. We’ll be living a little rough, as in we brought tents. But I packed a four man tent. There’s enough room for us to have our own bedrolls, though we may need to borrow one or stop and pick you up a sleeping bag. On the ranch, there’s little chance this group will find you, if they come looking that far north.”
She stared at him, eyes wide, as he continued. “If, at any time, you decide you want to go into Gillette, I’ll take you. If you decide you want to go home, I’ll buy you a ticket to go back to your family.”
“You don’t have to do that. I can’t afford to pay you back.” Something in her eyes told him there was more to it than that but he wasn’t going to ask. Not yet. It wasn’t time to get that deep into her past, not here and not if she wasn’t ready to tell him.
“And I’m not asking you to. I want you to know you’re not stuck. You have options.” He drained the last of the coffee from the mug on the table and signaled to the waitress he’d like more, then turned back to Donna. “When we’re ready to go home, and I mean back to Arizona, we can talk about what you want to do, okay?”
She blinked at him several times, waiting until after the waitress filled his cup, asked if they needed anything else, and left, then spoke.
“Okay. I can handle that.”
“Good. Now, we’ll get Jailbait to stop somewhere and get you some clothes, then get back to the motel before time to join the others and pull out.”
“I don’t need clothes. I can make do with these.”
Savage looked at her, not bothering to give what she was wearing a pointed look. “You have one outfit. Nothing warm enough for nights and nothing to change into. You need at least one change of clothes. I’ve got a couple of other things to pick up too, so we’ll stop. Don’t worry about the cost. You need it, I’ll cover it.” His look didn’t leave any room for argument. He waited but she didn’t try to argue again. Instead, she said two words.
“Thank you.”
Savage didn’t say anything, just nodded. When the others were ready, he slid out of the booth, held a hand out, wondering if Donna would take it. To his surprise, she placed her hand in his and let him tug her to her feet. Hand in hand, they went to the counter where he paid the ticket while she and Jailbait went out to the truck.
“She going with us?” Dumbass asked.
“For now, we’ll see for how long,” Savage said while the other man took care of his bill. Together they went out to the car to meet their women.
Their women. That wasn’t something he’d thought he’d apply to himself. Oddly, it felt right.