9. Dante
9
DANTE
“N ight couldn’t possibly get any worse for you, could it?” I quip.
She doesn’t respond. No, it couldn’t possibly get any worse. She has gone from one disaster to another, and now she is on the brink of madness, which is exactly what I don’t need.
I don’t even understand what happened. This can’t be just about some guy wanting a piece of ass. There has to be so much more to the story. No way would a motorcycle club draw attention to itself over a woman who refused one of their members’ advances…
“You want to tell me why you have a motorcycle gang crawling up your ass?”
She purses her lips so tight I think she’s bound to break her skin. She sneaks a peek in the mirror, shakes her head in annoyance then accelerates. With no regard to my baby and the rubber she is burning on her way around the winding road. But that is beside the point at the moment, when we have a merry band of outlaws on our tail.
“You want to tell me who you are?” she bites back.
“There’s an intersection up ahead. Take a sharp turn left. But do it quickly.”
“Faster than this and we’ll crash.”
“Just do it.”
A brief flash of annoyance crosses her face, before she tightens her grip on the steering wheel, straightens in her seat as though readying herself, hooks a quick left into the intersection and flies – literally flies – down the road. It’s a maneuver for an adrenaline junkie, and I’ve never seen anything like it.
The sudden wail of sirens bursts out behind us; she flicks her eyes toward me but speeds up, continuing down the road, almost like she understands what has happened.
“You can slow down now,” I tell her, as the drone of the motorcycles and sirens recedes behind us. She lets out a sigh of relief then lifts her foot off the gas, driving steadily with no destination in mind. We drive on in silence, through empty roads dotted with darkness on either side and lands that civilization has long forgotten.
“Where are we?”
“No Man’s Land,” I tell her, looking out the window. I know this area well. She wouldn’t know it because what business would a poker playing woman who foolishly carried wads of cash around deserted gas stations know about a place like this?
“No Man’s Land,” she hums. “Am I supposed to know what that is?”
“No more than I’m supposed to know why those bikers are after you.”
“Me? I just turned one of them down for sex. You’re the one that pulled a gun on him.”
“You saying you would rather I hadn’t barged in?”
“Why were you even there in the first place?” she asks, turning to look at me curiously.
“Pull over.”
“What? No. Why would I pull over in the middle of nowhere?”
It’s the first instance in which I’ve seen a shred of fear in her. But it is only that, an ounce. Before her armor comes back up again and she looks at me defiantly.
“Pull over so I can drive. It gets darker up ahead – if you don’t know these areas, you’ll drive us into a ravine.”
She stops the car on the side of the road and slides out, holding the door open for me before she climbs into the passenger seat. “I’m really enjoying our little tete-a-tete,” she starts, “but I really must get home.”
I look at her out of the corner of my eye as I maneuver onto the road, more questions swirling around in my head.
“You have a curfew?” I ask. She looks way too young to be out on her own in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night. I wonder if anyone has even missed her. I wonder what her connection to Murray is and what she’s hiding.
Mystery Woman snickers and faces forward, obviously not wanting to discuss things further.
“I’m Dante, by the way,” I introduce myself. “You have a name?”
“No names.”
“In my mind, I’ve already named you Mystery Woman. You want me to keep referring to you as Mystery woman?”
She shrugs nonchalantly.
“Ok, then Moneybags it is.”
“Moneybags?”
“It’s the perfect name for you.”
* * *
We drive on for another twenty minutes, passing only one other car on the darkened roads. Eventually I move off the main road and turn the car onto a dirt path, travelling the narrow tree lined clearing until we come to a cabin in the woods.
“What is this?”
“The car’s almost out of gas. I for one don’t want to get stranded on the main road when those motorcycles roll up.”
“So we just stay holed up here?” She looks almost horrified at the prospect. “What is this place, anyway?”
“We’ll stay until someone can come out with some gas. It should only be a couple of hours.”
“I really need to get home.”
Yes, she is definitely terrified.
“Well, unless you relish the thought of a long, long walk in the dark, this is your only option at the moment.”
Moneybags gets out of the car reluctantly and follows me up the front steps of the cabin. My family is lucky enough that we have properties scattered across the state, and this being one of my favorites, it’s always fully stocked with every luxury one could possibly need for a short stay.
“You can use my phone to make any calls you need to,” I tell her, unlocking my phone and handing it to her. She shakes her head and declines.
“I don’t suppose a taxi would make it out this way, would it?”
“He’d never find this place,” I tell her, which isn’t very far off the truth. The cabin is so out of the way, a person could get lost a thousand times before they’d find it.
“Ugh!” She drops her bags to the ground and runs two hands through her hair in agitation. This night is definitely not how she’d expected it to turn out.
“You want something to eat?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “Just coffee, if you have it.”
I’m not surprised that she takes her coffee black with no sugar. She seems the type to enjoy a strong brew. I hand her the mug and sit on a chair opposite her, drinking my own. There is good lighting in the cabin and for the first time, I get a good look at her. She is even prettier than she appeared in the club, even with her now wild mane of hair after the night that she’s had.
“Are you in trouble with that motorcycle gang?” I ask her. I don’t expect her to answer. She surprises me by shaking her head, but she isn’t going to make this easy.
“You know them outside the club?” Again, she gives me a small shake of her head. I’m finding it hard to believe that they had tried to attack her because of one man’s bruised ego, but hey, she can do her all she wants.