Chapter 26
SIENNA
Less than ten minutes ago I was sleeping soundly, dreaming a soft dream that lingered even after Zane woke me up and said that we’re leaving.
Now I’m holding onto him tight, my head buried in his shoulder, while he drives fast. Every so often I open my eyes to check the rearview mirror, and the black SUVs are still there in the distance, chasing us.
Zane is riding like he’s done this before, like he’s had to escape cars chasing him before.
And even though I haven’t prayed in many, many years, I’m asking God to make it so we get away, that we escape these men my husband sent.
Because three days after a decade spent torn apart is nothing. I need more time with him.
Good thing my dumb husband called me and told me they were coming. He gave us that tiny window we needed to make our escape. He probably couldn’t help himself. Probably thought they had us and wanted a moment to gloat.
I didn’t think he’d be coming after me. But I should’ve considered it.
Houses and cars are whizzing past us. If I look too hard, I get dizzy. I get dizzy if I look at the black cars chasing us too.
We’re out of the town now, surrounded by nature. The cars we pass are fewer and farther between. The black cars have nothing more blocking their way. Until now we could weave between the cars on the road and they couldn’t. Now there’s just empty road between us and them.
Zane keeps checking the rearview mirror too. Every so often our eyes meet. There’s apology in his eyes. Sadness too. But mostly there’s just a hard, angry determination.
He doesn’t slow down for a turn, and it feels like we won’t make it. The back wheel starts to slide, and any moment now we’ll be laid low by the weight of the bike. The chase over. My husband the winner.
But Zane manages to keep the wheels where they need to be—on the pavement.
And he takes another sharp turn right after the bend in the road.
Down a narrow path that leads into the green hills, where the moisture from all that rain that’s been falling makes the air heavy.
Pebbles are hitting my legs, pinging off the bike.
He doesn’t slow down, just keeps going faster and faster. Down the path, then up a hill. I look in the rearview mirror and don’t see the black cars anymore. He’s still going really fast. We’re flying down roads that aren’t even that, the tall trees all around just a blur of green.
We shouldn’t be able to go this fast through the forest, but somehow, he’s making it work. Soon we’re cresting the hill, going down the other side. Too fast down another narrow forest path. And still he’s making it work. Or maybe God is. Maybe he heard my prayer.
There’s no one behind us anymore and only trees in front when he finally stops. The thrumming of the bike has ceased but my whole body is still vibrating from that wild ride.
“I think we lost them,” he says, looking over his shoulder.
I smile at him widely and grip his waist even tighter. “You lost them. That was some great driving. Where’d you learn to do that?”
His already very tense body tenses even more. “Had to get out of some tight spots a few times here and there. You learn fast when you’re riding for your life.”
I climb off the bike and face him. “But they wouldn’t have killed us. My husband… he’s actually one big weakling behind that tough facade.”
“Yeah, I noticed that too,” he says. “But those guys he had with them, I’m pretty sure they’re not weaklings.”
“So he hired some muscle to scare us… but I doubt they’d actually hurt us for him.”
I was pretty sure of that in my own head, but looking at the hard doubt in his eyes now, I’m not anymore.
“Who did you say your husband worked for?” he asks.
“Anvil… it’s some big multi-national company,” I say. “He never said much about his work and I never asked. Why?”
“Because those guys with him in their black SUVs, they looked a lot like a group Rogue Angels MC have had trouble with lately. They call themselves Hydra. Ever heard of them?”
I shake my head.
“They’re a bunch of killers, but the fancy kind you can hire to do your dirty work,” he says. “I thought those guys at your house were them, but I figured we left them behind. Clearly, they followed you.”
Now that the echoes of our wild ride through the forest have died down, I can hear birds singing and branches whispering in the wind. It’s so beautiful here, so peaceful. I don’t want to hear about troubles and killers that might be after us. That I have brought down on us.
“I doubt he cares enough about me to hire killers to get me back,” I say and laugh. But it sounds hollow.
“We can’t go to LA now,” he says. “Can’t bring this to Rogue and the others. They have enough to deal with as it is.”
“Let’s go somewhere else then, somewhere no one will ever find us,” I say and smile at him again.
“Not sure that’s a good idea either. Get back on the bike.”
He looks away before I can say anything, so I just climb on and hug his waist again. He starts the bike and then we’re riding again. Slower than before, but not by much.
I don’t know what I would’ve said if he had given me the chance to speak. Maybe that he can just drop me at the side of the next road we reach and leave me there.
Then I’ll call my husband and have him pick me up. And Zane and Rogue and all his other MC friends will be safe. And I won’t have the blood of anyone else on my hands. Just that of my own pierced and bleeding heart.