Chapter Twenty-Six
Renegade
“Truth or lie?” I ask her, running my hand along her shoulder. It’s hot tonight, and we’re both still sweating from the workout we just put in with one another. But I know we’re both energized and neither one of us will be sleeping for a while. Back to playing our game.
“Umm,” she rolls closer to me, tugging the sheet up to her chest before she scrunches her nose in the most adorable way. “Sometimes I love the elaborate lies you make up, but I want a truth tonight.”
“Ahhh,” I throw my head back against the pillow, wondering what kind of truth I should tell her. “How old does the truth have to be?”
She sucks that full bottom lip in between her teeth and sits up crisscrossing her legs while she makes sure the sheet still covers her bare breasts. “Teenage truth,” she throws down the gauntlet.
“Shhiiitttt,” I breathe out, sitting up myself, but I lean against her headboard. I go back through my teenager years, trying to figure out what the hell I want to tell her. So much of my adolescence is wrapped up in her and she doesn’t even know it.
“C’mon, Ryan, or are you scared?” she teases.
“I’m not scared,” I throw her a look. “I’m trying to figure out what I want to tell you.”
“If you’re scared, I’ll let you lie,” she offers.
“I don’t need your charity.” And that’s when the perfect truth hits me.
“Trevor’s sixteenth birthday. I was still fifteen, jealous as all fuck because he could drive now. You remember?” I ask, hoping to put her back almost ten years ago.
Tilting her head to the side, she purses her lips. “Vaguely.”
“Damn woman, that was like your coming out party for me,” I whistle.
“One minute I’m pissed at Tank, mad as hell that Stanley and Mona got him a truck and now he can go to the movies with his flavor of the week.
The next, I glance up and you’ve walked down from the house to the pool, wearing that turquoise blue bikini. ”
Her eyes widen. “Oh my God, you remember that?”
“There’s not much I forget about you, Princess.”
My voice gets deeper as I continue on with my story.
“I was doing good, fighting off the most embarrassing hard-on of my adolescent life until you came over and wished Trevor a Happy Birthday. You hugged him, then you hugged me, and I was done for. The feel of your tits against my chest? I wanted to reach down and cup your ass, even though I wasn’t sure what that meant. ”
“Ryan!” She laughs as she bashfully pulls the sheet up over her head, fanning her cheeks. “I can’t believe this.”
“Believe it,” I laugh, even though it’s strangled because I still remember the frustrated teenage boy I was. “I went and jacked off in your mom’s beach-themed bathroom.”
“OH MY GOD! That was my bathroom when I lived at home,” she’s laughing, her face a red that I can make out even in the semi-darkness.
“You wanted the truth, babe,” I grin over at her, stealing the sheet from her fingers. “The truth is I’ve wanted you for as long as I can remember, and now that I’ve got you, I’m going to do my best to keep you.”
She reaches over to grab the sheet back, but instead, I grasp her hand in mine and pull her so that she’s straddling my hips. Burying my hands in her hair, I pull her down so our lips can meet. “You undo me sometimes, Ryan,” she whispers against my lips as they chase one another.
“It’s only fair,” I answer, as I bury my face in her neck. “You undo me all the time.”
I’m chomping on my gum, hoping it regulates the sweat rolling down the back of my vest and the way my mind is racing at what we’re about to do. We finally got the order from the judge signed to raid the still off of Highway 5.
Nervousness courses through me, and I’m unsure as to why.
This isn’t a sneak attack, we’re rolling up and bailing out.
There’s no hiding anything we have going on.
Maybe it’s the way Whitney and I talked last night, where I admitted something I thought I would take to my grave.
I feel vulnerable today, like my insides are fileted open for anyone to see.
“You good?” Tank asks me as we sit next to each other.
I adjust the hat on my head, hoping it stops some of the sweat from pouring down my face. It’s all adrenaline, I know this more than anything. “I’m good, just nervous. I’ve never had people to get home to before, ya know?”
“Hopefully it’ll make you smarter in the field,” Holden says from where he sits.
We’ve told everybody about the baby. It wasn’t like this big huge announcement, but a week ago she brought me dinner when we were having a meeting about a raid, and of course everyone saw her stomach.
They witnessed me giving her a kiss goodbye, and none of them have stopped their teasing since. “I was already pretty damn smart.”
“You were,” Ace says from across the way. “But you’re going to be even more so now, because you have the baby and the girl to get home to. I gotta tell ya, it was so sickening sweet it almost gave me a toothache, watching the two of you. Crumbled this black heart I have.”
Everyone laughs, some of the tension gone. “Stop it,” I can’t help the grin that spreads across my face.
“So when are you gonna marry her?” Holden teases.
I look over at Tank because this is something we haven’t discussed, it’s not an issue I’ve wanted to bring up. I’m not sure how she’ll take it. Marriage wasn’t happy for her before. “I don’t know, we haven’t talked about it.”
“He’ll be lucky if my sister doesn’t run screaming – you know she’s divorced.”
Tank tries to divert talk away from me. I’m thankful, because if there’s one thing, I hate it’s to be the center of damn attention like this.
“Two minutes out,” the driver yells over our talking.
Just like that everybody zips up, gets focused, and thinks about the job at hand we have to do. “Be careful out there,” Holden tells us all as we pull up on the dirt road.
I can feel it bumping beneath us and when we come to stop, we all exit the vehicle, guns at the ready. Prepared for anything that might happen to us this day, but guns start to drop as we see who’s in front of us. Instead of facing a firing squad, we’re all surprised.
What we’re faced with is the scared face of Leighton Strather, all by herself.
“Where’s your daddy and Merle?” Holden asks, going over to her, turning her around to put cuffs on her wrists. Regardless if she’s a young girl who probably knows nothing about what’s going on here, we still have to treat her like a suspect.
“I don’t know,” her voice is soft as she bends her head down. “They were supposed to be here an hour ago.”
“Leighton,” Holden starts carefully. “You know we’re gonna bust this still up and take you in. You’re the only one here.”
She cries softly as the reality of the situation comes down on her. I went to school with her some, even though she’s younger than me. She’s always been smart, and I wonder what the hell a twenty-two-year-old like her is doing caught up in a business like this.
I watch as Holden puts her in the back of the patrol car that’s come with us. Tears roll down her cheeks, and he’s being nicer to her than I’ve ever seen him be to anyone before. I think he knows just like we do – she’s a pawn in the game. Her family has fucked her over big time.
Later on, Tank and I are pouring out the containers of moonshine and waiting for the rest of the still to drain.
“Ya know, if I hadn’t gotten the chance I did from your family, I have no doubt I’d be in the same situation as Leighton. Taking the fall for something I didn’t do and not even realizing it until it was too late,” I let the last of my bottle empty and then look up at him. “I feel bad for her.”
“I do, too,” he answers. “But what can we do?”
The truth of the matter is I don’t know. Never before have I felt as lucky as I do now, and I can’t wait to get home so I can put my arms around the family I’ve formed. I hope one day Leighton can find her own.