Chapter 7 #2
With a drooping head, I descend the fire escape and am blocked by Paxton. I’m not at all comfortable with that, and I cross my arms before raising my chin defiantly at him. A false image of self-assurance.
“Leave him alone, Layne.” He takes a drag from the cig between his thumb and forefinger, looks at the ground, then tilts his head so he can look up at me.
I ball my fists, but leave my arms crossed. “Stay out of it.” Pax is still the same meddler as he was then. Rolling my eyes, I step past him.
Before I realize it, he’s put his hand on my upper arm. “I’m serious. If you want you and your daughter to be safe, for Ky to be safe, then leave him alone.” His cold, dark-brown—almost black—eyes bore into mine.
“Is that a threat?” I shift my weight to my other leg and tilt my head to imitate him.
With a sigh, he rubs his forehead. “No, it’s the truth. I’m not the one making sure you’re no longer safe. Others will make sure of that.” Paxton shrugs his left shoulder and walks away from me. “Leave him alone, Layne.”
I put up my middle finger to his back and walk to my car. Jerk.
With a deep sigh, I get in and put the key in the ignition.
The problems just seem to pile up and the whole MC starts to get on my nerves.
Maybe Paxton is right and I need to let it go.
Of course, the saying “What you don’t know can’t hurt you” exists for a reason.
As long as I don’t have any incriminating evidence, I can’t be a threat to anyone, can I?
Even though I desperately want to know who killed Connor and, more importantly, why, everything seems to tell me that it’s better not to.
I drive off the property and decide to go to the supermarket.
It’s quiet on the road, and soon I enter downtown Folsom.
An uneasy feeling comes over me, as if eyes are on me, and immediately I look in the rearview mirror.
There’s a red truck driving behind me, with a man behind the wheel, and on the sidewalk a mother is walking with a small child beside her.
None of them pay attention to me, and yet goosebumps spread down my arms.
As I approach the Whole Foods parking lot, I turn on my blinker and take the turn.
I find a spot, park the car, and turn off the engine.
I decide to sit for a few minutes to check if my feeling’s correct or if I’m being paranoid and let my gaze wander across my surroundings, but nothing strikes me as odd.
In the supermarket, I scavenge all the groceries on my list, and even though I don’t see anything out of the ordinary, I constantly feel like I’m being watched.
I pull a carton of milk from the shelf and when I turn, it looks like someone’s ducking behind a rack.
But by now I’m so anxious that it’s probably just a customer walking down an aisle.
Still, I walk around the corner and look down the aisle, where indeed another woman’s standing with a shopping cart and a pack of whole grain cereal in her hand. Shaking my head, I quickly move on.
Once I’ve paid for the groceries, I load them into the car and take them home.
After spending a few hours obsessively cleaning the house, I decide I’m going to drive to the dam and get in my car. Rebel has since called and asked if she could stay for dinner at Piper’s and watch a movie, which I agreed to.
Soon I’m on the same route I rode down thousands of times on the back of Kyler’s motorcycle.
I park in the public parking lot to walk up the path that takes me closer to the water.
I veer off the path and arrive at the huge boulder where Kyler and I used to spend hours.
We would look out over the lake and talk about anything and everything. I put my hands on it and climb up.
The view is still exactly as I remember it.
The water in the distance is calm and there are few hikers out on this weekday.
Every now and then someone passes by in the distance, but otherwise I’m completely alone.
So it doesn’t take long for my thoughts to wander back to Connor and especially to the last few weeks together.
I try to figure out if those were different, but I can’t think of anything.
As usual, he went out the door in the morning and was back around dinner time.
We ate together at the dining table in our kitchen, with his eyes mostly on Rebel.
He barely spoke about his work, but he never had.
After all, he worked for an accounting firm so in terms of content there wasn’t much I could add, and he always said he had us at home and didn’t feel like dealing with numbers any more.
It had always been like that, so I didn’t think anything of it.
Now, I wonder if he still worked for the accounting firm. But I couldn’t imagine that he’d been fired, or that he wouldn’t tell me. Wouldn’t he have told me?
Had I been too naive?
I’d chosen Connor because he made me feel safe with his ordinary job at ordinary hours. I’d never thought anything of it, because to me, anything illegal involved strange working hours, motorcycles, cuts, and gangs. But what if… What if he did end up in some shady business?
By now dusk’s starting to set in and I decide to go back to my car. At home, with a pizza, I can look through Connor’s papers for anything suspicious. Maybe I, or the police, overlooked something after all.
As I get closer to the parking lot, goosebumps start to spread over my arms again. A knot forms in my stomach and my breathing gets ragged. The anxious feeling from the supermarket is back and I check my surroundings nervously.
Shit, shit, shit.
I quicken my steps hoping it’s my own paranoia and not—
“Hello Mrs. Hayes,” a deep voice behind me says and my shoulders deflate. I’m literally a hundred yards away from my car in a deserted parking lot.
With more bravado than I actually have, I turn toward the man.
A broad-shouldered brute with trimmed hair stares at me.
His hand is tucked into his jacket, and the slight bulge in the coattail reveals that his fingers are wrapped around the cold, heavy weight of a gun.
After all, why wear a coat at dusk when it’s eighty degrees and who else has their arm put behind his coattails like that?
“I would appreciate it if you’d walk with me to my car.” He gestures to the dirt road leading toward the public one.
I check my surroundings, and see no one, so I walk ahead of him down the path. That seems to be my only option. My head is working overtime. If I’m close to the road, maybe I can get away by making a run for it?
But what if no one’s driving there? Where will I go then? My steps falter and panic clouds my train of thought.
A black Escalade with tinted windows appears in the distance. Acid rises up and I try to swallow it.
Three more steps and then I’ll try.
One.
Two.
Three.
I ball my fists and set off running. The road’s already in view when suddenly a blond man emerges from behind the black car, pointing a gun at me.
I freeze and raise my hands in the air.
“Well, well, little lady thought she’d run off?” He tilts his head.
My heart pounds like crazy as I stare down the barrel.
Come on, think, Layne. “What do you want from me?” I exclaim as panic takes over. Thank God Rebel isn’t here, but what happens if I don’t pick her up? What on earth will happen to her then? I’m all she has.
“Just get in, lady.” The brute now also has a gun in his hand and gestures toward the Escalade with it.
Desperately, my gaze scans the road. Please let someone drive by, anyone.
A tear slides down my cheek as I take a step toward the car.
That’s when I hear it.
In the distance, the familiar roar of engines resounds and for once in my life I pray it’s Kyler. Or Ballistic or Paxton for all I care, but please let someone I know drive by. My heart’s in my throat and I take three more steps. “Why should I go with you?” I whisper, trying to buy some time.
That’s exactly when the motorcycles round the corner and my gaze falls on the one in the front.
Kyler. I exhale deeply. Relief races through me.
“Mrs. Hayes.” The voice is a lot darker now, and the threat is clear. When I feel a hand on my shoulder, I turn around at lightning speed.
“Get away from me,” I scream in a falsetto voice. Immediately, I slap his hand away from me in reflex.
Silence follows the rumble of motorcycles behind me, then Kyler’s deep voice nearly stops my heart. “Layne?”