Biker (24 page)

“Blaze!” She knelt down beside him. “This is just too much! I don’t think we can go any further!”

He coughed. “We have to keep moving. We’re almost there. Help me up!”

Even though their bags were weighing Noelle down, she lifted him to his feet. “Come on, lean on me.”

“I should be helping you,” he said bitterly, too proud to accept her assistance.

“This is not the time to feel proud,” she admonished, “Now let me help you so we can get to the damned cab before you bleed out!”

Blaze reluctantly leaned on her, and Noelle’s muscles burned with exertion as she all but carried him down the road.

“I’m hurting you,” he pointed out.

“I’m fine,” she wheezed, “we’re almost there. I have no idea where we’re going once we get in the cab, so I hope you know exactly where it’s going to take us.”

Blaze only managed to nod.

“Okay, I think we can stop,” Noelle said, helping Blaze sit down. He was sweating and panting from the toll their escape was taking on him.

“I’m worried,” she fretted, reaching to lift up his shirt and examine his wound.

Blaze pushed her hand away. “Let’s just get to where we’re going. There’s nothing you can do for me right now.”

Hurt, Noelle pulled her hand away. She didn’t have time to argue because she saw headlights approaching. Holding her breath, she prayed it was the cab.

Sure enough, it was. The cab pulled slowly to a stop as Noelle helped Blaze stand up. She opened the door and eased him into the back seat.

“This is the strangest place I’ve ever picked anyone up,” the cabbie complained.

Noelle rolled her eyes and urged Blaze to give him directions.

“We need you to take us about twenty miles south.”

The cabbie nodded. “Near those desert motels?”

“Yes.” Blaze answered. He then turned to Noelle. “There are a few cheap motels there, along with a gas station and convenience store. They’re the closest thing for miles around, and probably the first place they are going to look for us when they realize we’re gone. I think we can rest for a few hours and then we’ll need to head out before dawn.”

Noelle frowned. “That isn’t going to be very good for you.”

“It’ll have to do. I promise you it will be better for us than what would happen if we stayed in the clubhouse.”

Noelle shivered at the prospect. “Will they give up? Or will they keep looking?” She imagined returning home to Pennsylvania and being tracked there.

“They don’t have the energy or the resources to keep looking for very long. My guess is that they’ll search for a few days, a few weeks at most, and then let it go. My father might look a little harder for me,” he shrugged, “I really don’t know.”

They spent the rest of the car ride in silence – Noelle anxiously watched Blaze, who kept a steely gaze out the window. At each bump in the road, he winced from the pain of being jostled.

The cab pulled up to the cluster of motels.

“Which one, lady?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Noelle spoke up.

The cabbie pulled into a dimly lit lot and Noelle and Blaze got out. Noelle had a large amount of cash in her purse, and she handed over the hefty fare to the cabbie, along with a very generous tip.

“If anyone asks, you never saw us.”

“No problem, lady.”

Noelle left Blaze resting on a bench out front, and went in to rent a room. She emerged from the office a few minutes later, holding a rusty key. She had specifically asked for a room on the lower level so Blaze wouldn’t have to climb any stairs.

“Let me check your wound,” Noelle said as soon as they entered the room. Under the fluorescent ceiling lights, Blaze’s face looked ashen. As soon as he pulled up his shirt, Noelle gasped. Blood had seeped through the many layers of dressing and had soaked the waistband of his jeans.

“Blaze! Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It’s fine,” he whispered.

“It’s not fine! You’ve lost a lot of blood.” She quickly removed the gauze, wiping at the wound, which had partially opened. “We never should have done all that walking.”

Blaze didn’t respond, and when she looked up, she saw that his eyes were glassy.

“Blaze!” She smacked his cheeks, trying to get him to focus.

“Huh? I’m here.”

“Focus. I need you to focus on my voice. I’m going to clean this up and give you some more painkillers. Then I need to fix your sutures and figure out how the hell we’re going to get out of here in a few hours.”

She glanced at her watch to see that it was nearly one in the morning. She figured that they would need to leave the motel by five, and she prayed that no one from the gang had yet noticed their absence.

She set about to fix Blaze’s wound, cursing their fate, and angry with herself for getting involved in this mess. She had been so busy focusing on caring for Blaze that she hadn’t even given much thought of what her next step should be.

She tried not to think about the grief and guilt she felt over the people who had died. She would let that consume her later. That pain of that carnage would never leave her; she would carry it forever.

After Blaze was crudely stitched up again, Noelle went outside and got two bottles of water from a vending machine, as well as some snacks.

Blaze seemed to be somewhat more alert, though weak, and she held a bottle to his mouth so he could drink.

“Blaze I need your help figuring out how we get out of here. Do we just call another cab?”

Blaze was quiet for a moment while he thought. Noelle wasn’t sure how much help he would be now, especially since he had taken several more painkillers.

“Yes, a cab. We’re less than a half hour from Mesquite. We’ll go there, rent a car and start moving through Arizona.”

“How are we going to rent a car that early in the morning?”

“Good point. We’re just going to hang out until a place opens.”

“And then what?”

“Then we drive to the Phoenix airport.”

Blaze looked at her, his blue eyes more alive than Noelle had seen since he got shot.

“Noelle, I told you before that I want to be with you. I know you have a lot to think about. Either way, I can never go back to the clubhouse. So, either we leave Phoenix on the same plane, or on different planes.”

Noelle bit her lip and nodded. “You should try to get some rest,” she finally said, smoothing his hair down.

“You saved my life. I don’t know what I would do if you weren’t taking care of me.”

Noelle nodded.

“I hate that you have to take care of me, though.
I
should be protecting
you
.”

“You
do
protect me,” she argued. “You might not have been shot if you weren’t protecting me.”

“I know how foolish it all was. And I know how greedy I was, but it was worth it to have this freedom.” Blaze’s eyelids were heavy, and his speech began to slur as he started to fall asleep.

“I was greedy too,” she whispered. But Blaze was already fast asleep.

* * *

N
oelle set the alarm on her phone and tried to rest, but sleep evaded her for the few short hours they had in the motel room. Her mind raced with a thousand anxious thoughts and she jumped at every sound outside, fearing that the Widowmakers had found them.

By the time her alarm went off at just after four, she had slept a total of half an hour. Noelle dialed a cab company, and gave them their location, asking to be picked up in an hour.

She lay back down, hoping to get a few minutes of sleep, but after ten minutes, she knew it was pointless.

Noelle got up from the uncomfortable chair in which she had been resting, and went to pack up the few items they had pulled out during their very short stay. Blaze had managed to sleep the entire time, and for that she was grateful. He was going to need his strength, and she was already worried about the damage done to him from their short walk.

She placed the medical items in one of the bags, along with some toiletries. She couldn’t help unzipping the two bags filled with cash, and looking at the hefty piles of green.

She felt like a criminal.

She
was
a criminal.

She quickly zipped the bags back up. She could think about the money later. There had to be a few million dollars there, and then there was the blank check from Blaze’s father. When everything was packed neatly up in their few bags, she paced the room, peeking out the dingy curtain every few minutes.

Finally, she gently woke Blaze.

“Hey, we need to get ready for the cab to pick us up.”

Blaze groaned, wincing as he opened his eyes.

“How’s your pain?”

Blaze bit down on his lip and shook his head.

“Do you want more medicine?”

“Not yet,” he croaked. “Just help me up.”

Noelle carefully helped him up. “Let me take a look,” she said gingerly lifting up his shirt. “Crap.”

Blood had soaked through the new dressing.

“I don’t have time to change it now, but I’ll put some more on to hold you over.”

She quickly reinforced his bandages, then helped him into the restroom.

Just as he was emerging, the cabbie pulled up. Noelle quickly got Blaze and their bags into the back seat, jumped in, directed the driver to Mesquite, and held her breath as they pulled out onto the highway.

Blaze frowned as he looked out the back window. “After they check this area, they will check Mesquite too,” he whispered.

“How are you so sure that they’re going to check this way? What if we went west? Or north?”

Blaze gave a harsh laugh, sounding almost like his old self. “Oh, don’t worry. My dad will send guys out in all directions. I’m sure they’ll be checking everywhere but the Strip.”

That made sense. Noelle had a feeling that no one from the gang would be setting foot on the Strip for a very long time.

Once in Mesquite, Noelle and Blaze had the cab driver take them to the nearest car rental business. It was not yet open, but as luck would have it, there happened to be a twenty-four hour diner a few blocks down, and they went inside, Noelle lugging their bags. They found a booth in a back corner with a clear view of the street outside.

“I’m not hungry,” Blaze said, putting the menu down.

“You still need to eat something.”

Blaze shrugged, suddenly moody. Noelle ordered more than enough food for both of them, and they spent the next hour and a half slowly eating breakfast and silently biding their time. It was agony to sit around and wait until they could rent a car, but they had no choice.

Blaze was unbearably quiet, and finally Noelle couldn’t take it any longer.

“What is
wrong
?”

Blaze gave Noelle a long look before speaking. “Tell me, Noelle, is it easy or hard taking care of me when you know that you’re never going to see me again after we get to the airport?”

Startled, Noelle stared at him. “I – I never said I wasn’t going to see you again,” she stuttered.

“Let’s be honest,” Blaze said, taking her hand. “It’s okay. I can see how much you’ve been thinking, and I can see how much this is weighing on you. I don’t like it, but I will accept it.”

“No,” Noelle said, shaking her head. “I haven’t decided that. I haven’t made that decision.” She felt panicked by the absolute certainty that Blaze seemed to have about their future.

“I understand, Noelle. I’ll be forever indebted to you for your help in Vegas, but mostly for saving my life and for taking care of me now.”

Noelle opened her mouth to respond, a flood of emotions welling up inside of her, but she didn’t get a chance to speak.

“Shit!” Blaze hissed, his eyes looking past her and out the window.

At the same moment, Noelle heard the roar of a motorcycle.

Fear gripped her, as she turned around to see two bikes cruise slowly down the street.

“We need to get out of here,” Blaze said tightly, motioning for their waitress to bring the check.

“But we still have twenty minutes until the rental place opens.”

“We’ll have to figure something out; it won’t be long before they start checking places. There aren’t many places we could be hiding in this town. Hopefully, they’ll check out the motels first.”

Noelle fished out some cash and laid it down on the table to pay for their bill.

“So what do we do? We can’t just go outside and start walking in bright daylight down the street!”

“I don’t think we have any other option right now.”

Noelle grabbed their bags, slinging them over her shoulders.

“I should be helping you,” Blaze said angrily, trying to stand.

“Don’t worry about that. Let’s just get out of here!”

They made their way outside, and looked up and down the street for the bikes.

None were in sight.

Noelle could just make out the car rental place in the distance.

“Let’s go,” Blaze urged, gently pushing Noelle, who had frozen in fear on the pavement.

They began to make their way down the sidewalk. Noelle’s breathing was rapid, and she wanted nothing more than to break out in a run. She could see how desperately Blaze wanted to move quickly too, and how much it upset him to be holding them back.

The purr of a motorcycle could be heard in the distance, and Blaze grabbed her arm, yanking her toward some storefronts. They ducked into a health food store, just as one of the bikes pulled onto the street again.

The owner gave them a nasty look, but they ignored her, watching the bike move down the road towards the diner.

“Blaze,” Noelle breathed, her voice filled with worry.

“Shh.”

“Let’s hope they don’t stop in the diner,” Blaze whispered.

Once the sound was gone, they hurried back onto the street, moving as fast as they could toward the rental office. Someone was unlocking the door just as they approached.

“Well, aren’t you two lucky that I opened a few minutes early?” the man asked, smiling brightly.

Noelle managed to smile back, and they hurried inside.

It seemed to take far too long to fill out all the paperwork, and Noelle was relieved that they would be able to drop the car at the airport. Blaze kept watch by the window, and Noelle was ready to scream when the man suggested they go outside and inspect he car.