Faith: Biker Romance (The Virtues Book 2) (10 page)

I walked down the street, getting some air while Eddie scouted the town. Outside of a convenience store there was a payphone, and I decided it was time to make a hard call. After dropping my money in, I dialed my sister in California.

Three rings in, she picked up. “Hello?”

I was gripping the phone hard, and I got choked up the second I heard her soft voice. I couldn't get a word out. The receiver shook against my ear as I tried to say something.

“Hello?” There was fear in her voice this time, and I knew she’d hang up. I had to speak.

“Esther. It’s me. It’s Faith.” I sounded like a little girl again. It was the voice that came out when I knew I was in trouble.

“Are you okay? Tell me you’re all right.” She was a rollercoaster. She spoke quickly, her tone trading highs and lows.

I smiled, the lump grew harder, and I fought the quiver back. “I’m all right. I’m all right. Everything is fine. I guess I don't need to ask if Mom and Dad called you.”

“Faith, where are you? They are worried sick.”

“I’m sure they are, but Esther, I’m not going back. Dad... I don't know. Dad went crazy. He was talking about sin and demons inside men. I got scared, Esther. It felt like he was talking about... I don't know.”

I may not have known, but she did. The silence told me that it wasn't the first time she’d heard something along those lines.

I asked, “You know what I’m talking about, don't you?”

My sister waited a long time to respond. “Yes. I know. I remember. Faith, he did the same thing to me, and I worried for you and for Mom from the moment Matt and I left. Did anything happen?”
 

I couldn’t hide the quiver any longer. “No. Nothing happened. I asked Eddie if he would leave with me, and he said yes. We’re just inside Nevada.”

“Nevada?” She knew the answer, but asked anyway. “You’re coming here?”

“Esther, where else can I go? I’ve never been outside of Colorado. You make California sound like a dream. I really hate to put you out, but could Eddie and I stay with you for a day or two until we figure out what exactly we’re going to do with ourselves?”

She was sniveling, and I couldn't tell if it was out of that rush of joy after fear, or it had to do with my father. Either way, it was hard to hear her through the tears. “Faith, of course you can stay with us. You are more than welcome. I’ve always been afraid of Dad. Part of me is glad you got out before anything happened.”

“Thanks, Esther.”

“When will you be here?”

I tried to think through the route. It had been two days already. “I’m not positive. Eddie might know better. Three more days? I mean, if you aren't going to be around...”

She stopped me. “Don't be silly. You are more than welcome here. Call when you get into Bakersfield, and we’ll meet somewhere. I’m not going to try to give you the directions to our place. I’m not going to say anything to our parents. You and I will figure that out when you get here. I’m sure you’ve got enough on your mind.”

“Thank you so much, Esther, I love you.”

“Love you, too. And enjoy yourself. I bet it feels good.” With that, she hung up.

It did feel good. Being away from my parents, being on the road with Eddie, being
alone
with Eddie—it all felt amazing.

I let the sun bake my skin on the walk back to the motel. It was a good day.

“I’ve got an out-of-state pickup truck located. It’s got Arizona plates, which will throw the cops in the wrong direction once they find it abandoned. The place should be as dry as a tumbleweed when we go in. I’ll be on watch while you get the cash. I want us in and out in two minutes. I don’t care if they’ve got gold bars. This is about a living wage, you understand?”

I nodded. I understood that this was about enough money to last until California. There was more to it, but that wasn’t what we were talking about. These were the steps. A, B, C.

“We take off in the pickup with the cash. No shots fired. We’re gonna head east in the getaway car. Just outside of Mesquite, we ditch the pickup. Literally. I want to leave it in a ditch, make it look like we hitchhiked or snagged another ride and kept going back into Colorado or Arizona.

“The Harley will be waiting for us beneath a small underpass just inside Arizona. We’ll take the access road back into Nevada.”

Again, I nodded. It all made sense. For just one day of scouting and planning, I had to admit that it was a solid plan. My heart raced as I imagined the entire thing going down. I could barely contain myself, and it was an active struggle to keep listening to Eddie lay out the plans.

“Mesquite PD will be en route after maybe four minutes, giving us a two-minute head start before they even get to the bank. In and out of Nevada, then back in. We’ll give Delores every impression that we are in for an afternoon nap, so if the heat comes back to us, we can use her as an alibi. It helps that she’s deaf in one ear and can barely hear the cars coming and going.”

I hated to find a chink in his armor, but there were avenues that we hadn’t discussed. “Won’t it look suspicious if we skip town the day of a bank robbery? I mean, if they are looking for people from out of state, won’t we be high on the list?”

Eddie nodded. “Absolutely. I guess it’s a good thing Delores didn’t check to make sure the license plate number I gave her was correct. Jason Arnett and Ella Wills will be long gone to New Mexico by the time Mrs. Alison gets a visit from the PD.”

I had to admit that the plan was pretty flawless.

“What’s left to do?”

He smiled at me, “Well, Miss Wills, you’re going to go establish the alibi. Mention travel down to Vegas after we leave here tomorrow. I think you’ll like Delores. She’s nice.”

I rubbed my hands down my face, trying to wrap my head around it all. “We’re really doing this, aren't we?”

“Unless you want to settle in Mesquite. I’ll get a job as a janitor at the high school, and you can raise us some kids and get fat. It’s up to you.” He had that cocky smile on his face as he swayed back and forth with me.

I knew he was joking, but a part of me was intrigued by that future with Eddie. The fast lane was nice, but it took its toll. Sometimes that toll was the freezing cold wind of winter, other times it was far greater. I knew that the danger would catch up to us one day sooner or later, and I thought at the time that I was smart enough to be one step ahead.

Eddie really didn’t strike me as the settling down-type. The Harley, the robberies, the incident at the gas station in Frisco—he was as wild as they came. I didn’t think I could break that horse. I didn’t know if I
wanted
to.

Eddie swayed me in the direction of the bed, and we made love. Despite being a dangerous biker, he and I hadn’t gone all the way before then. He was very patient with me, but that afternoon, I was ready for him. He was rough, the way I quickly discovered that liked it, but I could see him watching my eyes for pain,
real pain.
He manhandled me and made me his woman the day before we planned to rob a small town bank.

I remember hearing about Bonnie and Clyde when I was a girl. I hunted through the library for books about them, but only found brief mentions and footnotes. I knew they were bank robbers and lovers in the thirties. I didn’t think my mother liked my questions about them.

I knew it was a romantic idealization, especially since they went down in a hail of gunfire, but as Eddie and I lay naked on the bed after making love for the first time, I couldn’t get that image out of my head: a modern day Bonnie and Clyde on a Harley in the deserts of the Southwest.

We dozed for an hour or two before getting ready to set the plan into motion. I was going to talk with Dolores and get our alibi straightened out. There was no fear when it came to the robbery. Talking with the old woman who owned the motel, though? That scared me somehow. I was worried about giving us away or making her suspicious. Eddie reassured me, saying that the old was looking for any ears that would listen.

He was right. He always had a way of being right.

“Vacancy. Come on in and stay a while,” read a carved wooden sign.

I knocked softly on the door and opened it. A bell hanging on top jangled as I stepped into the small office. A radio was on playing classical music that was almost inaudible. Beside an empty water cooler sat two old chairs. The place looked like every hint of the recession fell into this one room.

“Hello?”

There was a desk in front of me littered and stacked with papers. I was sure I could flip through and find a newspaper exclaiming that we’d landed on the moon. An old, smoke-stained clock on the wall told me it was near quittin’ time, and the hands had succumbed long ago.

Behind the desk, a door led to what was probably a back office, and if Mrs. Alison was hard of hearing, I was going to have to make sure she heard me.

“Mrs. Alison?” I called out, hoping she wasn't asleep.

After a second, there was a slight cough. “Just a second!” She sounded cheerful, and I waited near the desk as I heard her getting up from an unseen chair.

The door opened, and an older lady stepped forward. Her voice was meek, but she looked like she had a perpetual smile on her face. It was the contagious kind.

“You must be Ella. Jason was going on and on about you.” She made a show of cleaning off the desk for me. Three things changed from one pile to another before she washed her hands of it with a huff.

It was so strange to hear myself called by a different name. If she had been calling me in a crowd, it would have taken five full seconds for me to realize and respond. Luckily, I was the only person in the office with her.

I stifled a laugh. I just couldn’t see the ripped biker that I’d ridden across the country with as a Jason, but what can you do? “I hope he only said nice things about me.”

I didn’t decide to, but I adopted the sweet girl persona. It was an act I had perfected after every church service, so why not put all those years of training to use?

She leaned in like it was juicy gossip. “Oh, honey, he is crazy about you.” After extending her hand, she added, “Call me Delores.”

My cheeks flushed at the compliment. As much as I liked to hear about Eddie, I wanted to change the subject. “This is one of the coolest places we’ve stayed at on our trip. Thank you so much for having us.”

“This place ain’t nothin’ to write home about. I do all right during the springtime, but most of the year, this place is in the red. Albert didn’t mention any of that to me before he decided to cash out.”

I didn’t have a response to that. “How long have you lived in Mesquite?”

She came around the desk, “This ain’t a business deal. Have a seat with me, Ella.”

I obliged, sinking with unease into one of the ancient seats. I expected to hear creaks and groans of protest, but it was actually comfortable. Delores slid down into the one next to the water cooler, giving it a look of contempt as if it wasn't her fault that it was empty.

“Albert and I moved from Amarillo in ‘73, I think. He didn’t like Texas. We had a little money and bought this place when Mesquite was nothing but a rest stop on the way to Las Vegas. We weren’t sure if we were gonna settle here, but the road kept getting busier, and we were always full, so now here we are. Well, here
I
am.”

“I’m sorry about your husband.” Even though my next statement wasn’t entirely true, humans just love to commiserate, so I couldn’t resist. “I recently lost my parents. I know how hard it can be without them.” I found it a huge weight off my shoulders without them, but I wasn’t going to be so insensitive to Delores and tell her about my emigration from the church.

There was something magical about her, and I loved to hear her story. It was the story of simple folk, but it had a power about it that I couldn't get enough of.

She reached across the chairs and gave my hand a pat.

“When they put that casino in, we were set. Steady customers almost all year. After Albert passed, though, I just couldn't get a handle on this place. I was never great at managing the books, and suddenly I had an entire business dropped into my lap. It’s been quite a few years now, and look at the place.”