Objective: (Bloodlines Book 2) (3 page)

Chapter 2

At seven-thirty pm I stop at a diner in the middle of
nowheresville, better known as Dexter, MO, for some lunch and a stretch, and then I keep right on going. My mind doesn’t rest. I keep thinking that my life is unfinished, that it’s missing something, someone.

I don’t have a plan. I figure I’ll just ride until I arrive someplace where I feel like I can breathe. Someplace I can just exist quietly. I’m not in control right now and that scares me. I need to be somewhere that is far away from Ezra Ash. Far away from the memories of the life I’ve decimated. I need someplace I can start over somehow.

Four hours later I’m ready to slit my wrists. The phone call I make to Aster during a pit stop is torture. Explaining something you can’t explain to yourself makes for an uncomfortable discussion. Horrified would be a good term to describe her thoughts on my situation. Horrified, disgusted, and heartbroken.

“Cypress White, what the hell is going on?! Your apartment is on the news! Cane...Honey, Cane’s...gone…” she cries. Hearing her confirm what I witnessed is harder than I thought it would be. I still held out hope, even a small trickle of it that maybe, just maybe, he’d survived. I roll my shoulders and crack my neck.

“I know, Aster. I was there,”
 I say flatly.

“WHAT?! Where are you now? Why didn’t you call me? What’s going on?” she wails into my ear.

“Aster, something happened. Ezra showed up, but Cane wasn’t home. He...” my voice trails off at the memory that I haven’t let myself revisit since that day. “I meant to shoot Ezra. I don’t know when Cane came in, I didn’t see him, I didn't hear him.” My last admission comes out as a sob. There’s silence at the other end of the line. “Aster?”

“I’m here,” she breathes. “Cypress, what did Ezra do to you?” My eyes fill with tears as I shudder.

“I...I can’t. Please, I can’t.” I sniffle, trying to regain composure. I push my memories down deep.

“Where are you?” she asks.

“Away. Aster, Ezra will look for me. You...you have to stay safe. I can’t tell you where I am.”

She blows out a long breath before answering me.

“Cyp, okay. So, you shot Cane by accident and instead of going to the
cops
you fled. Now you won't tell me where you are or where you’re going or what Ezra did to you to make you even think about shooting him. FUCK, girl, am I supposed to be okay with this?” Her voice is borderline hysterical.

“Aster,” I start, “the cops, there are so many dirty ones, so many in Ezra’s pocket. How could they protect me anyways? I wasn’t thinking really, I just left, I just moved my feet. It was instinct. If I hadn't I’d be dead too!” I shout back at her.

“Okay, okay. What am I supposed to do though? What if he comes asking questions? Jesus, am I in danger too?” she squeals.

“No. No, Aster, he can’t go on some kind of killing rampage, but he will find you. He will ask you where I am and he will push you for information but you don’t have any to give. I promise to call you once a week, okay? I promise. I won't skip a week, ever. I promise, he won't do more than badger you for information. He’s smart. Too smart to do something dumb.”

“Jesus, Cypress, this is bad. What about your dad? What the hell am I supposed to tell our families?” she squawks. Shit. I hadn’t even thought about that. I haven’t thought about anything at all since I pulled the trigger. I’ve just been...lost.

“Don’t tell them anything. I just...disappeared,” I offer lamely.

“As if!”

“Aster, they’ll hear the news about Cane and figure I was so grief-stricken that I lost it. I mean, I think I
have
lost it really. I have no idea what I’m doing. I have no idea how to be a ghost or disappear. Ezra has connections all over the place. I’m so lonely and scared. I just know that I have to do this.” Beyond losing Cane, there is no way I could be anywhere near Ezra Ash after what he did.

“You better call me every single week. I’ll ask around campus, see if anyone has connections for fake IDs or something. I'll help anyway I can,
Cyp, but God, this is a disaster and it doesn't feel right. I don't think you’re doing the right thing by running. And what the hell do you mean, Ezra has connections?” she admonishes. But I can’t tell her the truth. I kept Cane’s family secrets because he was supposed to be getting out of the business. It wasn’t worth having people judge him. I sigh and drag my hand through my hair, pulling at the little knots.

“I don't know what else to do right now. Forget about Ezra. Just promise me I still have you. Even if it’s just on the phone. I need to know I have someone,” I plead with her.

“I promise, Cyp. You always have me. That’s what family is for, right?”

“Right.” I sniffle. “Look, I should go.” I tap the end button on the screen. When I tuck the phone back in my pocket,
 a sob tears through me but I climb back on the bike before I lose control of my body. I find another crappy motel, check in and spend the next hour lying in bed wallowing and thinking about what the
right
thing to do really is and wondering what exactly I’ll find if I let myself unzip the backpack fully.

A scream rips from my lungs as he tackles me to the ground. All the breath is knocked out of me from the weight of him landing on top of me. He flips me to my back. I claw at his arms and torso but he doesn't seem to feel pain. Tears stream down my face. This cannot be happening. I will not let this happen. I will not. A hand rears back before connecting with my cheekbone. The sick sound of the slap makes me scream out again. I taste blood in my mouth and swallow thickly to keep the bile rising up my throat down. He places his palms on my breasts and squeezes cruelly before he leans down to my face. I muster all my courage and spit in his mouth just before it touches me. I’m kicking my legs and twisting my hips furiously to break free but he’s so large I can’t shake him loose. He sits up and wipes his mouth. “Wrong move, Sugar,” he grinds out. His black eyes shine with hate. Or maybe it’s jealousy. Either way I need to think fast. I’m not fast enough, though. His fist connects with my temple sending white hot pain radiating through my body. Then everything fades to black.

Somewhere in a roadside motel room I wake up alone as the sun shines through the blinds. I wake disoriented and confused. Oh right, I up and left my life. Totally makes sense now.
NOT
. My anxiety is overwhelming. I push back the tears threatening to spill out of my eyes and move forward. I don't know how to do this. Just thinking about him throws me off course. Some days were always better than others but life was better with him. He said we would last forever. Who knew forever could be so short? Monsters swim around my head from all the words that we shared, all the touches, all the moments. He kissed my soul and now he’s gone. He’s gone and it is entirely my fault. I only wanted love, I didn't bargain for this. I check out at nine-thirty am, unable to be still with my thoughts any longer, and get on the road. My inner thighs and arms scream from being on the motorcycle for so long but I push through the burn in my muscles and continue. I’m not far enough away yet.

Chapter 3

Beebe, Arkansas is a small town, to me anyways. The sign as I ride in says
Population 7,400
. It’s not quite the cityscape that I grew up in but it actually looks nice enough. I’m physically drained from being on the bike for so many days and hours. Even when I stand I feel like I’m still vibrating slightly. I can’t imagine anyone would ever look for me in Podunk, Arkansas, so I stop. I walk around the little downtown area and I decide that I like what I see. Small businesses line the main drag and it’s flat. So flat here. I’ve never been anywhere that looked like this before. It’s strange to see so much dust blowing around from all the dirt roads. Old trucks and cars line the main drag. It’s almost like a step back in time. No one even bothers to glance my way as I meander around. Trees are scattered about here and there, and people mill about at a slow pace, nothing like where I’m from. I like how it feels here, like people mind their own.

I wander around until I find a little real estate office. The air inside smells like smoke and stale coffee. The woman behind the front desk looks thoroughly irritated at my arrival. Her blonde hair is teased out to epic proportions and her nails are fake and too long and blood red. I explain that I need a place to rent and she shuffles through some papers and hands me a stack before going back to whatever she was doing on her computer. The clacking of her nails on the keyboard grates on my nerves as I pick out a few options to look at, hopefully today, and hand the rest of the stack back to her.

Three hours later I have my very own trailer just south of the downtown area. Five hours later I have a crappy car that I paid three hundred dollars for after I saw it sitting on the side of the road, and six hours later I’m sitting on the floor of my new home staring at the backpack. I crawl over to it and slowly unzip it. I’m still not sure I want to know exactly what I’ve taken. I turn it upside down and let the contents fall out around me.
Shit
. What the hell have I gotten myself into? This is bad, so very bad. Bundles of cash sit on the floor now, surrounding me. What the hell have I gotten myself into? This is bad, so very bad. Counting the money in the backpack I realize there’s more than I anticipated, so much in fact that I don't think I need to work for years. I don’t know if Cane’s errands for Ezra always amounted to this much cash flowing through our apartment but I know one thing: I’m not supposed to have it. I’m screwed. Really screwed. My breathing becomes labored at the shock at seeing this much cash. It floors me, but the realization that it’s sitting on my floor piled around me exacerbates my panic. This much money doesn’t go missing under anyone’s watch, let alone Ezra’s. Beyond his nephew dying, the money is just one more reason for him to hunt for me. Someone will be looking for their money and when Ezra can’t produce it things will get messy. I’m in so far over my head with this. Shock takes over and I scoop all the money back into the pack and zip it up. I don’t want to look at it. It’s tainted. I need a plan. I run a finger through the various pockets, sweeping them for any treasures or clues but find none. Did Cane always have this much cash sitting in this bag? If all Ezra’s business errands amassed such small fortunes then I’ve been truly blind to what had been going on. I thought the Ash operation was much smaller. I’m going to die. It’s certain.

The bike is tucked safely behind the trailer with a tarp over it out of sight, and my new-to-me car is parked in the driveway, or rather the patch of dirt that accompanies my trailer. At midnight I drift off to sleep in the fetal position on the floor of my new bedroom, feeling more lost and alone than ever.

“Clean up in aisle four,” the intercom boomed throughout the store. I stared at the spilled milk at my feet and felt my face flush. The gallon had just slipped out of my hand and when it hit the grocery store floor it popped like a water balloon. A dark-haired head bobbed around the corner and my breath caught. Cane Ash - THE Cane Ash - was headed right for me. All two hundred pounds of muscle and brawn was stalking toward me. His amber eyes held mine captive as his mouth turned into a smirk. “Hey. We have history together, right?” he’d asked, stopping on the other side of the spilt milk.

“Uh…
ya. We do,” I muttered like an idiot. Those amber orbs danced with amusement as I spoke.

“Billy’s on his way over with the mop. You don’t have to wait here, you know,” he’d chuckled as he set up a wet floor sign I hadn’t noticed him carrying. I sucked in a deep breath and try to clear my head.

“Right. Okay then. See you tomorrow,” I said as coolly as I could muster. I took two steps before tossing, “in history, I mean,” over my shoulder. My third step is where my coolness tragically ended. I stepped right in the puddle of milk on the floor and lost my footing. I heard my name yelled just before my rear hit the floor, followed by my head.

I blinked hard a couple times as I heard my name being gently called. “Just sit up slowly, okay?” Cane said in a dreamy voice. I think every girl in the school had had a crush on him at one point or another. His always-tanned Cuban skin, graciously passed onto him from his mother, his dark brown hair and translucent amber eyes really did make him stunning. Besides being hot as sin he was also seemingly a generally nice guy. Sure, he didn’t do too well in school and it was rumored he got in a lot of fights, but every interaction my friends or I had had with him he’d always been a gentleman. The back of my head throbbed as I finally opened my eyes fully and everything came into
focus. Cane was staring intently at me, worry etched across his handsome face. “What happened?” I croaked, taking in my surroundings. Right. I fell. In the grocery store. In front of Cane Ash. Shoot. Me. Now. I could feel the heat creep up my neck and warm my cheeks. He chuckled lightly before winking, “You’re alright. Come on, I’ll help you up.” He smiled and reached his hand out to me and I hesitantly took it. His palm was rough and warm and strong. It felt like heaven. I tamped down the butterflies in my stomach and cleared my throat. “Thanks,” I said before swiftly walking out of the store, promptly jumping in my car and slamming the door shut.