At the front of the trailer, there was a crash as someone kicked the door in.
“C’mon,” Aaron murmured, grabbing the bags and my hand again as he ran hunched over to the cover of trees I’d climbed through on the left side of the lot. We raced through the growth, heedless of how much noise we made. Behind us, there were shouts and an errant gunshot that echoed through the hills.
“You think they killed him?” I asked, alarmed that Otto had turned into a violent criminal when he’d only ever been a slightly lazy ne’er do well with me.
Aaron didn’t answer.
We burst through the evergreens, our shoes slapping against the asphalt as we met the sidewalk.
“I got a car,” I panted as a stitch stabbed into my side under my ribs.
Jesus, I needed to do more cardio.
Aaron flashed me a glance over his shoulder but slowed enough for me to lead us to where I’d parked the muted green Honda. He shucked off the duffel bags, unzipped them both toroot around until he found square black monitors in each, and then shoved the bags in the back seat. I watched as he tossed the trackers into the bushes before getting into the front seat. After I raced around to the passenger side, he laughed at the evidence of my hot-wiring abilities.
“You’re gonna explain this skill on the way down to Entrance,” he warned as he started the car and executed a half donut that spun us the right way down the road.
I was too preoccupied with catching my breath to answer.
Aaron gave me a few minutes of silence as he expertly navigated through the dark streets of Whistler and back onto the Sea to Sky Highway. Still, he looked at me often, his gaze a tangible caress on my sweat-damp cheek.
“Never met a girl like you,” he finally mused, almost to himself. “And I know a lotta girls.”
I snorted. “Way to make me feel special.”
His grin flashed white in the dark interior. “Got a lotta brothers shacked up with some pretty kick-ass women.”
Ah, okay. Well, that was cute and not misogynistic like I’d assumed.
“How many siblings do you have?”
“You wanna have a heart-to-heart, Blue, you start by tellin’ me how you cottoned on to Otto’s crew findin’ where I was at.”
I looked out the window at the dull metallic sheen of the ocean beside the cliffside road and wondered what to say. It had been so long since I’d explained my history to anyone, and I wasn’t anxious to do so now.
It was better to let sleeping dogs lie.
Only, Rooster wasn’t some far-off threat. He had a connection with the man in that trailer, potentially a connection to the man beside me now.
“I grew up with criminals,” I explained slowly, carving out the easiest words to explain a complicated history.
“They taught you,” he surmised.
My laughter was as hollow as a spent gun casing. “Taught me? Ha! I was a girl, Aaron. A waste of space if no one was allowed to fuck me. No one taught me shit.” Except for Cedar and, briefly, a brother named Axe who’d helped get me on birth control despite Rooster forbidding it. “I learned, though. I was invisible, mostly, so they did a lot of their worst kind of shit in front of me.”
Aaron’s hands squeaked on the wheel, and I realized his knuckles were white with strain. “They hurt you?”
I shrugged a shoulder. “Only once. I left a few days later.”
It took me a moment to realize that grinding sound came from Aaron. He wasgrowling.
Something about that warmed my belly like good whiskey. I’d told Grouch my story when he’d caught me that last time stealing from his shop. But that was years ago. Since then, I hadn’t made any good enough friends to confide in or commiserate with me.
To care.
It felt absurd and beautiful that this essential stranger cared enough now to be enraged for me.
“It was a long time ago,” I placated.
