Page 71 of Dirty

“That was awesome.”

“Relaxing, isn’t it?”

“It’s weird. It seems so, I don’t know, violent. But it’s a violence you can control. With your eyes closed, it’s hypnotic,” I explained.

“Are you relaxed?” he asked.

I would have expected just the opposite, but surprisingly, I did feel relaxed. “I am.”

He held out his hand.

I reached for it, and with his help, climbed off the motorcycle.

“Thank you,” I said.

“We all need that from time to time. You looked like it was time.”

I didn’t say anything, but I liked the fact that he noticed. I wasn’t standing in wait for him to screw up, nor was I one of those people who sabotaged relationships, but I did expect at some point he’d do something stupid or inconsiderate.

So far, however, he hadn’t.

He reached in his pocket and pulled out his key ring. After fumbling with hit for a few minutes, he extended his cupped hand. “Here.”

“What?”

“Open your hand.”

I did as he asked.

He dropped a ring with two keys on it in my hand.

I looked at the keys, and then at him. “What…”

“One is a key to the garage, one is a key to the bike. If you ever need to relax, feel free to hop on and escape to wherever your mind needs to take you. Just lock up when you’re done, okay?”

“But…”

“Keep them.” He nodded toward my hand and then grinned. “I trust you.”

It seemed ridiculous, but I felt like crying. “Are you sure?”

He reached for my hand. “Yep.”

He led me to the porch, and we sat down side by side. It was still early in the evening and the sun had yet to set, so sitting outside was nice.

“The detective stopped by this morning,” he said.

I spun to the side and gasped. “Oh shit. What did he say?”

“He asked me the same questions you said he asked you. Then, he asked how I knew you and your mother. I told him we were old neighbors, and that I met you most recently after the abduction. I said I asked you what they looked like, but that you said you were blindfolded the entire time, just like we discussed. He left happy.”

I looked at him in disbelief. “That was it?”

He nodded. “Easy, peasy.”

I glanced across the street. A young boy was working on an old car that didn’t have any wheels on it while one of his friends talked to him.

“Can we go inside?”