Page 17 of Rough Choice

“You want to put a rental car on your credit card and have Max meet us there?” he asked sarcastically.

“Okay… what if we buy one? Nothing fancy, just an old, beat-up clunker. I saw that stash of money in your room. We can buy something for a couple of grand.”

“Sweetheart,” he said in a patronizing way that irked her, “if my brand-new Hummer couldn’t survive driving in this heatwave across town to pick up your stupid organic groceries, then how in the hell are we going to get a clunker across the state and part of Texas?” It was a valid question, but Eliana didn’t like it for the sheer fact that she had no way of answering it.

“Okay, so… so we’re just a little late meeting Kye in El Paso. That’s no big deal. We’ll get the car fixed and be a little late. He’ll wait for us,” she said, more to convince herself than anything.

“Yeah, and every day he lingers in the same location is a day closer to death. If Kye got out then that can mean only one thing— he’s being chased and by a lot of men. No way in hell would Max let him go without sending everyone after him.”

“All of this could have been avoided if you’d just told me from the start what the plan was,” Eliana barked, feeling suddenly defensive.

“Oh, because you have a history of sticking to plans once you’ve been informed of the details.” She didn’t know what she hated more, his sarcasm, his condescension, or his eye-roll. “Here,” he said, dumping the grocery bag on her bed. “Eat your fucking kale.”

* * *

Kye pulled his bike to a standstill at the gas station pump off the main freeway. He felt good about how many miles he’d made it and counted his blessing that so far he’d managed to hit the open road. When the nozzle of the hose was resting in the open cap and gas flowed freely, he pulled the phone from his pocket.

There were no text messages or missed calls, and though he was hoping for one, he didn’t expect it. Grier was much more disciplined in following protocol than he was. Had the roles been reversed, he wouldn’t have been able to keep himself from contacting Eli. Every muscle in his body ached for her. Even more than it ached from the bruises he brandished.

Every delay felt like agony knowing he was playing catch up in all of this. He wanted to make sure he met them before they crossed the border. If Grier had already secured them passports, it would take longer for Kye to meet them. He didn’t have the supplies he needed nor did he have Grier’s expedited efficiency. Even though his break from the club was supposed to be clean, having paid the exit price, he still didn’t trust it. The memories of torture, beatings, and murder attempts were still too fresh.

Once they’d had some downtime in Belize, maybe a few months of staying low and off the radar, they could cross back into the country under their real names and identities. This would eventually allow them to work if that’s what they decided. Kye’s nest egg of well over a million dollars was enough to sustain them, likely, for the rest of their lives. But he also knew his woman. Eliana wasn’t the type to spend the rest of her life lying around.

Although, if Kye had any say, they’d spend their first week in Belize fucking each other on every surface he could find. It was insatiable how much he craved her. Having never taken drugs, he could only imagine this was the way a junkie jonesed for a fix. He needed her. So, when he saw the alert on his mobile map app, he fumbled to open it. Grier had turned on the ping alert. This was his signal that he’d arrived at the border destination of El Paso.

“Damn,” Kye muttered to himself as he removed the gas nozzle. They were two days ahead of schedule. The plan was for them to spend at least seven days on the road making sure they weren’t being tailed then make their way there. Something must have happened to accelerate the timeline. Maybe someone had found them, or they’d been robbed and lost the ten grand in cash Kye had stashed for them in the marked warehouse in Kentucky.

Kye paid for the gas and mounted before turning on the GPS tracker. He’d have to ride all night to catch them. He was only just outside of Indianapolis, Indiana. It was at least another twenty hours to El Paso and that was only if his bike and his body didn’t give out. He didn’t have a choice. The bike roared to life, headlights flicked on, and Kye was once again racing along Highway 44 in desperation to get to Eliana.

Eliana had finished her third shower in two days and was styling her hair in the mirror. It had been too long since she’d put on any makeup or a styled outfit, and she was starting to feel it. While never one for flawless manicures and high heels, she still liked having that element of being dressed nicely on occasion. So, after two days cooped up in the motel in Oklahoma, she’d decided she and Grier needed to go out to dinner.

“Why?” he asked as he sat watching a racing show on the TV in his room. He was eating stale French fries out of the bag and staring mindlessly as the racing bikes made dangerous and high-speed turns.

“Because, if you don’t, I’m going to pick up this phone,” she began and held up the phone on the nightstand by his bed, “and tell the police you kidnapped me. I’ll tell them you’re armed, dangerous, and they should shoot to kill.”

“I’d rather you didn’t,” he said, still not looking at her.

“Grier!” she pleaded. “You haven’t let me out of the motel room since our first night. This is almost worse than the car. Please, can we just go into town and have dinner at a real restaurant, grab a beer, and then we can come right back.”

“The car will be ready in the morning. We’ll have dinner in El Paso with Kye,” he said flippantly. Eliana gritted her teeth and picked the phone up again.

“Hello?” she said into the receiver. “Is this the front desk?” Grier glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. “Yes, can you connect me with the local police depar…” Her words were cut off as Grier leaped across the room, over the bed, and tackled her. “Grier!” she screamed as he straddled her and slammed the phone down. “Get off me,” she groaned and wiggled underneath him.

“Don’t do that,” he said with a warning finger in her face. He stood and didn’t so much as extend a hand to help her up. “Fine, we’ll go to dinner,” he consented. Grabbing his wallet from the nightstand, he groaned when he saw the expectant look on her face. “Now what?”

“Let’s have a nice dinner,” she suggested. “I’m going to go get cleaned up, why don’t you do the same?”

“I look fine,” he protested. Eliana crossed her arms. Okay, so his pants were covered in French fry grease, he hadn’t showered yet, and his t-shirt was for some obscure 80s band no one had ever heard of. “I’m not going to win this argument, am I?”

“Probably not,” she admitted.

“I hate you,” he grumbled and before she could even take a step, he had pulled his shirt off and was going for his belt buckle.

“Wait!” she screeched, holding a hand over her eyes. “At least wait for me to be out of the room!”

“So, hurry up and go!” he yelled back, clearly not the least bit phased by her modesty. Eliana closed the door to their adjoining rooms behind her, trying to squelch the blush on her face.

As much as she couldn’t stand Grier most of the time, mainly because their confinement put them in non-stop proximity of each other, and Eliana suspected he was the type who needed as much alone time as she did, there was no denying he was an attractive man.