AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Isaiah had to.
* * *
Even though Laura hadn’t seen Gordon in over three years, nothing about him had changed. Wrinkle weathered skin, white hair, thin limbs, and no teeth. He even wore the same overalls but as far as Laura remembered, he’d never worn anything else.
She opened the door.
“You look like you’ve been dragged by a horse and shit on by pigs.”
“I feel like it.” Laura climbed in. The effort to close the door left her panting.
Gordon pulled out of the restaurant parking lot.
“How bad you hurt?” Gordon shifted gears, and the truck protested.
“My shoulder’s dislocated, some bruises. Other than that….”
“Well, you probably ain’t bleeding on the inside or you’d be dead.”
Laura laughed. “Enough about me, how have you been?”
He gave her a sideways glance. “Better than you, apparently. If you’d call more, you’d know that, but you don’t.”
No she didn’t. “Sorry, I’ve had a lot going on.”
“So I’ve heard.”
Laura laid her head against the passenger window.
“Don’t go to sleep on me. Need to get you looked over. Might have a concussion.”
“Had my seatbelt on, didn’t hit my head as far as I know. And I slept the whole way here once I convinced Dale to keep his mouth shut.”
“Then it was a car wreck.” Gordon made it a statement.
“Yeah, you can say that.”
“You wanna tell me what happened or does retirement put me in the ‘I don’t need to know’ category?”
Yesterday she would have declined to share, but now it seemed she didn’t have a choice.
Over the next several hours, Laura laid everything out, from the Utah Facility to the Varu to Dr. Dante and her meeting with Max.
When she was done, the rumble of the engine filled the quiet until they turned onto the ribbon of a gravel driveway leading through five hundred acres of woods and farmland to the century-year-old house, where Gordon had been born, raised, married, widowed, and would probably die.
Rocks crunched under the wheels.
“I never liked that pretentious fucker,” Gordon said.
“Most Senators are pretentious.”
“Yeah, but Denton was the kind of kid that picks his nose and wipes it on the underside of his desk.”
“You still have a way with words.” Laura smiled even though it made her face hurt.
“Your daddy used to say the same thing. Usually when he was winning at poker and I was calling him every name in the book.” He downshifted. “I really have missed having you two around.”
“I’ve missed being here.”
