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34
Jayce
For all of Sid’s shortcomings, the man knew how to spread fear.
If the leader of the Copperheads had wanted to cripple me, he could have had two of his goons hold me down while he pummeled my kneecaps with his crowbar. He’d had plenty of chances to do it already. It would only take a few minutes.
But there was no fun in that. No anticipation, no growing sense of dread. Booby-trapping my bike with a grenade, on the other hand, created an environment of danger. He was telling me that I wasn’t safe anywhere, not even at home. That an attack could come at any moment, even when I thought I was alone on my bike.
And it worked.
The whole drive back to Charlotte’s motel, I felt cold. Like I needed to put a jacket on despite the humid Georgia morning. The grenade might not have gone off, but it didn’t need to. The fear it created was almoststrongerwhen I discovered and disarmed it.
I was glad to have Charlotte’s arms around me, her body pressed tightly against mine. Even though she kept reaching down to scratch her legs, I felt safer with her here. Less alone.
She would probably laugh at me if I told her that.
We didn’t see anyone on the road until we reached the motel, where the sheriff’s cruiser was parked in front of the lobby. I cursed under my breath. “The fuck ishedoing here?”
“I… I don’t know,” Charlotte said.
Rather than turn into the motel lot, I drove past it and around the next bend in the road. When we were a safe distance away, I pulled over and stopped the bike. “You’ll have to walk from here. The sheriff is in Sid’s pocket, always feeding him information. If he sees me drop you off…”
“I understand,” she said as she got off the bike. “What, um, should I tell him if he asks where I was?”
“Tell him you couldn’t sleep, and went for a walk. Rehearse what you’re going to say as you walk back there, all right?”
“Okay.” She threw her arms around me, gave me one last kiss, and then began walking.
I watched her until she had disappeared around the bend in the road, then I turned and drove in the opposite direction, taking the long way around town to get back home.
The thing about Sid’s booby trap was that I’d been expecting it. I’d seen him do shit like that plenty of times when I was a Copperhead. In the last two weeks, I’d been as careful as I could be. I always checked my truck before climbing inside, and when I got home I walked the perimeter of my barn for signs of entry.
Except Ididn’twalk the perimeter of the barn last night. As soon as I found Charlotte in the bed of my truck, I brought her inside immediately. That, plus almost starting my bike without checking it… Being with her was making me careless. I was so busy worrying abouthersafety that I wasn’t worrying about my own.
That was a good way to get killed.
Last night was a mistake.
It was hard to accept while Charlotte was in my barn, in my bed, and in myarms, but I could see it clearly now. We shouldn’t have slept together. No matter how good it had been—and ithadbeen good, world-shatteringly good—it was a reckless risk to Charlotte. If Sid found out she was more than just my community service partner…
Last night had to be a one-time thing. I needed to keep it in my pants from this point on. Not just for her safety, but for hergrief, too. Even if we managed to keep our relationship secret from the Copperheads, I couldn’t let her have feelings for me. Because that was the ultimate truth in all of this: I was still a dead man living on borrowed time. The grenade on my bike was proof that Sid was toying with me like a cat. And like all cats, eventually he would get bored. He’d roll up to my barn while he was especially strung out and impatient, put his crowbar to my head, and beat me to death.
The closer I got to Charlotte—and the closer she got tome—the more that eventuality would crush her.
As I rode through the early morning twilight, I wished I was strong enough to just keep riding and never stop. To leave town, riding away from danger the way Charlotte had suggested.
But even just entertaining that thought filled me with pain. Leaving would be abandoning Theresa’s memory. It meant accepting that Sid got to do whatever he wanted without consequence. I couldn’t leave until I’d made Sid pay.
Even if it killed me.
I got home and laid in bed for a while. The remnants of Charlotte’s smell still lingered on the pillow and sheets. I closed my eyes and inhaled it again and again until I could no longer detect the wonderful scent from the normal smells of the room.
Finally I got up, took a shower, and left. I checked the underside of my truck before getting in, but I still cringed as I turned the keys in the ignition. No bomb exploded underneath me.
This time, a voice whispered in my head.
Charlotte was waiting on the bench by the community center with two coffees. “Mornin’,” she said with her normal smile as I pulled up. “Got you a coffee.”
