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Amber’s hand went around me, and she steered me toward the car after a while. We’d been at the service for some time, I’d shared stories and talked to several people that I had run on crews with and went on missions with, and Amber was tired. I could see it on her face. I was drinking a bit more than I should have, because my awareness was down. That feeling in my gut was ignored at a time when it shouldn’t have been.
“Why don’t we get out of here, Frank?”
“Can you get back to my place?”
She agreed that she could, even if she didn’t quite look like she believed that or not. I helped her with the GPS and sat down on the passenger side. I probably could have gotten us back in one piece, but she was right, there was no sense in taking a chance. It made sense, which helped me to sit down. It was likely what I should have done.
We were about halfway there, and I was feeling off. My gut was telling me that something was wrong, and I felt bad. Although, how was I supposed to feel? I kept asking myself that. I’d just come from an old friend’s funeral. I hadn’t seen him in a while, but we were close. We were so close at one time, that it would ripple out for the rest of our lives. To know that I would never see him again was hard to take.
Amber looked to me with a smile and asked if I was okay. I told her that I was, and I was about to say something else before I saw a truck coming from her side to hit us. The truck ran a red light, smashing into us. I must have hit my head, because it was screeching tires, Amber’s gasping sound, and then darkness.
* * *
I wokeup in the hospital and I asked about Amber first. She was okay, something that was a miracle from what I remembered last. I was okay, she was okay, the vehicle not so much. It was a miracle that we were alright, but there was no clue who had hit us. It was strange and I swear that my gut was telling me something was up. As I walked out of the hospital a few hours later, I didn’t know if I should feel lucky or the opposite. What happened? I couldn’t say for sure.
Amber was shaken up. She talked about bad luck and what I thought happened. I didn’t know what happened, but I wanted to see the positive. Yes, we had almost died, but then it was miraculous that we didn’t. Amber was being a bit more pessimistic. She was scared and really, how could I blame her? I was scared too. I didn’t know why, but it didn’t feel like an accident. There were no brake marks. Whoever had hit us, had just plowed right into us, never even trying to stop. That told me that it wasn’t just a freak accident. I had to think about it some, see where it left me, but I was freaked out. I would be the first to admit it.
“I don’t know what to think about it, Amber, but I am sure that it wasn’t anything like you’re thinking. It was just some drunk driver most likely.”
She scoffed and I felt bad for putting her off. I should have told her that I had a bad feeling about it as well, which was why I had been so on edge myself. Ever since I found out that Jerome was dead, I think I’d been on edge. He was dead, his family, now I was almost taken out on the way home from his funeral. I didn’t know, it didn’t feel random. Amber didn’t think it did either.
“I don’t think it was an accident,” Amber repeated to herself. I knew that she was likely right. There was something off going on here, but before I could really think about it too much, we were back home. It was good to be back. I was gone a day, and it was a reminder of how everything could change in no time at all.
Amber was quiet as we got inside my place. Jesse was out with some of the guys from the funeral and I doubted that he was going to be back anytime soon. It gave us some alone time, the perfect time to do something naughty, but I didn’t think either of us was in the mood. We were going back to Amber’s the next day, and I was going to be grateful to get out of here. Something was off in my hometown, and I just wanted to be where it was safe for Amber. Why did I keep getting this nagging feeling that she was in danger? And from who?
* * *
Amber wokeme up the next morning with a kiss and a smile. We had a full day planned for us and it was a bit easier to forget about the day before. I hadn’t had Amber in two days, and it really did feel like it was too long of a time. I pulled her on top of me and enjoyed the way that she sounded as I entered her. I watched her ride me, clumsy at first, but she was really getting the hang of it. I couldn’t help but feel myself falling more in love with her.
The only problem with the current situation was how loud Amber was. She left nothing to the imagination and even though Jesse had wanted her before and that was irksome, he was looking like he was in love with her as well when we got out of the shower and started to make breakfast. I hadn’t thought it was a good idea, I wasn’t sure who started it, but now I was unable to stop myself.
When Jesse said that he had to talk to me, alone, I thought that it was going to be something about how loud we were. We had just had at it, I will be the first to admit it, but I wasn’t going to feel bad about it though. I refused. “Look, man, sorry it was so loud. I will try to keep it down later,” I started. Jesse just shook his head like I was an idiot and said that it had nothing to do with that.
“Why do you look like you have more bad news?”
He said that he did, and I braced myself for it. The last time that Jesse had given me bad news, I had to go to a funeral. I didn’t want any more bad news. Sure, it was a possibility that it could be worth it, but it never was. This time was no different and I learned that another guy that we both knew and ran missions with was gone. It made no sense and I wanted to know what happened, but the answer wasn’t so hard to find. It looked like suicide, but that was hard to believe. Tim was the sort of guy that could walk through hell and not even notice it. He was very outwardly spoken and lively. I guess that he could have found someone and pissed them off, and they came back and did stuff. There was no way that he killed himself though. He didn’t have any kids or family, but he loved life and himself too much for that. I’d missed the funeral, we both had. I guess that was a shocker and Jesse asked me if I was okay.
“Yeah, but you really need to keep all of that to yourself. Don’t say anything around Amber. She is not going to take it well. She already thinks that it’s not a coincidence how this is all happening. I am starting to agree with her.”
Jesse said that she had good senses. “It likely is more than what you want it to be. That is two of the people that we worked with gone in a relatively short window of time, not to mention you were just T-boned in that same time period. Something is going on and we need to figure it out. You know that we were both on that crew. Could it be someone plucking us off?” he asked half-joking.
I waved him off. “Nah, we’re too loveable to be taken out.” Jesse just shook his head. It wasn’t funny, but damn, I hoped it wasn’t true. Something was going on, and I was going to have to keep Amber safe, without her knowing she was in danger.
11
Amber
There was something going on and I wasn’t sure what. Frank and Jesse were whispering back and forth to each other, and I swear that I heard none of it. I asked him what was going on and why they were being so secretive, but he didn’t answer. He just said it was time to go and I asked him why. I wanted to know what the big deal was. It felt like we were running, but to where? From what? And why?
We drove back to my place, and I was trying my best to hold my thoughts in. I had a lot of questions, and I didn’t want to jump on him about it, but I would if I had to. He was keeping something from me, had been since he got here and now, I had to know what it was he was hiding. The mystery was wearing off and now it was just feeling like danger.
After dinner, we sat around watching a movie. Frank was content to not talk about any of it, but I wasn’t. I finally had to know what was going on and why he was acting so weird with his friend earlier. He was weird the whole time we were in his hometown. I didn’t like being lied to and while I felt like everyone deserved to have some privacy and the like, it wasn’t about that. It was about him dragging me into something. I hadn’t forgotten about the wreck, and it worried me.
Frank wasn’t being very helpful. He was trying to sweep it under the rug like I didn’t have anything to worry about. I couldn’t go on thinking that there was nothing to worry about. There obviously was. The more he told me that everything was okay, the less I believed him.
That meant that I tried to do some snooping on my own. I investigated Frank and his friend that I’d met, the one who had died and the many at the funeral whose names stuck with me. I tried my best to figure out what was going on, but I didn’t come up with anything. Frank caught me searching for his dead friend’s name and he wanted to know why I was.
“I wonder about what happened to him.”
