Page 5 of Property of Thrasher (Kings of Anarchy MC: South Carolina #1)

MELODY

As Lyric emerged from the single-wide trailer, I grabbed my small duffel bag hopping out of the vehicle and moving to her car.

I had prayed all night that my brother didn’t have an episode today.

I needed him to be okay until someone else got home to care for him.

The guilt ate me up inside, but I also knew this was the only way to escape the future Hell awaiting me as a wife to any man in our community, but especially the one I had been assigned.

Her eyes were puffy and red. That isn’t what got me wound tight. No, it was the marks on her neck. It looked as if she had been strangled.

Who put their hands on her?

Did BJ do that? Why?

I had too much fear running through me to ask though. Instead, we both silently settled into the car and took off as if we were headed to the bank like her husband expected.

We made it out of town and both of us seemed to let out a breath. The heaviness weighed on us until we finally crossed the state line. With every mile behind us, the fear lessoned and excitement for the possibilities took its place.

We weren’t safe, but were we better than where we began? I wasn’t sure, but I knew deep inside we had to do something and this seemed like the only option.

I couldn’t say we would ever be truly safe. The guilt kept nagging me inside with every mile. I hated leaving my baby brother behind, but I knew if I stayed in a matter of days I would be married and most likely never see him again anyway.

Logan hated my family. He hated that I was always watching my brother, even when my parents were home to handle his needs.

Very specific needs that Logan couldn’t understand.

His allergies were truly life threatening.

The smallest contact with an allergen triggered his throat to close up. I couldn’t help but be worried.

We stopped at a gas station three hundred miles into our trip heading East. Absently, I reached to my purse to check my phone only to remember I left it behind.

I left it all behind.

Everything.

No one could call me anymore.

Leaving was the first step.

Existing was already proving to be a challenge all its own. Breaking habits wasn’t easy.

Like simply getting gas took extra thoughts since I didn’t bring my debit card.

I withdrew all of the money in my account except a little.

Using a card would give everyone we left behind a way to find us.

Out of habit, I stood staring at the gas pump a little lost. It took a few spare seconds for me to remember to send Lyric in with cash to pay for the fuel.

Lyric came out of the store with a paper bag in her arms, her eyes darted everywhere like she expected a monster to jump out and take her at any moment.

“I got some snacks, water, and some premade sandwich that looks like we might be able to choke it down,” she muttered breathless.

I nodded, settling back in to the driver seat. “Eat up, we have to get as far as we can before we stop anywhere for rest.”

She didn’t argue, instead she gave me a soft smile, opened a bottled water and handed it to me.

The day passed on as we pressed east bound.

Not having phones was an odd feeling. The anxiety in me rose with every mile.

Inside I knew leaving was my only choice at a real life.

But blindly finding a way out was easier said than done.

I wasn’t familiar with interstate driving and our next gas stop, I got turned around going in the wrong direction when I emerged off the exit.

We spent half an hour getting turned back around.

We didn’t have a specific destination in mind, just follow the signs East and try to make it to a state on the coast. Our final resting spot there was undetermined, but that was the goal to start over somewhere far from Montana.

Hours upon hours passed and we were well past midnight into the early morning hours of a new day when we crossed from Nebraska into Kansas. I couldn’t stay awake any further so we stopped at a small hotel for the night well, really the day.

Entering the place, I couldn’t hide my anxiety and fatigue. The man at the front greeted us. Lyric stepped forward, “we need to get a room please.”

The man looked at us blankly and asked, “ID and credit card please?”

Lyric and I looked at each other. I handed him my drivers license. “I don’t have a credit card, we are paying cash.”

He shook his head while studying us. “I’m sorry ladies, we have to have a credit card on file for incidentals.”

“We don’t have a credit card, I’m sorry.” I gave a nod and we began to walk back outside, “thank you for your time,” I whispered.

We didn’t make it to the door before he called out stopping us. “Don’t make me regret this. I’ll put mine in. Just pay the room fee and I’ll use my card as your incidentals payment. Please don’t overstay and don’t charge anything to the room because then it charges that card.”

An exasperated sigh of relief escaped me. I didn’t know what we were going to do if he hadn’t given us this chance. The reality set in that we didn’t have a plan. We quickly paid, got the key card and headed to our room.

It was small, one bed, one bathroom, and a dresser.

After each of us showering, it was almost three in the morning, we needed sleep before the eleven o’clock check out.

Setting the bedside alarm, we both laid beside each other in the queen-size bed staring at the ceiling.

The weight of what we had done began to settle upon us.

“We’re gonna be okay,” Lyric said and I wasn’t sure if it was for me or for herself.

I managed a heavy sigh. What had we done? I didn’t say that to her however, but the question weighed on me.

“I can’t believe they were going to force you to marry Logan,” Lyric whispered.

I couldn’t either. I thought he was gone for good.

He used to tell me how he longed to see life outside of Akron, Montana.

Logan went to college like most men in our community do.

He always said once he got out he wasn’t coming back.

Yet, he did and his first request was me.

Why couldn’t he leave me alone? He left and I thought I had my life back.

I could still feel the bitter sting of the lines he crossed with me years before.

“At least he wasn’t a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” she whispered not exactly directed to me.

“Lyric, do you wanna talk about it?”

She sighed, “some day maybe. Right now, I need to be out of his reach. Every time he touches me I die a little more inside.”

I didn’t want to press more because I knew how it felt to have someone break my trust and the shame for allowing myself to be in the situation in the first place.

“Lyric, it wasn’t your fault. Whatever he did, I can imagine some of it, and you have to remember it’s not your fault. That’s what you told me about Logan and you were right.”

At fifteen, I was in love, or so I believed. It was nothing more than a childhood crush. Logan kissed me and the world stopped spinning. Everything seemed right until it went so very wrong.

I had to force myself to stay in this moment. Dragging up my past wouldn’t help our situation in the here and now. The fatigue of the day weighed heavily on me, but I still couldn’t find sleep.

“Do you think they’re coming after us already?”

I sighed at her question. “I’m sure. They won’t want outside questions, so it will be a quiet manhunt. But I’m sure BJ and Logan and the elders are sorting a plan on how to find us by now.”

We both laid in the bed quietly together. Lyric reached over under the cover and laced her fingers in mine. “We’re in this together Melody. I don’t leave you and you don’t leave me.”

“Always,” I whispered as we both fought to calm our racing minds.

Eventually we fell asleep hand in hand.

The dawn of the new day came upon us quickly. We packed up our meager belongings and climbed in her Toyota Camry and headed East again. The miles went easier today. With the adrenaline calming inside of us, the fatigue was a battle all its own, but we were not giving up. There was no turning back.

The hours passed on as we continued on this journey.

“Have you thought about where we should stop?” I asked desperately hoping she had a plan.

“I was thinking South Carolina would be nice. There are small towns we can blend into. Cassie visited Charleston once and said it was a beautiful place.”

“Do you think that’s where she took off to?”

Cassie was our cousin, just three years older than us.

She was beautiful, smart, and always looking out for us.

One day two years ago, she disappeared. We were told she left on her own accord and would always be welcomed back.

But the rumors were haunting. After a fight with her husband, she miscarried her baby, the trauma was too much, she left.

Other stories said he killed her and the body was buried in one of the bison pastures.

Who knew what was true. All Lyric and I knew was she was there one day and gone the next.

Cassie went to Charleston on a ministry trip once with her husband and some other church families. She always got dreamy-eyed when talking about her time there.

Lyric explained her thoughts with a trace of hope in her voice that had me wondering if somehow this would work out.

“I’m hoping we can find her if we go to South Carolina.

I looked at a map online and the state is big, but if we make it to Charleston, surely we would run into her if she’s there, right? It’s not a big city like New York.”

Oh the naivety we had. If only there had been more outside influence, more experience in life, we wouldn’t think so stupidly. Finding someone was a needle in a haystack.

“Do you think BJ will think of that and know to come this way?” I asked as all the fears were building inside me.