Page 20 of Ride Forever

Chapter 7

Chaser

That night, I did an inventory of all our belongings.

We had two guns—the revolver and my 10mm pistol—and a couple of boxes of ammunition. I always carried cash, so that wasn’t a problem. There was one cell phone between us and both our bags of clothing, which I’d recovered from the cabin before we’d left the night of the attack. So, not much.

Traveling light was good, but we’d need more supplies before this was over. Sloane would need her own burner phone in case we were separated…or she wanted to go to the store.

The next morning, we checked out of the motel and loaded our meager belongings into the car. I watched her as she lifted her bag into the trunk, trying my best not to think about her ass. It looked great in those jean shorts she was wearing.

The real long game was about to begin, yet she seemed too excited for my liking. There was a line between gray and complete darkness, a border I’d become familiar with, and I was starting to worry she was about to cross the point of no return.

Would she face her father’s death, or would she revel in it?

I used to see her indifference as a sign of strength, but now I wasn’t so sure. We were about to head into enemy territory, and if she came apart at the wrong moment, it could mean her life.

“Sloane?”

She looked up, her eyes sparkling. Her sunglasses were on her head, pushing away long, messy tresses of hair from her face.

“What now?” she asked, slamming the trunk closed. “We’ve talked about everything already.”

“I’m not convinced.”

“Are we still on this killing my father business?”

“It’s not a joke.”

“No, it’s not. I told you how I felt about it.”

“Indifferent?”

She rolled her eyes. “I don’t know what you want me to say.”

I didn’t know, either.

“If you want, I’ll let you do the honors,” she added. “That is what it’s about, right? You think I’m going to lose my soul, or some shit, by taking out the guy who my piece of shit father was going to sell me to. Am I right?”

I raised my eyebrows.

“What?” She screwed up her nose. “As long as he’s dead, then whatever. You pull the trigger, or I pull the trigger.” She shrugged. “The result is the same.”

“I don’t…”

“This is our forever we’re talking about,” she said. “So get in the car already.”

I wrenched open the driver’s side door and slid into the car, wondering when I’d become such a weakling. Oh yeah, it was when I finally found something worth living for.

Killing King might send her right over the edge, but maybe that wasn’t what I was so worried about. Maybe it was something else.

Something more sinister.