Open Road (2 page)

Cristina was unmoved by Ali's declaration. "Good. Now you're being honest, at least."

Ali groaned. "Must you dissect everything I say?"

"Take your medicine," Cristina retorted. "If I buy you a drink, will you listen to me?"

"Maybe."

"She'll have a Bee Tea," she said crisply to the waiter when he appeared. Turning back to Ali, she began. "So you want to be loved. And you think Bobby doesn't love you?"

Ali shook her head. "No. I know he loves me. But I want to
feel
loved. Bobby doesn't make me
feel
loved. He makes me feel like..." She struggled to articulate it. "He makes me feel like a business partner."

Cristina smiled and shook her head. "I got news for you,
mami
. A husband
is
a business partner." 

"But not all the time. I mean, don't tell me you and Sam don't have passion. I've seen the way he looks at you. Obviously you make love, since you just had another child. And I hate you, by the way. No way will I ever look that good seven weeks after popping out a baby."

"It is hard work. Every bit of it," declared Cristina, her dark eyes flashing. "I look this good because I work out for an hour as soon as I get up, every single day, and I haven't had dessert in three years. I make love with my husband so often because I know it's a cornerstone of our marriage. If I sense he's taking me for granted, even a little bit, I make it a point to remind him what he's got. I don't wait around for him to make the first move."

Ali thought guiltily of the effort she'd made to see Alejandro.
If I'd put that much energy into seducing Bobby, would he have responded?
 

"We write our own stories, Ali. If you want to make it work with Bobby, you will. And if you can honestly tell me that Alejandro can meet all of your needs, I'm all ears. But I don't think you know what you want. And until you do, you're never going to get what you need. You're just going to chase yourself in circles and wind up alone."

Ali took a sip of the cocktail the waiter slid past her elbow and slumped in her chair. "I don't think I can let him go," she murmured, hoping she didn't look as miserable as she felt.

"Get your shit together," Cristina said, shocking Ali with her uncharacteristic profanity as she took a bite of her salad. "I booked the Café Mariposa for your shower and I am not giving up my Matron of Honor title. Someday you and I are going to decorate the governor's mansion, so don't you dare let me down."

Ali knew she was joking--at least about the governor's mansion--but the reminder of the four hundred wedding guests who still didn't know that she and Bobby had broken up felt like a kick to the gut. The last phone call to her mother had culminated in Ali arguing for forty-five minutes about which champagne to use for the toast.
I'm not getting married
, Ali had insisted, but her mother Claire had shot that down instantly.
Of course you are
, she'd snapped.
Gosset makes a gorgeous rosé. Imagine how all that pink will look with the lighting!

On her drive home from lunch an hour and a half later, Ali contemplated her conversation with Cristina. As far as everyone knew--that is, the guests and her father--the wedding was still on. Her mother and Cecile, after showing up announced at the ranch for their version of an intervention, had merely circumvented her and continued planning the event without her.

When Alejandro asked her why her engagement ring had reappeared on her dresser, she'd explained rather awkwardly that Bobby had returned it to her and told her to take some time and think about the engagement. The pain she'd seen flash across Alejandro's face before he walked out had haunted her ever since, but he hadn't mentioned it again. At least not yet. 

After all, they were still taking things day by day. They'd made a mutual decision not to leave the bubble of her ranch and keep their relationship private. Though they'd initially talked about trying something long-distance, after he found out he'd be in Arroyo Flats a bit longer they decided that they should just take things one day at a time.

But try as she did, Ali knew her heart was too vulnerable when it came to Alejandro, and judging from the way he looked at her sometimes with a passion that almost frightened her, she knew Alejandro was in the same place. Neither would bend, and Ali was afraid that one day very soon, one of them would break. 

CHAPTER FOUR

That's the third time this week I've seen that car
, Ali thought as the black Camaro crawled slowly past her driveway. Living on a sleepy, dead-end road, she knew not only the cars her neighbors drove but also the vehicles of their regular visitors. The Camaro was new on her street.

She grabbed her mail and hurried back to her pickup. When the car stopped on the side of the road just past the edge of her south fence, she locked the doors, pulled back out of her driveway, and headed toward her neighbor's farm instead of out to the main road. As she passed the car, the driver stared at her until she could no longer see him through the window.

It was definitely the same car. There was no mistaking the unique custom design on the hood: an airbrushed devil, painted in a shocking lime green, dancing wickedly over the front of the car. She recalled having seen a similar figure in an old art deco advertisement for absinthe.
An odd choice for a car like that. 

In her rear-view mirror she watched as the driver and a second man climbed out of the car, crossed the road, and walked back toward her ranch.
Shit. What do they want?
Ali opened her glove compartment, thankful she hadn't removed the gun as she had planned, and made a U-turn on the road.

With shaking hands, she parked the truck with the engine running, her eyes on the driveway as she pulled out the gun. Her heart hammered in her chest. As many times as she'd fired weapons at the range, and as adept as she'd been as a teenager at knocking a bird out of the sky with a shotgun, she'd never had to use her handgun for self-defense. It felt inadequate in her hand; though she knew she could take a man down with it. Even two men.

Please, God, just let them go away,
she prayed.
I don't want to have to shoot anyone today. I just want to be left alone.
Her fingers began to perspire and she quickly wiped them on her shorts before curling her shaky hand back around the weapon. 
Please let anyone come along. Alejandro or maybe Mr. Miller from up the road. Even Bobby.
She could feel the prickles on the back of her neck as her fight-or-flight reaction warned her to go ahead and run like hell. 

The two men had disappeared from sight, over the fence into the pasture. Onto her property.
I should call the police,
she thought.
They know I'm a woman living out here alone. They'll send someone right away.
With trembling fingers she dug her phone out of her hip pocket and dialed 9-1-1 with her thumb. She tapped the speaker-phone button and held her breath.

"Arroyo Flats police, non-emergency, how can I help you?" a bored-sounding female voice droned on the other end.

"Yes, um--"

A cloud of
dust appeared at the far end of the road, and she nearly collapsed with relief as she recognized the blue Suburban. "Never mind," she murmured, and hung up.
Mr. Miller
. She prayed that he wasn't in too much of a hurry.
She shoved the gun into the glove compartment and flagged him down just as the two men appeared back over the fence and hopped into the car. Mr. Miller had almost reached her when the Camaro roared away, spraying pebbles and kicking up dirt as it went. Her neighbor pulled up next to her and rolled down his window.

"Saw those fellas out here last week," he drawled, his bushy eyebrows knitting together under the brim of his hat. "Said they was lookin' at a ranch for sale. I told 'em, y'all got the wrong ranch. That one ain't for sale. You know them?"

Ali shook her head. "I don't. But they just went into my pasture."

Mr. Miller tipped his hat back, scratched his neck, and looked at her for a moment. "You're sure they're not with that fella comes here on the motorcycle?"

Damn neighbors don't miss a thing.
"No, Sir. They're no friends of his. Mine neither. I was just about to call the police. I guess I'll do just that if they come around again."

"Or shoot 'em," he said with a wink.

"Right." She couldn't help her relieved grin. The adrenaline rush of fear had left her wobbly in its wake. "I reckon I could do that, too. Well, see you around, Mr. Miller. Now that all the excitement's over I'm gonna go open my mail."

Mr. Miller touched the brim of his hat and drove along to his driveway. Ali turned back into hers and was almost to the house when she stopped in her tracks, went back to her truck, and retrieved the gun.
I'll just keep this on me for now
, she thought.
Just in case that black Camaro comes around here again. 

CHAPTER FIVE

Alejandro barely heard what Slider said about their respective cuts from the last run. It hardly mattered; profits from the resale of stolen ammo were always about the same. It was business as usual in the old warehouse they'd repurposed as their temporary clubhouse, but he couldn't focus.

His mind was where he'd been last night: in Ali's bed, where everything made sense.

He'd texted her around nine to say he couldn't sleep, and she invited him over. They were only halfway up the stairs to her bedroom when she stopped him in his tracks by unzipping his jeans.

It had only gotten better from there.

She was so passionate, so present with him. When she wrapped herself around him he forgot everything except the silken strands of her hair, the delicate texture of her skin, the sweet cries of pleasure she made when he buried himself deep inside her. Ali was like a drug high, only she never wore off. Every time he touched her, he hit that fantastic first-time peak, and last night had been no exception.

His balls ached just thinking about it. He had to see her again.

Glancing at the clock, he itched to pull out his cell phone and violate the strict "no electronics" rule they had for their meetings. The rule had been his idea, though, so he could hardly disregard it now. That would set a shitty example for his brothers.

He sighed and thought about what it would be like to have Ali as his old lady. If her fellow cheerleaders and sorority sisters could only see that. They wouldn't recognize their pristine princess dressed in leather and riding on the back of a Harley.

Unbidden, his brain took him on an erotic slideshow of Ali in various poses on a bike, wearing only chaps, and he shifted so Pitbull wouldn't see him sporting wood.
Get your shit together. You're like a horny teenager.
He was only vaguely aware of the turn in conversation to the Diablos Verdes.

Pitbull elbowed him, and he realized his brothers were all staring at him expectantly. “The Diablos Verdes,” Pitbull prompted.

Alejandro cleared his throat. "Right. They want Arroyo Flats, that's obvious from their actions the other week. It's not just about Haji. The bigger plan was to get to us, to see how hard we would push back." He thumped his hand on the table, hard, and made eye contact with each of his brothers in turn. "Now we're pushing back. Too many of us have family here to let the Diablos take over. Those crooked motherfuckers would be poison for this town."

The other men murmured in agreement.

"We're going to start making ourselves a bit more visible. Pitbull and I are going to pay Hennesy a visit to figure out the climate around here with respect to the Diablos." He paused. "We've got a lot to accomplish and only a few weeks to get it done." He glanced at Pitbull, raising his eyes as if to say,
anything I'm forgetting
?

"The good news," Pitbull said with a smile.

"Right, the announcement. So, as most of you know, there's someone at this table who's getting patched this week." There were a few appreciative murmurs and whistles, and Benny puffed up a bit with the attention.

"We're going to celebrate, Padre Knights style. The Maidens have been invited and old ladies are welcome," Alejandro continued. "In fact, if we want to eat, we sure as hell better make sure they're here." A collective chuckle erupted at the table. "Popeye's old lady will be contacting the others to arrange for some covered dishes. I need a couple of you on grill duty. Let's make this induction a special one. We're all grateful to Prospect--I mean, Zig-Zag--for his part in the incident with the Czechs the other week." He smiled down the table at Benny. "Bet you'll be glad for us to stop calling you 'Prospect,' huh?"

"That's not so bad, I just want my patch." The younger man grinned back at Alejandro.

"You got it, brother. You earned it." Pitbull and the others who had been on the scene of the handoff a few weeks ago nodded in agreement.
If it hadn't been for Benny...
But he refused to think about that. Fact was, the prospect had shown up just in time, and Alejandro had found himself at Ali's house that very night.
Best nursing I've ever received
, he thought, remembering Ali's words that night.
Take me, use me, fuck me till I cry...

"One more thing," he said, clearing his throat as he came back to reality. "I heard from Prez. He's not doing too good. Whatever your higher power, keep old Turk in your prayers. His dialysis is kicking his ass, and I'm not sure when he's going to be back with us."