Smash Into You (11 page)

             
I pushed her out the door before me and we took off running. We had to ditch the truck, I knew that. I had all our cash that was left on me so we'd be OK if we could just get the heck out of dodge.

             
We ran across the street just as we heard the alarm go off at the store behind us. Cops would be there soon. At the gas station, an older guy had just filled up and was going in to pay. I grimaced. I hated to do it, but if only he hadn't been trying to pay old school.

             
I jumped in, throwing the armload in the back. Marley climbed in and scooted to the middle of the bench seat of the old Cutlass. I cranked it up and slammed it into drive. He came out, yelling and cussing, but we were long gone. I flew out onto the highway and looked in my rearview mirror to make sure we were clear.

             
We weren't.

             
Biloxi was in my truck and he was closing in. It was a four lane with a light every block or so. I banged my fist on the steering wheel and cursed at my bad luck. Marley turned to look and gasped. She looked at me with wide, begging, innocent eyes, like I had all the answers.

             
"Just keep your head down. It'll be OK," I assured her and hoped I wasn't lying to her.

             
"Jude...be careful," she said worriedly and kept looking back.

             
"Just lay down, baby," I heard myself say as I pushed her head down to lay in my lap. She probably thought I was just comforting her, but if he started shooting, I didn't want her hit. She turned sideways as she lay, gripping my leg like a life raft.

             
I ran the first red light and he followed me. Horns blared and I looked around for a way to lose him. Swerving through traffic that was going thirty-five while I was going fifty and gaining wasn't what I wanted, but that bastard wasn't letting up.

             
I realized something right then. When we made it out of this situation, I was no longer going to sit back and wait for him to come find me. No. I was going to start looking for him as I promised so long ago.

             
I looked down at the scared girl who just wanted a normal life. I was going to find out what he wanted with me if it was the last thing I did. I deserved it. She deserved it. It was going to take some shady dealings, but it had to be done.

             
That murderer was mine.

Nine

            
 
A phone rang and I jumped. The old man's phone was in the car, sitting in the empty ashtray. I opened the ancient thing and pressed End Call. Then I got an idea. A genius idea. I told Marley to hold on tight, pressed the button for the camera to come up, and slammed on the brakes.

             
We flew forward in our seats and in seconds, Biloxi was right next to me out my driver's window. He was so shocked by my maneuver that he didn't even try to fire, but I did. I snapped a picture of his stunned face and then veered off onto a one-way street, going the wrong way, leaving him screeching to a halt and backing up. I was back on the main highway going west instead of east before he made it.

             
But the big guy was smiling down on us today because a delivery truck pulled right down the one way. There wasn't enough room for them to fit by each other and they both stopped in the middle of the road. I saw him lean out the window, beating his fists on the truck top, before the scene was stolen by a passing building. I relaxed a little and leaned back.

             
"You can get up. He's gone." She sat up slowly, looking around to affirm my words. "But just to make sure," I said and made a quick turn down the exit for the interstate, "we'll change things up a bit and take the interstate."

             
"He'll be after us soon, won't he?" she asked, her voice still shaking.

             
"Yes. He doesn't stop." I didn't look at her for what I said next. "It was the reason I was going to leave you and go on by myself. I didn't want you to be in danger. But he had your picture in there along with mine." I shook my head, wishing I'd been strong enough to do what needed to be done before. "It's too late. He's looking for you, too."

             
"But wouldn't he assume you'd ditch me?" She turned, her knees in the seat, but she was still next to me. "We didn't know each other. Why would he still be looking for me if he didn't know we were together?"

             
"I'm not sure, Marley. He's just desperate, I guess."

             
I sped as fast as I felt safe enough to do without getting pulled over. We only had about two hundred and fifty bucks left, so we had enough for a hotel tonight somewhere. We didn't have enough for a gun, however, and that was next on my list. I'd have to find some work, stat.

             
We rode in silence, except for the radio. Both our minds were running, I was sure, but I was determined not to let Marley get all scared and worried about this. She sat beside me the entire time, like sitting next to the window would somehow be unsafe. She gripped my arm and let her fingers follow the ridges of my skin to keep herself busy. I knew it was so she wouldn't be taken away by the wave of panic currently settling over her. I felt like a guilty man on death row because all this was my fault. All I could do now was make sure she stayed safe.

             
After over five hours on the road, I pulled into an old, dilapidated steakhouse with some guy's namesake. "You did promise me steak and yeast rolls."

             
She smiled at m
e—
the first smile in hour
s—
and reached into the back seat to get one of the pairs of shoes we got. I hadn't even realized she'd been barefoot the whole time.

             
I was so exhausted from the day we'd had and driving all afternoon. We hadn't stopped to eat for lunch either. My arm ached a little, but I knew the medicine had done its job and I was going to be fine. They sat us at a booth on the side with a clear view of the stage that was currently being occupied by a large woman belting out some Frank Sinatra's
Fly Me to the Moon
.

             
We both ordered sweet teas and the waitress brought us a loaf of bread and butter. We dug in. I buttered a piece and put it on her plate for her. She smiled coyly at me. I almost sighed out loud. I figured the fact that she had to know she was in danger because of me was going to be a mood killer. I was glad to see it wasn't.

             
It was easy for me to shift gears from running to pretending that things were back to normal. I'd done it all my life. But her, she was a rookie at this game, and it surprised me in the best way to see that she didn't fall apart so easily.

             
"It smells so good in here," she groaned. "I'm going to start eating napkins if they don't bring the food soon."

             
I laughed. "I'm right there with you." I swallowed my bite and cleared my throat. "I know we're avoiding it, but…I'm sorry about today."

             
"You mean the shopping spree? Thanks for that." She snapped her fingers. "Rats, we didn't pay!"

             
"That's not what I mean and you know it," I said softly.

             
"I know." She scooted over until she was right up against me. I put my arm around her. Her face was so close to mine that I felt her breaths against my cheek. "He's the one with issues, not you. You could have ditched me already and you didn't. I got dumped on you by some weird twist of fate. If you had dropped me off somewhere, he would have me now. You do know that, right?" I let my fingers trail her wrist and it shocked me how satisfied I was when more goosebumps appeared. "You saved me."

             
I didn't want to hear it. I wanted to wallow and be angry with myself. She pulled my face back up with her cool palm to my cheek. "You don't get to blame yourself."

             
I sighed and closed my eyes. I let my forehead rest on hers. She was this amazing girl who had dropped into my life, this gift that I didn't know how to accept.

             
"Thank you."

             
"Thank you," she rebutted. "For saving my life twice."

             
One of her feet moved between mine, caressing my ankle and leg as she reached her hand around the back of my neck.
She was playing footsies with me
? I chuckled to myself. No one had ever played footsies with me before.

             
Instead of over-thinking and being a total girl about this whole 'thing' going on between us, I just lifted her chin and kissed her, because that's exactly what I wanted to do. Her pliable, eager body against mine made it very warm in that restaurant.

             
It wasn't the frenzied attack it had been at the store. No, this was different. It was an unhurried assault on my senses that I'd never really experienced with someone before. I didn't get enough time to analyze it before the waitress was making shrill noises in her throat to let us know she was there.

             
She put my plate down. "Aw, are you newlyweds?"

             
"Uh, no." I laughed, but looked at Marley. "Not quite yet."

             
I was testing her, seeing if she'd freak. She didn't. Not even a look of shock appeared. Instead, she got this evil little look in her green, sparkling eyes. "No, we're not engaged yet, but my honey here just graduated from college! He's a real, live gynecologist now!"

             
I choked on my mashed potatoes. She patted me on the back as I took a sip of water. The waitress' eyes widened and she smiled. "Well, congrats. You look a little...young to be a doctor."
              "Oh, he worked so hard." Marley's voice had morphed into this cross between a southern bell and cute little hillbilly. "He worked his butt off, he did, and graduated from high school at just sixteen."

             
"Wow," the waitress said, impressed. "Wow, that's amazing."

             
"He's a prodigy. My baby." She kissed my cheek, winking and thoroughly enjoying herself.

             
Alrighty, two can play.

             
"Well, that's nothing compared to my sugar dumpling here." Marley was barely containing her laughter. She squeezed my thigh under the table. "She won Miss Sweet Corn pageant. That's right, took home the whole shebang, and now we're traveling up for the Miss Watermelon Seed." I looked at her lovingly. "My baby's gonna win and be a star."

             
"Aw, my goodness! You two are so sweet!" she spouted, clutching her chest.

             
"Well, thank you."

             
Marley took a big bite of a roll and spoke with her mouth full. "You wouldn't happen to have a
Congratulations, I'm a doctor now
cake back there, would you?"

             
"Um..." she looked around. "No. Sorry."

             
"That's OK!" she waved her fork at her. "Don't you worry about it."

             
"Well, congratulations to you both. I hope you enjoy your dinner. Everything all right so far?"

             
"Oh, it's delish," Marley answered through her food.

             
The waitress nodded and left with a smile. The woman on stage crooned some old love song as Marley and I laughed into each other's shoulders. She gripped my thigh under the table and I gripped hers.

             
"You're hilarious," I told her and cut into my steak. It wasn't the best in the world, but it was food and it was hot and not in a can. It was heaven.

             
"
You're
funny," she said, her eyes on her plate. I looked over because her voice seemed different. She was staring at her steak, and then her eyes moved over to her knife.

             
I got it.

             
"You want me to cut it up for you?"
              She took a deep breath. "I haven't had steak in years. Since I was like...five or something."

             
I squeezed my fingers on her thigh. "Is that why you wanted to eat steak today?"

             
"Partly. I knew I'd have to use silverware to eat it." She sighed. "I know that's so stupid, that I don't use forks, but..." She shrugged. "When I was five...or something...we were eating steak. Foster home number four. I was cutting my steak, a little too loudly, and they got mad. I was so scared they were going to send me away that I started shaking and dropped my fork to the floor. The mom threw an entire stack of forks from the drawer on the floor in her fit."
              My jaw clenched, my fist tightening. She just kept breaking my heart with her stories.

             
"She didn't allow me to eat with utensils after that and so...I just never did. Because I was scared when I was a kid of dropping it and when I got older, I never knew what or where I'd be eating. I just...never."

             
She picked up her knife and looked at it like it was alien. Her fork was next and she started to cut into her steak. She took a bite from the fork and then got a bite of mashed potatoes next. She licked the fork clean and laughed before looking over at me.

             
I was absolutely enthralled. It wasn't that she didn't know how to use a fork, because she did, it was that she'd been scared into thinking she wasn't worthy of one. I couldn't look away. We'd both broken down so many barriers since we'd met and there she was, breaking another one, and letting me be a part of it all with her.

             
When dessert came, we shared one piece of cheesecake slowly. I watched as she licked her fork over and over again.

             
"What now? Hotel or road?"
              "I'm beat," I answered truthfully. "I just want to sleep and then we can hit the road in the morning."

             
"Sounds good."

             
She took the last bite and had a little bit on the edge of her lip. I shook my head. Another cliché scenario, but I was
so
going for it.

             
I leaned in close. She saw what was coming and her lips parted. "You've got a little bit right here." I licked it off before going in and taking her entire mouth with mine. She dropped her fork loudly to the table with a clank, but she didn't seem worried about it being thrown back at her. She wrapped her arms around my neck and devoured me as I devoured her.

             
The waitress again got our attention and I paid her cash, telling her to keep the change. We rushed out together, both of us eager to get somewhere alone, somewhere private. "Good luck in the pageant!" the waitress yelled.

             
"Thank you!" Marley yelled back.

             
She giggled on the way to the car. We drove the two blocks to the motel and got a room. I took her hand as we walked up the stairs. She was rubbing my arm and pressing against my side. I pulled my arm around her, getting as close as I could. We reached the room and she leaned her back against the wall beside the door. I followed her to keep the contact. I fidgeted with the key, but she couldn't wait and pulled me down roughly to kiss her.