Twisted Rose: Motorcycle Dark Romance 3 (The Darkness Trilogy) (19 page)

They stopped to rest a couple of times but it was only when the first light of dawn began to crest the eastern horizon that Josh suggested they eat.

“You must be starving,” he said.

“I am. I’ll unpack some of the food they gave us.”

Rose took out some bread and dried sausage and they sat on rocks by the side of the trail and ate the food with cold water from a stream.

“I sure wish we could make coffee,” Rose said.

“We’ll be out of this wilderness soon,” Josh promised.

Rose looked ahead at the track. They’d seen along the way some of the places that the loggers had removed trees. They removed the trees in patches and then replanted them before moving on.

“How far to the river?” Rose said.

“It’s hard to keep track, but by my reckoning it shouldn’t be more than a couple of hours.”

“And how will we cross it?”

“We’ll have to see when we get to it. It might be that the water is low and we can simply ride across.”

“But that’s not likely is it.”

“It’s not,” Josh said. “It’s still pretty cold but my guess is that melt water from the hills has already started to flow. If that’s the case we might have to figure out a way to cross without the bikes.”

“And what will we do on the other side?”

“We’ll have to walk.”

“How far?”

“It’s a very long way. But the important thing is that the DRMC won’t be looking for us out here. They’ll be looking along the highway.”

Rose nodded. She didn’t like the idea of abandoning the bikes and trying to walk through the bush but she trusted Josh and she knew that he’d have good reasons for choosing whatever course of action they took.

She finished up the bread and sausage and got back on the track. The surface of the track was in pretty good shape, mostly compacted dirt, and there weren’t many places where it had turned to mud yet. Later in the season the roads would become impassable but for now they were still in good shape. She was glad of that. She doubted they’d have been able to cover the distances they needed to cover if the roads had been muddy.

The hours began to slide into each other and it was almost noon when she first heard the river. They came out of the trees and there was a grassy stretch of land a hundred yards wide between them and the river. That was the bank that sometimes flooded in the summer. Now it was firm and dry.

To Rose’s dismay the river looked deep. She could see where the track ran up to it and where trucks could have crossed if the level was low or if the water had been frozen. It was now neither of those things.

“Oh, no,” she said to Josh as they looked at it. “How the hell are we going to get across?”

“We’ve got to keep going,” Josh said simply and she followed him as he rode south along the bank of the river searching for a place to cross.

XLIV

F
OR SIX HOURS JOSH AND ROSE
rode south along the riverbed searching for a place to cross. By the time they found a bridge Rose was so exhausted she could hardly walk. It had been a tough ride and for a lot of it the ground had been so unstable and muddy that they’d had to walk their bikes. When she saw the bridge up ahead she almost cried.

They pulled their bikes up onto the road and crossed the bridge and pretty soon they were in the little town of Normandin. From there they took the northern route along Lac Saint-Jean before heading south toward the border.

“Will we really be able to make a life for ourselves down in the States?” Rose said as they parked their bikes outside a motel in the little highway town of Les Escoumins.

“I think we will,” Josh said to her. “We’ll stay the night here and in the morning we’ll get a ferry across the Saint-Laurent.”

They could have taken a bridge closer to Montreal but Josh didn’t want to take them anywhere near the city. He said that the more remote the places they passed through, the less chance they had of being spotted on the highway. All it would take would be a single rider on an overpass to spot two riders entering Montreal that night and he didn’t doubt the DRMC had watchers on all the roads.

Rose would have liked to cross the river right then but the ferry wouldn’t be running till morning. They weren’t far from the border but she knew the crossing would be easier to manage in the daytime. Right now they looked like two criminals on the run, which wasn’t far from the truth. If they rested up in the motel for the night and washed themselves they’d look a little bit more respectable in the morning. They’d also have to get rid of their guns before making the cross.

There was a little motel close to the ferry landing and they parked in the lot. It was late but the office was open. An old man was sitting at the desk smoking cigarettes and Rose asked him for a room.

“Late to be checking in,” he said.

“I know,” Rose said. “We’ve been on the road for hours.”

The man looked them over. She knew they looked a mess. After trekking through the forest and scrambling over such rough terrain for a night and a day they hardly looked presentable at all.

“Well,” the old man said, “you’re a scruffy pair but I guess your money’s as good as anyone else’s.”

“It is,” Josh said.

The old man gave them the key to a room and they made their way to it. Rose was so exhausted that she collapsed on the bed almost immediately.

Josh looked out at the parking lot from the window and then pulled the curtains. They’d made sure to hide their bikes by the side of the office but he still couldn’t be too cautious.

He turned on the TV and leaned back on the bed.

“What are you watching?” Rose said.

“Just checking the news for anything.”

“You mean anything about Patrice?”

“If he managed to do what he said he was going to do then the news will be all over it.”

Rose sat up next to him.

“We’re going to have a good life together, aren’t we Josh?”

She knew he’d already promised it but she was feeling the need for reassurance and wanted him to tell her again.

“We will, Rose. I promise we will.”

“Will we be together for ever?”

Josh took her face in his hands. “I promise you this much,” he said. “For as long as I live I’ll love you and protect you. I won’t leave you. I don’t know all of the details of the life we’ll make for ourselves down in the states, I don’t know how exactly it will all work out, but as long as we keep a low profile and stick together, we’ll be able to make it, Rose. We’ll make a life for ourselves. We’ll stay out of trouble, we’ll stay out of the reach of the DRMC, we’ll find someplace where no one will ever find us.”

“Oh thank you, Josh,” Rose said. “I just needed to hear that from you.”

“You rest,” he said, putting his hand on her forehead. “You must be exhausted.”

She was. She took off her clothes, everything but her underwear, and got under the covers. She lay back with her head on the pillow and closed her eyes.

*

I
T SEEMED LIKE ONLY A
second had passed when she felt Josh shaking her shoulder.

“Rose, wake up. You need to see this.”

She rubbed her eyes and looked at him. He motioned toward the television screen. She looked over at it and saw Patrice’s face on the screen. A news reporter was speaking but Rose couldn’t follow what was going on. Headlines were running along the bottom of the screen but they were moving too fast for her to read.

“What happened?” she said. “What did he do?”

Josh smiled at her but there was a sadness in his smile.

“He succeeded,” Josh said.

“That’s good,” Rose said, blinking.

“It is, but he failed too.”

“What do you mean?”

Josh looked back at the TV and Rose watched as the news reporter detailed the events of the night.

“A lone gunman entered a downtown Montreal office building at about midnight and gunned down eight people before being killed by security guards. The motives of the gunman are as yet unclear but reports are coming in that the targets were linked to the notorious Dark Rebel Motorcycle Club. According to one source, the gunman wiped out the entire upper level of the MC’s leadership. The police have also confirmed that John Grady Heart, the wealthy capitalist, was among those killed.”

“Oh my God,” Rose said.

“It looks like he did it,” Josh said. “He took them all out.”

“What will that mean?”

“I’m not sure. It’s too early to tell. But it’s likely that this will mean some big changes for the MCs around here. With the DRMC leadership taken out, the other MCs will have a fighting chance again. They might be able to take back the power that the DRMC took from them and bring back the old ways of honor and brotherhood.”

“I hope so,” Rose said.

“We’ll have to wait and see.”

“It should make things a little safer for us too,” she said.

Josh nodded. “We’ll still have to be careful. We’ll definitely have to keep a low profile. But it will definitely help us. Now that this has happened, the DRMC won’t be focused on finding us. If the club unravels, we’ll be even safer.”

“I still wouldn’t want to run into any DRMC members,” Rose said.

“No,” Josh agreed. “We’ll still have to stay away for a very long time.”

Rose lay back on the bed and closed her eyes again. She knew that it would be only moments before she fell asleep. And a few hours more before she crossed the Saint Laurent. Pretty soon she and Josh would be in the United States. She wondered what it would feel like to be safe, to be somewhere out of the reach of the DRMC. She wondered what it would be like to be able to breathe freely knowing that she wasn’t in danger every minute of the day.

Josh turned off the TV and got under the covers next to her. He was lying there naked. She wondered if he would try to make love to her. She was extremely tired but she was pretty sure she’d be able to muster up the energy for that if he wanted her.

She couldn’t believe that this was her life now. She’d made it. She’d escaped the DRMC. All of the men who’d been responsible for her kidnapping were dead and the DRMC itself was on the brink of a leadership crisis. In a few days she and Josh would be far away, somewhere warm and new and safe. She’d have a life with a good man and no one would ever be able to harm her again. She couldn’t believe she’d been so lucky.

She thought of Patrice. He’d been young, he’d been good in his heart, but he’d made a few mistakes. The things he’d done to her could never be undone but Rose was glad that he’d at least managed to make peace with himself before it was too late. He might be dead but at least he was dead with his honor intact. He’d died doing the right thing and Rose knew that it was far more important to die a good man than to live a hundred years as a bad man. She’d seen both, she’d seen what had happened to the Sioux Rangers and the other MCs in Quebec, and she’d seen the evil that followed too.

She had no doubt in her mind. Better to die a thousand deaths with your honor than live a life of disgrace and cruelty. Patrice had found that out in time to save himself.

And Josh, Josh was a man who put honor and love before everything else. She leaned back into him and let herself sigh with pleasure as she felt his arms wrap around her.

“Rose,” he whispered.

She opened her eyes. She could feel his cock stiffening against her butt. She wanted him.

“Rose, are you awake?”

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I want to thank you personally for being a part of
The Darkness Trilogy
. Stories bring people closer together and this story is based partially on experiences from my own life. I am glad to finally have the chance to share them with you. I believe that sharing stories is the best way to deal with the challenges that life throws at us.

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Abby Weeks
2014

Other books by Abby Weeks

The Arrangement
[The Complete Collection]

The Assignment
[The Complete Collection]

The Neighbor
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