Page 137 of Bad Attitude
“No,”she says after a while.“But the crew makes me happy. And a girl has to eat, you know?”
“You could do so much more.”
“Yeah?”she replies, tone sharp.“Dropped out of college to follow a guy to LA, and you know how that worked out. Kurt found me when I got here, and one thing led to another. I do riding jobs, because I’m good at them. You want me to what, work in McDonalds?”
“Of course not—”
“And you’re so whiter than white. How did you end up riding with Briggs?”
And just like that, I’m forced to lie again. “Like I said, it was through a contact on a past job.”
“Sure it was,”she says like she doesn’t believe me.“Yet you go all tight when I ask about it, and that tells me all I need to know.”
“What’s that, exactly?” I ask, trying to keep my tone casual, while my stomach clenches.
“That you did some dodgy shit you want to forget. So don’t preach to me, Hale.”
“You’re right,” I say. And she is. That was Maddox coming through, not Hale. She makes it harder than ever to remember who I’m supposed to be, because I don’twantto be who I’m not with her. “Forget I said anything. What you’re doing is what suits you, and I’m full of admiration for you.” All true. Doesn’t mean I still have to figure out how Raven ends upnotbeing in prison, andnothating me when the rest of her crew are.
There don’t seem to be any answers to that. Not if I want to keep my job.
Maybe I don’t anymore.
But how is resigning a solution? It’s not. I still need to live, to earn, and I can’t become Hale for real. Not with the FBI watching my every move.
The thought still digs its claws in.
We stop for gas in Santa Maria, then get lunch at an all-day breakfast place that suits me just fine.
“Four more hours to San Fran,” Raven says, looking at the map on her phone. “Be ready for a bed by then. Where are we staying?”
“Wherever we like, I guess. Wait until we’re tired, find somewhere that looks okay, and hope the cockroach count is low.”
“That’s romantic, Romeo.”
“Then maybe you’ll stop calling me that.”
She raises an eyebrow. “You don’t like it?”
“I don’tmindit, but Romeo and Hellcat?” I give an exaggerated wince. “It sounds like a really bad cartoon.”
She nods thoughtfully. “Fair point, but that’s on you. You’re the one who gave me that pet name.”
“And when it suits you so well, I’m sticking with it.”
“Yeah? I called you Romeo first.”
She might’ve at that. “You also said it didn’t fit.”
“That was before you went in for the tie-me-up and ravage me all night long. And before all those towel-drops.”
I take that with a wry twist of my lips. “Words you’ll be paying for at whatever motel we reach.”
She leans back in her chair and gives me a look. “Consequences for light teasing now?”
“With how much fun it is to spank you? Consequences for everything.”
“Sadist,” she mutters.
