Page 11 of Rough Ride

“I doubt that would work,” Kye told her. “Max would hunt both of us down and kill us. He’s got a thing about loyalty.”

“Oh, he’s got a thing for loyalty,” Eliana said with a bitter laugh and backed away from him.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“We could do it, Kye. We could get in your car and drive to the border and never look back, but you’re scared.”

“I’m scared?”

“Yes, you’re terrified. I can see it on your face,” she said, dismissing him with a hand.

“What am I supposed to be scared of?” he asked, crossing his arms.

“You’re terrified to lose your status,” Eliana replied. “You’ve built yourself a little kingdom up here in Maine with your biker buddies and your club, and you don’t want to lose it.”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” he scoffed.

“Oh, don’t I?” she retorted. “This is exactly the way it was before when we were in high school. You’d found a modicum of approval from Max, and you didn’t want to give that up for anyone or anything. You’d make some grand statement that you were doing it for me, for us, for love, but it was all bullshit! You were doing it for yourself. Harboring some underlying daddy issue, you wanted this life. You needed this life.”

“So you’ve got it all figured out,” Kye said, challenging her with his height. “Poor, lost, pathetic little foster nobody Kye really just wanted a place to belong, is that it?”

“You had a place you belonged,” Eliana countered, not backing down from him. “You belonged with me. I begged you to come away with me. I had everything we needed, but it wasn’t enough for you. I wasn’t enough for you.”

“You’re wrong, you’re so wrong,” he spat. “I wasn’t going to move into your college apartment like some charity case. Following you around while you made something of your life. And in case you forgot, that life was still financed by Max’s stolen merchandise.”

“Make all the excuses you want, Kye, you’re scared of trying to make it on your own. You’ve set all your ambitions on taking over the Screaming Demons, and nothing will deter you from that. God knows, I’m going to meet with Max in two days, and he’ll probably tell you to shoot me yourself. And you know what, I bet you’ll do it. I bet you’ll use that gun tucked behind your back to blow my brains out, and then you’ll mop the floor for him.”

“You’re stupid if you think that’s true. I’ve been the one keeping you safe all these years. If you hadn’t made it through law school, do you think Max would have waited this long to keep his hands off you? He would have hauled you and your dad in years ago and killed you.”

“Then or now, what’s the difference,” Eliana said, shaking her head. “Either way, in two days I’m dead. I can’t win this case. Maybe I just don’t care anymore…”

“What did you say?” Kye asked, his brows furrowing.

“I’ve lost everything, Kye,” she stated. “There’s no going back from this, and we both know it. Either I’m dead in two days or I spend the rest of my life working for Max. He’s not the kind of guy to just forgive a debt, and you know it. My whole life has been a lie. I’m never going to get back to my life in New Hampshire, and the man I was in love with won’t get in that car with me and drive away. What’s the point?” There was a resignation to her voice that shook Kye to the core.

“Where are you going?” he asked as she sulked past the car toward the entrance to the alley. She stopped and pointed to her left.

“I’m going into that bar to get drunk,” she stated. “Either come with or kill me now.” When Kye didn’t move at first, she laughed bitterly and held both arms out to make his kill shot easier. Kye sighed and pressed the lock button on his car.

“I’ll buy.”

Eliana couldn’t help fidgeting with the hem of her pink shirt as she once again found herself in the all-white office standing before the man who held her life in the palm of his hand. Not unlike the stone hand that held a bird just behind her. The same two men stood at the door as before, but this time Kye was next to her. Though his presence offered her some comfort, she was still barely a step above terrified when Max looked up at her. He was obviously displeased.

“I must say I’m disappointed, Miss Granville,” Max said, closing the paperwork. “I give you five days and this is the best you can do? The chance of a technicality?”

“There’s a massive flaw in that logic,” Eliana defended. “A team of prosecutors had six months to build a case, and you give me five days with no access to a team or original evidence bags, and you expect me to debunk a DA. I didn’t take you for a religious man, Mr. Strong. What you’re asking for would be nothing short of an act of God.”

“What I expect, Miss Granville, is that when I give an order it is carried out,” Max said, slamming a hand on the desk. The sound made Eliana jump but she stuck to her guns.

“I’ve done that,” she declared. “The victim, Hugo Mortise, was not only shot, he was stabbed. Only the gun was found. If we can submit a subpoena for the autopsy and have an independent coroner determine the cause of death was a stabbing and not a bullet wound, then we have the new evidence required to go back to trial.”

“Suppose the petition is denied.”

“Suppose it’s accepted,” she countered.

“That doesn’t take care of the charges that ensued during the shootout. It was the death of those two badges that earned them the chair. What do you propose we do about that?” His voice was full of agitation, and the oxygen tank he was breathing from was working overtime the way he was huffing and puffing.

“If we can get a retrial, then we use the witness statements to create a reasonable doubt that Torrez and Crawford shot first.”