But as they got closer, Rory eased off the gas and letthe bike coast a little before making a quicksilver turn a block before home, the tires squealing in protest.
Evangeline was too busy hanging on for dear life to ask what was going on, but as soon as he started to turn she saw it for herself.
Half of their block was taken up with blue flashing lights, and an officer was bent by the garage door, bolt cutters in his hands.
No, no, no…
Rory zipped into an alleyway and pulled off his helmet.
“You have to go, Eva,” he told her.
“What?” she asked him.
“You need to go far away,” he said, his eyes wide and pleading. “Not back to your job, somewhere else.”
“Where?” she asked. “Rory, what are you talking about?”
“If the cops are breaking into the garage, it means they have a warrant,” he said.
“What’s in the garage?” she asked, her heart dropping to her stomach.
“One of the Vagabond’s bikes,” he said quietly, shame in his eyes. “They brought it in late last night. And they were in a hurry to leave it.”
Evangeline sucked in a breath as she started to put it all together in her mind.
That bike had probably been used in a crime. Or maybe it was stolen. Maybe there were bad things hidden in it, things that could be very, very bad for Rory to be caught with. A sea of terrible possibilities swirled in her mind, threatening to drown her.
“Rory,” she murmured.
“It’ll be okay,” he told her, wrapping a hand around her shoulder. “But there’s no reason for you to get mixed up in this.”
“I’ll just go back to work…” she began.
“No,”he said immediately.
“But why would the police want anything from me?” she asked. “I don’t even live here anymore.”
“It’s not the police I’m worried about,” Rory said quietly. “What do you think is going to happen if they take that bike in as evidence?”
The realization hit her hard.
If Rory couldn’t return that bike the gang would treat that as a theft. And fair or not, they would hold Rory responsible for it.
“I can deal with the Vagabonds, but it will be harder if they have something to hold over me,” he said calmly. “And they’ll know that the only real way to hurt me is to hurt you. So the best thing you can do for me is to disappearright now. Do you have somewhere to go?”
She would have sworn she didn’t. But for some reason, she instantly had an image in her mind. It was a photo that an old friend of hers had shared just a few days ago. In it, Samantha and her little sister were standing in front of a row of shops in a town so quaint and pretty that it felt like it had to be in a different universe.
Trinity Falls, Pennsylvania
“Yes,” she heard herself say. “Do you know S?—?”
“Don’ttell me,” he said, cutting her off. “Just turn your phone off and go.”
She pulled her phone out of her pocket to instinctively do as her brother said.
Once her phone was switched off, she looked up at him.
There was so much sadness on his beloved face.
