“I have to go,” Lucas said, not for the firsttime.Sean was right beside him, as he’d been all night, butapparently he couldn’t hear Lucas talking.Shit.He wasn’t going toget busted on his first night out.And it wasn’t like he wasactually having any fun.His terms of release included a ban onconsuming alcohol, but even without that, there was no way Lucaswould have touched the stuff.
He looked down at the mug in his hand.De-alcoholized beer was disgusting, but it gave him something totoast with.He glanced at the woman nestled in under his left arm.Mandi Carter, someone he’d barely known in high school, hadapparently decided she was his girlfriend.She was about asappetizing as the fake beer, but served a similar purpose.Not thathe was toasting with her, but she helped make it seem like he washaving a good time.But he wasn’t, and he needed to get the hellout of there.
So he stood and pulled his jacket off theback of the chair.The party had ostensibly been in his honor butafter only a couple hours everyone was too sloshed to even noticethat he was leaving.He leaned over and told Sean, “I’m headingout.If you want, I can take the car home so you don’t have to comepick it up tomorrow.”
“No, I need it,” Sean said.He looked up atLucas through alcohol-blurred eyes.“I need it tonight.”
“You’re drunk tonight.And your mom wasright—the cops might be looking at me extra close.If they know I’mliving with you, they might be looking at you too.You can’t afforda DUI, man.They’ll take your license away.”
“Fuck them,” Sean growled.
“Yeah, okay, but they’ve got guns, andthere’s a lot of them.Let me have the keys.”
“You turned into an old lady, you know that?”Sean raised a challenging eyebrow, waiting for Lucas’sresponse.
“Okay, sonny, give granny your keys.”
Sean grinned.“I guess you shouldn’t walkwith your bad hip.”
“Sciatica,” Lucas agreed, and he snagged thekeys out of Sean’s hand.“I’ll see you at home, if you makeit.”
It was good to get out in the cool night airafter the stuffy bar and Lucas let himself take a few deep breathsbefore climbing behind the wheel of Sean’s pickup.It was the sametruck they’d been driving around in since high school and it hadn’tbeen exactly new then, but it started reliably and it wasn’t likeLucas was going far.
He wasn’t going far at all, he realized whenhe saw the flashing lights in his rearview mirror.He’d gotten lessthan a block from the bar—they must have been waiting for him.
He took a deep breath and tried to controlhis instinctive, irrational fear.He was on Main Street, with lotsof witnesses.He was sober.He glanced at his watch.He’d beencutting it close, but it wasn’t past curfew yet, and surely theycouldn’t hold him responsible for being late if they were the oneswho delayed him.He was fine.He just needed to keep his cool.Herolled the window down and waited, watching the proceedings in thecar mirrors.
The cops approached with more caution thanthey would have if this had been a routine traffic stop.They bothhad their hands on their guns, and they were walking slowly, all oftheir attention focused on the driver’s seat.Damn, they weremaking Lucas nervous.He knew better than to move, but it feltwrong to do nothing, to just wait for one of them to gettrigger-happy and blow the back of his head off.He could almostfeel the sensation now—the way the bullet would feel, the blessednothingness that would follow.He’d thought about suicide so manytimes over the last three years, but he’d always chickened out.Andnow, with paranoid cops bearing down on him, it would take solittle to end it all.But he stayed still.His conscious mind mighthave its own ideas, but there was a lizard brain still activesomewhere in Lucas, and it wanted to live.
“Put your hands out the window,” the officeron the driver’s side barked, and Lucas moved slowly to comply.
“Are you alone in the truck?”
“Yeah.”
The officer drew up beside him and shone hisflashlight into the back seat, the passenger seat, and thendirectly into Lucas’s eyes.“I want you to reach very slowly foryour license, registration, and proof of insurance,” the officersaid firmly.
Lucas had gotten his license renewed a coupleweeks ago, a supervised day visit to the town nearest the prisonwith a bunch of other convicts anticipating release.“My wallet’sin my back pocket,” he said as he carefully shifted to the side andreached behind him.He turned away from the flashlight and let hiseyes adjust a little before fumbling through the wallet and findingthe required card.“Registration and insurance are in the glovebox, I hope.”
“You hope?It’s every driver’s responsibilityto ensure that the car they are in control of is legally allowed onthe roads!”The officer sounded truly outraged.
“I need to lean over to get it,” Lucas said,and he moved slowly.Thank God, the little plastic folder was righton top of whatever other crap Sean kept in his truck and it wasn’thard to fish it out and hand it to the officer.
There was a moment while the cop checked thepaperwork, and then he said, “Keep your hands where I can see them.Lean out and open the car door using the exterior handle, and thenstep slowly out of the vehicle.”
After three years, Lucas was used to obeyingorders even when they seemed unreasonable.He did as he was told,and stood there on the side of the road, cars whizzing by, driversstaring at him, the whole town seeing that Lucas Cain was introuble with the cops before he’d even spent a single night on theoutside.He kept his eyes locked straight ahead, focusing on a treeacross the street.
“Have you had any alcohol tonight, Mr.Cain?”
“No.”
“We have an anonymous tip that saysdifferently, and we saw you leaving a bar just a few minutes ago.Do you want to revise your answer?”
“No.”Lucas fought back the anger.He knewhow Sean would react to all this.Any of his friends, really.Thisasshole cop was leaping to conclusions, persecuting a randomcitizen because he had nothing better to do with his time, powertripping like he was a badass movie detective instead of a smalltown meter maid.Yeah, old Lucas would have had plenty to say tothis loser.But new Lucas kept his damn mouth shut.
“You’ll be happy to take a breathalyzer test,then?To prove your innocence?”
A regular citizen wouldn’t have to prove hisinnocence.But Lucas was on parole.He was already guilty of onething, and that meant he was presumed guilty of everything else.Hehad no choice about the breathalyzer.He had no choice aboutanything, all because…
