“You can’t drive? What did the doctor say?” Worry had me moving back to look down, but all I saw were clean jeans rounded out by nice thighs and a bulge that made me lick my lips.
Drew shook his head and gave me an apologetic smile. “I’m fine, but I live a ways outside of town and I’m not supposed to drive far yet. Once we’re at my house, I can get us to the closest grocery store. Dr. Andoh just doesn’t want me shifting gears and all that stuff for more than fifteen minutes at a time.”
“If I’m having a good day, I can drive.”
He blinked at me. “You have a license?”
“Yeah. I don’t have a car anymore, but I got it… um.” My face heated and I sighed. “I got my license restored after my DUI. Actually, you probably don’t want me driving. Your insurance would go through the roof.”
He tapped my cheek with a finger. “It is what it is. You’re planning to do things differently, right?”
“Yeah.” Embarrassment had me staring at the sidewalk instead of him.
“It’ll be okay. I’m not worried about a few more bucks a month.”
He obviously didn’t realize what a DUI did to insurance rates, so I only shook my head. “Won’t be upset when you say you can’t afford it.”
He leaned away a bit more, until he caught my eye, but didn’t let go of me, shaking his head and smiling. “Is there anything on this planet you won’t fight about?”
“Probably not.”
He laughed and kissed me again. A horn honking nearby startled us apart. Rowdy had parked in a fire lane and didn’t appear too worried about it. He hopped out and opened the back passenger door for the cab. It was a high step. I was mortified when Drew and Rowdy both got under an arm and helped me take the step up, but it wasn’t as difficult as it would have been a while ago, and I was even able to swing myself in mostly on my own.
Drew grabbed my cane, went around, and got in the back on the other side. He wasted no time sliding over next to me after I buckled. It had been a while since I’d ridden in the back seat of a vehicle, and I leaned into Drew to fight off my unease. He slung his arm around me and grinned while I closed my eyes, enjoying being able to touch him. Everything about this was nice.
“So, did you hear about your job yet?” Rowdy asked from the front. There was an odd note in his voice I couldn’t decipher, and Drew let out a hum.
“Nope, but I have some ideas. I’m going to dust off the old resumé. Maybe quit before they get a chance to fire me. Turns out they might pay me for my injuries. If that comes through, I’ll be fine for a bit, between that and my savings. I’ve been considering getting my counseling degree for real. Brandon talked to me about the local programs. New Gothenburg State has one.”
“You’d be good at that,” I said and flushed when he smiled at me.
“Thanks.”
“You would,” Rowdy agreed, nodding along. “Uh, while I’ve got you here, I want to tell you something. I have a lawyer. I talked to him. He went and talked to the police and the FBI agent who is digging up the bodies in the woods. Um.” He sucked in a deep breath and didn’t turn to look at us. His shoulders tensed until they were bunched rocks. “There’s a couple of kinds of immunity, and my lawyer says they’re willing to offer me the best kind, if I tell them everything I know about the AS. They’re promising not to use anything I tell them in order to dig up evidence on me, and they’re promising not to charge me. The disappearances are so old, they almost need someone to tell them some of what happened to build the cases on Black. And I know more than you two do. And this has been sitting on my chest for a long time.”
Drew leaned forward like someone had socked him in the gut, and I rubbed a hand over his chest. My head was reeling, but it was amazing to be able to offer him support. “That won’t stop other people from coming after you if word gets out you’re the one talking.”
“No,” Rowdy said softly. “You two aren’t exactly safe, neither. And I might have to go away for a while. The police said they want to stick me somewhere and talk to me daily for a few weeks. They want to make sure my story doesn’t change. And I have to agree to testify as many times as they need me. I could be in and out of court for years. My lawyer actually told me not to do it. They’d have me by the balls, basically forever.”
“Then why are you?” Drew demanded.
“You were in as much of a jam as I was that night we were inducted. You couldn’t have done a single thing differently or you’d be at the bottom of a hole yourself,” I said.
“Yeah, but you didn’t drop anyone permanently.”
“Rowdy?” Drew whispered and his jaw went tight.
“We’ve talked, and I won’t say it out loud right now, but not every one of those bodies that you said Peter gave locations for is from Black. If they dragged Tatum in, do you really think he’s going to sit on all the names of everyone who used to be right under his jackboot? I sure don’t. He’s going to try to get out of as much of it as he can, or all of it.”
My muscles stiffened and my back ached until Drew rubbed at my shoulder and life rushed back into me. “I think he’ll say he killed them all. He’s already caught. All he’d have left is the ability to brag. Why not claim them? The way he always acted kept him above everyone else. He always convinced people he was capable of anything. Maybe the power of that feeling will win.” My throat hurt and I cleared it. The words had been difficult to force out.
“You think his pride would come out on top, over his spite?” Rowdy asked, glancing in the rearview mirror.
“It might.” I sighed. “But then, that’s a little like two copperheads fighting over a baby chick. One’s going to go down, and either way that baby bird is getting eaten.”
Wincing, Rowdy nodded. “Black will easily remember my name. It’s unique, where someone else’s isn’t, and everyone always made those god-awful Rowdy Roddy Piper jokes.” He rolled his eyes.
“He’ll remember Trevor, too, I bet. If he’s still alive.”
