The next sign flashes past—Welcome to Barren County.
We’re almost home.
And when I find Roach—the devil himself is gonna flinch when he hears my name.
Chapter 34-Bit
We’ve been riding for three hours, and my bladder is doing that frantic little panic dance it does when I ignore it too long.
The bikes have the wind whipping my hair into a nest behind my neck, the dark pressing in around us like a velvet sheet, and the only things breaking the night are the taillights bouncing on the asphalt and the steady clack of chains.
I can’t take it anymore.
I reach up and tap Roach’s shoulder.
He turns, grin wide and greasy in the halo of his headlight.
He smells like cigarettes and cheap cologne, and every time he breathes I taste iron.
“You need to find a gas station,” I shout, keeping my voice even.
He snorts.“What?Why?”
“I have to pee.”
The words spill out before I can groom them.
“Really bad.”
“Pee on the damn road,” he suggests, like it’s hilarious.
“No!”I snap, louder than I mean to.
Then, lower, pleading, “It’s that time of the month.I need a bathroom.”
I watch his face for any sign he’ll call bullshit.
It’s a good lie—part of it’s true—and I need him to believe it.
He stares at me for a beat that stretches like gum.
Then, with a reluctant roll of his shoulders, he motions to his boys, and they pull off onto the shoulder.
We coast into the dive of a gas station like a flock of crows landing on rusted metal.
The neon sign flickers above—OPEN—one bulb stubbornly dark.
A campfire of light from the pumps paints everything jaundiced and unreal.
My legs are jelly when we stop.I am so, so grateful for that bathroom right about now.
Roach kills his engine slow, like he wants to make the moment last.
He grins, and I jump off the bike.He follows, oily in his movements, as he turns and grabs my arm like a cat claiming a corner.
He’s got that smug, possessive swagger that makes the hair on my arms stand up like I’m about to be measured out.
“Don’t think I’m lettin’ you go in there asking for help, Doll,” he says, and there’s a pet name in his voice that makes bile climb my throat.
