Reality stayed suspended in the tumult of summer wind until Cash stopped the bike in her driveway.
Using his shoulders, Tourmaline pushed up and off the bike. Her fingers trembled as she took the helmet off and handed it back.
“Hey.” He grabbed at her fingers before they slipped away.
She couldn’t help but come back to him, back to the place where it was nothing but him and the road, and the roar of wind and horsepower. A smile tugged across her face. “Yeah?”
“You’re going to keep me company tonight, right?”
Yes. But annoyance flashed and she tilted her head. She was tired of this teasing. This looking and acting as if he were going to kiss her, though he never did. “I don’t know. I might need a little something. Some incentive. It does mean I’d be up late.”
He laughed.
She stepped closer. Whatever lay ahead could wait while she lingered in this moment. For this moment, she was safe with Cash. For this moment, with him, she could be bold and fearless and free, and the paper girl was just a thought, not a destiny. She pulled her leg up and slid across his lap, managing somehow with magic to do it effortlessly.
He was surprised. He shifted his weight on the bike, his boots scraping the ground. But the surprise lasted half a second. He dropped the helmet to put both hands on her waist, and it bounced off the ground and rolled away in a show of complete disregard for anything else.
She smiled.
She was still smiling when his mouth found hers. Hot and eager. He bunched the skirt of her dress in his fists, wrists sliding up her thighs as he gripped the fabric around her waist, pulling her snug against him. The kiss was nothing but the sweet night and the moonlight. It was an open road and fast wind.
And it was perfect until he pulled away and whispered into her lips, “I have to go.”
She bit her lip and waited, breathing.
His hands pulled away, achingly, spread wide to gather up the pieces of her on the way from her waist to her knees.
She leaned back. Breathing hard. Heart fluttering.
He offered his hand.
A second more and she took his hand and crawled off the bike, this time not effortlessly. This time her legs trembled and her body buzzed as if she were a hive and dripping with summer honey. This time she stumbled in the driveway and he put his hand on her hip to steady her. “Got it?”
She took a deep breath and tried not to look at the house. “I’m good.”
“You’ll be around?” He grinned.
She laughed, big and loud and terribly unfiltered. Putting her hands on her waist, she tried to calm down. “Yep.” She nodded. “I’ll be around.”
But as soon as his taillights disappeared from view her phone lit with a text from an unknown number.
Have V.
Jason? He’d never texted her before.
She texted back. Bring her to me. She’s mine. I don’t want the club dealing with her.
You sure?
Yes. Virginia would pay for her treachery.
It was four in the morning by the time Jason showed up with Virginia, hauling Tourmaline out from under the covers where she’d been texting Cash for the last few hours.
“Delivery,” Jason drawled, gently pushing Virginia toward the step when Tourmaline opened the door.
Virginia’s eyes flickered up to Tourmaline’s. Her hair was all whacked off as if someone had gone at it with a weed cutter, and the bugs circled her head in the porch light. She didn’t really look at Tourmaline, but glared at Tourmaline’s chin. Everything about her looked wracked and ruined.
“Where did you find her?” Tourmaline met Jason’s eyes in the porch light. She would not be lied to.
“On her back, getting the shit kicked out of her for some manner of ill-doing.” He eyed Virginia in a way that pulled Tourmaline up short. Equal parts careful indifference and something Tourmaline could only label as adoration. Jason liked her.
Virginia’s chin went up in the silence; she didn’t see his expression.
Jason’s gaze flickered back to Tourmaline. “I haven’t told your dad.”
“He probably won’t know if no one tells him,” Tourmaline said, her stomach alive and trembling the way it had that afternoon. It seemed to her that seeing Jason as the man he was to everyone else had changed something between them, balanced the power somehow. Now she knew she could speak to him in a certain way and he would listen. He would listen without ever considering why he was listening.
“I’m not really an advocate for that, but . . .” Jason shrugged.
“This isn’t his problem. I’ll deal with it.” She nodded as if he had already agreed, tucking her hair back behind her ear.
Jason’s forehead pinched, but he nodded.
Tourmaline dropped her gaze to Virginia.
“If you want, I’ll get her truck out tomorrow and tow it to the conscript’s to fix. Just text me. Your decision.” Jason spun for his waiting truck, leaving Virginia’s fate in her hands.
Tourmaline stood stunned for a split second, marveling at what had just happened. It had worked. She folded her arms and leaned against the door. “You lied to me.”
“We made a deal.”
“Under false pretenses.” Not to mention she’d thought they were beyond a deal. That they were friends.
“I didn’t know you would be someone I could trust,” Virginia argued.
“It’s impossible to trust other people when you aren’t trustworthy in the slightest.”
Virginia lifted her chin and her tone turned to ice. “What do you want me to tell you? Everyone looks the same. How am I supposed to know the difference between an enemy and a friend when I have nothing but enemies?”
Tourmaline tightened her fists. “And drugs?”
Virginia dropped her head. “I can’t apologize for doing what I needed to do. But I am so sorry about your mom.”
“Yeah, great,” Tourmaline choked out.
Virginia’s gaze flickered to hers. Pleading and shadowed in the light. “My mom is an alcoholic. I know what that feels like, but I did it anyway. I’m so sorry.” She said it softly. With nothing extra. No excuses or ornamentation. Just the words, quietly spoken.
Tourmaline bit her cheek and looked into the shadowed trees and bushes starting to glow with the heat of the coming day. She’d almost rather Virginia go back to being defensive. She was angry at Virginia’s treachery, but also at herself for believing.
But punishing Virginia felt too close to punishing herself. Tourmaline thought of Virginia’s wrist slipping out of her grip as the man pulled her away. And Tourmaline thought of shaking her mother’s shoulders against a burgundy velvet seat. Remembering the desperation. The panic. How nothing could get beyond the guilt of having betrayed a person you loved. And suddenly she remembered her wrists slipping free of the CO’s cuffs and the door that had opened in the concrete wall. She remembered that Hayes had, in the end, not filed a report, though she should have. Forgiveness came from places you didn’t expect.
The thrushes began their melancholy songs, eh-oh-lay, eh-oh-lay, under the leaves in the dark garden behind the house. Tourmaline turned off the outside light and closed the door, settling down on the step in the cool, dewy morning air. The sky was fading from blackest night to pink charcoal. She propped her elbows on her knees and rubbed her eyes. It’d been a long night. She loathed to say the words. But there were no other words to say. “All right. I fucking forgive you.”
Virginia just stared as if Tourmaline had pulled out a gun; she blinked, looking panicked. There wasn’t much relief in her expression, only fear.
The moment Tourmaline recognized the fear, she knew she’d done the right thing. “Did you eat?” she asked in a softer tone.
Virginia’s shoulders sagged and she opened her mouth as if to say something, but all that came out was crying.
The funny thing about forgiveness was that it could only be passed along.