She nodded. “Okay.”
“Okay. Follow me.”
She turned and walked back to her car.
He got on his bike, fired it up, and pulled out, wondering why he’d agreed to this. She’d probably get back in her car and come to her senses.
He looked in his mirror. Nope. She was pulling out behind him. Well, I’ll be damned, he thought.
He pulled into a dive bar a few blocks down the street. He parked, and she parked next to him.
The place was dimly lit, but there was a large picture window that let in daylight. They sat at the bar.
The bartender walked over to them. “What can I get you?”
Shannon opened her clutch, pulled out a credit card, and laid it on the bar. “Would you start us a tab, please?” She instructed the bartender.
Cole turned and looked at her questioningly. “A tab? How long you plan to be here?”
She smiled at him. “Well, just in case we decide to have a second drink.” She turned to the bartender. “Chardonnay, please.”
The bartender looked at her and raised his eyebrows.
Cole smiled. “Darlin’, this ain’t exactly a white wine kind of place. If you’re gonna drink with me, you’re gonna have to have a real drink.”
“Real drink?” she questioned with a raised eyebrow.
A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as he turned to the bartender. “Bourbon, neat, Marty. And since the lady with the designer handbag is paying, make it top shelf.”
“You got it, Cole,” Marty replied and moved off to get their drinks.
Shannon fiddled with her handbag, drawing Cole’s attention. His eyes darted to her hands, noting the perfectly manicured nails and the expensive gold bangle at her wrist. His gaze slid over the rest of her. Her long blonde hair was now cut in a pageboy style just below her chin and looked like it had been styled in a salon. She wore a tight fitting black skirt, a white short-sleeve silk blouse and black high heels. Her cute girlish figure was all woman now. She didn’t look much like the frightened young girl he remembered.
Marty returned and set a short tumbler with about an inch of the amber liquor in front of each of them.
Shannon reached for hers and took a small sip.
Cole watched her and took a sip of his drink.
She turned and smiled at him. “I want to thank you for what you did for me that day.”
Cole looked away and shrugged. “Don’t worry about it.”
Shannon could see that having someone thank him made Cole uncomfortable. “Can I ask you something?”
He looked at her and grinned. “You can ask. I might not answer.”
“That day you found us? Were you really there to…buy us?”
Cole shook his head and gave a short laugh. “No! Hell, no.”
She watched him raise his glass to his lips and realized he wasn’t going to say anymore than that. She continued, “I’d just always wondered, you know, how you ended up being there that day.”
He lit a cigarette and tossed his lighter on top of the bar. He turned his head and studied her, wondering just how much he should tell her. “You remember Angel?”
“That girl that was with you?”
“Yeah.”
Shannon nodded.
“The same thing had happened to her.”
“That’s right. I remember her telling us that.”
Cole nodded. “I was there to get Ling. For what he’d done to her.”
“Oh.”
He sipped his drink, and then looked over at her. He tapped his cigarette in the ashtray nervously. “To tell the truth, I had no idea there would be anyone in that van but him. Shocked the hell out of me when he opened those doors and there you all were. Hadn’t counted on that.”
She nodded and took another sip of her drink.
Cole downed his and raised his finger at Marty.
The bartender walked over and refilled his glass.
Cole took a hit off his cigarette and watched Shannon. She had gotten quiet. Maybe it’d be best if he finished this drink and left. It was sweet of her. Hell, it amazed him she’d even acknowledged him. Her kind didn’t usually want anything to do with someone like him. He picked up his silver lighter and toyed with it, flicking it open and tapping it closed.
She spoke, and he turned to look at her. She was staring at the bar top, and he could tell that in her mind she was far away. Reliving it all, probably.
“I was so scared,” she whispered.
Cole stared at her.
She turned to look at him. “And we didn’t even have to go through what your girl went through. It must have been horrible for her. She’s okay, right?”
He nodded. “Yeah. She’s okay.”
“I remember her being really sweet to us.”
Cole smiled. “Yeah. I’m glad she was there to help calm you all down. I guess we kind of did a good cop/bad cop deal with all of you. Me? I was the asshole, right?”
She grinned and raised her eyebrows. “You were sweet at first. But then you did scare the hell out of me at the end.”
His gaze roamed over her face. “Sorry about that, but it was necessary. Did you, uh, ever tell anybody about it?”
Shannon shook her head. “No. I wanted to. I almost told my sister a couple of years later. But then…”
Cole looked over at her when she hesitated. “What stopped you?”
She looked at him and smiled. “You mean other than you threatening to find me and kill me?”
He grinned. “Yeah.”
She shrugged. “I guess I didn’t want her to be afraid.”
Cole nodded, watched her for a moment, and then asked softly, “How’d he get you?”
She looked at him, startled he supposed by the question he’d asked. She swallowed and looked away. “It was late at night. I was walking on campus through a parking lot to my car.”
“You were in college?”
She nodded. “Thought I knew it all, too.” She turned and looked at Cole. “Stupid, huh?”
He shrugged. “Who would expect something like that to happen? You were just a kid.”
She fiddled with the cocktail napkin under her glass. “The van was parked next to my car. I didn’t see him. He jumped out and hit me with a stun gun.”
“My God.”
“I dropped to the ground, couldn’t move, couldn’t talk. He pulled me into the van. When the effects of the stun gun wore off, I was already handcuffed and gagged. There were three other girls already there.” She raised the glass and tossed back the remainder. “It took him a couple of hours to get the other two.”
Cole watched the tormented look on her face. “Hey, you don’t have to talk about it.”
She turned and looked at him. “This is the first time I have talked about it. Ever. With anyone.”
Cole reached over and put his hand on top of hers. “I’m sorry.”
She looked down.