Chapter Sixteen: Last Call
Delphia
The afternoon had dragged on. I know I should have felt safer being here. But I didn’t. The problem had become more complicated as I didn’t feel that Bear was safe simply because I was here in his home. It wasn’t about me anymore. All I could think about was losing Bear.
A culmination of fear and distress led to a hasty decision. I was living in a walking nightmare of Rocky breaking in here and shooting us both. The bloody images went through my head. I couldn’t live like this anymore. I was about to lose my tenuous hold on my sanity. Shaking like a leaf whenever my phone rang was enough to send me into a crazed frenzy. Now sounds were doing the same as I would pause to wonder if it was Rocky coming to get us.
Us! Yeah, that is what hit me like a barrelling train.
He could kill us. Not just me.
Finally, I heard that familiar roar.
Bear had returned.
I unlocked the door and hugged him tight. He meant so much to me. He had become everything to me, in fact. I clung to him like I hadn’t seen him in weeks, not hours.
He took a look at me, seeming to see my fear. He smoothed my hair with his large soothing hands. “Please don’t be so afraid. You’re safe. I will not let the man hurt you ever again. Do you hear me?” He then lowered his head and kissed me deeply.
I fell into him like I was melting.
Finally, he pulled those warm lips from mine and looked down at me. “Ink said all was well here. Angie come by? She told me she was due to see you.”
“Yep. She came by and she dropped off the newspaper. I’m going to read it, eventually.”
Bear moved further in and locked the door. He had a gun strapped under his vest.
Funny, I never noticed it before. I gulped heavily, it’s because he wasn’t wearing it before. But now he was. But if he were riding, it wouldn’t do him any good. Rocky could shoot him in the back from his own bike. I shivered again.
Bear took a good look at me. “You need to eat then get some sleep, baby. Come on let’s get some dinner.”
I mutely nodded.
Fear had become a living thing inside of me. Fear for Bear. I could not believe how I’d been going around for all this time, worried about myself. When at any time while Bear had been protecting me, Rocky could have sniped him.
Fear for one’s self was one thing, but fear for someone…Someone you loved was a whole other terror.
I was leaving town. It was time for me to pack, run and go.
Nobody could help me. Not unless they were willing to put themselves between me and Rocky. And that would be Bear, for sure.
I kept seeing his gun in front of my face and now I saw it in front or in the back of Bear himself. This ghastly image had now been imprinted in my mind.
If he succeeded in killing Bear, Rocky might as well just put the gun in my mouth and pull the trigger. Cause I wouldn’t care anymore.
The next step would be to research the place I wanted to head to. I had my laptop here and I could make all my plans when Bear left again. The feeling of terror rode me like I was its bitch. I visualized my brother’s bugged-out eyes from the days before his death. I wanted no soul to know, and Bear was too close to me. I would be the greatest fake of my life but I had to keep everybody safe.
After dinner, Bear and I sat in the living room. I wanted to take him in for the last moments. I noted his thick muscular thighs and his rugged, athletic body and smiled to myself, knowing he was a loyal, protective man and one of the rare breeds that I’d met. Parts of his personality reminded me of my brother. Maybe it was a biker loyalty trait, but it was one I respected.
The ride out of the hell hole was about to commence. I followed through with all the motions of a normal evening.
After checking all the windows and doors, Bear went to take a shower.
Instead of watching Netflix that he had gotten a movie on for me, I researched hair dyes on the laptop and asked myself what person I wanted to shapeshift to. Would it be a platinum blonde or a redhead? I let my mouse scroll over the colors as I pulled at the strands of my hair. There was no time for a haircut. I would have to get the scissors and snip it into a bob. I clicked on YouTube videos looking for tutorials on how to cut hair.
I found a couple that looked right for me and made note of them. I made a promise to myself I would do it my way. I decided on blonde because people always said blondes have more fun. I thought of Angie’s vibrancy and her confidence and I had to agree with that saying.
Next, I had to select a Greyhound route. I looked into a place that I’d recently discovered. A place where I would be safe and start a new life. I opened up Google maps and ran my mouse cursor over it. Cutover, Mississippi. A decent population, a couple hundred miles away, and not a place too many people would even think to find me. I would have to catch the late Greyhound and leave in the dead of the night.