Cassidy inhaled a sharp breath. Of course, she knew. She nodded.
“Well, I always thought, ‘what good would that do’?” He ducked his head, shook it side to side, his shoulders slumping. “I mean, if someone could make a call, wouldn’t they do so already?” He sighed, smoothing the shiny leather seat of his bike. “So, I pulled into the rest area, and I see this girl. Long hair. Short shorts.” His eyes flicked between Dutch and Cassidy. “And she’s walking away from the row of cars, fast. I mean, she looked like she was going to walk right down the highway.” He swallowed. “I see this big guy catch up with her, tries to grab her arm.”
Cassidy felt her pulse pop into her temples. Next to her, Dutch shifted his weight.
“Did you say something to him?” Cassidy asked.
“Yeah,” Lars said, his eyes flashing. “He was giving her that old line, ‘cash, grass, or ass, nobody rides for free.’”
Cassidy looked sideways at Dutch. “Is that for real?” she asked him.
Dutch and Lars exchanged a glance.
“Depends on the ride,” Dutch finally said, his lips forming a shrewd grin.
“Right,” Lars said. “I told him I’d pay him.” He looked at Cassidy, his eyes widening. “I mean, it was that or call the cops.”
“How much did he want?” Dutch asked.
“A hundred bucks,” Lars replied, his nostrils flaring. “At that time I had no idea how far they’d come, so I paid it. If I’d known it was only a hundred miles, I would have given him a twenty and told him to go fuck himself.”
“You should have told him that anyway,” Dutch said.
Lars shook his head. Cassidy studied him: he was tall, but wasn’t exactly brawl material. If the other guy was bigger, maybe the easy way had been a better choice.
“So, after, she looks at me, and I see that’s she’s still terrified. I don’t know what happened with the other guy.” He paused. “But I told her that I couldn’t leave her there.” His face goes stoic. “I mean, there’s absolutely nothing out there. Who knows what kind of other wackos would try to pick her up. Fuck knows I wouldn’t want her hitchhiking on that highway.” He shook his head.
“So you convinced her to come with you,” Cassidy said.
“Yeah.”
“You’d essentially paid for her, right?” Cassidy said, feeling her chest flutter with nerves, knowing the road she was taking with this line of questioning was likely to get her in trouble with one or both of them. But she had to know. “What did you want in return?”
Lars’s hazel eyes darkened, changing his boyish expression to something much fiercer. “Nothing,” he said. “I told her I’d take her to the nearest police station, if she wanted.”
“And you just happened to have an extra helmet?” Cassidy asked, nodding at the second, smaller helmet hanging off the back of his bike.
His brooding look changed, a shy smile lightening his features. “Of course. I would never take on a featherweight without one.”
Featherweight? Cassidy thought, frowning.
“She wanted off in Bend.” He shrugged. “She thanked me, and then I went my way, and she went hers.”
Cassidy paused to think this through. “So how did you end up together here?” Then, she realized the chain of events. “Were you the one she called in Bend?”
Lars exhaled a long stream of white smoke and looked at her again, his eyes saying how did you know? “I got a text. I was staying at the Bunk and Brew. Told her to join me there.”
Cassidy felt the thrill of discovery. As a scientist, the moment when the pattern emerged from the data, or an observation struck home, it was the best feeling in the world. It made all the sacrifices, the late nights, the planning, worth it. Cassidy imagined Izzy arriving at Lars’s room after her night with Charlie. She pictured a bed, darkness. “I’ve talked with the friend she was with before she called you. Apparently, she was very upset. Did she talk about it?”
“Nope. She wanted to get high. I had some dope, so we did that.”
Cassidy knew from Pete’s street terminology that dope meant heroin. A sensation like wildfire seared through her, and before she knew what she was doing, her fists were flying at Lars.
“How could you?” she cried, her hits landing on his firm chest.
“Whoa!” Cassidy heard from behind her seconds before strong hands pulled her back.
“Let me go!” Cassidy said, struggling with everything she had. How could Lars do this to Izzy? She had already exposed herself to so much risk on this hell-bound journey, and now this?
Lars had his hands up, the cigarette emitting a thin line of smoke into the air. He blinked his surprised at her, then Dutch.
The idea of Izzy letting Lars inject her was simply too much. Too close to the memory that replayed in her mind every day.
“Come on, now, take it easy,” Dutch said as Cassidy writhed and fought him, his arms wrapped around her middle, holding her tight. It took only seconds, but Cassidy’s rational brain caught up, and she stopped struggling. When he felt her relax, he released her.
Cassidy tried to catch her breath, and refocus her mind. She shot Dutch a warning look to stay back from her. “Please tell me you didn’t sleep with her,” she asked Lars, bracing herself for the answer.
Lars’s gaze swept past her, settling on some point Cassidy couldn’t see. Around them, she could hear the sounds of people stirring: zippers sliding open, the scuffing of boots on the dry ground, low voices.
Cassidy realized that Lars was not going to answer. She released the tight breath packed deep in her lungs. “So, you guys rode here, and partied some more?”
“There was a lot to see. Old friends, things
