When he got back in, he lowered the steering wheel and glanced at Topaz.
Wearing her shirt, panties and he assumed her bra, but leaving her jeans on the vent. Her feet were on the glovebox, toes curling and uncurling as an uncomfortable silence came over them.
Shit, they hadn’t even turned the truck off during all that. Putting it in drive, he pulled away from the lonely road and kept in search of a recognizable landmark. His eyes shifting over to her. The silence building a wall he never wanted. “You didn’t want to know about me,” he said searching for some form of connection with her and returning to their previous conversation.
“No,” she replied meekly. “All I knew was you were Hollywood’s friend from LA. You were a cop with him right? On SWAT?”
“Never made it far enough for SWAT,” he said. “Put in for it, was on the shortlist. Hollywood and I would have been in the same training class.”
“Oh, I just thought your leg was from some repelling down the side of a building type accident.”
“No,” he replied, the normal tension between his shoulders gone. Topaz had shared her pain with him. Her reason for being so cold and harsh with him. He needed to do the same. “I was on patrol,” he began. “Normal day. Was patrolling with my partner.”
“Hollywood?”
“Nah, we rotated partners. They wanted us comfortable with more than one officer. Sick days, retirement, hell burnout and suicides were common place so they wanted us to be, flexible.” He glanced over.
Topaz cut her eyes at him and smiled.
“Anyway, she was a rookie and we were having a debate on music, saw a box in the road, so I stopped to clear the debris.”
“Was a rookie?” she questioned, her voice solemn.
“This was about five years ago, she’s not a rookie anymore.”
“Oh, good,” Topaz said as her toes splayed wide then came to a perfect point. “What was the debate?”
“Huh?”
“You were debating music, what was it.”
“Classics,” he said. “Grunge, rock, R & B, then MJ came on and was singing ‘Don’t blame it on the Boogie.’”
“Don’t blame it on the sunshine, moonlight,” Topaz sang absently. “Sorry, it’s pretty impossible to not sing that song.”
“It’s a blessing,” he said. “In a way. I was dancing, putting out my best moves—”
“I’ve never seen you dance,” she mused. “Not once, you’re a corner guy.”
“Yeah, well I’m sure the moves are still there somewhere, but I did this slide, the wind blew and the box exploded.”
Coldness crept through the cab of the truck as he tried to be fine with what had happened. The pain, sharp, quick. The blast sending him flying in his mind, but really it was his leg being taken out from under him that dropped his ass like a sack of potatoes.
"The cabin,” she breathed and he inhaled sharply. “Oh my god, I thought if they die, someone will come looking, I never—”
He held up her hand to silence her.
“No, I’m so—you must hate Brick.” She shook her head.
“You’re not the only reason I live with Hollywood and Free instead of on the compound.” A shudder tore through him from the memory of the random blasts Brick sets off. “He really needs a long sit down with Doc on his issues. There are better ways to blow off steam then—”
“Wait,” she said turning to him. “You stay off the ranch because of me?”
He cut his eyes at her then refocused on the road ahead. What did she expect? Every time he was around, she was cold, rude, mean. No one wanted to feel unwanted, and she’d been the only one to make him feel that way with the Steels. But her hatred had been so visceral, so deep he didn’t see any reason to increase their interactions.
“You understand now?” she asked meekly, her body pressed so tight to the door he wondered if she would become a part of it. “I never hated you Onyx. Everything I did was because…I couldn’t…in the cabin when they—” Tears streamed down her cheeks.
With a stretch, he was able to put his arm around her shoulder and pull her to him. She snuggled tight to his chest and cried as he kept her tucked under his arm like a bird under his wing. The world hadn’t been all sunshine and lollipops for her and he knew, in her own way, the cruelty she’d shown him had been from a place of caring. Maybe not for him in particular, but men in general. Ones she’d touched and now were gone.
10
“You know, you never told me the whole story of how you learned to fight?” Onyx asked. “New Mexico, but why learn?”
Their drive through nowhere was less of an escape at this point and more of where the hell are we.
Topaz wiped her tears from her cheeks and flipped down the visor. Of course, the shitty old truck didn’t have lights on the mirror. It didn’t matter at this point. She was a mess and who was she trying to impress? Right now, basic survival was needed. Food, directions, hell for all she knew they were in Canada. Conversation really was the only thing they had at this point.
“Um, Dell taught me, well all of us, in New Mexico. After she was kidnapped, she didn’t want us to just be hapless victims.”
“What! Really? Now you got me curious what happened there?”
“Dell was kidnapped by a MC called the Ghosts. They took her and put her in a cage like an animal. They were a human trafficking ring and thought they were going to sell her.”
“Dell? As in Steel’s wife?” he asked.
“Well, before she was his wife,” Topaz said.
“Still, were they morons or just stupid? That woman doesn’t walk like one who you’d just snatch up and run with.” Onyx shook his head. “If she hadn’t been laughing when I first met her about something, I might have clutched my purse and crossed the street.”
Topaz
