That's what I get for giving a shit.
I hadn't been cut that deep in as long as I could remember. When had she begun planning that? Waiting for me to lower my guard enough to run off with my bike! Angry wasn't the correct word. I was livid at Flora, but I was even more upset with myself. Fuck, could I have made it any easier for her?
I should have known! She'd done the same exact thing at Roach's, except this time I fell for it hook, line and sinker. I basically tossed her the goddamn keys.
I paced in the road, thinking about all the shit I’d told her about my past. I told her my real name! Most of my brothers didn't even know that! I slid my hand over my face trying to stem the bubbling rage.
'Maybe you still have some saintly things to do...' Flora's voice taunted me. Yeah, to give you my fucking bike and gun! I grabbed a handful of hair and screamed at the sky as loud as I could. Fucking women. Shit! At least Tash let me keep my bike.
I didn't notice the station wagon until it pulled up behind me, idling a safe distance away. It was a man, a woman, and a young teenage boy wearing their Sunday best. I was tempted to ask them for a lift, but from the terrified looks on their faces, I didn't think it was likely. I walked to the side of the road and let them pass.
Like good rubberneckers, they slowed down just enough to see what was going on, while maintaining a gap to escape if they needed to.
I stretched out my arms, walking towards them, and shouted to the boy in the back seat. “Women are nothing but trouble, kid. Stay away from them, your life will be so much easier!” The prudish wife gasped and tried to cover the boy's eyes, while the husband gunned it. I stepped back into the road and called after them as they sped up and drove off. “Listen to the crazy, screaming, naked man in the road! Nothing but trouble!”
That family was going to have a lot to talk about at mass today.
I watched as the car disappeared around the same bend in the road as my bike had a few minutes earlier. Venting some of that anger and frustration made the walk back to the camp site a little more tolerable.
I put my clothes back on, striding towards the construction site that we'd passed last night. My brain was so wrapped around Flora, it almost felt like she was walking beside me.
I was still pissed, but I was beginning to calm down. Goddammit, girl, I was actually starting to like you. Flashes of the way she felt and smelled and tasted buzzed around me like a swarm of bees, stinging me with painful reminders of how good it all was.
And that none of it was real.
She just wanted an escort and my bike, that was it, I told myself firmly.
If it were that cut and dry I could've gotten over the betrayal. I'd been beaten up and fucked over so many times that it was almost a masochistic hobby of mine. But this was different, and somehow so much worse.
I'd fooled myself by opening up to that girl. What the fuck was I thinking? Roach was right, I had changed. I still didn't know why. It couldn't have just been the sex. It was only recently that we hooked up, so how did she manipulate me so easily?
Through my haze of uncertainty and confusion, the ecstasy of last night crashed against me like a rogue wave of wanting. The way the firelight washed over her, setting her perfect sweat-slicked aglow... The smooth curvature of her back... The wet, tight, velvet embrace of her pussy as I slid my cock inside—
“Fuck!” I screamed. It took screaming at the top of my lungs to slow the cascade of vivid, wonderful, filthy images. It was killing me. I had to get her out of my head.
When I finally regained my composure, I spotted the fenced-off work site. It came into view over the next hill. It wasn't far now.
I'd thought about thumbing for a ride, but no other cars came down the desolate road. Even if they had, I wasn't holding out much hope of getting picked up. Us dangerous biker types weren't well received in sheltered rural towns. Long hair, leather, tattoos and scars. We resembled too many movie villains, I guess.
I checked my phone, it was still early. My cell had reception, sure, but I didn't have anyone to call and I doubted taxis made their way out to this area. The construction site was my only real chance to get the hell out of here before more trouble came rolling down that road.
'New Spring Gardens by Hansdale construction and realty— flowering soon!' read the sign by the locked gate entrance. I peered in, checking for cameras. It didn't look like there was any kind of surveillance in use, and only an eight foot chain link fence to stop people from entering. I was getting ready to climb it when I noticed that it stopped at the tree line, so I just walked around.
Inside, heavy rain that we must have missed on our way here had filled in the newly made foundation for the hotel that was going up. The whole area was waterlogged. It was lucky that our makeshift campsite, last night, had been so dry.