Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes(95)

 

When it finished and I was about to say “You’re looking for me,” Daniel stuck a wedge of lime in my mouth. I had no problem excusing myself from the table this time, and I honestly forgot my purse, barely making it to the toilet. Joe waited for me, hiding in a stall.

 

“How many did you have this time?” He asked as I rinsed out my mouth again.

 

“Two.”

 

“We’re gonna have to hurry, we don’t have much time.” He walked over to a window and opened it.

 

“I get to climb out a window again?” I asked in a whisper. “That’d the second time in…” I tried to think how long ago it was. “Only a few days.”

 

Joe looked outside the window and then climbed out, one leg at a time. He made it look so easy.

 

“When did you climb out a window?” He pulled me closer and lifted one of my legs through.

 

“The night after you hid the gun in my shed.”

 

He pushed my head down and out and pulled the other leg through. We stood outside next to a motorcycle and I remembered. Joe hid the gun in my shed. He strapped a helmet to my head.

 

“How can I trust you?” I asked, searching his face for something to convince me.

 

He put on the other helmet. “Rose, you either trust me or Crocker, which one do you pick?”

 

It didn’t seem like a none-of-the-above moment. “You.”

 

“Good girl.” Joe climbed onto the bike and pulled my arm. “Now climb on behind me.”

 

I did with a bit of difficulty.

 

“Shit, I hadn’t planned on you bein’ so drunk. Hold on really tight, okay? Don’t let go.”

 

Before I had a chance to answer, Joe started the motorcycle and tore out of the parking lot.

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Twenty-Four

 

 

 

 

 

Joe drove like he was trying to drive into yesterday. I felt my grip slip a couple of times and Joe would jerk on my arm and remind me to hang on. But I was drowsy, the vibration of the bike lulling me to sleep.

 

I recognized our neighborhood, but Joe didn’t drive home. Instead, he pulled up to an old detached garage on the street behind our houses and shut off the bike.

 

“Where are we?” I asked, falling off the bike onto the grass. The garage hadn’t been used to store a car in years and the gravel driveway had long since been invaded by the lawn.

 

Joe knelt down and took the helmet off my head. “I rent this, to store things.”

 

“Like a motorcycle? I didn’t know you had a motorcycle.” I lay on my back in the grass. The stars in the sky were spinning around me. I felt like the center of the universe.

 

“That’s me, a man of mystery.” He lifted the garage door, an old-fashioned kind, a panel that tilted out and back.

 

“Tell me about it…” I mumbled, closing my eyes. The spinning stars were making me dizzy.

 

I heard him roll the motorcycle into the garage, then shut the door and padlock it. He pulled me up. “Come on.”

 

I had trouble standing and wearing heels in the grass wasn't going to work, especially in my state. Joe realized this before I did and knelt down to slip them off. He held my shoes in one hand and pulled my wrist with the other. “We have to hurry. We don’t have much time.” He pulled me to the trees that lined the rear property line and ran between them. Well, I tried to run. It wasn’t working out so well.

 

Joe hunched down. “Climb on my back.”

 

“Why?”

 

“They’re gonna come looking for you. We have to hurry and get home.”

 

I didn't really want to hurry so they could come find me, but Joe seemed to have a plan so I climbed on. He ran through to the trees behind his house, then slid me off. As he tried to help me over the fence. I saw my shed out of the corner of my eye.

 

“Hey! Why’d you put a gun in my shed?” My words sounded more indignant than I intended.

 

“I’ll explain it all to you in a little bit. We just have to get through the next hour first.” He led me to the back of his house, pried open a screen, then lifted the window. “Sorry, I don’t have time to be gentle.”

 

He shoved my head and body in through the window. When my top part was in, he pushed the back part of me through and I landed in a heap on the floor. I looked around to orient myself, realizing I was in Joe’s bedroom.

 

He climbed in, replaced the screen, and shut the window. “Okay, time to hide you.”

 

“I’m not so good at hide-and-go-seek.”

 

“Lucky for you, I already picked out a place for you to hide. Your job is to stay quiet.”