Chapter 22 - Delaney

22

Delaney

“So, how did you find me?” I ask. I squirm in the backseat of the patrol car. Cracks in the vinyl pinch the parts of my thighs not covered by my shorts.

Aaron snorts from the driver’s seat as we drive out of Bowen, the empty highway stretching into the distance.

“I can’t just be a good fucking cop? I’m hurt, Del. I thought you believed in me.”

“You can choke on a dick and die, Flores. Believe that.”

I catch his eye in the rearview. Something dark flashes in his expression, a barely controlled contempt. Then, he chuckles.

“Come on now, Del. Don’t be like that. We’ve got a long drive back to your daddy, and you best believe I can make it pleasant for you, or…”

He lets it hang there. The threat of all the ways he can make it far, far worse for me. Though I can’t think of what could be worse than being hand-delivered to my father by Aaron fucking Flores. A man I’d always considered an overgrown boy with a teeth-whitening fetish.

I glance over at Ares. He looks too big for the backseat: his shoulders are curved inward, his dirty blond hair brushes the ceiling, and his huge thighs are spread wide, taking up most of the space on the seat. I nudge him with my knee, wanting some reaction to know he’s still with me. He gives me a near imperceptible shake of his head.

Not now , it says.

His wrists twist inside the metal loops of the handcuffs. Testing the strength. But there’s no way he’s strong enough to bust out of them. Is there? Aaron didn’t cuff me at all. He probably thinks the only threat is Ares, which is probably true.

“So,” Aaron continues, “You really want to know how I found you?”

I stop myself from rolling my eyes. Aaron Flores will never miss a chance to grandstand.

“Sure, Aaron. Impress me.”

“Buddy of mine with the department in Bowen tipped me off to a call about a ‘big tattooed asshole’ and ‘some little bitch’ that were causing trouble at a motel.”

Shit.

“You’d gone by the time I got there,” he says, “but then somebody decided to place a call to Judith Jackson from that fine establishment I found you two in.”

Double fucking shit .

“The geriatric running the place was all too happy to give you up. After I threatened him with harboring fugitives.”

I feel Ares’ eyes on me, sharp as knives. Knives he probably wishes he could stab me with right about now.

“Oh, you thought your Aunt would keep her mouth shut about it?” Aaron laughs. “You gotta have learned by now, Del. You’re nothing. Nobody is gonna be on your side. That’s why…”

The patrol car slows and veers to the side of the road.

“…I suggest you play ball.”

Sitting up straighter, I watch out the windshield as he turns off the highway, through a break in the trees. We bump on a dirt track for a moment before Aaron angles the car into a secluded spot. Trees wall us in on three sides. I jerk around in my seat to look out the rear window, only to find the main road is hidden behind the bend. There’s some old, broken furniture at the treeline — a torn up couch, moldy from rain; a boxy TV with no glass in it. This is a place where people go to dump their trash.

The fear that I’ve been trying to keep down rises and spreads in me like something spilled, prickling hot and urgent down my limbs.

“The fuck are we doing here, Flores?”

Ares’ voice shocks me. It’s low and rough, a note of warning in it. Aaron unbuckles and turns off the engine. He reaches up to fiddle with the dashboard camera aimed at the car’s interior. The little red light goes dark.

“Like I said, we’ve got a long drive. I think it’s about time we spend some quality time together.” He turns to look at me through the partition. “Don’t you, Del?”

Ares lunges. He slams his fists into the metal grate, hanging on with his fingers and rattling the thing like he’s trying to break through with the sheer force of his hatred.

Aaron’s laugh is blisteringly cruel and I get a sudden flash of a memory. Some little asshole I went to elementary school with. We were on a field trip to the zoo and I was watching the gorillas as they lumbered around, gently picking bugs out of one another’s hair. This kid — I can’t even remember his name now — walked right up to the railing, lit a string of firecrackers and threw it into the enclosure. As it went off and the gorillas threw themselves at the walls of their cage in distress, he just stood there howling with laughter, like it was the funniest thing in the world. I remember the way his nose split under my knuckles. Of course, I was the one who got suspended.

“Ares, stop,” I whisper. I touch him, carefully resting my hand on his bicep. My fingers dig in slightly, pressing against hardened muscle. Ares does, though he pulls ragged breaths through his teeth, eyes locked on Aaron’s smug, punchable face.

“Ares,” I say again, firmer this time. “It’s okay.”

Is it? I don’t even know what I mean, really, but just like I wanted to comfort those tormented animals in the zoo, I want to do the same for him. Something is going to happen here, something not good, and Ares won’t be able to stop it.

“Touch her and you die,” Ares snarls at Aaron.

Aaron seems to consider this for a moment, his lip pushed out in a mocking pout, then his mouth twists into something that makes my insides go cold.

“Oh, I’m not going to touch her. Not yet.”

He unfolds himself from the driver’s seat, and I follow his figure through the windows as he moves around the car. I flinch when he wrenches my door open. The cool of the AC dissipates and my lungs constrict with the sudden mugginess in the air.

I refuse to look at him. Just the weight of his presence is enough to twist my stomach. Instead, I angle myself to look at Ares. He watches with sharp, suspicious eyes; eyes that widen only a second before I feel something hard and cold press against the side of my head.

Ares’ jaw tics. “Motherfucker.”

“Ah, ah, ah,” Aaron tuts. There’s a click, the safety of a gun being flicked off, and the barrel presses harder against my skull. “I’ll do it,” he warns. “Sheriff’ll be pissed, but he’ll get over it.”

I force a shaky laugh. “He’ll get over you murdering his daughter? I’d re-think that, Aaron.”

Aaron chuckles. He carves the barrel of the gun through my hair and down the side of my neck. Lowering his body with it, I feel his breath on my cheek.

“He’s got another daughter,” he replies.

His words pierce me deeper than any bullet. I breathe out Lilly’s name in a rush, feeling it leave my lips rather than hearing it.

If I die here, there will be nothing stopping Dad from doing to Lilly what he did to me. All of this will be for nothing: stealing the drugs, going to the Wastelanders…

“So, either you’re both good for me, or this ends with the Sheriff down a daughter and you, Ares, riding back to town covered in this little bitch’s brain matter.”

He jabs the gun harder against my neck. My pulse rages against it.

“Okay,” Ares says, startling me. He forces his fists to relax, his shoulders pressing back into the sticky vinyl of the seat. “Whatever you say, boss.”

The gun lets up and I turn to see Aaron taking a step back — all to get a better view of both of us in the backseat.

“Good,” he says. “Now take off her shorts.”

“What?” Ares spits it, his body tightening up again.

“You heard me,” Aaron says, grinning. “I’m not going to touch her. You are.”