Read Online Survivor: Steel Jockeys MC by Evelyn Glass - Free Book Online Page B

she'd noticed. "I fixed the pipes yesterday. I figured the last thing I needed was to call undue attention to myself by peeling out."
     
    "That's got to be a first for one of you guys," Ruby scoffed.
     
    He laughed a little, and he felt her grip on him change imperceptibly. "Who was that guy?" she finally asked in a smaller voice. Joe decided to be honest.
     
    "He was a Reaper."
     
    "A what?"
     
    "A member of a different club."
     
    "Why did he want...me?" she hesitated, as if every word she spoke was torturous. "It's because of Kyle, isn't it?" Joe felt himself gulp at the mention of his old friend's name.
     
    "It's more complicated than that, but...yeah."
     
    "Hey, road warrior," she said, poking him, and he could feel the tip of her fingernail in the small of his back. "The turnoff to Madelia was thirty miles back that way."
     
    "I know. That’s not where we’re headed. At least not right away. That's the first place they'll look for you," he said. "We're going to stay with a friend of mine. Sean Donovan. He's president of another Steel Jockeys chapter."
     
    "Where?"
     
    "Outside Fresno."
     
    "Dude, that's still another hour and a half away!" she protested. "We'll never make it back before morning. I do have a job you know. And by the way, the second I don't show up, my boss will have the state patrol on your ass before you can cross the county line." She was trying to sound threatening, but her voice hitched.
     
    "Relax. I'm sure he'll understand the extenuating circumstances." He tried to keep his voice light.
     
    "He would if you'd give me back my phone so I could call him."
     
    "Calling Fox Keene is the last thing in the world I want you doing." If Ruby was surprised by the fact that Joe knew Fox was her boss, she didn't show it.
     
    "Why not?"
     
    Joe knew that telling her precisely why would mean going all the way back to before Kyle was killed. Not only would that open up enough cans of worms to fill a pantry, Ruby wouldn't believe him anyway. "Because we can't trust him."
     
    Ruby laughed harshly. "By we, you mean the Jockeys, of course. God forbid any of you should have an independent thought. I wonder why you don't trust Fox?” she said idly.
     
    Joe could feel her body language, which had actually started to relax, grow taut again. He wanted to duck his head as if a high wind was coming.
     
    “Because he knows every single disgusting crime you guys have committed for the past ten years and could have you all put away with a phone call, but he's too polite to do it?” Ruby continued. “Because he had the sense to crawl out of your little snake pit of horrors while he still had his soul left intact? Or maybe because, unlike all the rest of you combined, he actually possesses more than two brain cells to rub together and thus knows that not every problem can be solved with a set of brass knuckles and a sawed-off shotgun?"
     
    Joe could sense the rage in Ruby's voice, and knew she was once again thinking of Kyle. He wanted to scream back at her, to tell her, once and for all, that she couldn't have it more wrong. But he couldn't tell her the truth without making himself look worse than she already thought him. Instead, he gritted his teeth and kept a stranglehold on the handlebars, so much so that he forgot to signal as he impulsively edged into the turn lane and sped up the ramp to the nearest exit. He was fooling himself into thinking that if he drove hard enough he could outrun his emotions' mad swirl. He wasn't that familiar with the town, but he recognized the green neon glare of a BP station's lights. He pulled in.
     
    "What are you doing? Where are we?" Ruby demanded.
     
    "Gassing up," he muttered as he pulled into the nearly-empty parking lot, not trusting himself to say more. Glancing at the gauge, he knew he probably had just enough fuel to get them to Sean's, but he needed a time out, and he guessed that his new companion did too.
     
    Joe hopped off the bike, as athletically as