Page 40 of Existential
NINETEEN
Hooch
Well, that didn’t quite go to plan. I snort a bump off the back of my hand while I watch Mel cool the truck’s engine with a hose. If the police are out and about in the chopper, they’ll be using heat detection to track us down now that it’s night.
Dagne sits off to the side on a hay bale, her legs folded beneath her as she weaves a few dry sticks together. Despite the calm she exudes, there’s a definite unease beneath the surface. Feeling a bit more bulletproof thanks to the coke, I head across and take a seat beside her. She shuffles across a little to give me room.
“You holding up okay?”
“I’m hiding out in a barn after both you and your sister shot a cop apiece, so yeah, it’s just another day really.” She shrugs dismissively.
“I’m sorry I dragged you into all of this.” Yet again, here I was thinking I was doing what was best, but in reality all it did was hurt those around me. “I’ll get ears to the ground and find out if it’s okay for you to cut loose.” I slip off the bale, intending to retreat to my corner, well and truly whipped.
“I don’t want you to leave,” she murmurs, stopping me in my tracks. “I just want to know what the fuck is going on here.”
I glance over at Mel as she now cools my bike. The sudden change in temperature isn’t all that great for the engine, but it beats yet another reason to be on death row, any day. A year alone, and she’s just as forward and confident as ever. The isolation didn’t do a thing to dampen her spirit, and yet, here I am falling to pieces when I had everyone and everything within reach.
“The club put Mel into seclusion around a year ago to avoid a hit on her life. Even I didn’t know where she was. We figured it was best if none of us knew the truth.”
“So how did you find her?”
“Paid a guy to track her down. Took him a while, but with the insider info I could give him he managed to pull a miracle outta his ass.”
Dagne looks across to my sister, her eyes soft and shoulders relaxed. “That must have been hard to do; let her go without knowing if you’d ever see her again.”
“It was better than the alternative.”
She reaches out and tugs my hand, urging me to sit down again. “Who had the hit on her? And why?”
I relent and resume my place beside her. “A pretty fuckin’ ruthless drug lord by the name of Carlos Redmond.” I give the information a moment to sink in before I explain. “She was targeted as part of a plan to blackmail us into handing over our club.”
“Wow.”
“Pretty extreme, huh?” My chest pains at knowing what comes next in my dark fairytale.
“But she’s okay, though.”
“For now.”
“The drug lord? He still after her?”
I chuckle. “Nope. He’s six-foot under and in just as many pieces and locations.”
She twitches a weak smile. I fall a little in love with her acceptance of things she doesn’t understand. I’m telling her shit that would make a Hollywood movie seem tame, and yet she accepts it with a carefree attitude.
“The feds want her now.”
“Because she killed that guy back there?” Dagne brings her knees up, huddling them to her chest.
“No. Because she’s proof of what I did.”
Her head tips to one side as she frowns. “You’ve lost me.”
“The message I needed you to get out to my mom?”
“Was her address?”
“Yeah.” I sigh, dragging a hand over my face. Fucking coke does jack shit when the subject is this grim. “There’s a DEA agent back home who has leverage over me. I’m not lettin’ that fucker win, no matter what. I needed somebody to know where Mel is in case I don’t come back.”