RIDING WITH THE BEAST

Chapter 1: Running isn't a choice anymore. It's the only way I know how to breathe. The house is quiet behind me. That's the thing about this house. It's always quiet when it's about to happen. I'm in the back hall, barefoot on the marble, holding my dress up in one hand so it doesn't rustle. Upstairs the shower is still running. Water hitting tile. Pipes creaking in the walls. He's got ninety seconds before the water stops. I've got ninety seconds before he realizes I'm gone. The kitchen door is open. Delia leaves it open every night when she clocks out at nine. She knows what this house is after dark. She leaves it like a small quiet gift. Thank you, Delia. I'll owe you forever. The gravel cuts my feet. I left the heels in the hallway. They were his. Everything was his. My car's the old Honda. The one he's been promising to replace for two years because it doesn't match the house. There's a spare key in the wheel well because I knew. I knew. I'm on my knees by the front tire, fingers inside the arch, going deeper, colder — There. The little magnetic box. I get the door open. Get in. Put my hand on the ignition and — The garage door starts going up. Through the windshield I watch it. That slow, smooth rise. And there's a car on the other side. His car. The Bentley. Headlights off. He's been sitting in there. The whole time. Waiting. The water was never running. The window comes down. He doesn't yell. That's the thing about Marcus. He never yells when he's going to hurt you. He gets quiet. Gentle, almost. Like he's about to read you a bedtime story. "Elara. Come back inside. You're embarrassing yourself." I turn the key. The Honda coughs. Please. Please, baby, start. "Elara. I'm not going to say it once more." The engine catches. I slam it in reverse. Clip the fountain. Spin the wheel. Through the gate. The gate that's never open. It's open. --- The road's a two-lane black strip going through nothing. Trees so tall they close over the top like a tunnel. Rain coming down in that hard flat way that makes the asphalt go blind. No phone. No cash. No shoes. Torn wedding dress. And I've never been more free in my whole life. The engine makes a sound. Not the old dead sound. A new one. A metal one. Like something expensive just gave up. The dash goes dark. The wipers hang there like dead arms. The wheel goes heavy. "No. No no no —" The Honda coasts. Slowing. Rolling on nothing but its own stupid momentum. And then I see the sign. BLACKPINE POP. 800 NO REASON TO STOP Somebody's spray-painted over the bottom line in red. GTFO. I grab my bag, kick the door open, and I'm running before the Honda's even stopped rolling. --- Gravel bites my feet. Rain hits me sideways. The road turns into a street. A laundromat with the lights off. A church with a sign that says GOD LOVES YOU ANYWAY, except somebody knocked two letters off so it says GOD LO ES YOU ANYWAY. Everything's dark except one building down at the end. Low brick. A neon sign in the window, red letters buzzing, half of them flickering out and back in like they can't decide. IRON VIPERS Six motorcycles out front, lined up side by side like sleeping animals. Fat tires. Black tanks. Rain running off the chrome and pooling in the cracks of the concrete. Six bikes means six men at least. Probably more inside. I know what's on the other side of a door like that. I've seen Marcus's friends. I've seen what men with money and power look like at one in the morning when nobody's around to tell them no. But I've also been in the worst house in this state. Whatever's behind this door, I've already lived through something worse. So I push it open. The bell rings. --- Everything stops. The talking. The glasses. The laugh in the corner that was halfway out of somebody's mouth and then just wasn't. The air hits me thick. Whiskey, burnt tobacco, motor oil, sweat. Underneath all of it something sharper — heat. Twenty men. Every single one with his head up and his eyes on me. Black leather cuts. Patches on the back. A rocker at the top, a rocker at the bottom, a patch in the middle. IRON VIPERS A man at the bar in a leather vest with no sleeves, watching me over his shoulder. Beard. Snake tattoo wrapped around his forearm. His drink hits the wood without a sound. Ice clicks in the glass. Another one in the corner booth leans forward. Bald. Scar through his eyebrow. He's got a knife on the table and he hasn't touched it and he doesn't need to. The youngest one says, quiet, "Prez ain't gonna like this." Nobody answers him. Nobody says anything. It goes on so long I start to hear the rain outside. I start to hear my own breathing. Twenty men. Twenty sets of eyes. On the torn dress. On my bare feet. I don't move. I don't flinch. I've spent two years learning exactly how still to be in a room with men who could hurt me. And then a chair scrapes in the back corner. The darkest corner. The one I didn't look at. The one where the light doesn't reach. Somebody's standing up. He's big. I can tell from the shape of him, from the way the dark moves around him. He comes out slow, a bottle in one hand and nothing in the other, and the whole room shifts to make space for him. Black leather cut, open over a white t-shirt. Silver stitching on the shoulders. And on the front, over the pocket, a patch that's different from the rest. PRESIDENT Ink from his wrists to his collar. A scar that starts near his eyebrow and cuts down past his eye like somebody tried to take the eye and missed. Dark hair pushed back off his forehead. A jaw that could break a man's hand. Eyes so dark they don't look like they've got a bottom. He stops about ten feet away. He doesn't look at my chest. He doesn't look at my legs. He doesn't do any of the things I braced for. He looks at my face. "You lost, doll?" His voice is low and rough, like gravel rolling downhill, and it does something to the back of my neck I don't have a name for. I should say yes. I should say I'm sorry, I'll go. That's what a smart woman says to a man like this. Instead I hear myself say: "Not lost. Just out of options." Something moves in his face. Not a smile. Close to one. He looks past me. At the door. At the rain coming down behind it. And then, quiet, to the whole room: "Lock the door." Chapter 1 Ends.