A breeze through the trees and a stray strand of her hair drifts across her dark eyes. I move it and permit my finger to trace her cheek as I tuck the loose piece behind her ear. A red path lights up her skin from where I caressed her. A blush that brushes against my heart.
I unstrap the backpack I had attached behind Emily, swing it onto my shoulder, then offer my hand, palm up to her. “Do you trust me?”
She scans the green forest and the small path that cuts through it as if the boogeyman lies in wait. “Do you mind if I go first?”
An eyebrow raises. Emily’s terrified of the woods and that she’s agreed to this hike is huge. “Are you sure?”
She wipes her hands along her jeans. “Yeah. I need to do this. If you can apply to college and Olivia can fight the cancer for as long as she did and Eli can take a bullet, I can hike in the woods. Besides, I took on the woods in the dark for a few seconds that night I left Olivia’s. If I could do that then, I can do this now.”
“All right.”
She goes in and I’m not far behind. The path is narrow and the weeds high. We can only walk in tandem and, for a bit, we do so in silence. Each brief glimpse of her face shows strained panic, but my respect for her grows as she continues forward, confronting her fears.
A cloud blocks the sun and the forest darkens. Emily quickens her pace.
“I got in,” I say.
Emily stops so quickly that I almost ram into her. She spins on her toes. “Got into what?”
By the excitement gleaming in her eyes, she knows, but I say it, anyway. “Don’t go crazy on me. I’ll be a part-time student. I’m going to be doing most of it online, and I’ll have to drive into Bowling Green once a week for one class that has to be taken there.”
Despite my warning, Emily’s already hopping on her feet. “What are you majoring in? Just tell me what you’re majoring in.”
“Special education.”
Emily squeals. Squeals. Then throws herself at me. Her arms around my neck. Her soft curves pressing into me. I tangle my fingers into her silky hair and keep her locked in the hug. “I’ve missed you.”
She lifts her head and skims her fingers across my face. “I’ve missed you, too.”
Our lips are a few inches apart and I’ve dreamed night after night of our mouths and bodies moving in time together. Emily shyly turns her head away. We haven’t kissed properly since our night in my room. Kissing like that would require time alone.
We’ve been under Eli’s watchful eye since she arrived two days ago. It doesn’t help that I’m now sharing her with everyone in the club. Never realized what we experienced before will never happen again. Emily’s not just my girl, she’s now the club’s daughter, sister and friend.
“So when you start school are you still going to work for the security company?” she asks casually, as if the answer doesn’t matter to her, but it does. Working for the security company puts me in harm’s way and it means I still carry a gun. I understand why Emily’s gun-shy.
“College costs money,” I respond. The gun’s not currently on me as I only carry it when I’m on a run. Since Emily arrived, I’ve kept it in the safe in the clubhouse, but I’ve caught her searching for it when my back’s to her.
“Humph.”
I snag her hand and angle her to face me. “Even if I had the money for school, I’d still work for them. Not full-time, but when they needed me. This isn’t just a job. It’s a family business and even though I’m not blood-related, I’m family.”
Emily sags. “I know. It worries me.”
“Don’t be. I can ride circles around most of those guys.”
Emily rolls her eyes and the path widens enough that I can walk beside her and hold her hand. She’s worried about the Riot. Things have been quiet with them. Maybe it will stay that way. Maybe it won’t. Either way it won’t change how we live our lives.
The forest gives way and we stumble upon the tiny campsite. It’s not much of anything. A shack with four walls and a roof. Emily opens the door and recoils. “There’re spiders in there.”
I’d bet there’s a few snakes, too. “It’s used mainly for hunting. It’s also where a member can lay low if he should need it. I can’t say it’s been used like that since Eli got in trouble.”
Emily kicks at a board hanging off the outside of the shack. “I don’t get it. Honeysuckle Ridge. Honeysuckle Ridge. That’s all Olivia talked about. What was so amazing about this place that Olivia was dead set on me finding it?”
The bag on my shoulder grows heavier. I take her fingers again and lead her away from the shack. “Come on.”
It’s a short trip, but this time there is no path. I have to help Emily over a fallen tree and I walk in front so I can push down the overgrowth, but it springs up as soon as I lift my foot.
We step into a clearing and beams from the sun highlight the open stretch of grass. “This is Honeysuckle Ridge.”
Emily sucks in a breath as her eyes drink in the world around her. “Wow.”
Wow is right. Below us is the world. Thick trees. A view of the river. Far off in the distance I could point out my high school, the steeple to the church on Main Street. Even farther on the left I could show her the general area of Olivia’s cabin and the long stretch that led us to Olivia’s, then my place and that eventually brought us here: Thunder Road.