She didn't see him for the rest of the night. He only showed up early that morning, with no tequila bottle, and obviously still drunk, or at least buzzed. He had drank so much that it still hadn't worn off. The marks under his eyes were even more dark if that were even possible, she knew just from that, he hadn't slept at all. She stayed silent, and settled into the passenger seat with her blanket and Zuni after their small walk around the campsite. Her neck was bothering her from sleeping in the chair, it ached, and all she could do was try and stretch to make it go away, but that hardly did anything. She probably should have been mad at him for what he did the night before, but any anger directed towards him was more about his sudden disappearance, she had stayed up a few hours after the incident, trying to see if he would come back, but he never did, and eventually, exhaustion overtook her, forcing her eyes to close. The ride was mostly calm, except for the two girls, who were sitting on the small couch playing punch buggy whenever they passed a yellow car, calling out in pain as if each of them had a mission to make their sibling cry first.
A yellow truck passed by the RV, and she heard a scream from Kasey as Kayla hit her in the arm, the skin red and starting to slightly swell. It was strange not knowing the real names of Lanky Guy and the girls, but she suspected it to be just in case things went sideways, no one would be capable of incriminating anyone else.
"They're so loud, aren't they?" Lanky Man smiled, referring back to the girls "Just like their mother" Harmony found her eyes widen, turning her head to look at him in the driver's seat
"They're your kids?" she asked, watching as he shook his head, a lingering smile still on his lips. She hadn't expected them to be related, they looked nothing like him.
"That surprises you?" he asked
"I guess...I just assumed they had been roped into this separately from you" she responded. But, thinking more about it, Lanky Guy being the girls' father made more sense, who would allow their kids to go on a trip like this without them? even if it was with other HH members.
"Nope," he retorted, leaning back to stretch in his chair, his hands still on the ten-and-two. "Were a package deal" Harmony suddenly wondered about their mother, they must have inherited their looks from her. They did seem to have quite the fiery spirit, they hadn't rested since this trip started, just running in circles the whole time.
"So, what's she like?" Harmony found the words, leaning over slightly against the armrest to look at him. She didn't even have to clarify who he was talking about, he just smiled, a shine of reminiscence within his eyes. She took her chin into her hand, petting the dog lying across her lap.
"Well...she was very stubborn" he responded "The very first thing I learned about her"
"I bet she didn't make it easy on you then?" she inquired, a smile of her own starting to surface
"That, she did not...but, it was certainly worth the extra effort" he retorted, his eyes still on the road ahead. "By the time I met her, she had been beaten down so much she didn't trust anyone, let alone a man...a teenage runaway that found solace in narcotics and criminals"
"She was a member of HH?" she asked
"Only an initiate, but a very promising one" he responded "They might be a pack of wild beasts, but they do look after each other...she found in HH what she was unable to find anywhere else" Although the words were ones of sorrow, he didn't seem sad, instead the memory of life seemed to breathe new air into him. He smiled like he was young. "I asked her out over ten times before she finally gave in, calling it a pity date...telling me that after I got what I wanted, I wasn't to bother her again unless I wanted her to take my head off with a single swing" A rather violent thing to be smiling about, but whatever she thought.
Listening to the life of this girl, she felt they were similar in a way, their lives had aspects in common. Granted, she hadn't known that girls' reasoning for taking off, but it was probably for the best she didn't. Some things unknown were best kept that way. Although they appeared to differ on a fundamental level, while Harmony used her time to try and build a normal life, to be kind and courteous, this girl seemed to have been too far gone, had instead fleed to a different kind of life where her pain wouldn't be masked, but embraced as something to fuel her rage. But, their sadness was the same, a mind that screamed for nothing but human connection, searching for a place that would give it. Perhaps this girl, whoever she was, had found that connection, even if it was with a pack of wolves. But, Harmony found herself still looking.
"Her mouth was foul, and such a short fuse...she would blow up for the smallest things, it was pretty comical" he responded. "Whenever she lost her shit, I was the one they called"
"She would calm down for you?" he shook his head at her words "Why do you think that is?"
"Well...she said that when she saw me, it reminded her of the person I wanted her to be rather than the person she was" Harmony glanced back at the two girls when another yell of pain rang out, and Kayla now the one rubbing her red arm. This girl, Harmony suspected she was one of those people that never thought they were good enough, trying to change but never satisfied.
Maybe she thought that Lanky Guy would leave her one day, that she would end up right back at the starting line, within a constant loop of inescapable pain. Sometimes she thought like that too, that her sadness would never satiate, that she'd spend the rest of her life beckoning for a future that would never arrive. "She said that she would keep fighting her demons to keep my affection for the rest of her life" Harmony's voice hesitated, she wanted to know what happened, why he looked out into the world through the windshield with eyes that reflected his own linger of regret. She tried to speak gently, softly so the two girls in the back wouldn't have a chance to hear her.
"Do you mind if I ask...what happened?" he didn't tell her to let it go, he didn't tell her it was none of her business, although she really thought it probably was. But, she noticed the way his jaw tightened, the grip on the steering wheel forming more solid.
"She was a lookout, they told me it went sideways so fast that there was no chance for her to even react" he responded, his voice deeper than the previous moment "She fought against the hold of a police officer trying to apprehend her, and in the struggle, he hit her with his gun across the chest, right above her heart" her eyes widened, feeling her own heart squeeze "She collapsed soon after and went into cardiac arrest...but, even with immediate intervention, the impact had shocked her heart so badly there was too much damage to successfully revive her" She wanted to know more, what happened to the officer? was it brought to court?
Harmony shuttered a sigh, placing her head in her hands. She felt foolish for asking him to relive such a tragic moment, she wanted to apologize to him, but she suspected that doing so would be empty. There would never be enough apologies to bring her back to him.
"She sounded wonderful" She lifted her head from her heavy hands, and he smiled. He even looked kind of thankful, she wondered if perhaps he had been tired of hearing the words 'sorry for your loss'.
"She was" he retorted, glancing over at Harmony for just a moment before his eyes fixated back on the road ahead. She suddenly couldn't help but wonder, what would happen to her if Maxwell ever died? It was a thought that had never occurred to her. He was involved in dangerous, risky endeavors too, any day he could have been taken out by any of the huge numbers of people she suspected wanted him dead because of who he was, and what he stood for. It wasn't even a matter of criminals, but of religious fanatics that saw Hell's Heaven as a gateway for the end of days. Although their lives weren't intertwined, they were still very much connected. She was living in his house for fucksakes, what would happen to her if he suddenly disappeared? would she be handed off to someone else? or, maybe they wouldn't bother with the hassle and just have her join him. Life with Maxwell hadn't been easy, but she wasn't deluded into thinking it couldn't get worse.
He had been good to her, at least slightly, someone else might not have been as generous towards her as he was. With him, she had her own room, food, and whatever else she asked for, and as time passed, the more freedom he had given her. Their relationship became less of captor and kidnapper, and more like she had an to deal with an annoying guy who left his guns in the common areas and spent the days in the confines of his hermit office.
YOU ARE READING
His Angel
Romance"You have a name, don't you?" his voice was deep and irritable, but rather calm. Her eyes lifted just slightly, now staring at the edges of dark hair that hung an inch or two from his shoulders. Her lack of answer seemed to annoy him further, she co...
