Poker Face

Chapter 73 - Operation: Dumb Luck

Negan actually considered calling Frankie back up to his room again after she left the night before, and not for a massage in the professional sense. But he didn't for two reasons. One reason was he didn't want her; he wanted Aven. Frankie would just be a surrogate to put his dick in while he pictured Aven as vividly as possible. For the old Negan, that would have been the only reason not to invite her up and it wouldn't have been reason enough. But Negan now knew that all those years ago when he cheated on and hurt Lucille over and over, it was because he was weak. She was strong as steel and deserved someone better.

Aven was strong too. He didn't think about it often but she definitely reminded him a lot of Lucille. Lucille and Aven: two strong women who loved him (to death) but who needed someone else strong by their side. He let Lucille down but he wasn't weak anymore. This world made him the man he should have been all along and he was going to be strong for Aven in every sense of the word.

Good job keeping it in your pants, Aven's voice said sarcastically in the back of his head. Proud of you.

He smiled sadly to himself as he drifted off to sleep with images drifting in his mind of her rolling her eyes at his ego and smirking through sarcastic comments.

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Aven struggled to stay still and quiet on the floor of the back seat of Rick's SUV as the tires moved over the rough forest terrain, but it wasn't long before it came to a stop. Rick got out and Aven waited for him to move away so she could sit up and get a better look at where they were, but instead he climbed on top of the car, out of sight. Aven sat up and stretched as best she could in the small space, staying on the floor behind the driver's seat just in case he jumped back down. She popped her head up to look around and noted they were on a ridge at the edge of the woods, mostly overlooking vast, open land, except for a small, abandoned town in the distance and the main dirt road to the Hilltop stretching out in either direction.

They sat there for at least an hour before Aven heard Rick's boots scuffling against the roof of the car. She ducked back down and pulled the tarp over her head, but continued peeking through the crack between the side of the car and the driver's seat. Rick hopped down from the roof but didn't get in the car yet. Instead, he reached through the open window and grabbed a pair of binoculars to look out over the land. His hand shot out to the side, hovering over the steering wheel as though he were about to honk the horn and alert everyone. Aven couldn't let that happen and was ready to pop out and lead him away, but he didn't sound the alarm. She could see his eyes in the side view mirror from where she was sitting and he looked angry, vicious, as though he were about to attack. But there was no one there in front of him.

All at once, Rick wrenched the door open, hopped into the driver's seat, started the car, and took off. Straight forward off the hilly ridge.

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, Aven thought as the wheels left the ground and then hit back down hard. The land before them, the mile or so between the woods and the road, consisted of various sizes of descending hills, the Hilltop behind them being the highest and largest. Aven struggled to keep from letting out so much as a gasp every time the tires left the ground and then crashed back down. She clutched the seats for dear life to avoid being thrown from her nook behind Rick, sure he'd notice the commotion in the backseat.

Aven wasn't braced when the biggest impact came head-on, her head smacking against the door. She let out a muffled cry but whatever was going on was louder, and Rick's attention stayed focused. Rubbing the side of her head vigorously, Aven peeked around the seat to see they were now speeding between a cluster of old stores and other buildings. Her heart nearly stopped when she saw Rick was hot on the tail of a sleek, black Dodge Charger.