The Final Ride

Chapter 25

"We really have more than just the details on paper to talk about." Lowen warned Rory. "I get it; I get what you're planning."

"You have no idea what I'm planning," Rory said quickly. "All I need you to worry about is shit with Patterson."

Squinting as she tried to read Rory, Lowen felt she was leading her client down a dangerous path. "You need to see the danger; you need to see there is more to this than the legality of it."

"Will she keep it all quiet until after?" Rory asked with little fear in her voice.

Lowen looked through the paperwork for a second and slowly nodded. "She will. The fact they have a witness is confidential and your name won't even be released until right before trial and by then they'll all be inside."

"Except Hap and Tig, right?"

"Right," she sighed. "You know they will still come after you," Lowen warned her.

"That's what I'm hoping for actually," Rory whimpered. Finally showing emotion she felt herself breaking down but her commitment to the deal never wavered. "If I disappear before trial they can't use my deal to lock em' up."

"How is being dead preferable to jail?" Lowen asked in a harsh whisper. "What's the point?"

"I'm going to talk to Happy." Even as she said it Rory knew how impossible it sounded.

"Talk to Happy?" Lowen's jaw actually hung open for a moment. "You really think you have this all planned out?"

Rory nodded. "I have to try, I have to do this, I won't just lay down and let this bitch force me into anything."

"I can't listen to anything else," she sighed. "If you want me to advise and defend you I can't be guilty of anything myself."

"When am I getting out?"

"Once Patterson signs the agreement you should be out in twenty-four."

"And what does this say exactly," Rory tapped the contract with her pen.

Lowen took a deep breath. "That you intend to use your release to gather evidence and, when trial comes, you will identify all members and testify against the club. It's a deal Rory, you didn't give her anything yet and if you break the terms you're right back in but this is a deal."

Quietly, she began to cry, and signed her name. "How soon can you get Trevor in? I need to talk to him."

"I'll tell Patterson it's for this," Lowen explained as she grabbed the contract. "Hopefully tomorrow."

--

As Lowen had said, Trevor arrived at county the next day to see Rory. As soon as he sat she hit him with a barrage of questions. She was anxious, her feet tapping under the table and her cuticles were picked and chewed up after almost two full days of obsessing over her children. Not even Lowen knew anything and Patterson made sure to keep Rory from the phones.

"Are the kids okay? What do you know about them missing?"

"They're fine," he huffed. "Abel and Emma took the all the boys and ran, they're safe." They weren't home, still being watched in Wyoming, but Trevor kept that piece of information to himself. "What's the uhh private meeting about?"

"Of course they ran," she huffed. "I need your help," she whimpered. "I made a deal."

"You what?" His face twisted up, enraged and shocked, as he looked at her. "I don't help rats."

"It's not going to come to that," she said pleadingly. "It gets me out of here for now and then-"

"And then it gets you dead, Ror."

"No," she snapped. "Listen to me. I have a plan, I think, and it gets me out of here without actually getting any of them charged."

"You think Hap is gonna listen to reason?"

"I'm hoping," she shrugged. "Either way, they don't get locked up and I have to try and I have to believe he'll listen and he'll trust me." Her eyes filled with tears as she looked across the table at Trevor. "I'm not a rat, I'm not, but if I have to take a bullet for singing that paper, I will."

"Jesus," he hissed. "Rory, I've been burying people for years. I don't want to bury you."

"Then help me," she pleaded with him. "I need a spot to go with enough space for me and the kids and Mrs. Whittle...and you, if you'll come."

"You're running again," he took her cuffed hands. "Please don't do this."

"I'm not running," she insisted. "When the time is right I'll tell Hap everything, face to face, I'll explain it all, I will. If he goes for it though, I'll have to run far and fast immediately so Patterson can't find me. If he doesn't I doubt I'll have time breathe before he kills me."

"Yeah, I'm not gonna let that happen." He assured her. "I never really had a partner till you and if this is gonna work you're gonna someone having your back.

"Really?" She sniffled.

Trevor shrugged. "I only came back here cause we fucked shit up in Denver and I had no other contacts."

"Oh thanks," she giggled. "Mrs. Whittle has a thing for you so she'll be happy."

He glared at her and shook his head. "If we're gonna do this you'll need a new name," he mumbled. "Legit paperwork if you're going to hide in plain sight."

"Exactly," she sighed. "I'm dead in here, in a week or a month, or ten years. If I'm going to go I can't be found."

"What else do you need from me?"

"I sent Lowen out of here with a letter for Mrs. Whittle. The whole plan is there, a few contact numbers, my friend Johnny, they can help with whatever you need."

"They'll be good with it?"

She smiled and nodded. "Yeah, they will."

"Alright, fucking troublemaker. I'm on it. Keep your head down, got me?"

She winked and gave him a thumbs up. "Got it."

"You must fucking love him, doing all this and being okay with the fact that he might actually kill you."

"I do," she said dreamily. "I love him so much I would let him kill me because technically, I made a deal, and I knew the consequences. I just hope to fuck he listens to me."