Hell Has A New Name

21

"Well where are we going?" Juice asked still driving aimlessly down the interstate. Amber was still sitting with her head against the window, her feet propped on the dash.
"Well, does it matter? You can go anywhere."

He nodded. "You know? What if I went back to school? Did something legit. I could do IT type shit ya know."

"I hear Atlanta has a good program for that. Wanna check out Georgia?"

He thought about it for few minutes, the car was quiet while he thought.
"Really? Georgia? I mean, like to stay? I'm always going to be looking over my shoulder."

She rolled her eyes, shifting in her seat to sit up straight. "Dude I've only known you a little while and I can tell you'd be looking over your shoulder even if none of this other crap was going on."

"That's true." He smacked his hands on the steering wheel. "I'd kill for a smoke. It's been three weeks and I'm crawling out of my skin."

"I'm starving, so if you want to stop somewhere we can grab some food. Get you some gum or something, you've made it this long, may as well quit."

He narrowed his eyes at her, and choked on a cough.

"Pizza sound good? That sign says there's a chain place off the next exit." She nodded agreeing.

In the silence of the ride his mind started to wonder. If he went to Georgia how long could he stay before he had to run again? Was he always going to be running? What was this girls deal? Why was she so fucking nice to him, he didn't fucking deserve it. She was a good girl, coming up with typical ideas for life. Go to school? He was too old to be a student, his new ID said he was twenty five, sure he looked it, but he wasn't twenty five. He began to wonder what kind of person the man he was impersonating was. He'd have to hack some files and figure it out.

Something about Ambers calmness even after he told her the truth shook his core. Something wasn't right about her.
He thought about Chibs, how much he must have hurt him. The man had been like a father to him, a best friend, the only person he trusted and he'd broke his heart. What was he even thinking leaving him listed as his emergency contact? That is probably what started all of this. If he had removed him, Tully wouldn't have gone out of his way to cover his ass. Why would Chibs not have fought it then? Why did he even care what Tully had done to him? Nothing in the world made sense anymore.

Finally they pulled into the lot, he went to open the door but Amber stopped him, grabbing his arm.
"Hey Micheal. I know there's things you can't tell me, some of the darkness in your past. But um." She raised one hand cupping his cheek. He wasn't sure how to respond to the gesture, his heart started racing. "I meant what I said about you being a good guy. It's in your eyes."

She locked eyes with him for a second, and then dropped her hand, moving so they could get out of the car. He was stunned really, he felt like he'd been sucker punched.

"So I thought of more questions." He thought quickly of something to say.

They picked a booth and sat, waiting for the waitress to get their order.
"Shoot." She folded her arms on the table, giving him a teasing smile.

"Tell me about your family. You mentioned brother."

Her face fell, and he felt like shit for it, but fair was fair.

"Can we skip my brother for now?"

He nodded. "Parents? Other siblings?"

"Yeah, all brothers. They grew up riding, I didn't get too, like I mentioned before. Started riding as an adult, mostly to piss my dad off."

He laughed, he remembered feeling that defiance.

"What's your parents do?"

She made big eyes, thinking about how to explain. "It's complicated."

The waitress came over before she could continue, taking their orders. Once she walked away Juice urged her to continue.

"Well mom pretty much stays home. Dad traveled a lot, he works for FBI doing a bunch of stuff he describes as classified."

Juice raised a brow at her now. "He'd fucking love you running around with me." He deadpanned, worried about the consequences of running around with her.

She shook her head. "No. He trusts my judgment typically more than a rap sheet. He handles like big ring groups and trafficking stuff like that."

Juice choked on his soda. "Big ring groups?"

She shrugged. "He doesn't talk about it much. I think it's like gangs, but like next level gangs. International level stuff. His most recent job has been in out in California. He's been out there for months, sucks for mom cause she basically alone when he's gone, now that we're all grown."

Juice felt like his heart was going to explode, or he was going to vomit or faint again. He'd seen the wall, the organizations all being linked together, coming back to the Sons. He had to have been involved in the operation, somehow.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to tell my dad anything you've told me. Even if I did, he'd probably try to help you before he sent you back inside. You're officially dead, unless you're a threat to society he's gonna leave it be. Without your club of bandits or whatever I doubt you're very bad on your own." She snickered but he wasn't hungry anymore.