The Long Ride by Amy Love Read Free Book Online Page A

Nova, and then the flashes of Tomas' gun were vertical, shooting up into the stars above.
     
    Elias emptied his clip into the shadowed area where training and experience told him a body would have to be according to the location of the firing gun.
     
    Then it grew quiet, an eerie, deep night quiet all around them that seemed to devour the noise of the idling bike motors and the knocking idle of the Nova. The Nova's headlights cut the darkness with blinding beams, robing Elias' night vision. He got off his ass and began to move in a clockwise circle around the Nova. Eric followed suit, going counter-clockwise.
     
    Elias watched carefully as Eric passed through the beams of the Nova headlights, but nothing moved in or around the idling car. They met behind the vehicle and then moved forward, low, guns out, barrels searching with the sweep of their eyes.
     
    Coming up alongside the Chevy, they found him. Tomas. His eyes were open, glassy. Black splotches decorated his shirt across his chest and his abs.
     
    Elias could hear the detective breathing, though it was a wet, very unhealthy sound. So he put a bullet in Tomas' head.
     
    When the sound of the shot died away into the night, he turned and walked back toward his bike. It was over. Chelsea was safe. Now it was time to get to her as soon as possible. Eric followed without a word. They picked up their bikes together, brothers in arms, and straddled them. Then they idled them back out of the hole in the fence, down the short incline to the shoulder, and to the edge of the freeway.
     
    A roaring sound caught their attention, and they both looked west to see Duffy returning on this trike. He crossed the dirt barrier and pulled up in front of them. To the east appeared a pack of headlights, coming on fast.
     
    "Is it done?" Duffy yelled over to them.
     
    "Yeah, it's done," Elias told him.
     
    "Then let's get the hell out of here. I want to get my bike!"
     
    "How are you going to get it home?" Elias yelled back at him.
     
    Duffy opened his mouth, then closed it, his eyes blinking.
     
     
     

 
    CHAPTER ELEVEN
     
    Over forty men seemed to be an awful lot to guard one woman, but no one wanted to leave. They took over Fred's Desert Inn Hotel, sharing rooms there and shifts at the hospital where Chelsea lay in various degrees of semi-coherent states. The general mood was down, and the consensus was that they were too late. They succeeded in putting Tomas down, but not soon enough. Chelsea was still hurting from his treatment.
     
    Doc told them that this was bound to happen, with or without Tomas. If Chelsea pulled through, she had a real chance of recovery. However, Doc wouldn't answer what the chances of her pulling through were . So far, there didn't seem to be much change, and it was over a week since she had her meltdown. Doc told Elias that she was fairly certain Chelsea wasn't hallucinating any longer. She was just, in Chelsea's own term, "broke."
     
    Elias sat with her daily, holding her hand, telling her it was alright to come back, because Tomas couldn't hurt her any longer. Tomas was gone—dead. He couldn't hurt anyone any longer. They were all safe. After he said this and similar sentiments to her, he just sat with her, holding her hand and running his fingers through her hair. Sometimes she would say a few things, but Elias couldn't make sense of them. Sometimes she would just murmur.
     
    Days passed and turned into another week. John and Larry called saying they had already talked to the hospital about the bill, and that they were not to worry about it. Elias thanked them, though he could have told them he wasn't worried about the bill. Whatever she needed, she would get.
     
    He bought a new laptop in town and began bringing that to the hospital to do some day-trading. He had a new chair brought into the room as well so he could sit beside her for longer periods of time without destroying his back.
     
    On the third Wednesday of his arriving by her side