Drive (13 page)

             
Fish just nodded solemnly. Then, when he realized she hadn’t seen he added, “Yeah, I think so.”

             
From then on, they drove in silence.

              It was evening already when Fish’s Jeep passed the Welcome To Franklin sign in Alabama. It hadn’t been easy for her, but Jordan had managed to make the bulk of the drive while keeping within reasonable speed limits, although it hadn’t kept her from shaving nearly an hour off of the normally seven hour trip just by being alert and staying on the offensive. Of course, she hadn’t given up on speeding entirely. She had simply taken it down to a less detectable level where she could still blend in with the flow of traffic.

             
“What’s this place then?” asked Fish, pulling himself up in his seat to try and get a better look at their location.

             
“Franklin, Alabama,” Jordan replied.

             
“And we’re here because?”

             
“Because I know someone here who can help us,” said Jordan.

             
Fish sunk back into his seat and grumbled, “Well I hope it works out better for them than it did for me.”

             
“It will. There is no way anyone could trace back a connection between myself and the person we’re going to go see,” said Jordan. She was wearing a smug expression as she went over it all again in her mind.

             
“How can you be so sure?”

             
“Because the only person who knows the connection exists, is dead.” Jordan paused for effect. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Fish’s expression. Pleased with the result, she continued, “My dad’s the one who taught me how to drive. He was a trucker all of his adult life, so the summer I turned sixteen he took me on the road with him. My mother thought it was just about the experience…she never would have gone for it if she had known that I would wind up driving the rig. Anyway, it was just after the Fourth of July and we were taking the southern route cross-country when we made an unexpected stop here in Franklin to see his brother, Robert.  It was the first time my father had ever even mentioned his name to me. See, the thing about Robert, is that for a long time my father and he had no idea they were even brothers. My Grandfather had had an affair with Robert’s mother and being that they were both married at the time he was conceived, his mother had decided to pass the baby off as her husband’s. It wasn’t until my grandfather was dying that he finally told my father the truth. Not wanting to hurt anyone, my father took it upon himself to find Robert without telling anyone else about his long lost brother. I think he was terrified my grandmother would find out. After losing her husband, I just don’t think she would have been able to handle the news that he had cheated on her and had a lovechild to boot. My father and Robert had an instant connection, neither of them doubting the fact that they were brothers, but both agreed that for the sake of their families, they would keep that knowledge to themselves. It didn’t stop them from being brothers. I have no idea how often my father would stop here to see him, but I’m sure it was quite a bit…I mean, it was really the only explanation for why he drove this route, considering how far north we lived.” Jordan stopped to take a long breath and to collect her final thoughts. “Before that trip, Robert hadn’t even existed as far as I knew, and after the trip he pretty much ceased to do so again. My mother never knew about Robert. No one did. I think my father had had plans to take my brother on the same trip, only he died before my brother was ever old enough. So, my brother never knew either.”

For a long while, Fish just stared at her from the passenger side in stunned silence.

              “Bloody hell. I don’t know what I think is crazier. The fact that you have a secret bastard uncle or the part where your father’s idea of driver’s ed involved a semi! Although, you know, it does explain a lot about the way you drive, doesn’t it?!”

             
Jordan laughed. The sound of her own chuckle took her by surprise. She felt like she hadn’t heard it in an eternity.

             
“Yeah, well wait until you meet Robbie. You’ll think he’s the craziest part of all.”

             
That time Fish just made a face and dove back into his work. He had been typing away on his laptop the entire trip. Now that they were drifting further and further away from civilization, he seemed to be struggling to maintain his cellphone connection to the internet. Jordan tried to suppress a grin, knowing that it wasn’t about to get any better any time soon.

It was pitch black out as Jordan pulled down the long dirt driveway leading up to Robert Pierson’s house. Fish had stopped talking to her a while back when the lights of the town had begun to fade in the distance, along with his signal.

             
Jordan had barely killed the engine when a man yielding a rifle appeared on the dimly lit front porch. He was wearing an expression that frightened Fish more than the gun in his hands.

             
“When you said we could hide out here, how did you mean that exactly?” Fish muttered as Jordan began to get out of the car. “Because if you meant he’d keep us stashed in some hole in his basement all ‘Silence of the Lambs’ style, I should tell you, that’s not really what I had in mind.”

             
Jordan shook her head laughing. Apparently, Robbie gave the same first impression to everyone he met.

             
“You’re trespassing. You have three seconds to give me a reason not to shoot you!” His deep gruff voice matched his exterior to a T.

             
“It’s Jordan.”

             
Her uncle lowered his rifle instantly, dropping it to his side as he hurried down the steps to greet her.

             
“Good God, girl! What do you think you’re doing rolling up here in the dead of night? You trying to get yourself shot?”

             
“Quite the opposite actually,” said Jordan, smirking at the irony. She motioned for Fish to join her outside of the car and he did so begrudgingly.

             
Pointing at her friend, she said, “This is Fish. We’re in a bit of trouble and we need a place to stay. I’m sorry to just spring this on you after all this time… I wouldn’t have come if we had anywhere else to go.”

             
Robbie frowned. “What kind of trouble? What kind of mess did you get my niece into, boy?” His rifle was raised and pointed at Fish who threw his hands up in the air instinctively. Jordan reached for the barrel, lowering it toward the ground again.

             
“No, Uncle Robbie. Not
that
kind of trouble! Someone’s after us…they’re trying to kill us. It’s a mess,” she sighed. “I’ll explain everything once we get inside.”

             
Shooting Fish one more dirty look for good measure, Robbie reached into the backseat of the Jeep to retrieve Jordan’s bag and then ushered his two new house guests up the brick walk way and into his humble home.

             
Robbie Pierson lived in a small log cabin he had built with his own two hands. He had spent his entire life in Franklin without ever having any desire to leave.  After inheriting a decent chunk of land from his mother’s great uncle, he’d done the one thing that made sense to him in life and turned it into an animal sanctuary. Robbie hadn’t ever had much use for people. He had learned early on the ugly side of betrayal, something only solidified upon learning about his true paternity. Not that he had been especially surprised by the revelation. He had spent his youth feeling awkwardly out of place in a family that could only be described as southern royalty. He had grown up on the family plantation, and while it had long been retired, its charm and luxury had remained. The man he called his father had been a man of means his entire life, never having to lift a finger for it and never really having the desire to do so either. He was content to spend his days at social events or the nearby country clubs and Robbie’s mother had been happy to stay in the background to raise their three children. Although, perhaps not as happy as everyone had thought given her middle child, compliments of the affair she had with a traveling cowboy named Jasper Hall.

             
Had Robbie ever had a chance to spend any time with his real father, it wouldn’t have taken him too long to figure out why he was the way that he was. Much like Jasper Hall, Robbie preferred the outdoors over the in, believed in working with his hands and had an immediate distrust for anyone who was unkind to animals. It wasn’t until he had met Jordan’s father - his brother - that he found out what it meant to have a family member with whom he actually had very much in common.

             
Jordan stood there in the small living room at the center of Robbie’s cabin taking in the intricate details of his home. It had been over a decade since she had last seen it and yet it seemed to her that nothing had changed.  From the array of boots beside the door and the collection of horse shoes nailed to the beam overhead, right down to the cracked blue coffee cup sitting on the counter beside the coffee maker, just waiting for sunrise to be filled. It was both eerie and strangely comforting at the same time.

             
“How about you start tellin’ me ‘bout this trouble you found,” her uncle said as he walked past her on his way into the kitchen. He pulled three bottles of beer from his fridge and popped the tops off before coming back into the living room and handing one each to Fish and Jordan.

             
“To be fair, trouble kind of found
us
.” Jordan slid down into the sofa and took a long swig from her bottle.

             
“Ain’t that the truth,” Fish muttered, landing beside her with a plop and nearly spilling his beer in the process.

             
Robbie studied them both carefully, but kept his thoughts to himself as he took his usual seat in the recliner. He sipped his beer silently and waited for Jordan to continue.

             
It took over an hour, but Jordan finally managed to fill her uncle in on all the bizarre details of the last few days, starting with her first and last call of the night that wound up costing her her partner as well as a suspension and ending with Hathaway showing up on Fish’s doorstep. When she was done, Robbie leaned back into his recliner, thoughtfully scratching the slate colored scruff on his chin.

             
“I don’t know much about dealin’ with no damn mobsters, but I sure as hell know how to protect my property. You did the right thing comin’ here.” He stood up from his seat with a quiet groan, showing his age. “For now we better get you two settled in. We’ll decide what to do next come mornin’.”

             
Jordan and Fish followed his lead and got to their feet, then waited for his next move.

             
“There’s some chili left on the stove. I was just gettin’ ready to put it up when you two showed up. Should still be warm,” said Robbie nodding toward the kitchen. While Fish and Jordan headed that way, he went for their bags and took them down the small hall, directly off of the living room. There were only two bedrooms and one bath in the cabin, but the spare room had been furnished with a set of twin bunks that Robbie had taken over after his sister’s kids had outgrown them. Up until this very evening, he had never actually had a need for them.                   

             
With two warm bowls of chili in their hands, Jordan and Fish caught up to Robbie just as he was opening the door to the spare room.

             
“You two can stay in here,” he said as the door swung open. It was pitch black inside and the only light stemmed from two yellow eyes glowing like embers in the darkness.

             
“What the -?!” Before Fish had a chance to finish his statement, Robbie flicked on the lights, revealing a stunning black leopard sprawled out on the top bunk. Fish fell two steps back in shock.

             
“That’s a bloody panther!”

             
Robbie was walking straight for the wild cat. “Oh, she won’t hurt ya. And she’s a leopard, not a panther. Common misconception though.”

             
“Are you mad? That isn’t a pet! It’s a bloody zoo spectacle!”

             
Meanwhile, Jordan took a few steps into the room, curiously eyeing the black beauty up close. “Didn’t you see the sign on the gate when we drove up? This is an animal sanctuary. Uncle Robbie takes in all kinds of animals that have been abused or neglected. Many of them started out as illegally obtained exotic pets before they wound up here after their owners got busted or simply couldn’t handle them anymore,” Jordan explained. She watched in awe as her uncle coaxed the wild animal down using only the gentle tone of his quiet murmurs.

             
Still clutching the door frame in fear, Fish went on, “You don’t suppose it would be more prudent to build a pen of sorts for these animals? And while we’re on that, should I be afraid to open any other doors around here?”

             
With the cat now sitting calmly beside him, Robbie chuckled. “Generally speaking I’d prefer you didn’t go pokin’ your nose around my bedroom, but no, you won’t find any wild beasts lurking around my house if that’s what you’re worried about.”