Indigo Road (21 page)

“
Fucker,” he
growled. “You’ll pay for that.” It was so fast I didn’t see his
fist as it connected with the side of my head. I couldn’t tell if
the stars I
was
seeing were in my head or were the ones in the dark Alabama
sky above.

I heard Alex’s low voice from behind me
followed by a familiar metallic click.

“Let him go.”

My arm was dropped and I winced as the blood
rushed painfully through my veins once more. My would-be abductor
started backing away from me with his hands up and his eyes wide.
“Yeah, yeah, no problems, man. Just… wanted to help out, but, ah… I
see you have everything under control.”

I stumbled back to Alex, rubbing my abused
bicep. I shook my head to clear it as Alex wrapped an arm around
me, pulling me into his side. It was then I noticed he was holding
a gun, pointed at the driver. To say I was stunned would be an
understatement, and I didn’t know if what I was seeing was real, or
just a result of taking a blow to the head. I couldn’t make any
words come out of my mouth. I had no idea where the weapon came
from, but at that moment I didn’t care.

“
Get back in
your truck and leave. You see us on the road again, you turn and
head in the opposite direction.” The slight shake
in
Alex’s hand told me
he was struggling to keep himself together, and his voice had a
gravel to it I hadn’t heard before. The guy was stepping back
faster
now
before he turned and jogged quickly to his truck. I stood
in Alex’s arms as we watched the truck start up and drive off. As
soon as he was out of sight, Alex wrapped both arms around me,
still holding the gun. I wasn’t sure who was keeping who up as he
buried his face in my neck.

Alex pulled back and placed the gun in his
back pocket before cradling my face in his hands. He looked into my
eyes. “Are you okay, does it hurt?” He ran his fingers over the
side of my face gently. My face didn’t feel as bad as my arm and I
told him so.

He kissed my cheek, but his eyes remained
hard, his voice tight. “Okay, get in. I’m not waiting around to see
if he comes back.”

“But—”

“No buts. Get in. I’ll drive slowly back to
Troy, the town we passed a short while ago. I’m not following him.
For all we know, he could be hiding around the bend waiting for
us.”

“We should call the cops.”

Alex shook his head as he helped me into
Maude. I was capable of getting myself into the van, but it seemed
he needed to help me, so I let him. “No. I’m the one with the
weapon and it’ll be his word against ours.”

After
Alex
stored
the
gun back in the glove compartment, he climbed in and pulled me over
so I was sitting in the middle of the bench seat. He looked
thoughtful,
like he
was chewing on my suggestion, seeing how it tasted. “Okay, maybe we
could give the police an anonymous tip or something. We don’t want
him to get farther down the road and find someone else.” He turned
the vehicle around and drove back the way we came slowly, mindful
of the flat tire, to the previous town. Alex tipped off the police,
giving the truck’s license number and said he’d just witnessed an
‘attempted’ abduction but refused to tell them who he was. We
didn’t speak after that. Every time I started to talk, I got a
glare that told me to shut up, but even though we were silent, Alex
wouldn’t let me leave his side as I pressed up against him. I
sensed if I moved to the other side of the vehicle like normal, I
would be dragged back.

Alex’s eyes
darted everywhere as he drove, but mostly at the rearview mirror,
like I had done after Disneyland. Every now and then he’d glance
at
me
like he
was making sure I was still there, but his eyes remained hard, his
lips pressed tightly together.

We pulled into a Super 8 motel on the highway
and parked around the back in a dark corner away from the lights,
out of view of passing motorists. Alex pulled me gently along
behind him as he checked us in, then went back to Maude to get our
bag. I wasn’t allowed to leave his side. He was still silent, not
breathing a word to me.

Once inside our small room, he locked and
chained the door before pulling the curtains closed, but not until
he’d checked everywhere was quiet.

He was on edge. The severity of the event
hadn’t caught up to me yet, but I could tell Alex was in the midst
of realizing exactly what had just happened. His shoulders were
tight and I could see the tension running through him as he walked
into the bathroom and turned the taps on in the shower. As the
water was running, he stripped my clothes off before quickly
shedding his own, then gently guided me into the now steaming
shower.

“Hey.” I waited for the usual response, and
when it didn’t come, I ran my finger gently over his bottom lip,
pulling it down slightly and hoping the word would slip free. It
didn’t, but his small, hesitant smile was enough.

Alex washed every part of me. He was careful
of my throbbing arm that now sported a large purple handprint. He
kissed the side of my head gently. My face didn’t hurt as much as
my arm, and I sensed Alex needed this more than I did. The rigidity
of his shoulders had lessened some.

After getting
himself clean, he turned the taps off and dried me with a towel
before tending to himself in silence. He threw the towel on the
floor and grabbed my hand, leading me to the bed in silence. Alex
pulled the covers back and laid down, encouraging me to lie on top
of him. Without words, he told me he needed my body weight to
ground him, to reassure him that we were okay.
We
were
safe.

Alex spread
his legs and I settled myself
between
them as he wrapped his
arms around me, all the while placing
featherlight
kisses to my jaw,
cheek, and temple. It wasn’t long until his hips started to buck
and grind against me.

“Fuck me,” he whispered against my skin.
“Fuck me, Josh. I need to feel you.” Alex’s voice grew in
desperation as he thrust his hips into me, running his hands up and
down my back constantly.

I leaned up so I could see into his eyes, see
what I was dealing with. “Are you sure you want to do this right
now?”

“
Yes. I need…
I can’t feel you. I
need
to feel you.”

“Okay, let me up so I can get some lube.”

“No, just like this.”

“I’m not fucking you without it,” I
stated.

Alex whimpered when I used all my strength to
break from his hold. I grabbed the lube from our bag and quickly
covered his body with mine again, sensing he needed my weight. His
breathing steadied when I crushed him into the mattress.

Alex spread his legs, bending at the knees to
give me access to his hole.

“I don’t need any prep, Josh. Just get inside
me.”

Regardless of what he was telling me, I
wasn’t fucking him without any kind of prep or lube, but I didn’t
take much time with the pleasantries either.

Alex had his legs spread wide for me and my
chest pressed against his. Close.

I canted my
hips, and as I slid in for the first time, I felt, rather than saw,
a tear slip down his cheek, wetting mine in the process. I
fucked
into
him
slowly, moving only my hips, as my upper body was caught in his
embrace. His shoulders shook with his quiet sobs but when I paused,
he shook his head and said, “Don’t stop, don’t stop. I need to feel
you.”

I continued
to thrust my hips, picking up the pace as Alex’s moans
became
louder,
until I came in a long, drawn-out wave of release. I tried
to wedge my hand between us so I could jerk him to completion. “No.
I don’t need it,” Alex whispered.

I breathed into his neck, trying to hide my
emotion as I composed myself. I ran my hands gently down his sides
and his arms, and through his hair—anywhere I could reach to calm
him as I listened to his harsh breathing.

“Let me up so I can get a cloth and clean
you,” I said after a few silent minutes.

“No.” Alex tightened his arms around me once
more. “I need to feel you.”

We slept then, my body crushing his. I woke a
couple of hours later to Alex rolling me onto my side, his arms
still wrapped tightly around my chest and his slick cock nudging my
entrance insistently. He slipped inside me with a few quick
thrusts, and his arms tightened around my body as he filled my ass
with a deep groan.

“Josh.”

THE
NEXT
morning we found a tire shop not far
from the hotel in Troy that was able to help us, and with two new
tires, we set off again. We bypassed 87 and took US 231 toward
Dothan instead.

Alex still appeared a little on edge. He became
his normal self a few days later but until then, he wouldn’t let me
out of his sight. If I went to the laundromat, he would wait
with
me for the
clothes to finish their cycle, instead of checking out whatever
town we were in. If I went to the bathroom, so did he. I didn’t
question him; I knew it was his quiet way of dealing, but every
time I brought the subject up, I was shut down quickly. He wasn’t
going to talk about it until he was ready.

I sported a
bruise the size of Lake Michigan on my upper arm but although my
muscles still ached, there wasn’t any bone damage. Whenever Alex
saw it, his eyes would grow hard. It was a constant reminder of
what could’ve happened. I covered the yellowing blotch with a light
jacket as I tried to hide it from him, but it wasn’t possible when
he insisted on showering with me. His eyes were tight until he
kissed my skin, gently tracing the outline of the mark with
his
lips,
like
he was trying to take it away and make it better with his touch.
Afterward, he’d look at me with sad, apologetic eyes, even though
he had nothing to be sorry for. He had saved my life.

“Are we going to talk about it?” I asked as
we headed along the coast toward Daytona Beach. It had been almost
a week since the ‘incident,’ and although Alex’s smile had come
back and he was relaxed, his eyes hadn’t returned to their full
brightness.

He glanced at me quickly before returning his
eyes to the road. “I guess we have to, huh?”

“I think we should.”

“I’m not losing you,” he blurted. “I don’t
know the logistics of what was going through my head when I pulled
the gun out, but when I heard that guy’s voice and saw he was
trying to… what he was…” Alex trailed off and I could see by the
tightness in his shoulders he was reliving the moment again in his
mind.

“Pull over,” I instructed. “We can’t talk
about this and expect to keep our eyes on the road as well.”

“I will in a minute. Just a bit farther up is
the Bulow Creek State Park. We’ll hike and talk.”

A couple of miles later, Alex pulled into a
forested area and parked Maude, and although he was smiling, his
shoulders were rigid. I almost regretted bringing the subject up,
but I knew we had to talk it through.

We were surrounded by lush green dense
foliage. While there were other types of plants, various palms made
up the most of it in this part of the park. After climbing out of
the van, we started walking along the trail, deeper into the
greenery. Alex wrapped his pinky finger around mine and smiled.

I smiled in
return, my heart beating that little bit faster when I looked into
his eyes.
Pinkies
still linked, we walked the pathway until I came to a dead
stop.

“
Holy shit.
That’s huge!” I exclaimed, looking up. Right in front of us was a
massive tree, its twisted limbs snaking out every which way. It was
covered
in
Spanish moss, the long tendrils blowing lazily in the soft
breeze, and some of it was long enough to sweep the dirt beneath.
It looked prehistoric and a little spooky. Its sheer size took my
breath away.

“The Fairchild Oak.”

I shook my head and turned to look at Alex.
“How do you know this, exactly?” I knew he liked to research the
places we were going, but we hadn’t planned on stopping here.

He shrugged.
“I looked up a few places last night when I was doing the latest
blog post. Thought this might be a good spot to stop and have a
look. They think it’s around four hundred years old and its limbs
spread three hundred feet. Some of the limbs grow down
into
the
soil and re-emerge elsewhere. So, yes, it’s huge.”

My inner child wanted to come out and play,
and it was as if Alex could read my mind.

“You’re not climbing it,” he stated with a
knowing smile. “You’re not allowed to. The fact the tree has
survived numerous hurricanes and wildfires, not to mention
conflicts, is pretty remarkable, so no climbing allowed.” He took a
deep breath before continuing. “It’s a strong tree, strong roots,
able to stand the test of time, no matter what life throws at it.”
Alex’s smile turned wistful and I had a feeling he wasn’t talking
about the tree anymore.

I squeezed his finger, letting him know I
understood the reference. We continued past the oak along the
hiking trail. It wasn’t busy at this time in the afternoon and it
felt like we had the park to ourselves. We were quiet as we walked.
The sunlight filtering through the overhead canopy made shadows on
the ground, and although the air was kept cool by the thick
vegetation, it surrounded us like a comforting blanket.