Ridge Creek Read Free Page B

have
survived what she’s been through.  Getting  raped on top of all that,  the
woman’s got some fuckin’ grit.”
    Pops nods slowly, “Now there’s a fact.”
    “How far away is the Doc?” I direct my question to Zane who
has just spent the last five minutes making calls and pulling markers to get us
a doctor willing to work ‘private’ at five in the morning, no questions asked.
    “He said he’d be at least thirty minutes.  He was about to
go running but hadn’t left yet so was heading straight to his car.  He warned
me he couldn’t get anesthetic…”
    “Fuck,” I curse as I realize what he’s saying.  Arianna
thinks she’s having a bad day.  It’s about to get worse.
    “Pops, I’m gunna need you to ring Ma.  Don’t take any shit
from her.  Tell her what’s going on.  We need a woman in there.  Zane, you
might want to roll us a couple of strong ones.”  Holding up the Jamieson bottle
I add, “I’ll take this in there and see if I can get a couple down her before
the Doc gets here.”
    Nodding in solemn agreement I am about to leave the bar and
head back to Arianna when Zane asks, “How’d the other business go?”
    Of course, the reason I was out there in the middle of
nowhere in the middle of the night in the first place.  To set up a new
hydroponics system in an old farmhouse that we’ve kitted out with both solar
and wind power.  One of our new ‘green’ houses as we call them.  Green covering
both the energy we generate and the pot we grow as a sideline.  This particular
sideline uses the Harley shop as a business front.  This was now the third
farmhouse we had set up as ‘green’.  So far, without massive energy bills being
detected by the power companies, our hydroponics setups were flying safely
under police radar.
    “Sorted.  No one saw us coming or going.  The batteries were
all charged up and everything was running as expected.   We got all the shit
set up and were out of there by one-thirty.”  Pausing, my mind jolts as a piece
of Arianna’s puzzle falls into place.  “That’s why she threw herself off the
side of the road.  I was following the truck back.  She thought it was the
truck she’d just leaped from.  Fuck.  I still can’t believe I caught her out of
the corner of my eye.  At the time I almost convinced myself I was seeing
things and I nearly didn’t stop.”
    Shaking my head in amazement, I head back through the maze
of rooms to my bedroom where I hope Arianna is sleeping.  She’s gunna need all
the sleep she can get.
     

Chapter Two
    Hell On Earth
     
    Arianna…
    Listening to the quiet murmurs of men talking somewhere else
in the house, I nod off.  Startling suddenly out of sleep, I sense movement to
my left.  Gasping in fright, I swing my head to the left but am relieved to
find it is just Jake dragging a chair closer over to the bed.
    Watching him as he moves about, I find myself in awe of the
sheer power that is Jake.  Moving with ease, he looks like a man who knows
every bulging muscle in his body and how to use them.
    I watch as he swipes his hand across the bedside table next
to me.  With a single swipe, he sends empty bourbon cans, cigarette packets and
pieces of paper flying to the floor.  Setting two shot glasses and a bottle of
Jamieson down in the clearing he has made, I watch as he lowers himself into
the seat.
    Settling his exotic green eyes on my face, he announces,
“I’ve got good and bad news.”  Pausing to cast his eyes along my body I watch
his eyes linger on my right arm before he continues.
    “The good news is that we’ve organized a doctor. 
Confidential.  No questions asked.”  Pausing again, his eyes wander slowly back
up my body to my face. “The bad is that he doesn’t have any anesthetic.”
    Realizing what he is saying, I sigh heavily.   Looking
direct into his eyes with my only good eye I try to grin.  Again, I feel like
my face isn’t doing what I’m asking it to do and I