Twisted Steel Read online

  There was an old man walking his dog in our otherwise quiet neighborhood. He stopped and watched as this completely nude woman ran past him with a look of panic on his face. When he looked up at me, I just waved. He smiled and shook his head. At least she was able to make someone happy that day.

  Now that the woman was out of my house, I decided I was going to let her go. It wasn’t worth it to chase her. In the grand scheme of things, it really wasn’t her fault. It was the bastard’s upstairs in the bedroom.

  Who knows what Steve told that girl. She may have thought that he was a bachelor. She may have thought that the two of them were beginning some sort of real relationship. Who knows what line of bullshit he may have fed to her. The only thing I knew for sure was that it was time to confront him.

  When I got back upstairs, Steve was pulling his pants. I wanted to lay into him, but the nonchalant way he was acting pissed me off.

  “You know,” he started to speak.

  “Don’t. I came up here to confront you, but I don’t even want to hear a fucking word that you have to say,” I interrupted, cutting him off before he could say another word.

  What I said was true. I legitimately didn’t want to hear anything that was about to come out of his mouth. I could tell what he was going to say just by looking at his body language.

  He was either going to say that she meant nothing to him or that it wasn’t what it looked like. I couldn’t handle him telling me that it wasn’t what it looked like. What the hell else could it have possibly fucking been?

  “You know what?” I said. “I can’t do this right now. I’m fucking leaving!”

  “What? Where are you going? We need to talk about this?”

  “How about you call your little slut and talk to her. Or is she only good when you need to get your dick hard?”

  “Sara, wait a minute,” he pleaded.

  I grabbed some clothes and threw them in my gym bag, ignoring his continuous protests. I had no idea where I was going to go, but I wasn’t going to sleep in that house. I didn’t want to be anywhere near him. Anywhere would do. I just needed to get away and fast. I took off out the front door, threw my bag into my car and drove off.

  3

  I backed out of my driveway like a bat out of hell, my tires squealing and all. Steve must have loved that since he was always worried about what the neighbors thought of us. I wondered what they thought about that horrible music blasting out of the house.

  Driving past the old man who was still leisurely walking his dogs, I honked me horn and was met with a smile and a wave. I found it ironic that while my dad had turned to shit, he was having a day that he’d tell others about for the rest of his days. How often does a naked woman come running down the street right past you?

  I didn’t know where I was going, but I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my chest as soon as I turned out of our subdivision and headed towards the highway. My destination didn’t matter, as long as it was far away from that house.

  After some thinking and soul searching, I decided to give my sister a call. I hadn’t seen her for a while and had never seen her new house. I’d been so busy with Steve and trying to advance my career, that I’d neglected the people that really mattered, such as my own family. I pulled over, mustered up the nerve, and dialed the phone.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey sis, it’s Sara. How are you today?”

  “Oh, hey you!” she replied, excited to hear from me. “I’m doing well. How are you?”

  “Unfortunately, I’m not doing so good. I know you’ve been on us to come see your place, so I was wondering if this was good time to visit.”

  “Sure, it’s as good a time as any. When are you guys thinking of coming?”

  “Does right now work for you?”

  “Oh, right now? Sure, that works for me!”

  “Good, I’ll see you this evening then. Oh, and it’s not you guys. It’s just me.”

  “Oh, that’s too bad. Does Steve have to work?”

  “No, nothing like that. I’ll explain all about it when I get there. Do you think it would be okay for me to stay with you for a little while?”

  “Oh no,” she said, her voice turned to a worrisome tone. “I hope everything is all right. Sure, you can stay as long as you’d like. Do you want me to give you directions?”

  “No, if you wouldn’t mind texting me the address, that would be great. I can just plug it into the GPS in the car. Thank you so much! I’ll see you tonight. Love you!”

  “No problem, I’ll send it right over. Love you too! See you tonight.”

  I hung up the phone and for the first time that day, the tears started falling. I was surprised it took so long, but I was too busy being pissed off at Steve to realize how hurt I actually was. I gave myself a pep talk and told myself I was only allowed to cry until the text message with the address came through, and surprisingly, when the alert dinged on my phone, I felt myself begin to calm down.

  After entering her address into my GPS system, I jumped onto the highway. Once again, the thoughts of Steve filled my mind and before I knew it, tears were streaming down my face once again. I’m sure I looked ridiculous to anyone passing by, but I didn’t care. I cried and cried, the tears not stopping until I needed gas almost two hours later.

  The further I could get away from home, the better it would be. There were so many memories everywhere I looked. I relived many good times with him. I remembered all the years when he’d take me to the county fair and we’d play games and ride rides like we were big kids. I thought about when we were searching for the perfect house and when we found it, we both looked at each other and knew before we even went inside. I even thought about little dates he took me to when we would go to the movies or do karaoke.

  Of course, not all of our times were good. Over the years, we had plenty of fights, but what couple doesn’t? The only thing I’d really been unhappy with was our sex life, and that was only in the past year or so. Of course, at the time, I had no idea why our sex life had changed so dramatically. It was all crystal clear at that point, though.

  I filled up my gas tank, grabbed a soda and stocked up on tissues because I had a feeling I was going to be needing them many times over the next several days.

  My sister lived in Farmington, Utah. I’d never been to Utah and even though the circumstances weren’t the best, I was excited to be able to visit. About an hour after I filled up my fas tank, my GPS announced that I was still a little more than four hours from her house.

  It was beginning to get late and I’d been watching the temperature gauge in my SUV beginning to move upward. I hoped that it was just something wrong with the gauge itself, but I knew better.

  If there was one thing Steve was good at, it was working on cars. For weeks he had been warning me about the faint knocking noise that was coming from under the hood. Instead of telling him when the knocking got worse, I dealt with it by turning the radio up louder to drown out the noise.

  My mistake was realized when that knocking suddenly turned into a loud banging and my dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree. That was the last thing I needed and I was getting angry. I should have been angry at myself, but at that moment, I was pissed off at Steve because had it not been for him and his little fuck buddy, I wouldn’t be in the middle of a road trip.

  I pulled into the slow lane as the top speed my vehicle would go was about 15 miles per hour and there was a steady stream of smoke coming from under the hood.

  There was no shoulder on the highway and I felt like I was in the middle of nowhere. Pulling over didn’t seem like much of an option. In the distance ahead, there was a sign that said a town called Prescott was coming up. Unfortunately, it was still ten miles away.

  I had my doubts that my car would last another ten-seconds, let alone ten miles. At the speed I was going, that would take me about 45 minutes. I didn’t think I had any chance to make it, but what other choice did I really have? I had to push it with all I had.<
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  Close to an hour later, I limped my vehicle off the highway and onto a dark road with no street lights or buildings of any sort. I’d made it to Prescott, but was there anything actually there? Was I about to be stranded in the middle of nowhere?

  The banging had gotten louder and it was becoming hard to see through the smoke to drive. It was even starting to come inside, which was causing me to cough and gag.

  I was so grateful when I finally saw another sign that told me the Desert Motel and Bar was just one mile ahead of me. If I could just make it there, I’d be okay, at least for the night.

  4

  As soon as I turned the wheel to make a right turn into the parking lot of the Desert Motel, there was one more loud bang and the engine died completely.

  Fortunately, the motel was dead and there were only two vehicles in the entire parking lot. I was able to maneuver my car into a parking spot, even though it was difficult without the assistance of power steering.

  I rested my head on my steering wheel and was tempted to scream at the top of my lungs. The day just kept getting worse and worse and there was no end in sight. I’d planned on sleeping at my sisters house that night, but instead, I was going to be stuck in the middle of nowhere.

  There was no use in dwelling over it because there was nothing I could do to change the situation, at least not right at that moment. The only thing I could do was grab my bag from the bag seat and walked inside.

  The Desert Motel and Bar had definitely seen better days. It had a musty smell, was desperately in need of several fresh coats of paint, and just looked run down in general. The carpet was old and matted, looking as though it hadn’t been cleaned since Reagan was in the White House.

  Even though it was not the nicest place and definitely not somewhere I would have stayed under normal circumstances, it might as well have been the Hilton on that night because it was literally the only place around.

  The reception area consisted of one small counter, which was completely unmanned at the moment, and a door to my left with a hand painted sign that sign ‘Guests Only.’ Judging by my surroundings, I could only assume that this was the type of hotel that would rent cheap rooms by the hour if that’s what you were looking for.

  “Hello?” I yelled out, hoping that whoever was manning the front desk would pop up and help me

  Another door, which had been badly damaged and never repaired, had the word ‘Restrooms’ painted on it in white. The only door to my right was being held open by an old paint bucket and contained the only signs of life in the building.

  There were two men looking up at an older television hanging on the wall while nursing a beer and eating from bowls of peanuts sitting at the bar. The thought of how long they must have sitting out or how many hands had been in those bowls made my stomach turn.

  Behind the bar was a girl who would have been surprisingly pretty to be working in a place like that had it not been for the fact that she was wearing too much makeup. I wasn’t small chested by any means, but she had amazing cleavage that left me a bit jealous.

  Figuring that nobody was going to come help me any time soon, I went through the doors and walked about halfway to the bar.

  “Hello?” I said once again.

  All three sets of eyes turned and were trained on me as I made my way up to them.

  “How can I help you?” the bartender asked.

  “Hi there. My car started acting up on the highway and I managed to make it to your parking lot before it died completely.”

  “Oh hell honey, that’s not good at all. I could take a look for ya, but I doubt I’d have whatever you’d need to fix it,” one of the men told me. “This here’s a small town and everything but this motel and car closes at 5:00. Unless you got someone you can call to come pick you up, you’re gonna have to stay here tonight.”

  “If you can wait until morning, I can give Ed a call and he can come get you towed to his shop. He’ll have you up and running in no time,” the other man spoke up.

  I wasn’t sure who Ed was, but judging from the way the man was speaking, he was the one and only auto mechanic in Prescott.

  “Thank you,” I said, not really sure how to respond to them.

  I really wished I would have opted in to the breakdown coverage when I took out my insurance policy, but Steve talked me out of it, saying that it would be wasted money because he’d be able to fix my vehicle is something went wrong with it.

  One thing I never considered was my car breaking down when I left the cheating bastard. The breakdown coverage would have covered the cost of the tow truck, given me a loaner vehicle, and after I paid my deductible, cover the cost of repairs. How could I have been so stupid?

  “Hi, I’m Katie,” the woman behind the bar announced, extending her hand out to me and bringing me back from my thoughts.

  “Hi Katie, I’m Sara.”

  “Welcome Sara, can I get you anything?”

  “Sure, I’ll take a beer. A bottle please.”

  “Coming right up, hun.”

  I sat down at the barstool, figuring that it had been a long, hot drive so I needed a beer. That was my reasoning, anyway. The reality of the situation was that I probably needed more than just a beer. I could use several straight shots of Jack, but there was no way I was drinking the way I wanted to. Not in the shady motel I found myself at. I watched enough of the ID Channel to know how bad of an idea that was.

  Knowing that I was going to have to let my sister know I wasn’t going to be arriving at her house that evening, I pulled my phone out of my pocket to give her a call. The battery was flashing red.

  There were 23 missed calls from Steve and who knows how many text messages. I had my phone on vibrate so I wouldn’t have to hear his ringtone, but him calling 23 times had killed my battery.

  “What a fucking asshole,” I said out loud, causing one of the men at the bar to give me the side eye.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as a heavyset woman made her way to the check-in counter. I jumped up and ran over, not knowing how long she’d stay there. I’d been at the motel for close to a half-hour already and this was the first time I’d seen her.

  “Hi there, I’d like to get a room please,” I said, trying not to sound annoyed that she hadn’t been around to do her job.

  “Let me see if we have anything available,” she replied. She had to have been joking but if she was, she had a really good poker face on as she turned and looked at the corkboard that held all the keys, with only one or two missing.

  “Good news,” she continued. “Our presidential suite is available. That’ll be $49.”

  I pulled out my debit card and tried to handing it to the woman, who shot me a disgusted look as though I’d just groped her grandmother.

  “We are a cash only business.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. My mistake.”

  I pulled the cash out of my purse and handed it to her. She handed me a small card to fill out and then handed me the key.

  “Room 4. Right through this door that says guests only. Your room is second on the right.”

  “Thank you,” I replied, but she ignored me, once again leaving the front desk and disappearing back to wherever she came from.

  I walked back to the bar and asked for another beer. Every now and then, the two men would glance in my direction only to be met with a look that said don’t fuck with me. I seriously wasn’t in the mood.

  As I was sitting there nursing my beer, my stomach was beginning to rumble. I’d skipped breakfast that morning and had been too upset to even think about food since then. I knew that if I was going to be drinking, I needed to get something in my stomach.

  “Hey Katie, do you guys serve food here by any chance?”

  “Well, our head chef Jim only comes in on the weekends,” she laughed, the two idiots at the bar laughing right along with her. “There’s a few restaurants about 15 miles up the highway, but since your car isn’t working, you’re going to be stuck with whatever you
can find in the vending machines.”

  “Ugh, that doesn’t sound so good. Better than nothing, I suppose. Where are the vending machines?”

  “Right through the door you take to get to the rooms. They’re right on the other side.”

  “All right, I’ll be back in a bit.”

  I grabbed my bag, figuring I’d take it to the room while I was already down there.

  Since I was starving, everything in the machine looked like fine cuisine. I grabbed a bag of chips, candy bar, and an iced honey bun, throwing them on top of my bag and going to my room.

  The accommodations were about what you’d expect for the type of place I was in. Much to my excitement, the room was exceptionally clean. It still had a slight musty smell, but it didn’t differ much from rooms with a much higher price point.

  Of course, there were no frills at all. There was a single bed, one dresser with a television on top, and a sitting chair. There was no microwave, mini-fridge, or coffee maker. Still, it was just what I needed for the night.

  I hurried up and ate my snack and used the restroom. As I was watching my hands, I heard a faint noise that got louder and louder by the second. The barely audible sound grew until it became a loud roar, and it sounded like it was coming from right outside of my window.

  After quickly drying my hands, I rushed to my window to try to get a look at where the sound was coming from. Unfortunately, it was too dark and being close to the window, I could now tell the noise was coming from the front of the building.

  Grabbing my keys, I left the room and made my way to the lobby to see what was going on. I didn’t know what it was, but I had a feeling that things were about to get interesting.

  5

  Looking out the large window in the lobby that overlooked the parking lot, I could see where the sound was coming from. There were four of them. Bikers. Bikers with huge, loud motorcycles. I didn’t know a thing about motorcycles, but I figured they had to be Harley’s as they roared into the parking lot.