Hank looked about, then at Asher, giving him a steady stare before he put his revolver back into its holster.
“Since that’s done, maybe you won’t mind helpin’ me get these gents into my vehicle,” he said so matter-of-factly, and I thought it might be over for now. “That is, once you tell me why your face is on a wanted poster. ‘Cause that tells me I should be puttin’ you in there with these fellas.”
My heart froze.
“It’s not what it looks like, Hank,” I said instantly, wanting so bad to defend Asher and his honour. I believed him with everything I had, and I was terrified that we’d be separated. That someone so good and kind-hearted could be punished for doin’ the right thing.
“I took a girl from these here men,” Asher said, plain as day, didn’t even try to hide it.
I wanted to object, tell him not to give away so much, but it was no use.
“And what about that girls family? You never turned her over to them neither?” Hank asked, starin’ over his sunglasses at Asher, floutin’ the fiercely red mornin’ sun.
“She told me it was them who sold her for crack to begin with,” was all Asher said, plain and honest, none of the powerful conviction of his confession to me. But his fists clenched at the thought of it, and I knew his words to be true.
Hank stood there, sizin’ us both up for a while, that steady gaze of his so intense.
“These all of the gang then?” Hank asked.
“These, the two at the dance last night, and the ones already in jail,” Asher replied.
“Got the ones you left at the dance already, they’re in lockup,” he said plainly, still studyin’ us both.
It was a long silence until finally Hank broke the quiet.
“Well, you gonna help me get these four into the back of my vehicle so I can leave you two be sooner rather than later?” he asked.
The relief I felt couldn’t ever be described, not really. I’d anticipated the very, very worst, and was bein’ offered another chance. An opportunity.
I stepped away from Asher, closer to Hank, “And then what?”
“Don’t you worry none, Shelby,” Hank said as he began to pull one of the thugs up from the ground and push him towards the vehicle. “I’ve kept this place safe for longer than you know. They won’t be back to trouble us again,” he said, getting some renewed struggle from the man which earned him a belt in the back of the head.
I looked to Asher, still feeling stunned by it all. The lack of sleep, the panic, the fighting...
It was like everything in my body was turning electric.
By the time they’d got the bikers loaded up, the day was fully begun and bright. Hank stopped before pulling out entirely.
“Keep yourselves safe and quiet here, y’hear?” he said, and that was that. As if we weren’t caught up in some ridiculous train wreck of life. Between gangs and cops.
With everything done like that, we didn’t know what to make of right away.
Was it enough?
Could Asher stay?
It seemed like we had all the answers we needed, but they weren’t enough. Not close to being enough.
But for the moment, it was just us. Everything out on the table, what he was running from, all of his secrets, finally exposed. And it was a lot to digest, to understand.
We sat across from each other at the table, and it was like a weight was lifted and a boulder was placed on us at the same time.
We studied each other in silence a while, until finally Asher spoke up, his deep voice breaking the peace.
“I want to stay. Continue my work. Be with you,” he stated so succinctly. So firmly.
Before I could even respond, he rose up from his seat and moved before me. He extended his hand, took me by my own and pulled me to my feet against him.