Damn Good Reasons **DISCONTINUED - SEE NEW VER!**

Chapter 5 - Blackout

"This shit ain't gonna ease up anytime soon, and I ain't waiting here all afternoon."

"Fine. Then don't bother." I moved to open the door but he grabbed my arm to stop me.

"Whoa OK, Miss. Bossy Pants. We'll wait a little bit."

Ace cut the engine, and I eased back into my seat. I cursed myself for not agreeing to stay with Rose and Violet. I pictured them both wrapped up in their cozy crocheted blankets by the fire, drinking hot tea with some warm, freshly baked muffins. Instead, I was sitting in a cold truck, drenched through to my underwear with this obnoxious and arrogant, insufferable asshole for company.

"Why did you pick me up?" I asked. "Why didn't you just roll down the window and laugh as you drove on by?"

"That wouldn't have been the gentlemanly thing to do now, would it?"

I almost broke into a fit of sarcastic laughter. But I remained composed. "You're the last person I would have expected to help me."

"Now, who says I can't be a nice guy?"

"Just cut the shit. Tell me what you want."

Ace relaxed back a bit like he was making himself comfortable for the long-haul. I really began to wonder what I was in for. "Have you figured it out yet?" he asked.

"Figured what out?"

"How I knew."

"Maybe some of it; I'm not sure."

"A few months back, you were picked up way out on the highway and dropped into town by a couple of guys in a blue Studebaker."

"Vince."

"That's right. There's a farmhouse a few miles back from where they got you. The guy who lives there was complaining that his place got trashed and some of his stuff got stolen."

"OK, for the record, I didn't trash the place. I merely used it. I was hurt – badly. And there was nobody there, and I had nowhere else to go. And I only took some food and a shirt because mine was all bloody. I was desperate. So, whoever said-"

"Hey, I couldn't give a fuck what you did. It wasn't my place. But for a couple of weeks after Vince dropped you into town, some of the stores started noticing that stuff was going missing at nights. But there was never any sign of a break-in. No prints, no clues, just a bunch of missing shit. The cops never did catch the thief – probably because they were looking for a guy." Ace's eyes flicked over me. "Who would've thought?"

I guessed for someone like him, he might have been impressed, but I certainly wasn't proud of any of it.

"How did you do it?" he asked.

"Do what?"

"Get in and out without breaking the door down or smashing a window. Without leaving the cops one damn clue to go on."

"Sorry, that's... I'm not gonna talk about that."

"Why the hell not?"

"Because if you go to the cops, at least you won't be able to tell them 'how' I did it. And if you don't have a complete story..."

"I'd never rat someone out like that."

"So, you'd just make me 'disappear'?. What would be your plan for that anyway?"

"I only said that 'cause' you fucking wound me up," Ace huffed. "You need to start watching what you say. Mouth like that will only get you into trouble."

I pouted out the window for a while, watching the trees blowing wildly at a vertical angle and listening to the wind howling at our feet under the thin floor of the truck.