…”then you wake up”

They stopped for gas after driving for five hours straight. She was hungry; he needed to piss.

“Oh, Logan…” Veronica leaned out of the passenger’s side opened window with a teasing smile. “Can you get me a bag of Twizzlers when you go inside?”

He returned her smile. “Sure, babe.” His cigarette dangled from the corner of his lip as he started to pump fuel into the red corvette.

“Isn’t that dangerous?” Veronica said with her brows raised.

Logan took a drag of his cigarette and handed it over to her. “You call it dangerous, I call it my life.”

She rolled her eyes, then puffed on the cigarette. “Drama queen.”

After the tank was full, Logan started towards the station.

“Hold on,” Veronica called out. She waved a twenty dollar bill at him. “Get me some change, too.”

“Sure, babe.” Logan snatched the money and walked into the station.

There was no one inside except the middle-aged man behind the counter. The cashier was half-asleep in his chair. His beer belly jutted out underneath his too-small red vest.

“Hey.” Logan glanced at the man, who was still nodding off. “Hey!”

The man’s head jerked up. His blurry blue eyes blinked several times at Logan.

“Loser,” Logan muttered.

The cashier was already falling asleep again as Logan made his way down the candy aisle. He looked out the window and saw Veronica leaning back in the car seat with her bare feet hanging out the window. She turned to him and waved. He smiled at her and grabbed her bag of Twizzlers.

“Hey, buddy.” Logan walked up to the cashier and tossed the red bag on the counter. “You’re not getting paid five bucks an hour for nothing.”

The man rubbed his eyes and stood up. He rang up Logan’s order and gestured to the corvette.

“You got thirty on pump two?” he asked.

Logan nodded. “Gimme a pack of Marlboros too, will you?”

“ID, please.”

“Are you serious?”

The man pointed to the sticker on the wall. WE ASK FOR ID FROM EVERYONE.

Logan sighed and pulled out his driver’s license. Here he was, almost twenty-two and still getting carded.

“See,” the cashier put a new box of cigarettes next to the Twizzlers, “that wasn’t too hard, was it?” He hit some buttons on his register. “Thirty-four sixteen, Mike.”

Logan took out Veronica’s twenty. “Can I get some change for this?”

The cashier grumbled under his breath and opened the register.

CLICK.

He looked back up and his eyes widened. “What the hell—”

Logan kept the gun aimed at the cashier’s bloated stomach. “I’ll take a ten and two fives. Oh, hell, just give me everything that you got.”

“Please, don’t do anything to me,” the man said in a shaky voice.

Logan tapped his foot impatiently. “Come on,” he read the cashier’s nametag, “Stewart. I don’t have all day.”

The man quickly stuffed the money into a paper bag and placed it on the counter.

“You’re forgetting something,” Logan said, looking at the candy and Marlboros.

The cashier put them inside another bag.

“Thanks, Stewie.” Logan gathered up the sacks and waltzed towards the door. He rubbed the barrel against his head. “Oh, you forgot something else.” He turned back to the cashier and fired a shot at him. “You didn’t say have a nice day.”

Logan watched the man slump against the wall; blood oozed out of the bullet hole in his head.

He walked back to Veronica, who was still sitting inside the corvette with her feet hanging out the window.

“Shit,” he said as he returned behind the wheel.

Veronica rummaged through the bags and found her candy. “What?”

“I forgot to ask for the bathroom key.” He shrugged and started the engine. “Oh, well, I’ll just hold it until the next gas station.”

“Good idea.” Veronica put a twisted piece of licorice inside Logan’s mouth before snapping into hers. She kept her feet outside the window as Logan sped away.

**

An hour later, Logan ran over something. The sickening crunch was thunderous.

“What the fuck was that?” he said.

Veronica turned her head around. “Go back.”

“Why?”

“Just do it.”

There was just enough of an edge to her voice to make Logan follow her orders. He did a U-turn in the empty desert road and drove back to the murder scene. On the side of the road was a brown lump.

“Stop the car,” Veronica said.

“Veronica, what are we doing?”

“Just do it.” And again, there was that edge.

So, Logan pulled the car over on the side of the road. Veronica jumped out of door and stumbled towards the dead animal. He groaned and followed her outside.

“What the fuck is your problem?” he asked.

She didn’t respond as she knelt down next to the dead lizard. Her eyes were soft and it looked like she was saying a silent prayer for it.

Logan touched her shoulder gently. “What are you trying to do? Bring it back to life?”

Veronica looked up at him with a small smile. “It worked once, didn’t it?” She put her hand over his and he helped her to her feet.

Within minutes they were back on the road again.

**

Night came and they checked into a motel.

“Can we say Psycho?” Logan said as he and Veronica walked into their room.

Veronica raised her fist, mimicking Janet Leigh’s infamous death scene, and plowed the invisible knife into Logan’s chest. He just laughed and caught her arms, trapping her.

“Does that mean I get to see you naked in the shower later?” he said.

“How about now?” She kissed his chin and made her way to the bathroom, pulling her T-shirt over her head.

Logan was right behind her.

**

Veronica still had her nightmares. After all this time, her sins always came back to haunt her, to remind her they could never be erased.

Tonight, as Logan slept soundly next to her on the uncomfortable motel mattress, Veronica dreamt of death and blood and fear. None of them belonged to her.

After her father’s death three years ago, Veronica was sure there had been a cover-up. Keith Mars hadn’t been a victim of an armed robbery; he had been assassinated. There was no one to turn to—not Duncan, not Wallace, not her runaway mother. Even her daily talks with Lilly came up with nothing.

It wasn’t until someone whispered in her ear that Veronica found an ally.

“You have to play dirty.”

It was Logan in her ear, and she found herself listening.

**

They never stayed in a place for too long. They breezed through towns, leaving nothing behind.

“We need to get rid of the corvette,” Veronica said as Logan drove.

Logan pouted and caressed the steering wheel. “Not my baby.”

“How long can we stay in the background driving into Small Town USA in a flashy red corvette?”

Logan’s pout turned into a frown.

Veronica dragged her fingernails over his arm. The hairs on his skin stood up from her touch. “I’ll make it up to you.”

As expected, his frown changed into a devious grin. “How?”

Her fingers moved to his crotch and Logan raced into the nearest parking lot in search of a new vehicle.

**

Veronica could no longer stick her feet out the window in the cramped truck Logan had “borrowed” from the Shop Rite parking lot, so, instead, she put them up on the dashboard. In her one hand, she had held a lit cigarette, the other a red licorice string.

“Can you drive after out next stop?” Logan asked.

She kept her gaze out towards the night sky. “I like it where I am.”

“You’ve driven like twice since we became Bonnie and Clyde,” he said.

“I can’t drive,” she said softly.

“Why not?”

She looked down at her hands, debating on which object to put in her mouth. She chose neither and turned her head, finding Logan’s tongue. She nestled her head against his shoulder and said, “Because I have no direction.”

**

Logan and Veronica were playing Bonnie and Clyde long before they set out on their road trip. They met in secret, played with guns, counted bundles of cash, and even fucked when no one was looking.

Soon, it was no longer pretend, but their reality.

Veronica visited her father’s grave one last time on a cool summer day. She touched the tombstone and fought back her tears.

She told him she was leaving, that she was giving up her dreams of college. She asked him to not be upset with her, to instead understand her.

“I couldn’t let this go,” she said. “I had to find out who took you away from me.”

It wasn’t until later when Veronica was with Logan that the tears finally came out.

“Don’t worry,” he said to her. “It’ll be over soon.”

She believed him because in twenty-four hours, Sheriff Don Lamb, the man responsible for killing her father, was going to be dead.

**

“Black?” Logan leaned in the bathroom doorway with his arms crossed. “I liked the red.”

Veronica smiled at him through the mirror. “Does it matter what color my hair is?”

He smirked. “Well, I know what the true color is.” His gaze moved down her legs.

“Pervert.” She ruffled the black hair on top of her head. “So, what do you think?”

“I can get into the whole gothic look,” he said.

“You started it.” Veronica pointed at the tattoo on his arm. The art displayed an array of golden red flames around a burning cross and a wilted lily. “That thing is so ugly.”

“You’re just mad I didn’t get ‘Veronica Forever’ tattooed.”

She rolled her eyes and started to brush her hair. She watched in the mirror as Logan walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

“I really do like it,” he said into her hair. “It suits you.”

“Wish I could say the same about the tattoo.”

He took the brush out of her hand and made her look at him. “Admit it. It turns you on.”

“That,” she touched his tattooed arm, “doesn’t turn me on.” She smiled as Logan raised his brows. “This does.” And she kissed him while backing him up against the bathroom wall.

**

They fucked throughout the night, and for once, Veronica was the first one to fall asleep.

Logan sat in the tattered chair in the corner of the motel room. He had slipped into his jeans and lit up a cigarette. He smoked and watched Veronica sleep. She moved a lot and her face twitched as if she was reacting to whatever she was dreaming about. He let her dream because there, she could battle her demons. In dreams, you were a much stronger person. He knew that.

He finished his cigarette and got back into bed with Veronica. He pushed a strand of black hair behind her ear and kissed her forehead.

She had asked him their first night on the road together if he had any regrets. He told her no, but he had been lying.

He had one: that they hadn’t done this sooner.

**

Logan tied up the sheriff and locked him in the trunk of the police cruiser. He drove down to the quarry where Veronica was waiting.

“How did it go?” she asked him.

Logan opened the trunk. Lamb had regained consciousness on the trip. His wide eyes stared up at his captors. His questions came out muffled behind the rag stuffed inside his mouth.

“It could have been worse,” Logan answered.

He took Lamb out of the trunk and the sheriff fell to his knees. He was still talking despite the gag. Logan removed it.

“You two are out of your minds!” were the first words that came out.

“You killed my father,” Veronica said in a calm voice.

“You’re insane, you know that, right?” Lamb’s eyes darted back from Logan to Veronica. “I guess it runs in the family. Echolls and Mars. How predictable.”

Logan punched him the face. Lamb fell to his side, groaning.

“Listen, you asshole, you’re the one tied up and bleeding, so, I’d start behaving myself,” Logan said as he lifted Lamb up to his feet.

“You killed my father,” Veronica said to Lamb again.

Lamb’s lip curled. “I didn’t kill anyone.”

“You didn’t pull that trigger,” she said. “But you were the one who paid the guy to do it.”

Lamb didn’t blink at the accusation.

“Does the name Bob Jones ring a bell?” Veronica asked.

This time, something registered in Lamb’s eyes.

Veronica stepped closer to the injured officer. “We already paid him a visit and let’s say he was much more cooperative than you.”

Logan twisted Lamb’s arm behind his back. “Especially after I broke his arm.”

“No one will believe you,” Lamb said with a grimace.

“I’m not going to tell anyone what happened,” Veronica said. “I know the truth now and that’s all that matters.”

She reached under her coat and revealed the handgun. “That and your untimely death.”

Lamb finally began to struggle, but Logan held his arms tightly behind his back.

“Put him back in the trunk,” Veronica said to Logan.

Lamb dragged his feet all the way to the cruiser, but it was useless as he was tossed inside. “Fuck you, Mars! You’re going to pay for this! You and your goddamn boyfriend will pay for this!”

Logan put the gag back in and Veronica aimed the barrel of the gun at Lamb. It shut him right up.

Daddy, she thought.

But her father wanted no part in this.

**

Veronica could still hear the gunshot in her head. Still recall the smell of Lamb’s blood.

Awake and dreaming, she heard and smelled it all.

She crawled into bed with Logan and begged him with open legs to come inside her. She clutched his hair and smelled his sweat, dug her nails into his back and heard him moan.

Eventually, she could no longer hear the sound of a gun going off or smell the flow of blood.

**

Day fifty-eight brought them to another middle of the nowhere gas station.

Logan finished his cigarette and stomped on it with the heel of his tennis shoe.

Veronica popped her head out of the window. “Oh, Logan…”

“Sure, babe, a bag of Twizzlers.”

“And could you get me some change?” Veronica held up a twenty dollar bill.

He took the money and intertwined their fingers. He leaned in for a long kiss and said, “Of course.” He touched her soft black hair and walked into the gas station.

THE END