Page 92 of Last Mile

“Thanks” left my lips, but otherwise, no other words seemed adequate.

He pulled back to look me in the eye. “Now it all makes sense about the way you felt about bikers. It went deeper than just what happened to Marley.”

“Yes. It does.”

“No one should have to go through what you did as a kid.”

Bishop’s hands came to cup my cheek. “If I could take the pain and hurt away from you, I would.”

Tears pooled in my eyes at his kind words, and I knew he was sincere about taking away my pain. Once again, he was such a paradox of appearing so tough outside and being so tender on the inside. Words seemed inadequate to express my gratitude. All I could murmur was “You really are the sweetest man I know.”

When Bishop started to bring his lips to mine, I brought my hand up to stop him. “Trust me, you don’t want to do that.”

“You get sick or something?”

“Oh yeah. Big- time.”

He gave me a sympathetic smile. “Come on. Let’s get you out of here.”

“What about Rev?”

“I’ll tell him you need to get back.”

“But then he’ll have to ride by himself.”

Bishop chuckled. “He’s a big boy, Sam. He can make it home on his own. He rode all the way to Virginia in the middle of December by himself.”

“What in the hell would possess him to do that?”

“He was going to tell Annabel he loved her.”

“Damn, that’s romantic,” I mused.

“Yeah, Rev’s a deep guy. He’s a hell of a lot more romantic than I’ll ever be.”

“I don’t think that’s necessarily true.”

He cocked his eyebrows at me. “You got some crazy feat in mind to make me prove myself?”

I shook my head. “It doesn’t always have to be grand gestures. What you just did was pretty romantic.”

Bishop gave me a skeptical look. “I just came to look for you. I’d hardly call that really exceptional.”

“But you cared enough to be worried about me, and you came into the women’s bathroom to make sure I was all right.”

“Oh Jesus, I hadn’t even thought of that. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

I laughed as I let him drag me by the hand out the door. “I hate that I didn’t get to say good- bye to Ansley.”

“Don’t worry. She has plenty of support at the moment. Maybe

I can get her address and you can send a card or something.”

Once again, I was touched by his compassion. “Thanks. I would like that.”

As we pushed through the plate- glass door, Bishop said, “I just can’t wait for that piece of shit to go to prison. He’ll get tortured in there for being a kiddie rapist.”

“You and me both.”