Drive by Karina Gioertz Page A

around the room. There was Sawyer, standing in the corner beside the window and staring out into the night as though he was keeping watch. Unnerved by his behavior, Jordan sat up straight and moved her legs over the edge of the bed preparing to stand.
                  “Is someone out there?” she whispered, annoyed by the quiver of fear she heard as she spoke.
                  Sawyer shook his head.
                  “No.” His tone was normal and unlike her, he hadn’t lowered his voice. He was telling the truth. Jordan breathed a sigh of relief as she watched the dark outline of his body move through the room and back toward the bed.
                  “It’s just habit I guess, always being on the lookout for something,” Sawyer explained apologetically as he got back under the covers and pulled her to him.
    “Probably a good habit to have, given our little predicament,” Jordan replied dryly. Sawyer laughed. “Yeah, probably.”
                  Jordan felt his hand take hold of hers as he wrapped his arm around her waist and held her tight.
                  Glancing down at their intertwined fingers, she caught sight of his tattoo again.
                  “So, what’s the deal with your tats? Do they have some kind of deep special meaning to you or what?”
                  Sawyer laughed. “Not exactly.” He stretched out his fingers, making the letters on his knuckles ripple. “I got this one back in high school. It was at a party and I was drunk and some guy dared me.”
                  “How very literal,” Jordan said mocking him. She let her thumb brush over the scars of his youth. Then she reached for his other hand and pointed at the little squiggle. “And this one?”
                  “That one’s a little more creative. It’s a gypsy symbol. It means a police officer lives here.”
                  “Bit risky don’t you think? I mean, for someone who’s so concerned about blowing his cover.”
                  Sawyer wriggled out of her grip and curled his arm around her once more. “Nah, I just blame that one on a drunken high school party, too.”
                  “Is that when you got it?” Jordan asked, nestling into his chest.
                  “No. That one came much later. It was the first time I was ever in really deep on a case. I had been cut off from my real life for so long, I felt like I needed something to keep me focused, connected to who I really was.”
                  “That’s kind of deep and special,” said Jordan. “Next time I would lead with that one.”
                  Sawyer chuckled again and she could feel him nodding his head in the pillow behind her. Jordan leaned into him more, soaking in the comfort of his presence. It wasn’t until she caught a glimpse of the clock that she remembered.             
                  She looked over her shoulder at Sawyer and asked, “How’s your bandage? Do we need to change it again?”
                  “It’s fine,” he murmured into her ear. His breathing tickled her neck but she refused to be distracted.
                  “What about pain? Are you in any pain?”
                  “It aches, but it’s nothing I can’t handle,” he said still nuzzling her.
                  For a long while neither of them spoke and Jordan began to think that he had fallen asleep again. She just lay there quietly, staring into the black nothingness that surrounded them. Somewhere far away, an ambulance siren was announcing its presence in an otherwise silent night and Jordan couldn’t help but recount the events of the last twenty-four hours that had led her to this very moment. Had it really only been one day? How had everything happened so fast? Lying there in the false