Renegade Runaways :: Chapter Eleven

Hope stared in the mirror. She wore auburn hair and a leather jacket. If there was anything she liked about being a detective, it was being undercover. She glanced at the two women next to her. Marlena fiddled with brown hair; Kayla with black. She didn't recognize them, which is exactly what they wanted.

"How are you holding up?" Marlena asked as she caught Hope in the mirror watching her.

"What do you mean?" Hope questioned.

"Bo, Aiden. Aiden, Bo." Marlena replied, "Now Aiden is dead. Bo shot him."

Hope shrugged, "Bo saved me."

"You're awfully casual about it," Marlena observed.

"I don't have time to be anything but casual about it." Hope countered, "Aiden wasn't the man I thought he was. Bo is my priority now. I want to catch the bastards who did this to him."

"Let me know if you need to talk," Marlena surrendered.

Hope rolled her eyes. She didn't want therapy. She wanted to move on. She was strong. She needed to get proof of Dimera foul play, conquer the mafia after Bo, and get home to her daughter.

"This is as good as it's gonna get." Kayla huffed, "I look goth."

Hope snorted, "We're not here to look pretty."

"Or are we?" Marlena questioned. She thought the three of them looked pretty good.

"Those three buffoons don't deserve pretty," Kayla argued. She had her own grudge against Bo, Steve, and their constant need for adventure and danger.

"You've got that right," Marlena agreed, still bitter that John had kept her in the dark.

Hope bit her lip, silently disagreeing, "Let's go."

They walked out of the bar bathroom to find the three said buffoons playing pool. Hope's heart skipped a beat. Bo's disguise wasn't much of a disguise to her. It was more of a throwback. He looked like the rebel she fell in love with 30 years before. If she didn't know any better, she would think she just walked straight into 1983.

"Hey." Bo nodded at her.

"Hey, yourself," Hope smiled.

"Now what?" Kayla asked the group. She crossed her arms impatiently.

John sighed, "Aiden has been tipping someone off the entire trip. We're ditching the van."

"Any idea who he's been talking to?" Marlena asked.

"We know Stephano is involved, but we're not sure to what capacity." Bo replied, "The men that attacked us at camp had to come from Dimera. The South American guys are way more skilled."

"To our knowledge we were just running from the Peruvian Mafia. We never thought about a connection to Dimera." Steve added.

"I wouldn't put anything past Stephano." Marlena replied.

"What would Stephano want from us? Why would he want us dead?" Hope asked, "We've all been in Salem all along. Why chase us into the middle of the Smokey Mountains?"

"Aiden mentioned something about your trust fund and Stephano promising it to him. That means Aiden was out to kill you all along. He would have had to marry you first." Bo thought out loud, "I don't know what that has to do with the rest of us."

"Well, you have to be out of the picture too," Steve replied.

"Not really," Bo argued flatly, "According to my lovely wife, we're divorced."

Hope felt the sting of Bo's words, but she took it in stride. She deserved it.

"You could fix that real quick," John winked.

Bo almost smiled, "Anyway... I don't know why Dimera would want the rest of you dead."

"Maybe he thinks we have information about Caroline's cure," Steve offered, "He has always been a money hungry bastard. He could be at war with the Peru dudes. They could be competing for the information. In their eyes, whoever gets us first is the winner."

"How are we getting out of here?" Kayla asked, "We can't stay here."

"Motorcycles." Bo grinned.

Hope's eyes lit up, "Motorcycles?"

"Gotta get completely into character FancyFace." Bo winked.

Hope almost jumped up and down, "Let's go."

"We'll ride until dark." Steve announced, "Pay cash at a motel."

"How did we magically get six motorcycles?" Marlena asked, "I don't know how to drive one of those."

"Not six, three." John replied, "You're riding with me babe."

Marlena almost glared at him, unwilling to give in to his charm.

"But seriously, how did we get motorcycles?" Kayla repeated Marlena's question.

"The magic of Shane and the ISA sweetness," Steve whispered, "Let's go."

Kayla sighed and sarcastically pouted towards a giddy Hope, "No chance you'll ride with Steve?"

Hope laughed, "Yeah right..."

The six of them left the dirty bar behind. Hope felt like a giddy school girl all over again as she followed Bo to a parked motorcycle near the side of the road. She smiled at the memory of meeting him so long ago.

"Lady X," Bo smiled and handed her a helmet.

Hope couldn't hide the beaming grin that erupted on her face as she accepted it.

"Gotta protect that pretty head of yours," Bo added with a wink.

Hope bit her lip. They were on the same page lost in the same memory. She buckled the helmet and hopped on behind him. Her heart swooned.

"Take me for a ride Brady," Hope whispered eagerly as she placed her hands on his waist.

The loud noise of the bike starting thrilled her. Before long the tension between them was gone, and there was nothing but freedom beneath them and open road ahead of them.