Careful as I could, I scanned the area. There wasn’t anyone around to see me standing there. The excitement from across the street filled the air around me. We were too close to the situation, but I didn’t have a clue how we were going to quickly put distance between us and the motel. The car was still over there, which meant there was no way to get to it.
The door to the shop opened and Austin walked out, three plastic bags in one hand. If I wasn’t mistaken, there was a sense of relief in his wild eyes the moment they landed on me.
“Come on,” he urged as he coolly walked to the corner of the building, disappearing around the side before I had a chance to catch up with him. I followed him around to the back, where he tucked himself between a big dumpster and the back of the building. His eyes scanned the area, and I found myself following his lead. “No cameras back here.”
I nodded in agreement as I turned my attention back to him.
My eyes went wide as he kicked out of his shoes and began unbuttoning his jeans at the same time.
“What are you doing?” I said as I whirled around to give him some privacy. My eyes bounced around our surroundings just to make sure we were alone.
“I can’t go running around in ripped pants and a bloody leg.”
I heard the sound of ripping fabric, and curiosity got the better of me. I turned back around to see Austin crouching with a knife in one hand and a strip of shredded jean fabric in the other. His legs were bare, and I might have inappropriately taken a peek at his boxers. The man woreboxers. Somehow, it seemed fitting, and so did the pattern of chaotic strings of Christmas lights that crossed all over the damn things.Christmas was months ago, leaving me to think that he either didn’t have a sense of time or a sense of what he wore.
“What?” Austin said as he noticed what my gaze was locked on. “Oh, yeah. Got them as a Secret Santa thing from work. Think it was Jameson, but I can’t be sure. Anyway, I stuck them in my backup bag instead of throwing them away.”
Though it sounded as if he wasn’t fond of the underwear, there was something in the way his lips curled up in the corners that made me think otherwise.
“Here, let me,” I offered as I squatted next to him and took the strip of fabric from his hand.
“Yeah, okay,” he said, voice a bit shaky and confused as he placed a hand on my shoulder to stabilize himself as he stood.
I winced when I saw the deep gash on his shin. It needed to be cleaned out, and could probably use a stitch or two, or at least some butterfly bandages. I didn’t see us getting any of those things any time soon, so I did the best with what I had to work with. I tied the fabric around his leg, pulling it tight before knotting it off.
“Thanks,” he mumbled as I stood.
We locked eyes. Neither of us blinked for a full minute. I couldn’t say why I felt the need to hold my breath. After a beat, the trance was broken when he cleared his throat and turned his focus to one of the bags. I turned my back to him again, giving him some privacy to get changed, not that it really mattered at this point.
“So, if we assume that someone saw you and called it in, we need to figure out where it happened,” he said, then gave a little grunt, that led me to assume he was pulling up a new pair of pants. “It wasn’t at the motel, because I made sure no one saw you.”
That was true, unless someone knew to be looking for me. It had been dark when we arrived, just hours before the sun wasdue to start rising. Only a couple of rooms had lights on behind drawn curtains, and despite how shady the place was, there hadn’t been anyone lingering in the parking lot. I was out of the car and behind the closed door of the room in under a minute. I was nothing but a shadow in the night if anyone had seen me.
I thought hard. I hadn’t left the car unless I had to. I’d stayed hidden behind the tinted windows of the hatchback.
But there had been one time…
“The rest stop in Kentucky right after we crossed over the border,” I said. Austin had wanted to get out of Virginia before he found someplace to stop and rest. But he just kept going, not seeming like he wanted to stop even though both of us were in desperate need of sustenance and a bathroom that wasn’t the side of the road. Not that he stayed there any longer than it took to piss and grab a few vending machine finds. “That has to be it. That was the only time I left the car. Unless someone’s been following me since I left my house…”
The thought sat like lead in my stomach. But if that were the case, then why had they waited so long? Why hadn’t they caught me when I was stranded without a car and struggling to climb up a mountain in hopes of finding someplace to hunker down? Why not when I was in that empty shack, waiting for a rescue from Reed?
“Let’s just say they were following since that rest stop.” Austin made a face. It wasn’t a happy one. “Then my car is probably burned. Well, there goes that fun idea of sneaking over there so I can rescue it.”
I stared at him with an expression of utter shock. He wanted to go back…
“Are you insane?” I blurted out before I could stop myself.
“Gotta live life on the edge sometimes,” he said with a lazy shrug. “And we need a car.” His face turned serious as he spoke that last part. Good. At least it showed that there was a part ofhim that grasped the gravity of this situation. “Looks like we’re going to have to lift one.”
The lawman in me cringed. I’d prided myself in staying on the right side for so long. Even working for a system that had corruption, even if I wished it didn’t. Now, I was skating a thin line, afraid that all I was doing was shredding it to pieces so it no longer defined good from bad.
“Don’t suppose I can ask you to be picky about it, can I?” I asked, knowing we were totally screwed and now wasn’t the time to have issues over stealing a car. An object could be replaced— with a bunch of hassle, yes, but at least it wouldn’t directly cause someone pain. And it wouldn’t be life or death, that was for sure.
“You can ask, but I can’t guarantee anything,” Austin replied. The smile he sent me was more of a grimace. “Be back as soon as possible. Don’t move.”
He pinned me with a look that almost had me replying with an agreeable nod, but I was able to cut the urge off at the last second.
His eyes narrowed as he studied me for few more beats of my heart. Then he blew out a long stream of air, deflating his lungs, as he yanked off his ball cap with one hand and ran the other through the silky strands of hair he’d just released. If he didn’t appear so calm and treated everything like it was a joke most of the time, I would have said he was nervous.
