No more lies.
“I don’t want to lose you.”
Bending forward, she wraps her hands around the angles of my jaw, rubbing her thumbs over my lips.
“You could never.”
†††
We’re out of Wyoming and in Utah by nine-thirty at night. Stopping at a twenty-four-hour gas station and market, I fill up the tank while sending Amira inside for snacks and energy drinks.
Both of us are on a mission to get this fucking trip over with, ready to move on with our lives. So, we’ve decided to drive through the night. No more pit stops, no more rest, not until we reach Nevada.
I’m watching the meter on the gas roll as the tank begins to fill when my phone rings shrilly in my pants.
“Hello?” I answer, holding it between my shoulder and ear while I remove the hose from the chamber, shaking the excess away before locking it back in place.
“I think I got your dog high,” Ash says calmly on the other side of the phone, sounding completely unconcerned, high as a fucking kite.
“What the fuck? Why the fuck would you do that?!” I shout in a whisper, taking the phone in my hand while looking over my shoulder to make sure Amira isn’t within earshot.
“I didn’t know she was in the room with me. I thought she was sleeping.”
“Is she fucking okay? I swear to God, if anything happens to Shadow, Amira is going to be devastated, and then I’m going to fucking kill you,” I threaten, dropping my head into my hand as I wait for Amira to finish up inside.
“Yeah. She’s just lying on her back. Kinda looks like she's trying to run on air.”
Motherfu-
“Fucking watch her! And make sure she doesn’t fucking die!” I growl, quieting down when I see Amira coming out of the store, arms loaded with shit that’s going to clog our arteries and kill our guts. “I gotta go. Watch her!”
Shoving the phone back in my pocket, I give Amira a strained smile. “Got everything you need?”
“Yeah. I even got us some hot sandwiches from their deli section.”
I open the door for her, waiting until her feet are tucked safely inside before slamming the door and sprinting to my side.
“Here,” she says once I get in the car, holding out two tiny bottles of Five-Hour Energy.
This shit tastes like berry-flavored gasoline, but I chug them both back instantly, needing the rush to get me through another nine hours of driving.
Back on the freeway, Amira bobs her head to 6LACK’s Long Nights, feeding me a roasted turkey club while sipping on a peach sparkling water.
It almost doesn’t feel like we’re headed toward doom. Anybody could look at us through our open windows and assume we’re just having a night out.
The taps of Amira’s nails against her phone’s glass pull my attention away from the road, her face lit up by the screen as she types out a long-ass message.
“Who’re you texting? It’s almost eleven at night.”
Tearing her eyes away from the message, she flashes me the phone. “Sage. And Eden. They’re asking me—”
“Who the fuck is Eden?” I interrupt, never hearing that name come out of her mouth before.
I don’t like strangers, and if that makes me a dick, then oh well.
“She’s Sage’s friend that I met the day we hung out. They work together.” Taking the phone away from my face, she begins scrolling, light flashing over her skin until she finds what she’s looking for. “This is her.”
Carefully, I move my eyes from the lane and focus on the picture. My eyes widen slightly when I see who she’s talking about, remembering the fuck-me eyes she sent my way.
