It was nearing noon the next day, and we were having a quick lunch in the Wendy’s across the street from the phone repair store. We’d been doing our homework: scoping out the area and looking for a car to get us on the next leg of our trip as we waited for his phone to be fixed. Of course, the phone wasn’t done in the morning like it was supposed to be. A part had to be ordered to get everything working again, and even though we were told it would be cheaper to just get a new phone, we paid the extra money to have it repaired, since it was the only way to reach his boss.
We had our lunch and picked up the phone that was finally working. Then we made our way to the car we decided to borrow. It wasn’t the best car, but it wasn’t the worst either. The only reason we settled on it was that it had been parked in the same spot since the day before, when we dropped his phone off for repair. It wasn’t new, so it was easy to hotwire. I kept a lookout while he picked the lock and climbed inside to boost the car.
Oliver was clearly a pro because it didn’t take him long for the car to start. I jumped inside, and we took off, ready to get on with our trip.
Several hours had passed since we’d left town. We were both quiet, with little to say. He was driving while I just rode along, watching out the passenger-side window. That’s when I noticed the blacked-out SUV in the passenger side mirror.
“Oliver?”
“Hm?”
“How long has that black SUV been behind us?” I looked over at him and saw the way his eyes nervously dashed up to the rearview mirror.
“Fuck,” he muttered. “It’s been days since we’ve seen them. How the hell are they back on our asses?”
He stepped on the gas, and the car zoomed forward. He waited until the last second before jerking the wheel and steering us onto the off-ramp. I held onto the door handle as my body was thrown to the right from the sudden jerk of the car. My eyes stayed glued to the mirror until the SUV was no longer in my sight. Then I turned and looked over my shoulder, watching as the SUV couldn’t get over in time to exit the highway.
“That’ll buy us a few minutes,” he said, slowing to stop at the light before turning right to move onto the backroads.
“There’s no way they just happened to stumble upon us after all this time,” I said, thinking out loud.
“They’re good, but there’s no way they’re that good.”
“The last time they found us was the day you woke up with food poisoning,” I reminded him.
He nodded as he continued to drive through some backcountry roads.
“It was after I charged your phone.”
He looked over at me. “You think they have some kind of tracking device on my phone?”
“It would explain it, right? They found us when it was charged. Maybe it was turned on even though the screen wasn’t working properly. And now that it’s been repaired and powered back on, it told them exactly where we were.”
“Fuck,” he cursed as he dug the phone out of his pocket. He passed it over. “Go through the contacts until you find the one labeled Chinese Takeout. Write the number down so I’ll have it to set up on the deal once we’re ready.”
“Your crime boss is named Chinese Takeout?” I asked, scrolling through the contacts.
“I couldn’t exactly put his name in there in case the police ever got ahold of my phone, and something tells me they’d put two and two together if I just labeled itprick crime boss.”
I smiled and rolled my eyes as I wrote the number down on a gum wrapper. I turned the phone off and rolled down the window. “Are you sure about this?”
“Yes. Chuck it.”
I tossed the phone as hard as I could out into the middle of an overgrown field. I prayed it broke on impact, but I had no way of really knowing.
“Now we need to ditch the car.”
I rolled up the window and whined. “Ugh, not again.”
“They’ve seen us in this one. They’ll be watching for it now.”
I let my head fall back against the headrest. “I can’t wait until this is over.”
He looked at me with tight lips. “It will be soon, Crash. I promise.” He took my hand in his and moved it to his lips, pressing a kiss to the back that made it seem like everything would be okay.
It was the fact that he didn’t let go that made my heart flutter.
Chapter 20
