“And her boyfriend was especially caring and considerate,” she said.
Yeah, great. “Thanks again,” Pete said. He cut the connection and looked at Shay. They hadn’t said all that much to each other since their incredibly deep conversation about…Jesus. People were complicated, and she’d given him a crapload to think about. And he’d like to think he’d done the same for her. He hoped so. He smiled at her now. “You were right.”
She nodded. “Eyes open. Maroon sedan, heading south.”
But they didn’t have a lot of daylight left. When it got dark, the best they could do was drive through restaurant and motel parking lots, searching for Dingo’s one-of-a-kind car.
“They’re tired and hungry,” Pete said. “They drove all night, last night, and they’ve had maybe a nap, at best. It’s hard to believe they’re gonna get very far.”
Dingo was dreaming about Maddie.
She was kissing him, and his dream must’ve been set in the future, because in it, he was kissing her back. Ah, God, she was on top of him, and his hands skimmed across the softness of the bare skin that was between her T-shirt and her jeans and—
Dingo screamed. “What thefuck!”
This wasn’t a dream, it was real—she was here in the moonlit darkness in the back of his car, with him. He tried to scramble away and out from under her, but all that did was make him hit his head not once, not twice, but three times.
“Stop,” she said as she untangled herself from him and backed away. “Stop.Stop!”
But he was already grabbing his blanket and his pillow and even his really nasty, muddy hiking boots that he always kept tucked along the side of the trunk and he used them to build a wall between them. But then he grabbed the blanket back so he could hide his giant boner.
God help him. “What the fuck?” he said again. “You can’t just go and kiss people who are sleeping! Sleeping people can’t give consent!”
“I didn’t kiss you!” she shouted. “You kissed me! I just kissed you back!”
“I was asleep,” he shouted. “And I’m pretty sure that—while I was asleep—I didn’t pull you from the front seat here into the back! I’m pretty sure you’re the one who climbed back here—again, without my consent!”
“I didn’t know I needed permission to get warm!” Her mouth trembled and her eyes filled with tears, and Dingo had to close his own eyes.
In fact, he put his hands up over his face. “No, no, no, no, no,” he said. “No, no. Don’t you dare!”
“I didn’t know I needed permission to get just alittlebit of comfort and…and…contacton the night before I die!”
“You did too know that,” he spoke loudly, over her and through his hands. “You knew goddamn well why you were up front and I was back here! Because my fucking wall doesn’t work anymore! Because I can’t keep my fucking hands off of you! You came back here, intentionally. You knew, absolutely, that this would happen! And you did it anyway!”
Maddie started to cry in earnest.
“Nice to see exactly what you think about me andmyfeelings!” He kept going. “Oh, look, Dingo’s struggling. Let’s make it even harder for him. Thanks a fucking million!”
“I’m sorry,” she sobbed.
“Good! You should be!” he shouted, finally pulling his hands away from his face to glare at her. And…that was a mistake, because even though she was ugly-crying, her beautiful brown eyes were filled with pain and remorse and grief—and he found himself melting.
And then, as she tried to stop her tears and wipe her face, she whispered, “I love you.”
Oh,fuck.
“And I know you love me,” she continued. “And I just wanted…well, I wanted to have sex at least once, before I die.”
Well, that soundedentirelyreasonable—
“No!” Dingo shouted, mostly at himself. “I mean, yes, of course, you will. Maddie, come on. Really. You’re definitely going to have sex before you die. But not right now, not like this. Not…with me. Because, see, you’renotgoing to die anytime soon. You’re just not, Mads. I’m not going to let you.” He took a deep breath. “I know you don’t want to ask your dad for help, and I get that—I do. I’ve been trying to figure out what other options we’ve got—and running away is not one of them. I mean, we wouldn’t get far and then we’d be right back where we started.
“So what I’m thinking is this: I call Nelson, and I set up a meeting. By myself. I bring him the money and I take the blame. I admit that I stole it from Fee, that I was mad at her and wanted to get back at her—and thatyouhad nothing to do with it. I grovel and beg and tell him that I’m sorry and I want to work to pay him back.”
Maddie was horrified. “But then he’ll just killyou!”
“Maybe,” Dingo said. “But maybe not. Maybe he’ll just make me his personal slave. God, I hope I won’t have to degrade myself too badly. Like perform weird sex acts with his dog, for his amusement. Although that would be better than having to kill someone for him. That would be even more of a challenge. But I’d do it if it meant keeping you safe.”
