The man scowls at me. “Who I work for is not your concern.”
I swallow my nervousness. This is going to be harder than I thought.
“But you’re part of the Street Kings?”
The man keeps his mouth shut and tosses me a set of keys.
He indicates the sports car. “There’s an address plugged into the GPS. Drive her there.”
I stare at him as my mind races. The stolen goods are the car itself, and a silver sports car is going to draw attention. If I get caught, I’m literally caught with a stolen car. That won’t look good for me. My only chance is to get recorded proof that I’m doing this under duress.
“And if I do this, you’ll set Tyler free.”
The man stares at me blankly.
I lick my lips and try again. “You’ve got my brother tied up, and Mani said the only way he doesn’t get hurt is if I drive this car for you.”
But the man doesn’t take the bait. He just shrugs and says, “I don’t know anything about that.”
Damn, these guys are as evasive as politicians. Nausea rises in my stomach. What was I thinking coming out here on my own? If I’m caught with a stolen car and no evidence that I didn’t steal it, I’ll be put away.
I should have woken Hudson; I should have gotten his help. Damn my stubbornness and thinking I could do this on my own. I’m already way out of my depth.
But it’s too late now. I can’t go back.
The man walks back to the SUV, and I slide into the driver’s seat of the sports car. After it hums to life, I pull up the GPS to find an address just past the border into Virginia. They’ve got me taking a presumably stolen car into another state. It’ll be a miracle if I’m not stopped.
What have I gotten myself into?
I pull out of the lot, and the SUV pulls out after me. The drive down the mountain is winding and slow, and I think they’re going to stay on my tail the entire time. But as soon as we get to the open highway, they breeze past me. I slow down and let them get well ahead. I wait for another twenty miles before pulling into an abandoned diner parking lot on the side of the highway.
I pull the car around the side, away from the traffic, and kill the engine.
I’m not sure if the SUV will be looking out for me, so I move quickly. I pull open the doors and check under the seats and in the trunk. If I know the Street Kings, there’ll be another package somewhere, stolen electronics tucked under the seat or somesuch. In the trunk, I lift up the compartment where the spare tire is, and that’s where I find it. But it’s not stolen goods. The spare tire compartment is stuffed with packages of white powder—drugs.
Bile rises in my throat, and I turn away before I can be sick. I’m transporting drugs and a stolen car across the state border. This is serious shit. If I get caught, no one will believe I was doing it to get evidence against Mani and the Kings. What evidence do I have? A useless phone recording that says nothing.
It won’t matter that I’m doing this to save Tyler. I got into the car of my own free will. And now there’s a trunk full of drugs.
I really didn’t think this through. All I’ve done is put myself at risk. If I get caught with drugs, there’s no way I can talk my way out of it.
My mind goes to last night with Hudson when we made love and clung to each other. Hope bloomed inside me that maybe, just maybe, there could be a future for a girl like me with a guy like him.
I’d give anything to go back to this morning and wake Hudson and share the problem with him. But I panicked and made a rash decision. I didn’t think this through, and now my entire future is threatened. The life I dared to hope for with Hudson is slipping out of my grasp as I stare at packets of white powder in the trunk of a stolen car.
I’ve risked too much. But there’s no turning back now.
Cars whiz past on the highway, but behind me there’s nothing but empty concrete and a line of shrubs. A soda can rolls in the breeze, and a candy wrapper tumbles past.
With my heart thundering in my veins, I slide my jacket off and wrap the packages in it. Getting caught with a stolen car is one thing, but getting caught with drugs is too much.
Walking casually in case anyone is watching, I go to the hedge and roll the packets out of my jacket. I stuff them at the back of the hedge and cover them with a faded newspaper that’s caught in the bushes with other rubbish.
I stick a pin in my phone so I’ll know where to direct the police later. When all this is over, Tyler and I will be free.
Even as I think it, I wonder if that’s true. But I have to believe it. I have to believe I can pull this off, prove I’m innocent, and come out of this with Tyler safe and us both free.
My stomach churns with anxiety as I pull back onto the highway.
