“Not sure,” Ashton says.
“You don’t know your hours?” I glance at him briefly.
“He gives me assignments, tells me when he needs my help with a job. It’s not a big deal. Easy money and an even easier passing grade for my work-study that everyone’s required to do.”
“What kind of assignments?” I grumble, wondering if he has anything to do with Rhys missing or any involvement with the little boy, Rylan.
Ashton exhales a heavy breath. “That’s above your pay grade.”
“Are you fucking with me?”
Silence fills the vehicle, and Ashton reaches for the radio to turn it on.
I swat his hand away.
“Seriously, you’re not going to tell me anything?” Annoyance pricks under my skin and I swerve the car off the road, slamming on the brakes. “Get the fuck out.”
“What?” Ashton’s eyes widen as I point at the car door.
“We’re working together, and if you can’t tell me what you’re up to, then I can’t trust you. Walk home.”
Ashton’s mouth is agape. “It’s freezing outside, and we’re twenty miles from your parents’ place. There’s nothing around here; we’re in the middle of nowhere. You’re not serious.”
“I’m dead serious. Get out of my fucking car.”
Ashton huffs and opens the door. “Your funeral.” He steps out into the cold, the wind blasting me when he gets out. A moment later, he slams the door shut.
I hit the gas and pull back onto the road.
Not ten minutes later, my phone rings, repeatedly.
Nova’s name flashes up on the dashboard as an incoming call.
After I ignore her the first two times, she keeps calling.
I finally answer.
“I’m busy right now,” I say.
“You’re fucking dead to me if you don’t turn around and pick up Ashton,” Nova shouts at me through the phone.
“Well, hello to you too.”
“You’re an asshole, do you know that?” Nova is on a roll.
“I’m just teaching him a lesson.”
“Why?” Nova asks. “What’d he do that was so terrible that you decided to leave him on the side of a deserted road?”
My jaw tightens. “I don’t owe you an explanation.”
“Well, I already heard Ashton’s side. If I have to drive over there and pick him up, you’re dead to me.”
I shift in my seat, glancing in the rearview. I haven’t seen a car driving in the opposite direction since dropping Ashton on the side of the road. “I would have thought you’d be taking my side, since we’re family,” I say.
“Yeah, well, you’re becoming more like your father every day.”
I hang up on Nova, but she calls right back.
