“Yeah,” said Carla, nodding. “Why? You wanna go for a drive?”
“I think we should test that theory again.”
Carla capped the pen and let out a long-winded sigh. “Yeah. OK. We could do that. How does tomorrow sound?”
Frustratingly far away. Jack would lie awake all night, terrified that his only ticket out of here might somehow cease to exist overnight. “What about tonight?”
“Tonight?” Carla took a sip of wine. Delicate fingers held the whisky glass in a way that made Jack think of a magazine ad. “Yeah, I guess we could do that.”
“Any reason you don’t want to?”
Carla shrugged. “I dunno. Harder to sneak out of here. There are some people I’d rather avoid.”
“I thought you said it was safe!” Jack protested, glaring at her.
“Itissafe!” Carla slammed down her empty glass. “No one is going to hurt you! But they might tail us. Nobody worries aboutwhat I’m doing during the day, but at night—that’s another story.”
“Tail you?” Jack frowned. “Why would they tail you?”
“Because they’re busybodies,” Carla snapped. “They’ll say it’s security, but really, they’re just nosy. No one cares during the day, but night is another story, OK?”
“OK,” said Jack, taking a deep breath. Then another, and another. “OK. What if we left now?”
“Now?” Carla glanced down at the ledger, then at Jack. She jabbed at the open page with a manicured nail. “You don’t wanna finish the list?”
“We can finish up later,” said Jack. “I—I really want to know if this works. Maybe if there’s two of us—” He shuddered now, anxious and twisting in his seat, eager to leave the city limits, if only for a night.
“Hey,” said Carla, leaning on her elbow, regarding him with something like pity. “I don’t think this is gonna work. We’ll try it, OK? But it might not work. You should be prepared for that.”
Jack trembled violently. If his chair had been placed on anything other than carpet, it probably would have vibrated its way across the room. “Yeah, I, um… You’re right. I just… I, uh, I gotta get out of here.”
“We should finish the list later,” said Carla. “I want to see it all written out.”
He made a face. Could she even read her own handwriting?
Smirking, she said, “I saw that. I’m offended.”
He held up his hands. “I didn’t say anything!”
“You didn’t need to. You’ve got an expressive face. I knoweverythingyou’re thinking.” She stood and stretched her arms over her head. “Come on. Give me a few minutes, and we’ll leave.”
CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE
Jack spentthe twenty minutes Carla was in the bedroom pacing and panicking. A dark-haired woman over fifty poked her head around the corner, saw him, and disappeared as quickly as she came, which did nothing for his nerves.
After a few minutes of debating the ethics of running in place or resorting to calisthenics in a wealthy person’s home, Jack forced himself to sit on the couch. Bag held tightly in his lap, he tried to focus on taking slow, deep breaths. But nothing worked. He was too jittery, too afraid that this was some kind of cruel joke, that Carla would change her mind or leave without him.
If that happened, he’d just have to steal a car. It wouldn’t be hard. Nobody locked their car at the gas station. Some people even left the keys in the ignition. And if he got arrested? It wouldn’t have a lasting impact on his record.
But he felt more than a little guilty about causing someone the sort of stress and despair that surely went along with exiting the gas station and realizing your car was gone. More importantly, he was terrified of being chased by the police and paralyzed at the thought of being stuffed into a jail cell.
But if Carla had a car… That was different. Suddenly, it was less important to plan ahead. They could justleave, and see what happened.
If Carla ever came out of the bedroom, anyway.
She emerged after what felt like hours, wearing a cashmere sweater, jeans, chunky white sneakers, and shimmery earrings. At her side, she carried a green, crocodile skin duffel bag.
