“No!” She stood up. “She didn’t say it has to be him.”
“Why not? He’s cool.”
Shanna looked to the door. Simon was back, hauling out their suitcases. “You never would’ve stabbed him, would you?”
Chris tapped her feet against each other. “I thought I could. I was fully ready to do it. It was Freddie on one side and some random corporate dude on the other. And if he got an assassin sent after him, I figured he’d done something bad. Innocentpeople don’t tend to get contracts on their heads.” Chris sighed, pausing for a moment. “Even as I stood above the bed, I still thought I could do it.”
Shanna sat back down and carefully reached out her arm. When Chris didn’t pull back, she hugged her around the shoulders. “We’ll help Freddie. And you. I promise.”
Chris looked at the ground. “But why? I’m a random kid who tried to kill someone.”
“And to you, Simon was a random, possibly shifty guy. And yet, you didn’t go through with it.”
Simon came over to them. “Now, will you two be able to walk to the car, or will I have to carry you as well?”
Shanna blushed at the thought, but Chris jumped to her feet with a “Yuck, no,” and walked toward the parking lot.
Throughout the next two hours of their journey, the road winding through the thickly forested mountains delivered them to the wild, rugged west coast. Gone were the tranquil, aquamarine waters of Abel Tasman; here, the grayish-blue ocean hit dark craggy rocks with all its might, the waves foaming white along sharp outcrops and gray sandy beaches. Different, but no less beautiful.
The areas known for the gold rush were further down the coast; it would take a better part of the day to get there—and even longer once the GPS had a seizure and started leading them up a narrow mountain path that barely constituted as a road. It took them half an hour to figure out this wasn’t the right way, once they’d reached an abandoned forest cabin that could only be the destination in a horror movie. Simon shot Shanna an unimpressed, knowing look as he tossed the offending GPS onto the back seat.
She smiled apologetically and pulled out her fold-up map. Call her cursed, but she also came prepared.
In the early afternoon, back on track driving along the coast, they passed a sign indicating they were approaching Pancake Rocks. Ahead, the view opened to a complex and a parking lot.
“Can we stop for lunch?” Chris asked. “After our littleexcursion, I’d kill for a good plate of pancakes.” After a moment of silence, she looked at Simon. “Not you, though.”
“I think this is just a tourist site.” Shanna consulted her map. “It’s the name of the rock formation.”
“Then I’ll kill whoever didn’t think of selling pancakes at a place with pancakes in its name.”
They stopped anyway, and as they entered the restaurant, Shanna was pleased to see an offering of several pancake flavors on the menu. “No murdering to be done.”
“To be fair,” Simon said, “notserving pancakes here would be a massive marketing miss.”
They placed their order and took a table under a parasol outside. Simon got on the phone, and like an obedient copy, Chris followed, while Shanna thumped her fingers on the wood and played with the drinks menu. Ten minutes, fifteen, half an hour—finally, their buzzer let them know the food was ready.
“I’ll go get it,” Shanna said.
A handsome younger guy, early twenties perhaps, was waiting with their plates at the counter. With his tan skin and curly dark hair, he had to be of Maori descent; based on his muscular body, though, he should be anything but a waiter. As she walked, Shanna smiled at him, then immediately tripped over the leg of a dining chair.
“Whoa, there! Are you okay?” The guy made a move to go around the counter to help her, but Shanna waved him off.
“Fine. You get used to it.”
She picked up the plate holding her pizza, quickly realizing she couldn’t bring all the food alone. Actually, she probably wasn’t safe carrying even one plate.
“Need some help?” the guy asked.
“If you wouldn’t mind. Our table is right over there.”
With the skill of a juggler, he picked up three sets of cutlery, tucked them under his arm, then proceeded with the other two plates.
“Thank you so much,” Shanna said as they delivered the food to the table.
“All good,” the man said. “I apologize for the wait, guys. Don’t know what caused it, but our order-taking system suddenly went berserk.”
Chris and Simon looked at Shanna with twin, unimpressed expressions.
