Bill smiles. “No time for that. See you soon, January. Tell your Velvet House boyfriend I rescued you.”
“I… which guy do you think is my boyfriend?”
“Ain’t you cute?” He pulls a checked handkerchief from his pocket and hands it to me. “Put this in your mouth. Don’t worry. It’s clean.”
I look at Archie, who nods.
Feeling silly, I put the handkerchief between my teeth and hold it there.
“Good girl,” Archie says, then he pulls out a gun and slams it into the back of his brother’s head.
I bite down the handkerchief as Bill falls to the ground, blood pouring from the back of his head.
“Come on,” Archie says. “We’ve gotta go.”
I spit out the handkerchief, my teeth furry with cotton and shock. “What the hell!?”
Archie shoves his gun away. “Parker isn’t gonna let Bill wander back to the limo without you, Kitten. We need to make this look legit. Now can you stay quiet?”
“I… Okay?”
“Okay?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” Archie pulls a baseball cap and a pair of aviators from his jacket. “Here, put these on.”
I think I’ll look more noticeable wearing heels, a hat and sunglasses, but I do what I’m told.
“Right,” Archie says, taking my hand. “Follow me. And smile. We’re a couple on a road trip, okay?”
I answer with a grin. The wide one I was going to wear for my first wedding dance.
Archie and I walk through the rest stop and if anyone notices that the blond man I was with is wearing different clothes, they don’t say it. Archie leads me to the back exit where there’s a smaller parking lot. Waiting for us is a beat-up brown Nissan. The kind of car my brother Harris would call a shitbox.
Archie unlocks the door and I climb in, the skin on the back of my neck itching. This can’t work. Mr. Parker is going to come after us and kill me and Archie. Kill Emilia. Kill Eli and Bobby and Doc and Adriano—if he isn’t already dead…
“Get down, Kitten,” Archie says, climbing into the driver’s seat. “There’s a chance the guys in the limo could see us when we pull out and I’ve got the same face as Bill.”
I put my head between my knees as Archie starts the engine.
“That’s it,” he says, reversing the car. “Stay there.”
“We’re going to get caught,” I mumble into my knees. “They’re gonna see you. Mr. Parker’s gonna get me.”
“No, he ain’t. We’re almost at the exit.”
The car rumbles beneath me, the wheels shifting against concrete. Is this how I die? In a shitbox car with an evil twin?
“Almost there,” Archie mutters. “Almost… made it.”
We turn and the car shoots forward.
“Hell fucking yeah, Kitten! We’re in the clear!”
I don’t lift my head. “How do you know they’re not coming for us?”
“Because if they’d seen, they’d already be shooting.”
