“From the mat room down the hall.”
“Where’s the key?”
“In the toilet with my phone.” At my raised eyebrows, she said, “I accidentally dropped it while I was trying to call Javi to come pick me up.”
I rolled onto my knees and opened the stall door. “I’ll go get someone to help.”
“No!” She leaned back on the seat lid and kicked the door shut, holding it closed with her sneaker. “I’m not leaving this bathroom. And I’m not going back to Maryland.”
“No one is taking you to Maryland. Steven didn’t tell anyone butme about the warrant. Unless you get yourself arrested again, you probably have nothing to worry about.”
“That’s a comfort,” she deadpanned.
I shoved her foot out of the way and sat back down, holding a chunk of Pop-Tart where she could reach it. “Eat this. You’re missing dinner.” When she took it, her sleeve was wet with snot.
“We’re both missing dinner.” She leaned forward to nibble off a corner. “Did you bring anything good to drink?”
I laughed. “Under the present circumstances, I didn’t think stealing liquor from the faculty lounge would be the wisest choice.” I opened the soda can and held it to her mouth. “Why didn’t you tell me there was a warrant out for you?”
“Because you were letting me live in your house—with yourkids—and I didn’t want you to change your mind and kick me out.”
“Let me get this straight,” I said, pulling the soda from her lips. “You show up in my garage and find me standing over Harris Mickler’s lifeless body, and you’re, like,Sure, I’ll help you bury the dead guy. Where’s my forty percent? While we’re at it, let’s become serial killers. There’s a sale on chest freezers at Lowe’s and I’ve got three thousand feet of Cling Wrap in the trunk of a sports car I bought with money I negotiated from the Russian mob.But you thought the fact that you were wanted for petty larceny—of asorority house treasury fund,” I emphasized, “was the most concerning part of all that?”
“Because I didn’t do it!” she said adamantly.
“I know that!”
She looked surprised. “You do?”
“You told me you didn’t steal that money. Of course I believe you.” Some of the tension left her shoulders as I held the soda out to her. “Is there anything else I should know?” I asked, tipping the can for her as she sipped.
“You know as much as I do now. I only found out I’d been formally charged because the cops went to my mother’s house looking for me and she freaked out.” She rested her head against the side of the stall.“She called my cousin and told him there was a warrant out for me, and I haven’t crossed the state line since.”
I offered her another piece of Pop-Tart, perplexed by Maryland and New Jersey’s geography. “If you never went back to Maryland, how did you get to Atlantic City?”
“Drove around it,” she said with her mouth full. A laugh started deep in my chest. “What’s so funny?” she asked, spraying crumbs at me.
“Nothing,” I said, attempting to stifle it. “It’s just… you went to all that trouble for a year, evading an erroneous theft charge, only to meet me and get wrapped up in all this.” I waved my hands around, gesturing at everything.
“All this,” she said, mimicking my gesture with her head, “would make a pretty great story, you know.”
“If a little far-fetched.”
“Are you kidding me? It’s a recipe for a blockbuster hit!” Her handcuffs rattled as she counted on her fingers. “It’s got courtroom drama, car chases, deep cover agents… not to mention a pretty tricky mystery to solve. And I bet Sylvia would love that hot little make-out scene you were working on in the closet.”
“There was no making out in the closet.”
Vero shook her head like she wasn’t buying a word of it. “I saw him when he came tumbling out of there with his hair all mussed and his tie undone, like he’d gone from giving you the third degree to giving you something else.” She wagged an eyebrow, but the only thing Nick had given me was a guilty conscience, raging hormones, and a need for a cold shower.
“We talked. That’s all,” I said irritably.
Her cuffs clanked against the toilet paper dispenser as she shook a reproving finger at me. “You know what your problem is? You don’t think you deserve him. That’s why you’re keeping him at arm’s length. Because you’ve got this ridiculous idea that you’re a terrible person. You feel responsible for what happened to Harris and Andrei and Carl and Ike, even though you didn’t kill a single one of them. Everything you did,you did to protect someone: your kids, your mom, your ex—god only knows why… hell, you even went out of your way to protect Theresa! If that doesn’t qualify you for sainthood, there isn’t a damn bit of hope for the rest of us. So you told a few fibs, big deal! Nick doesn’t wantperfect. If he did, he would have lost interest in you a long time ago—”
“Thanks.”
“—He just wantsyou,Finn. So quit telling yourself you’re not worthy, take off your big girl panties, and jump him before your deadline so we can finish this book and get paid the rest of our—” A door slammed. Our eyes locked as it echoed through the locker room.
“What was that?” Vero whispered.
