If you knew how I felt, could our friendship remain the same?
Do you reciprocate these feelings?
Do you feel the same?
I join him under the sheets. His smile is sad, worried, fake.
“We’re safe,” he says. It’s a lie, though it’s somewhat comforting. Maybe that’s why he told me.
“Good night.”
“Good night,” I whisper back.
An hour later, I’m asleep.
We’re up very early the next morning. When Ezra shakes me awake, I jolt upright, head pulsing with a ridiculous migraine, and reach for the handgun on the side table.
I see skull mask thud onto the road, bullets tearing into skin. Whether or not this last detail is a figment of my imagination, the panic it instills clutches me.
“Jesus, Co’! It’s me! Ezra!”
“Sorry,” I gasp and see that it is indeed him.
“It’s alright,” Ezra says, gauging my sorry state. “We should get going.”
“Let’s map out a course first.”
I’m drenched in sweat again from the nightmare. Before Ezra can say anything else, I shower and dress. After I’m finished, we unfold the map on the bed to chart a route from Wendover. Ezra is attentive as I run a dragging finger along the highway.
“It might be a safe bet to avoid the area where we had the encounter with the mercenary,” I say.
“Right. How about Skull Valley Road past Lakeside? It’s a much longer route, but it avoids Tooele entirely. We’ll need to make sure we’re filled up on gas and check again once we hit Dugway,” Ezra tells me.
His face is scrunched in concentration and the determination in his eyes evokes a genuine grin out of me. He looks up, notices my smile, and grins too.
“What?”
“Nothing,” I say.
I fold up the map and we’re out in a matter of minutes. Once back on the highway, we fall into silence—Ezra at the wheel and me trying to navigate the map. Time slows into an endless hour. The mercenary’s vehicle feels taboo to drive in. It’s about a half tank full, so Ezra and I decide to refill and head directly to Eureka afterward.
A skull mask falls to the ground in front of my eyes.
They were going to kill Ezra.
I did the right thing.
This is something I must remind myself of, over and over. I suppress the urge to panic because I don’t want to worry Ezra. Besides, there’s a chance the mercenary is still alive. There’s a chance I’m not a killer. And no matter how evil the person, that hope is there, and bright.
“Are you okay?” Ezra asks.
I break from my stupor and focus on the road ahead.
“Yeah,” I lie.
Chapter 22
Ezra
