He huffed a quiet laugh despite himself.
“But that doesn’t mean never,” I added, shifting down toward my hood, trying to close the distance between us by a few feet. “Maybe not cross-country road trips, but smaller ones. Late-night drives. The kinds that actually matter.”
It was strange that sitting there, sharing his grief, didn’t make mine worse.
It made it lighter.
He shifted too, inching closer in his own way. The space between us didn’t feel quite as wide anymore.
“I hope they come for you,” he said after a while, softer now.
"Whoever you’re waiting for. I hope you get out of here.”
I didn’t answer right away, but not because I was thinking.
I was listening.
In that moment, I was grateful that the Challenger had insisted I save my battery, because the device plugged into my cigarette lighter had just spoken.
“Bluetooth connected!” It announced in a cheerful voice that made my frame feel as light as air.
You were here.
Chapter Thirteen
Al
“That’s eight down,” Lai sighed, dragging the tip of his pen across our city map, before crossing out another location with his trademark excessive flair. I exhaled slowly, rubbing a hand over my face as I stared at the mess of circles, crosses, and notes we’d scribbled into the margins over the course of the day: eight lots, eight dead ends.
Not gonna lie, I was starting to lose my patience. Driving around in his father’s Lexus was already wearing me a little thin, but Lai was making the entire mission almost impossible. He’d insisted on a full costume change at every stop as though he was touring Broadway, not the outskirts of Houston. Different accents, different postures; it didn’t matter that no one here knew who the Hell he was. Lai insisted that he needed a disguise, and I had no choice but to indulge him or risk him taking the Lexus and going home without me.
At least Lai could be charming when he wanted to be; three yard owners had been easily persuaded by the flamboyant, pretty man anxiously looking for his missingcar. How he managed to find men it was safe to flirt with in Texas, I would never understand; they all looked the same to me, rough and no-nonsense, but Lai never seemed to miss.
I wasn’t as convinced of his charms for the others. When Lai had pulled out a police uniform from his bag and wiggled into it in the passenger seat, I almost swerved into traffic. But he’d insisted it would work, and somehow, against all odds, it had. The five other yards had looked up at him, typed in the car details, shook their head, and wished the ‘officer’ good luck in his search.
Each time it worked, I was forced to endure his smug grin as we settled back into the car and crossed off another lot from our map.
However, as night fell, the difficulty went up a notch. The casual access dried up. The open gates closed. We considered flashing his obviously fake ID when his uniform only got him a phone number and instructions to call the owner, but I didn’t want to risk it. I was out on bail and Lai? Lai didn’t officially exist.
“We should try the badge, Al. It gets me free donuts all the time!”
“Just… take off the hat.” I groaned, snatching at the offending headware. “That’s not even a local uniform. Your badge has a heart on it!”
Lai glanced down at his chest, then back at me. “So? It’s subtle.”
“It’s pink,” I hissed through gritted teeth.
“It’s rose gold,” Lai huffed back at me. “Tell Candy to order more realistic stripper costumes for the next time I need to dress up as a cop!”
I stared at him.
He stared back.
Somewhere in the distance, a dog barked, and I resisted the urge to throw the hat into traffic.
“Take it off,” I repeated, slower this time.
Lai huffed dramatically, like I was trying to ruin his fun. I was; I was reaching the limit of how much I could humor him in exchange for his meager help.
