“Good, let’s go then.” I wave the barrel of the gun at him, and Elias scrambles to his feet.
“Netty told me Noah would be easy. I guess I was wrong.”
“Everyone is wrong about us,” I tell him, forcing him into the van’s passenger seat. Noah thuds a dead body out of the van, blood smeared on his face.
I tilt my head at him. “Are we toxic?”
“No way, baby. Toxic means we might kill each other.” He leans in, wiping dirt or blood from my face. “You and me? We’re just gonna be the death of everyone else. Whoever gets in our way.”
I stand on my tiptoes and place a kiss on his lips. “I love you.”
“And I love you.” He slaps my ass and then climbs into the driver’s seat, while I get into the back, holding Elias at gunpoint. Noah leaves the shotgun across his lap.
“Here we go,” I breathe out, turning to Elias. “Are you ready to get us across the border?”
Elias glances at me. “I have to say, I have a new respect for the two you. I will help you and cut the price in half—as long as you don’t fucking kill me.” He nods to a beaten down, sandy trail. “Follow that. We don’t have a lot of time. The Marshals are eating this place alive looking for you two. Once we get to the drop off, it’ll be home free.”
Noah slams the van into gear, the tires spraying sand as he accelerates. “Well, we’re going to fucking make it. Thanks to you.” He reaches out an pats Elias on the shoulder, then shoots me a wink.
I let out a laugh. I don’t feel guilty. I don’t feel sick. I just feel the weight of the steel in my lap and the heat of the engine beneath us. I reach out and place my hand on Noah’s shoulder.
“It’s you and me, Noah.”
He peers back at me. “It’s you and me, Rue.”
“And Elias,” Elias grumbles, resting his head against the window. “Don’t forget me.”
“Don’t worry,” Noah says. “You’ll get your money, and one hell of a story to tell all your buddies, too.”
We drive in silence for another ten minutes, the distance between us and the rest of the world growing with every revolution of the tires. The sirens are gone. The smoke from the motel is a memory.
And Elias directs us across the desert.
“Right here,” Elias brings us to a stop at a thicket of brush. “Park the van behind, and then we’ve got a ten-mile trek. It’s easy, really. We make it sound hard to keep the pussies out. We’ll be across before daylight. We’ll just be two men short. But it’s okay.”
We pull into the brush, and the engine dies to the turn of the key.
“Noah,” I breathe out, the name catching on a sob I didn’t know was coming. “Noah, look at me.”
“What?” He turns in the seat, his eyes searching mine. The moonlight catches the glint of tears he’s trying to hold back.
“We gonna make it,” I whisper. “We’re actually going to make it across the line.”
The sob finally breaks free, and then I’m lunging across the console, my arms wrapping around his neck. He pulls me into his lap, his hands tangling in my hair, pulling me flush against him as if he’s trying to merge our heartbeats.
When he kisses me, it isn’t laced with secrets. It tastes like relief. It tastes like the salt of my tears and the soot on his skin. It’s a slow, bruising claim—the realization that we didn’t just fucking survive…
We chose each other over everything else.
I pull back just enough to rest my forehead against his. I can feel the warmth of his breath, the steady thrum of his pulse against my collarbone.
“Now,” Elias breaks the moment, a grin on his face, “Let’s disappear.”
We climb out of the van, still toting our weapons. There is no map for where we’re going. There are no names for the people we’re about to become.
We are fugitives, we are ruins, and we are finally, terrifyingly free.
EPILOGUE
