at the stars in that deserted building outside of Reno, two unlikely allies laying in the dark and holding hands like we were the only two people in the world.
Chapter 19
Alice
The moment we woke up, the sun still just a glimmer of an idea on the horizon, we were moving. And I didn’t think either one of us mistook the increased camaraderie between us.
We’d gone to sleep still discussing our plans for getting back into Reno and then back to San Jose. Which meant I’d woken up the same way I’d fallen asleep: with my head on his shoulder and my fingers tangled up with his, the scruff of his beard rubbing against my forehead, my hair no doubt tickling his nose.
I’d stayed like that for several long moments, trying to wrap my brain around all of that. And then I’d moved as slowly as I could, trying not to wake him. Trying not to deal yet with the inevitably awkward looks we would almost have to give each other.
Of course, I’d failed—and I probably should have known I would. Jack was a criminal, after all. I should have known that he slept with one eye open and both ears on the alert for any sound or movement. The second I moved, he’d jumped and stiffened… and then, to my utter surprise, squeezed my hand once in acknowledgement of the bond we’d built while we were sleeping and then gotten up like it was any other day.
There’d been no awkward looks. No clearing of throats as we tried to figure out what to say to each other. No anxious silences, loaded with all the things we weren’t saying.
Instead, we’d just been immediately on the same team—and working with the same goal in mind. We’d moved quickly through the motions of packing up the gear we’d brought with us and putting the blankets back in the cupboard where he’d had them stored.
“In case I ever need them again,” he joked as we shoved them into what was left of the cabinet.
“Here’s hoping you never do,” I answered, completely sincere.
I didn’t even know the man’s last name. But I knew that he was a good man. And I hoped with everything I had—every tired, half-starved cell in my body—that he would find a way out of this life that he so obviously hated, and into something more… secure. Something that would give him some safety, for the first time in his life.
And after that, we were stumbling out toward the van, both of us wishing there was something like a coffee shop—or even fast food joint—on the corner, and climbing in, ready to execute our plan for the rest of the day.
I should have known it wouldn’t be anywhere close to that simple. I would have been a fool, in fact, to expect it. I mean, you’re talking to the girl who was literally kidnapped and then driven to Reno, where she’d then been involved in a gun battle because her kidnapper had decided at the last minute not to turn her over to the people who had paid him to steal her.
Expecting that drive to Reno to be simple or easy was a big, big misstep. And our problems didn’t even come from the bad guys.
Instead, after about five minutes of driving, we heard what sounded like a muffled explosion. We both ducked and then felt the van jerk abruptly to the right and sort of… limp along.
“Damnit,” Jack said, swerving over to the side of the rode. “Flat tire.”
The moment we were stopped, we both jumped out of the van, Jack running around to my side as I stood and stared at the thing. It was still relatively dim out and hard to see, but the flashlight on Jack’s phone fixed that problem immediately.
We could see the tire, well enough to realize that it wasn’t just flat. It had actually blown. Like, the entire sidewall was gone, left somewhere on the freeway behind us.
“You think this thing has a spare?” I asked, looking doubtfully at the van. As a rental, surely it would be fully stocked, right? Surely they would have done something like take it through a sort of check-in/check-out process that ensured it was fully equipped before it went out again. Surely they wouldn’t want to put anyone renting their scary kidnapping van with the blacked-out windows in a bad position. Like having a flat tire and not having a spare.
I mean, God forbid the people who rented