for the car service indicated the imminent arrival of her ride.
Tears stung her eyes and nose as she slipped the long strap of a crossbody purse over her head and hung the overnight bag from her arm. She quietly opened the front door and looked back at the pad of paper on the coffee table where she’d scribbled pages of notes for her fake cousin Stacey. She’d done what packing she could, but the rest was on the person who agreed to play a part in Summer’s escape scenario.
She swung her rolling suitcase to the small patio outside and locked the door. Separating the plastic covering on her patio greenhouse, she stashed the key in the prearranged spot and grabbed two ripe cherry tomatoes that promptly went into her mouth.
For a thousand unknown reasons, she turned and put her hand on the closed door. Farewell and thanks filled her emotions.
Then resolute and unwavering, she rolled her suitcase off the little terrace where she’d spent so many hours and started along the walkway. After less than half a dozen steps, she was momentarily shocked to find Mrs. Hayashi and her little dog coming out of their apartment. It was four o’clock in the morning. Not a time when people were wandering around outside.
Worried that her little plan was falling apart right at the start, Summer did what she thought best and took a huge chance. She put her finger to her lips and gave the old woman a meaningful stare.
Her neighbor went totally still. She looked at Summer’s suitcase and frowned. Then she nodded to indicate she got it and made a small hand gesture, waving Summer on.
She let go of the suitcase’s handle and used the fingers of both hands to make a heart sign. The light of a car pulling along the sidewalk at the end of the apartment building walkway was her signal to move.
Without looking back, she grabbed the suitcase handle, took a deep breath, and walked into an uncertain future.
15
New York City – thirteen days later
If Arnie ate any more pizza, he was sure a buttload of Tums were in his future. The thing was, though, his pizza guy had the best meat lover’s toppings around, so stopping the unseemly gorge was going to take control, and if there was one thing he lacked right now, it was control.
“Dude, slow down,” Milo admonished with a crooked grin. “Maybe somebody else wants a slice.”
Looking around the room, he found two more pairs of eyes watching him inhale an entire sixteen-inch pie practically by himself.
“Fuck all y’all,” he said, his voice deep and raspy.
Dottie shook her head and made tsk’ing noises.
“He thinks his shit doesn’t stink.” Izzy sniggered. “What you see before you is the result of a man or a woman,” she added with brows arching so high they disappeared under her bangs, “earning the undying thanks of a president, the vice president and his wife, the secretary of state, a foreign head of state, and the heads of at least two international security agencies.”
Folding another slice in half, he shoved a good portion of the thinner end into his mouth and ended up biting off almost half. Nothing else on earth came close to New York-style pizza.
He mumbled something despite the mouthful of food and managed a half-shrug when Dottie gave him shit for having lousy manners.
“What I said,” he drawled with a snark-filled glance in Dottie’s direction, “is never have kids. Fuck that shit. They start off all cute and everything, but goddammit if they don’t grow up to be privileged snotbags without a lick of real-world common sense. We almost ended up with an ugly international incident—the kind where people die—and why? Because a dumbass coed who spent too much time on YouTube couldn’t manage a case of the hots for a guy who was so obviously manipulating her. That’s why. Shit. She actually bought in to some wild tin foil hat stuff.”
“She sounds like a twat, yet you rescued her and averted a major shitstorm.” Dottie’s tone was her way of bringing him off the ledge. It wasn’t about him or what he thought.
For a nanosecond, he narrowed his eyes and glared at her before shrugging the whole fucked-up misadventure off.
“Just doing my job, ma’am.”
She chuckled but didn’t have a comeback.
For shits and grins, he added, “Did the check clear? That’s all I care about.”
“I have a question,” Izzy stated with a laugh. “What the hell happened to your hair? You left here