It’s not a guarantee, but if we could get to the other side of the country, there’s a higher chance we could just hide and disappear.”
“If he’s as crazy and powerful as you think he is, couldn’t he or my father flag our IDs? And I don’t even have an ID.”
“We’ll need fake ones, and I’m going to hope that my ID person isn’t a backstabbing asshole.”
“And if they are?”
“Then this adventure will get more adventurous. We’re just going to show up and hope for the best.”
I’m very unconvinced about this, but I’ll trust Shepherd. He’s gotten me further than I’ve ever managed to get myself.
“You’ve got a look on your face that tells me you think I’m insane, but no matter what we do, we need IDs. If we want a car, if we need a hotel, anything, we need an ID. I know someone around here, I don’t know anyone halfway across the country. So let’s see what we can do. If she stabs us in the back, we stab her in the back harder.”
“I know this might be hard for you to believe, but I’m not really good at this stabbing people in the back stuff.”
“It’s because you have weak arms, but we’ll get you there.”
“Weak arms, my ass,” I growl as I jump onto the bed and put him in a headlock with my good arm.
Without straining at all, he grabs me in a headlock, ducks his chin, and throws me over his shoulder, onto the bed. The money fluffs up around me as I hit. Then he flips around, grabs my arm and pins it between his legs until there’s pressure on it.
“Oh my god! You’re going to break my arm.”
“Never start a fight that you know you’re not going to win.”
“I thought it’d just be a playful little tussle!”
He yanks me forward, swings me around and drops me onto my back where he straddles my waist. “It’s playful and fun,” he says.
“Fun. Fun,” I grumble, not quite sure why I kind of like this “fun.”
But instead of doing anything he just starts stacking his money while sitting on me. “Now, this isn’t enough money to go crazy, but it’s enough money for us to hide happily.”
“I could get you more,” I say.
He hesitates as he lowers the money. “How so?”
“We blackmail my father into handing it over.”
“I… don’t think that’s a good idea. If he wouldn’t do shit to get you back, he’s not going to do shit for some blackmail.”
That was the issue with all of them. They didn’t understand my father. You don’t go for things a normal human would cherish, you go for things that would ruin him. “My father… is a very… unique man. You can’t expect him to give up shit he doesn’t want to give up. But there’s one thing he cares about more than anything and that’s his image. I have shit that could get him to choke up a lot of money.”
“Why wouldn’t you have told Tony that?”
“Because… I wasn’t sure at that point…” I think about it for a moment. “Because I still thought my father might do something.”
He lowers his handfuls of money. “I’m sorry he didn’t, but he doesn’t really sound like someone you need in your life.”
“That’s very true.”
He reaches for my face and I go to lean into him until he flicks me on my forehead. “I’m your only Prince Charming now,” he says before swinging off.
“Lovely,” I grumble as I sit up.
“Get your bags packed. We don’t know how this is going to go, so we have to be prepared to run.”
“Alright. Are we leaving the monster behind?” I look over at the dog that’s currently trying to chew on a metal bedpost.
“First you want me to save you and now you want me to leave you behind? Which is it?”
“I am not the monster,” I grumble as I grab my bag and pack it with my stuff before stuffing some of his money into it.
He holds a hand out. “Hold up, hold up. What are you doing with my money?”
“What if you lose one of the backpacks? You’d lose all the money.”
“That’s why I have it distributed on my body as well as on the bag.”
I stare at him.
“Fine, you can have five dollars.”
I grab another wad and stick it into my pocket while ignoring his whining. Together, we head outside. It takes us about two hours of hopping buses and catching trains to reach wherever Shepherd is taking