as if that were the last thing she’d ever be thinking of. “I have to go get my sisters.”
“Oh. Fine. Though they’ll have to ride with the dog.” I unfastened my seatbelt and turned around to check. The dog was lying on the back seat, completely quiet. It was either asleep or dead. Hopefully asleep. I didn’t need to have killed a dog tonight, too.
“You don’t understand.” She had both hands on the wheel and was staring straight ahead, even though we weren’t going anywhere. “I’m meant to be meeting them at a certain time, and I’m late. I also don’t have a way to get them home. I don’t even have my EFTPOS card. I’m going to have to do some … some sneaking, too, and I’m wearing a blanket.”
“Right,” I said. “We’ll go grab some clothes first, then. I live in Dunedin, but there’s a place close by we can go.”
She glanced at me, then away. She wasn’t a teenager. I wondered how I’d ever thought she could be. Her face and body might be young, but her body language was much too assured. Her hair was messy, her face possibly a bit strained, but she was coping. She said, “You could just loan me the ute. Not get involved.”
“Yeh, nah,” I said. “I pushed you into the river and didn’t pull you out. You’re due a rescue.”
Another glance at me and away. It seemed to be her specialty. “I don’t need a rescue.”
“But you could use some help. If there’ll be sneaking.”
She was frowning. “It’s not a joke.”
“No,” I said. “I see that. Get out and come around. I’m driving now. You can explain along the way. As we’re in a hurry.”
Daisy
I didn’t have a car. I didn’t have money. I didn’t have a place to stay with the girls. I didn’t have a plan.
Oh. I could ring my brother. My mental processes were slow and no mistake. Why hadn’t that occurred to me? Dorian could use his card and get us a motel room for tonight, and hire a car for the morning, too.
I didn’t want to ring him, though, for the same reason I hadn’t told him in the first place. Because he’d have thought he had to do it instead of me, and it would hurt him.
It wasn’t going to hurt me. It was going to feel nothing but good.
I’d have to ring him anyway. No other choice.
Wait. I didn’t have my phone. I could borrow … Whosit’s phone, but I didn’t know Dorian’s number. Bugger modern life and not needing to memorize numbers.
Whosit had been driving into town. Now, he said, “Any time.”
“Any time what?”
“The explanation. If we’re going to sneak, I feel we need a plan.”
He sounded perfectly calm, as if pulling people out of freezing rivers, collecting heroic dogs, and engaging in shady acts of after-midnight derring-do were all in a day’s work. I asked, “What’s your name?”
He hesitated a noticeable couple seconds, then said, “Gray.” As if it were a fake name.
“Gray?” I asked. “What sort of name is Gray? It’s a color. Who’s named after a color? What’s your brother’s name, Blue?” That was rich, coming from me, but never mind.
He glanced at me as if he couldn’t believe I was being so rude. Since I couldn’t believe it myself, he had a fair point. “It’s a name,” he said. “Grayson. What’s yours?”
“Daisy.”
“Pleased to meet you, Daisy. What’s this espionage, then? Wait. Your sisters aren’t underage, are they? Could be awkward. I may have to rethink my participation.”
“No. Sixteen and seventeen.” Of legal age, or I wouldn’t have been able to do this.
“And we’re rescuing them why?” Still calm.
I hesitated. If he lived around here, he’d know.
No choice. I said, “Because they’re in Mount Zion.”
Another couple seconds while he digested that. It was quiet even in this busy tourist town so long after midnight, and he drove beside the lake for a bit, then turned right and headed uphill.
The ute wasn’t new. It was a bit battered, in fact, and dusty inside. Who drove a not-new black ute, had scars on his face and knuckles, and stayed up here amongst the rich-listers?
It would be a mate’s house, something like that. Not that it mattered to me. Surely I wasn’t going to judge him over money. I hadn’t gone that far down the road to materialism, had I?
I got stroppy when I was scared. Sarcastic. Or you could go all the way to “bitchy.” Blame my rebellious nature, or my