Nightfall (Devil's Night #4) - Penelope Douglas Page 0,36

bitch.”

Dammit.

Pressing the brakes harder than necessary, I jerked my truck over to the shoulder and halted, hearing the gravel kick up underneath.

“Will…” Kai started.

“I’ll hold my tongue,” I assured him, already knowing what he was going to say. I pulled the weed out of the center console and slipped it to Damon. “Get rid of this.”

“Dude, what the hell?” Kai barked.

But I ignored him. “Get rid of it now,” I told Damon again, turning off the engine. “And don’t toss it out the window. His dash cam…”

“Goddamn it,” he grumbled, stuffing it into the glove compartment and slamming it closed.

“Lock it.” I threw him the keys.

“You think he knows?” Damon looked at me as he quickly locked my glove box.

I peered into my side mirror, seeing Officer Scott walk up to my side with his flashlight beaming.

“I think Em is smarter than that,” I said.

She wouldn’t complain about last night and the lock-in. Tattling would dent her pride. Not sure how I knew that about her, but I did.

“Think he knows what?” Michael pressed. “What did you guys do? Dammit. You’re always pulling shit when I’m not looking.”

“We didn’t hurt her,” Damon assured.

“Just made her pee her pants a little,” Kai added.

I bit back my smile just as Scott tapped on my glass.

I rolled down the window and flicked the butt of my cigarette out onto the highway, missing him by just a hair.

He stopped, turning his eyes toward the cigarette burning its last embers and back to me, flashing his light inside.

“Here to see that picture of me again?” I teased.

But he wasn’t laughing. “License and registration, please.”

I hesitated a moment for good measure, and then reached into the console, pulling out my registration and insurance card holder, and then my license out of my wallet.

I handed him both. “I promise you, they haven’t changed since last week, Scott.”

He didn’t seem to hear me as he flashed his light on my license like he hadn’t seen it a dozen times in the past three months, and then my registration and insurance as if he didn’t already know that they don’t expire until my next birthday.

“You know how fast you were going?” he asked, studying my insurance card.

“It wasn’t fast.”

“Have you been drinking?” he inquired, unfazed.

“No.”

He paused, still looking over my material. “You on drugs?”

“Sometimes,” I replied.

Damon snorted, and Michael cleared his throat to cover up his laugh.

Scott straightened and took a step back, looking down on me. “Step out. I want to look around the truck.”

And I couldn’t stop myself. “Well, my glove compartment is locked, so is the trunk in the back, And I know my rights, so you go’n need a warrant for that,” I sang.

Everyone started laughing, Damon shaking next to me, and Kai hunching over in my rearview mirror, his head in his hands to cover it up.

I always loved that Jay-Z song. At least I was good for a few laughs.

Officer Scott looked down at me, chewing the inside of his lip like he’d just love to have a reason. This was the kind of guy who would discharge his weapon on someone, claiming the cell phone in their hand looked like a gun.

The laughter calmed down, and I turned my eyes on him again.

“I’m sorry,” I told him. “I’m an idiot.”

I bid him to come closer, softening my voice.

“I know how you see me,” I said. “Ignorant, arrogant, frivolous… I want to be good. Honestly. Goal-oriented, a hard worker, honest, righteous…” I paused. “Like Emory. Your sister, right?”

He narrowed his eyes on me, and I could see his shoulders tense.

“You know,” I continued, “it’s amazing that given the years your family has been in Thunder Bay, I don’t know her as well as I’d like.” I turned to my friends. “You hear that, guys? A girl I don’t know.”

Some laughter went off inside the truck.

I turned back to him, seeing the threat start to register.

We were starting to understand each other.

“All the hours we walk the halls together at school,” I taunted. “All the hours on that bus to away games and back. All the late nights at basketball practice and her at band practice.”

“Plenty of time to get to know someone,” Kai added. “Turner didn’t even need five minutes to get Evie Lind pregnant.”

“Some of us have better longevity,” I joked over my shoulder.

“We know you do.” Michael patted my shoulder.

Hell yes, I do.

I turned my gaze back on Scott, seeing the corners of his eyes start to crinkle in a glare.

I