my best not to open them again when I feel his eyes on me.
“He still asleep?” Aftyn asks Willa curiously.
“Yeah, but I’m pretty sure he’s okay,” she replies.
“Oh, I don’t care about that,” he tells her with a laugh. “I just wanna know if I’m paying for that power wash is all.”
“Will there ever be a day where you care about anything other than yourself?” she barks at him.
“Hm.”
I don’t feel his eyes on me anymore, so I know he’s turned around in his seat again, allowing me to crack an eye open without him knowing it.
“I don’t see it happening if you want me to be honest, Wills. Someone has to give a shit about me, and we both know that no one will love me more than I do.”
She chuckles despite the mood he’s putting her in. I don’t spend a lot of time with the two of them together, but for the most part, they seem to just snap at each other. This is different; he’s trying to bait her, but she’s refusing.
“Know what I was thinking about while you were asleep?” she asks thoughtfully.
“My dick?”
Willa lets out a loud sigh and Aftyn grins at her. “Never mind. You’re clearly not in the mood to be an adult right now, and the sun will be up in a couple more hours. Go back to sleep so you can be ready to drive by then.”
Aftyn turns his head quickly toward me and I’m praying that I closed my eyes in time for him not to notice I’ve been awake this entire time.
“I still can’t believe he’s here,” he says.
“Why’s that?”
“Because he doesn’t belong on this trip, Wills. This was supposed to be ours to do alone and he weaseled his way in.”
“No. He didn’t. I invited him.”
“What?” he barks at her.
I crack an eye open again and glance at Willa. I can see the smile on her lips in the rear-view and the mischief gleaming in her eyes. She’s trying to save me from Aftyn unloading whatever seems to be bothering him, and she’s willing to throw herself into his line of fire to make sure he doesn’t do me harm.
But what’s the worst that can happen?
I’ve seen Aftyn angry. His rage is unmatched by anything else I’ve ever seen, though I don’t know him to be violent.
I can take a verbal lashing; hell, I’m used to it by now.
“I already told you what I suspect, Meyer,” she tells him slowly, “and I didn’t want to come back to him being starved to death because I wasn’t around to open the goddamn door.”
“Chicks,” he snarls.
Willa laughs and Aftyn reclines his chair so that it’s against my knees. Almost like he wants to make sure I can’t get away from him, but where exactly can I go?
I’m at the mercy of the two people that know how to love and hate more than anyone else on this planet and I’m caught in the middle of whatever wave comes crashing next in the raging waters of their turmoil.
Ten
Legends and the People that Make Them
Aftyn
Once we’ve spent about three hours trying to get out of Pennsylvania, I’ve decided that I’ve had enough of sitting shotgun for a while. I refused to take over when Wills asked me to because I needed the extra time to think about things and I know that I couldn’t do that if I had to concentrate on the road. However, I think now is as good a time as any to finally swap out.
“Pull over at the next rest stop,” I tell her as I sit up and run a hand back through my hair. The incessant feeling of my phone vibrating in my pocket has been driving me fucking nuts and I know I can use that rage to put the pedal to the metal and cut some fucking time off this already too long drive.
Twenty minutes later, we’re in a rest area with a couple of mom and pop cars parked and empty. I glance at Willa when she cuts the engine, then pull off my seat belt and turn to look at Dexter. He looks gaunt, a little pale, and sweatier than someone should be from just being in a goddamn car.
“You come with me,” I say to him before I turn to look at Willa again. “We’ll be back in little bit.”
“Aftyn—”
“Chill out,” I cut her off with an eye roll. “I promise not to hurt him.”
Before she can shoot anything else