his phone in his hands, and then he looks up at me and raises an eyebrow.
"What, Willa?"
"Stop being an asshole and fill the car up while I'm inside." I slam the door on whatever bullshit Aftyn tries to say to me and head inside with Daphne's money in my pocket. I just want this trip to be over already, even though I have no idea what life is going to be like when we finally get back home.
It doesn't seem like anything will feel normal again after this.
Twenty-Seven
Coordinates Received
Aftyn
I’m leaning against Willa’s truck, watching the meter run up the dollar signs. It amazes me that this thing takes so much fucking gas, but that means no more stops.
Once we’re back on the road, it’s straight to Lakyn’s place.
With a sigh, I fish my phone out of my pocket and pull up the message that my goddamn phantom sent with an address. Regardless of what Willa says, I’ll take over the driving from here.
I brush the tip of my finger along the address, copy it, and paste it into the navigation system app on my phone. I want to make sure that this isn’t some kind of—
Motherfucker, I growl internally.
I tap the screen and bring up the Earthy view of the map, grinding my teeth when I see that the address I received is to some burned out house. I highly doubt that Lakyn would live in such a shithole. Even though I don’t really know him at all, I have a feeling that he has more taste than that.
I look up at the meter when the pump makes a click sound. I squeeze the last few cents into the tank before I pull it out and replace it.
Turning my eyes toward the small Smart Shop a few feet away, I can see Willa in line. She’s watching me through narrowed eyes, and I know that it’s only a matter of time before she really does gun for my balls.
Bitch.
I lean into the truck and take the keys out of the ignition so that leaving me behind doesn’t become an option. If I had to walk to Arizona from here, I’d get there looking like shit and he’d probably laugh me out of the state.
I want to make an impression on him.
I can’t explain it, but I just want him to see me differently than Mom ever did.
I blow my breath out, impatiently waiting for Wills. I don’t want to leave Daphne alone with her, but I’d rather not leave her precious fucking truck unattended either.
While Daphne may be inside of it, that girl’s mind is as occupied as one’s can get.
As soon as I see Wills making her way out of the store looking as angry as when she first went in, I walk away from the truck, brush by her roughly, and go sit on the side of the building. I run a hand back through my hair, wondering if I should just try calling again, but I just have a feeling that this won’t go my way.
I decide against it.
If my tormentor doesn’t answer the phone, it’ll put me in a really bad fucking mood and that’ll sour the rest of the trip for me.
I begin to chew the inside of my mouth as I pull up the navigation app and screenshot the information I located with the bogus address, then go to my messages. I tap on the phone number, attach the picture, and send it along with a little love note.
If you don’t give me the right fucking address, I’ll come looking for you instead of Lakyn. Think you can take me?
Closing my eyes, I lean my head back against the building and wait. I don’t always get a response as soon as I send a heartwarming message, but whoever this is has to know how close I am right now.
Or maybe they think I’m fucking around and am still sitting in Tribeca somewhere—who the fuck knows?
Ding!
I almost drop my phone when the notification goes off.
I glance down and swipe the message open, my eyes narrowing at a new address.
Catch me if you can.
I’m going to kill whoever the fuck this is. Maybe that’ll be a good way to impress my old man, maybe it won’t be, but this son of a bitch is playing games with the wrong guy.
I run my finger over the address, drop it into my navigation app and wait while it spins for a moment, and then I see it.
A house