I tapped my comm, turning it off while indicating that he turn his off. He did.
“You good?” I whispered into the space between us, not wanting our other companions in the car to get wind of it.
“Yeah, why?”
“Because you don’t seem like you’re good. You’ve been quiet all week.”
He looked away from me. “I’m fine.”
I wanted to drop it. That was the cue to drop it, but I decided to press. “You know you can talk to me.”
“Yeah.”
“Then talk to me.”
His lips went into a thin line as he looked out the window, like sitting beside me was suffocating him. “There’s nothing to talk to you about.”
I didn’t like how difficult he could get sometimes, bottling up his thoughts and dying safely in silence. It was unhealthy.
“Devil, I know we—”
He looked at me with dark eyes showing how badly hewanted me to stop trying to get to him. “I am fine,” he said. “Just don’t have a good feeling about this. It seems too easy, and you’re not seeing it, or listening to me, so I’m fine; we’re following your lead.”
I sighed. “I get it; you don’t like this—”
“You’re working on your own terms. We’re supposed to be a team.”
I frowned. “Everyone agreed to it.”
“Because you forced it on them; you gave no room for any other opinion, acted like you have some other personal shit to deal with.”
I looked up at the rearview to catch Chika’s gaze on us.
I looked back at Devil and said quietly, “We’re doing this for us, for our freedom.”
“A freedom we already have?” He raised his hand. “Look around; we’re fucking free.”
“Devil—”
“Maybe next time, leave room for other opinions because this isn’t your ‘freedom’ alone; it’s for everyone in Street. Something is going to go so fucking wrong today, I feel it in my gut, and all casualties will be your fault because you choose to blindly trust a stranger rather than the people you’ve lived with for years.”
“I’m not—”
“Hey.” Dog turned his head to the back seat. “I’m going out for a smoke. Zahra, you coming? Monitor me and shit?” He stared at me pointedly.
“I’ll be right out.”
He glanced at Devil and then left the car.
I turned to Devil again. “Just trust me, okay? I know what I’m doing.”
He looked away and muttered, “You always do.”
I sighed, opening my mouth to say something, but thought better of it, deciding to get out of the car. My leather pants stretched as I closed the door and walked to the back of the vehicle, seeing Dog leaning against the trunk.
“What,” I snapped.
He turned off his comm and lit the cigarette between his lips. “He’s right, you know? Keep going at this pace, and you’ll run whatever race you’re running alone.”
