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“What does it look like I’m doing?”
“I just want to get there,” she snapped. “I don’t want—” she gestured around the car’s dark interior, “this.”
“And you think I do?”
She leveled me with her gaze, challenging me with eyes pinned on me. “Why did you take this job if you hate it so much?”
“Because I had no fucking choice!” I snapped before I could stop myself. I scoffed. I said A, I might as well say B. “Because your father blackmailed me into taking it.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Believe what the—”
She cut me off. “How does he even know you?”
“He knowsofme.”
She frowned but nodded, as if that made perfect sense. “What does he have on you?”
“None of your business.”
She sneered. “Means it’s nothing. You’re lying.”
“I killed someone, okay? Happy? Wanna be in this fucking car with me now?”
Her eyes widened, and the long silence somehow satisfied me.
“I didn’t want to in the first place,” she muttered at last. “But no, that doesn’t help.”
I chuckled despite myself. Damn the lack of sleep messing with my mind—and my temper.
“Who?” she asked. “Why?”
I shook my head, a silent warning for her to back off. I already said too much. Going into details hurt too fucking bad.
“You can’t drop something like that on me and not explain yourself!” she breathed. “That’s big, Marc!”
“Watch me,” I muttered.
She let out an annoyed huff but remained silent.
When the sun rose over the mountains in the distance, I knew I had to stop. My whole body was stiff, my back aching like a motherfucker and my eyes were dry as sandpaper. Kaylie was again asleep, and I envied her.
Pulling over at an old roadside motel, I killed the engine and threw the door open to stretch my legs. The light morning breeze swept through my hair, and for a brief moment, I tilted my face to the sky. Gray clouds hinted at rain, and the few rays of sun that pushed through faded as my eyelids drifted shut. A light dusting of moisture coated my skin and I stood there, letting it rain on me. Letting myself get lost in the stillness of the morning. Then I snapped my eyes open and crossed to her side. Opening the door to Kaylie, I shook her awake, and she jumped up, startled.
“What?” she breathed. “Have we stopped?”
“Get out. We’re crashing a few hours here.”
Her eyes darted to the bleak sky outside the car and the dark asphalt under my feet. Then they lifted, looking past me to the building behind us, and her eyes widened in disbelief. “Here?”
“I could sleep on the fucking road by now, but I don’t wanna take the risk.”
She grimaced at the shabby box-like structure as we walked up to the motel’s entrance. A net door replaced the wooden one, which stood leaning against the wall next to it. I shot it a disapproving look. So much for keeping the thieves and the psychos out. The lack of a lock on the damn front door was enough for me to consider turning around. Sleeping in the car was probably safer. But I could sleep standing up, and the level of exhaustion did nothing to ensure anyone’s safety.
I yanked the makeshift door open and stepped inside. An old man with graying hair and a beard greeted us with a friendly smile. He rose, leaning on a cane, and wobbled over to a low countertop.
“A room?” he asked in a raspy tone, and I nodded, grabbing Kaylie’s arms to keep her from backing away in sheer disgust.
