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There was no changing her mind once she’d decided something. For as much as I wanted to keep pressing for information, everything inside me knew that she wouldn’t give it. We’d always operated under a certain level of secrecy. The less we knew about the other, the safer everyone was. That had always been the case. Even if it did turn out that she actually knew every fucking detail that there was to know about me.
“Stay here as long as you want, Memphis. The house is yours for whatever you need. Kyle too, for that matter. I’ll make sure he knows to keep an eye on everything for you. He’s every bit as dangerous as I am when the situation calls for it.”
She moved like lightning to wipe away a tear that escaped down her cheek, so I put an arm around her shoulders to squeeze her against my side.
“And if you’re fucking convinced that those other two are necessary to achieve what you’re planning, they can stay too,” I said. “But do not let anybody near either of those cars, Memphis. Ever.”
“Where do you want to go?” She asked and had to pause for the most painful sniffle I’d ever heard in my life. “Give me a few hours and I’ll get everything taken care of for you.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE
jersey
I looked at the key fob for Persephone in the palm of my hand before I looked back at Memphis.
“We can take Seph to the airport if you bring her straight back here and put her right back in the garage,” I said. “I’ll need a picture of her back in her place as soon as it happens for proof.”
“Why are you such a fucking crazy person?” Trista asked from the doorway.
“Yeah,” Memphis said and pushed my own hand back against my stomach to close it around the key fob. “I don’t know how to drive.”
“You what?” I asked at the same time that Utah said, “For real?”
When she looked at him, rather than me, I couldn’t do anything but imagine the satisfaction I’d get out of curb stomping that kid right into oblivion.
“I don’t know how to drive?” She said, like she suddenly wasn’t so sure about it.
“I can drive,” Utah offered.
“Like hell you can.”
He shook his head and smiled. “We can take Ariel.”
“Flounder,” I corrected. “Why don’t you know how to drive?” I asked Memphis.
She shrugged. “I didn’t have anyone around to teach me. And once I was old enough, I didn’t have an identity anyway. I didn’t really have a need to learn.”
I laughed like a fucking madman when Memphis went to the front passenger’s side of that truck. I might not be able to do shit about this once we were gone, but I sure as hell didn’t have to just let it happen while I was still here. I put my hand on the door to hold it closed while Memphis stared at me like I really had lost my mind.
“Get up here, Triss.”
She laughed too. “There’s no way you’re almost forty and still behaving like this,” she said and smiled while I opened the door for her.
“That’s because I’m not almost forty. I’m almost thirty-eight. Get in the pumpkin truck.”
Memphis rolled her eyes at me, but she didn’t argue while she climbed into the backseat and slid across for me to get in with her after I’d trapped Trista up front with Utah.
I couldn’t focus on anything that Memphis tried to tell us on the drive to the airport though. She’d handed Triss and me a passport each, plane tickets, everything we’d need to prove the new identities she’d crafted for us. I’d spent the last day convincing myself that Memphis would be okay without me. She was smarter than anyone I’d ever known, and as long as she didn’t go anywhere alone, she’d be fine. If she just did whatever she had to do from the safety of that house, there wasn’t anything to worry about. For as much as I didn’t care to admit it, or even think about it, Utah probably wasn’t going anywhere either. And he might’ve been useless compared to me, but he was probably capable when compared to anyone else.
The silence that filled that truck when Utah stopped it to drop us off was crushing. Triss turned in her seat to look back at me like she thoroughly expected me to just tell Utah to take us back home. Memphis must’ve believed that was what was about to happen too because she opened her door quickly and jumped down to walk around to our side of the truck to wait for us on the sidewalk. Utah got out too and went to Memphis.
“You can still change your mind,” Triss said quietly once we were alone.
“He’s not going to stop coming after you, Fancy Face. And I’d have to lock you in that house all day every day to be able to guarantee you anything even similar to safety if we stay here.”
I got out of the truck before I really did change my mind about the whole thing, but my heart just fucking hurt to see Memphis standing there trying to hug herself with tears in her eyes. She forced herself to smile at me once I was standing in front of her.
“Give yourself a chance to really be happy, Jersey Boy. Maybe use all that time on the plane learning how to smile. Triss can teach you what it’s supposed to look like.”
