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“Except you weren’t being fed,” Eli says indignantly.
I shrug. “I started picking pockets to get money for food.”
“And that’s when you met Cora?”
For the first time since I realized exactly where I was driving to, I smile. Eli remembered the story I told him when we were camping. I hadn’t meant to tell him about her, but he was there in my arms and the need to tell him about the most important person in my life—until I met him—was overwhelming.
“That’s when I met Cora,” I confirm, repeating his words. “She told me she was the brains, and I was the body and together we’d be legendary.”
“What kind of heists did you pull?”
“Nickel and dime really. Not much worth stealing around here without getting caught. I did make a habit of stealing from my old tricks, I’d go to the truck stop and if I recognized any of the rigs, I’d break into it and steal them down to their last piece of gum, bring it back to Cora, and split the profits with her.”
“So, she was your partner before me?”
“My only partner before you,” I say softly. Eli’s eyes widen, and his hand, grips mine, reminding me of the way he holds on to me when he’s sleeping in my arms.
“After a while, though, she got really sick. Sometimes, she couldn’t breathe well enough to talk. On those days we’d just sit and watchButch Cassidyand The Sundance Kid, Paper Moon,andThe Sting, over and over again.”
“What happened?” Eli asks carefully, knowing there’s a sad part of this story—because there always is.
“Her niece decided to pack her up and send her to a nursing home. Cora told me she was too sick to fight them off anymore. I tried to get her to fight them. Told her I’d break her out of the nursing home, and then we’d get as far away from Inyan as we could, robbing banks for our traveling cash.
‘I’m too old for that kind of adventure, kid, but you aren’t.’
‘I don’t want to go on any adventures without you.’
“She told me no, so I told her I’d just break into the nursing home and visit her every night. She wouldn’t hear of it. Told me she needed me to do one more heist as her partner.
‘I had my fun. Had enough adventures for five lives and made my mark,’ she told me. ‘But, you kid, you’re going to be the kind of thief other thieves tell stories about. You’re going to be legendary. Starting tonight.’
“She had a safe full of jewelry and money her greedy niece has locked away from me because she knew Cora didn’t leave it to her in her will. She wanted me to crack her main safe and run away with all the treasures she’d spent a lifetime collecting.”
Eli leans in. “Did you do it? Did you break into the safe?”
“I would have done anything she asked me to except—she ordered me not to come back after I broke into the safe. To take the loot leave Inyan and never look back.”
‘Thieves never say goodbye.’
“I couldn’t just leave. I wanted to see her one more time. A part of me hoped that once she saw all her treasure again, I might be able to talk her into leaving with me.”
Ten years and the memory is as strong and real as if it were happening in this very moment.
I climbed into her window that one last time, and at first, I thought she was just sleeping—” I turn my head away from Eli, and stare at the ugly landscape, and make a quick swipe over my wet cheeks with my shirt sleeve.
I take a few shuddering breaths and look back at him. “She never planned to go into that nursing home her niece was sending her to.”
“I’m sorry.” Eli grips my hand even tighter.
“After that, I snuck out of her house with my stash and then made a stop back here at the truck stop. I woke up the kid who’d taken my spot sleeping in the storeroom, gave him some money, told him to get the hell out of town, and then I burned the fucker down. I haven’t been back since.”
Eli looks at me as if I’m one of his complex math problems he likes to solve. “Why did you come back now?” he asks softly.
“Because you need to know who you’re really sleeping with.” I reluctantly release his hand from mine. “The night I burned this place down, I gave myself a new name. I borrowed the names Jebediah and Ezekiel from a couple of ol’ time thieves Cora told me stories about and took her last name, Jones.”
“Jeb,” Eli tries to break in.
I pull my hand away from him, and put up to stop him.I need to get the rest out.“You deserve to know that you’re sharing your body with Jimmy Po, a bargain basement hustler who couldn’t handle his past, so he burned it down.”
