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As I pulled forward and out of the parking lot, he replied, “It’s better than on your back.”
“Fucked up.”
“So is the bandage over your gut.”
“I’m sorry,” whispered Elle from the back seat.
Studying his side mirror, Pops told her, “No reason to be, Precious. It’s just part of the game.” Then he said, “Vice, soon we’ll pull into a gas station. You’re to sweep this vehicle again. We’re missing something.”
Vice had checked her jewelry, but they came up clean. That meant a bug had been placed somewhere on the truck or trailer, not that we could figure out how they found us to begin with.
At a gas pump, Pops got out of the truck, asking, “Precious, you need anything from inside?”
In the rearview mirror, I sadly noticed her fight was gone and the distant Elle had returned. Distracted, she peered around, probably expecting Lorenzo to appear at any moment, and answered, “No, thank you—” but then her eyes lit up for a fraction of a second, only to dull again as if getting lost in thought.
I opened my mouth to try and help her mood, but a low rumbling chuckle came from Pops. “Preeeecious,” he sang-sung. “I can stand here all day, but I’d prefer to know what’s in your head so we can get a move on.”
Elle looked at her hands in her lap. “It’s not the time, with us being followed, but I used to read magazines when locked in Lorenzo’s room.”
My jaw locked as I thought about her being trapped anywhere.
Pops lifted a brow, asking her, “You didn’t read them if not locked in his room?”
See everything…
Elle looked away and out the window where Vice was no longer sitting. “No, it wasn’t allowed. I had to wait until he was gone.”
Pops asked, “We talkin’ race car and motorboat magazines?”
“No.” Her shoulders softened. “Decorating magazines and ones of beautiful homes.”
Seeing movement in the corner of my eye, I quickly looked to see Vice running a device under the front of the truck, searching for a tracker.
The passenger door shutting had me noticing Pops now walking toward the store and Dagger pumping diesel while watching our surroundings. Then, stopping me in my tracks, I found electric eyes watching me in the rearview mirror.
I sighed. “Hey.”
After a lingering moment, she asked, “Have you ever felt you belong by someone’s side?”
Thinking of me wanting to be by hers at the Waffle House, I nodded. “Yeah.”
She stared at me… “That is how I feel with you.” Her eyes were sad. “But I couldn’t. Had to come to the truck without you.”
A part of me wanted to crawl into the back seat and tell her she could have anything she wanted, but the VP in me knew life wasn’t always fair. The VP in me knew efforts had been made to try and keep us safe, and I knew not to fuck it up. So, watching her through the mirror, I said, “What if we make a pact to each other that no matter where our bodies are, we, you and me, are always right here?” I tapped on my chest.
Her lips parted. Then slowly, she nodded, patting her chest. “I like that.”
Her owning a concrete spot in the chest I was tapping, I quietly said, “Me too.”
Letting in cold air, doors opened, ending the moment that would last our lifetime.
Pops reached in and handed me an impressive stack of magazines. “Here. Pass them back.”
I practically had to grunt to lift them all over the seat to Elle. “Jesus, Pops. Overdo it much?”
His upper lip curled. “The fuck you say?”
Pops wanted Elle to get accustomed to having her way. Always. I think he was instilling in her the mindset that her wishes were our commands. He wanted her to relearn her value.
