Page 29 of Love and Other Lost Things

Kait’s office was a small, cluttered room with two chairs and a desk piled with unsteady stacks of paperwork, paper cups of old coffee from the minimart next door, and grease-stained tools. Jane sank into the first chair, a gold-upholstered relic from another era.

Kait moved a file box from the desk chair and sat down. “So, what’s it been? Nine or ten years?”

Jane nodded. “Ten and a half.”

“Are you still out in LA?”

Jane shook her head. “I’m… in transition.”

Kait leaned back in her office chair, waiting for Jane to elaborate. She’d never been the kind of person to pepper someone with questions or push them to talk if they didn’t want to talk.

Jane and Kait had formed a sort of tentative friendship on their drive across the US but hadn’t kept in touch after Kait had dropped Jane off in the motel parking lot all those years ago. For one thing, Jane hadn’t had a phone number to give Kait. And she’d gotten the feeling that Kait was someone who would help you with a ride, but she wasn’t going to call you for a chat. Plus, Jane had been trying to cut ties with Linden Falls.

Jane rubbed her sweaty hands on the fabric of her leggings. She never would have imagined herself asking for another favor when Kait had already done so much for her, and for nothing in return.

Jane had little to offer in return now, too. But she also had few options. “I hoped you could help me with a car.”

“What kind of car?”

“An old one. Junky, but not too junky. Something extremely unmemorable.”

Kait nodded like she was thinking it over. From out in the garage, Jane could hear metal clanking against metal, drills whirring, and the steady puff of air from a hydraulic lift. Kait ran a bigger operation here than Jane had imagined. Hopefully that meant she’d be able to help, and quickly. Jane’s only plan B was Greyhound, but a bus full of strangers meant there could be dozens of witnesses.

“I don’t have a lot of money. But I have that Toyota out there.” Jane waved her hand at the grimy window behind Kait’s desk that opened to the alley in back. “It’s an older model, but it runs well. You could have it.”

“So, you want to do a trade?”

“Yes.” Jane let out a slow breath. “Except there’s just one other thing…”

On their drive out to Los Angeles ten years ago, she and Kait had mostly listened to country music and news on NPR. Other than their initial conversation where Jane had begged for a ride, they hadn’t talked about Jane’s home life or Kait’s business or anything personal at all. Jane certainly hadn’t asked if Dad’s suspicions about Kait’s illegal side business were true. Kait had been doing Jane the biggest favor of her life. Jane hadn’t wanted to know if her getaway car was stolen.

But there was no getting around it now. If Dad had been wrong, and everything about Kait’s business was on the up and up, Jane was about to offend the last person who deserved it.

“What is it?” Kait prompted.

“The Toyota needs to disappear. Forever.”

Kait’s eyebrows rose.

“And nobody can trace the car you give me,” Jane continued.

Kait’s attention shifted to the spot below Jane’s eye where she’d done her best to cover the yellowing bruise with make-up. The other woman cocked her head. “Because you need to disappear, too.”

Jane nodded. “Yes. And I need your help.”

Kait stared at her, as if considering Jane’s words, and Jane held her breath. After a moment, Kait nodded. “Alright. What’s the plan? How is this all going to work?”

The less information anyone knew about where she was going, the better. But like she’d said to Mom, Kait was the one person she’d ever been able to trust. “My mom grew up in Canada, in a small town outside of Ottawa. She was in her first year at the University of Toronto when she and a couple of girlfriends took a trip to Niagara Falls. It was the same weekend my dad and his buddies had driven up from Linden Falls for a bachelor party.”

Kait’s lip curled up in disgust, but she nodded at Jane to keep talking.

“My dad was more than ten years older than my mom, handsome, charming, and had a good job on the Linden Falls police force. It didn’t take long for him to convince her to drop out of school and marry him.” Jane shifted in her seat. “Mom got pregnant on their honeymoon. A month before her due date, she went to visit her parents in Ottawa, and that’s when I decided to make an early appearance. I have dual US and Canadian citizenship. It’s not something most people know about me.”

Kait nodded slowly. “Including the guy who put that mark on your face, I’m guessing.”

“No, he doesn’t know.” Even before Jane had discovered the full extent of who Matteo really was, some part of her had known to keep that secret to herself, just in case she needed it someday. “If I use my Canadian passport to cross the border, Matteo—my… ex—might have a harder time tracking me down.”

Since Scarlett was a minor traveling with her mother, all she’d need was her birth certificate to cross the border. But even Kait didn’t need to know about Scarlett. Nobody in this town did. “Once I’m safely in Canada, I’ll head west and look for a town to settle in. Somewhere that I can blend in and find work as a server or house cleaner. If Matteo doesn’t know I’m a Canadian citizen, he won’t think to look for me there.”

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