Page 63 of Endless Love

As the sunset starts to streak the sky, lighting it up in a painter’s palette’s worth of oranges and yellows and pinks, I try to focus on that, instead of the ache in my muscles and in my heart. All too soon, Ivan’s voice, flat and toneless, cuts through my distraction. “I’m going to stop and swap the car out soon,” he says, shifting lanes as he glances down at the atlas in his lap. “It’ll be the last time before we get to Vegas.”

He says it almost reassuringly, as if to make it up to me that we have to steal another car.Just one more.But honestly, at this point, after watching one of Ivan’s brothers die in front of me, stealing a car seems less horrible than it did at first.

I nod, still not trusting myself to speak, still too tired to think of what to say. As the sunset fades and the sky starts to darken, Ivan pulls off of the highway, following a side road towards another small town.

He stops at a used car lot, much like the one we stole that first car from, dimly lit and deserted at the late hour. I feel a tightness in my chest as Ivan pulls the Subaru around back, out of sight of the road, his gaze quickly surveying the line of cars parked in the back of the lot.

The first time he did this, I was scared, and shocked. Now I just feel numb as I watch him expertly swap out plates on a Ford Bronco and a Honda Civic, moving at an abrupt pace as he glances over his shoulder, watching for anyone else.

I know the routine now, too. I get into the driver’s seat of the car we’ve been driving as Ivan hotwires the Bronco, thinking of the list of crimes that Bradley will gleefully list off to me if we get caught.Grand theft auto. Accomplice to murder. Accomplice to carjacking. Grand theft auto again.The threats, the things he’ll make me do in order to avoid a prison sentence. Things that I have no idea how I’ll respond to, because until very recently, it never occurred to me in my wildest dreams that I would have to worry about any of this.

I follow Ivan out of the town, until we’ve passed the last of the stoplights, and the road darkens again. He takes me down a few side roads, out to an area where there’s nothing but empty property, and turns off of the road, driving through a field all the way to a copse of trees.

When I stop just behind him, every muscle protesting the bouncing of the car the whole way, he gets out of the Bronco and walks over to the driver’s side of the car I’m driving. He opens the door, gesturing for me to slip out.

“I’m going to wipe it down,” he says. “Get rid of any fingerprints. Then we’ll get on the road again.”

I nod tiredly, jumping down out of the car and walking stiffly to the Bronco. I close my eyes while I’m waiting for Ivan to come back, and before I know it, I’m fast asleep.

27

CHARLOTTE

We get into Vegas around eleven in the morning, three days before Halloween. We spent one more night in the most out-of-the-way motel we could find, with Ivan sleeping near the door in case of trouble. But for once, there was no trouble. The night passed without incident, and even though I didn’t sleep well, I did getsomesleep.

I fell asleep again after breakfast, nodding off as Ivan turned onto the highway that would lead us into Vegas. My hoodie was tossed in the backseat, the day warm enough that I no longer needed it. A quick glance at the dashboard of the Bronco told me that the temperature outside had climbed to seventy degrees—downright balmy after the days and nights spent driving through the northern part of the country.

The bright sunlight wakes me up after a little while, just outside of the city. I look out of the window, and my eyes widen as I see the landscape around us.

Red dirt—desert and cliffs, stretch out on either side of the road. I lean my forehead against the glass window, staring at it, and I hear Ivan chuckle next to me.

“Gorgeous, isn’t it?” There’s something soft in Ivan’s voice that makes me think he’s not entirely talking about the landscape.

“I’ve never seen anything like it before.” I’ve never seen the desert outside of movies. I’d always imagined it to be dusty and flat, but while there is a decent bit of flat space, the reddish cliff formations and the view spreading out to the horizon is remarkably beautiful. “It’s so much better than I thought it would be.” I turn to look at him. “You’ve been out here before, right?”

“To Vegas? Plenty of times.” Ivan rotates his hands on the steering wheel, cracking his neck. “Business, pleasure, you name it. I’m familiar with the city. Which is a good thing.”

I try not to think about the spark of jealousy that the way he sayspleasurelights in me. I shouldn’t care who else he’s been with, what kind of pleasures he sought out on other trips. That shouldn’t matter to me at all. But I feel the hot stab of it, all the same.

I turn back to the window, trying to shift my focus back to the view to quell the churning emotions. The desert stretches out for miles all around us, endless and more mesmerizing than I could have imagined, but my mind keeps drifting back to what kind ofpleasuresIvan might have sought out in Vegas before.

Which also makes me wonder what he’ll seek out after I’m gone. Regardless of how obsessed he became with me, regardless of all the things he’s said to me, Ivan is no saint. He’ll find another woman. He’ll forget about me. And the thought of him in bed with someone else, his hands and mouth trailing over someone else’s skin, makes me feel nauseous.

I clear my throat, forcing my mind away from that and to a different, more pertinent subject.

“So, what’s the plan once we get there?” My voice sounds strained, even to my own ears, but I hope that Ivan doesn’t notice.

Ivan glances over at me. “We’ll check into a hotel. The Wynn has top-tier security, floors where the billionaires stay, accessible with only a keycard. Bradley will have to have a warrant to get any camera footage, and Lev will have to invoke some serious favors if he wants to get to us. And even if Bradley does have a warrant, and even if Lev does throw his weight around, I will have paid someone to keep an eye out for us. We’ll be warned, if someone is coming. Money talks in Vegas, and I have plenty of it.”

The cool confidence in his voice does something to me. I feel a flip in my stomach, a rush of adrenaline, and I swallow hard, trying not to think about the possibility of being alone with Ivan in a luxury room. A room meant for sin and excess, meant for all thepleasuresthat he hinted at earlier.

“And after that?”

“Once we’re checked in, I’ll contact my associate. Then we can get cleaned up, get a good meal, and I’ll find out how long before we can get the new IDs and such.” Ivan glances over at me. “We’re in the homestretch now. It’s going to be fine.”

There’s something strained about the way he says those last words, and it makes me uneasy. “You’re sure this person can help us?” He must be, I think, or we wouldn’t have come all this way. But now that the moment is all but here, I feel that fearful sense of overwhelm that’s threatened to swallow me up before. This sounds dangerous, like something out of a movie. Not the kind of thing I ever thought I’d be involved in. “You trust them?”

Ivan smirks. “Trust is a strong word in my world. But I know them well. I’ve done business with them before. And they make it their job to do exactly what we need. What I pay them willmake it worth their while to ensure that we get that without too much trouble.”

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