Page 105 of Brazen Mistakes

He laughs, unbuckling me and hauling me onto his lap. “Why would I lie about cops?” he teases, his grip tight on my hips.

When I rock forward, it’s easy to feel how hard he is, even through all our layers. “Cops get you horny?” I tease, as he drags me over his erection.

“Nah, beautiful. Watching you let loose makes me hard. That and the way you controlled those turns. You weren’t kidding, were you? You’re a good driver.”

“Well trained, if a little rusty. Honestly, I thought we were going to clip that car for sure.”

“But you made the slide.” He pushes up under me, and I groan at the contact.

But a flash of red and blue in the distance jolts me out of it. “Shit. I think they’re still looking for us.”

Jansen taps his ear. “They are.”

“Should we stay? Or go?”

He nips my chin, then nudges me back to the driver’s side, but not without taking a good handful of ass and squeezing. “Tease,” I mutter, buckling myself back in, waiting for further directions.

His grin is bright in the dim light. “Turn it on, but no headlights.”

“Got it.”

My breathing slows, counting to myself in my mind, waiting, waiting, the red and blue flickering again, but still not coming down the alley.

“Now, out the way we came in.”

I back out and make it to the street, but without additional directions, I cross it and head down the next stretch of alley, still without headlights.

When Jansen motions me back onto the road, I switch on the headlights, and he nods.

“No breaking laws, Clara. We don’t want to go to jail.”

That comment gets a second punch, which he dodges.

We inch through a random neighborhood and, after what feels like an eternity, we make it back to the interstate. Jansen turns on some country-sounding bop he seems to know all the words to, and I’m once again reminded that Jansen’s missed his calling as a singer.

“What is this?” I ask, continuing to follow his directions.

“My sister’s band.”

I strain harder to listen, not knowing how to evaluate what must be bluegrass, as I’ve never heard it before, but the singer’s and Jansen’s voices blend, Jansen harmonizing while pointing to an interchange.

“Do you ever sing with her?”

He laughs. “Not anywhere but home. I’m liable to forget there’s a show and miss it. I helped a bit with recording her demo, but that was mostly a way to get through a boring summer a few years back. Music’s her thing. I’ll stick to stealing. It’s what I’m best at, anyway.”

I look for any hint of bitterness, but there isn’t any. “You seem to be a good thief.”

“I learned from the best. And I learned from my mistakes.”

“Want to tell me about it?”

The next time I glance at him in the shuttered lights of the highway, his gaze is locked on the horizon. “Yeah. But not here. Take the next exit.”

Chapter 38

Clara

The view from the top of the Witch’s Hat is different now that everything’s covered in snow and ice, the leaves from the trees long gone.

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