Page 5 of Love Me Dangerous

“You’re admitting I have moves?” He arches a cocky eyebrow.

I roll my eyes. “You’re impossible.”

Traffic slows as we approach the border crossing. Cars inch forward, splitting into four separate lanes. A few cars up, Gabe chooses the middle lane. Kirilee takes the left one. While Jesse navigates around the back end of a giant horse trailer to the far-right lane, I pull our passports from the glove box.

At the booth, Jesse hands over our passports. The guard asks us the usual questions. I count slowly to twenty in my head, keeping my body still and my face calm as we go through the motions of answering. If Jesse isn’t telling the truth, and the agent sizing us up gets curious, we’re sunk.

As if Jesse’s troubles aren’t bad enough.

But the agent stamps each passport and hands them back with a friendly nod. “Welcome home.”

Relief shudders through me so hard I grip the edge of my seat.

The gate opens, and Jesse steps on the gas too hard, and the Jeep jolts forward. I glare at him. “I really don’t want to get arrested today.”

Jesse smirks, his eyes on the road. We’ve ended up behind the horse trailer. Gabe’s truck and Kirilee’s BMW are ahead, already merging onto the two-lane highway.

Now that we’re back in the U.S., I text Dad our ETA, even though he’s in the field today and likely out of cell range. Jesse flips on the radio, but all we get is a gospel program.

We talk about the show and the afterparty that kept us all awake until three in the morning, but I don’t bring up what happened with Gabe during Burnout’s set or ask Jesse where he went halfway through it.

The addiction counselor walked us through signs of relapse, and random disappearances are at the top of the list.

But I don’t want to confront my brother right now. Maybe I’m in denial, or maybe I’m just… scared.

When we crest the pass, the long lake below us glistens in themorning sun, with the Bitterroots rising into the pale blue sky to the east. Though I can’t yet see our little town nestled into the Finn River valley, the promise of home warms me from the inside out.

Jesse flies down the pass, coming up tight on the horse trailer, the Jeep vibrating so hard at this speed that the soles of my feet have gone numb.

“I heard from Mom,” he says over the noise.

“What?” I squint at his face to get more information, but the sun’s angle is too bright, especially with the reflection off of the lake. “Did you call her?”

“She wants me to come to L.A.,” he continues, as if he didn’t hear me.

“Oh, Jess.” My heart pounds inside my chest and my thoughts swirl. Our mom left five years ago and lives a very different life now—one that would swallow my fragile brother whole.

“You think I shouldn’t go?” There’s a bite to his tone that makes my neck prickle.

“I didn’t say that.”

I glance at the closeness of the Jeep to the trailer. He wouldn’t try to pass here, would he? The road gets twisty, and though it’s familiar, that’s not the same as X-ray vision.

“She knows people in the film biz.” He checks his rearview mirror, then crosses the double lines and accelerates.

“Jesse,” I warn as we fly past the horse trailer. Below us, the lake shimmers. I can’t see our friends ahead of us. It’s too bright, or maybe?—

“Shit,” Jesse says as an oncoming car pops into view.

I scream as he tries to get around the front of the trailer, but it fades from sight to the sound of screeching brakes.

The Jeep fishtails across the road, tipping harder each time.

“Hold on!” Jesse cries, trying to regain control, but with a sudden lurch, we tip into space. We’re airborne for one terrifying second, and then the Jeep’s front slams down. Metal crunches in my ears and we’re flipped forward, end over end. My side slams into the window, and then I hit the dashboard. Stars burst in my vision, and pain erupts from my temple. I reach out to grab hold of something but we’re moving too fast.

We land with a thud on the lake’s surface, the water engulfing the hood and sloshing over the windshield.

“Jesse!” I shriek as the nose of the Jeep begins to sink.

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