Page 17 of Indigo Sky

God, shit felt great, like everything was comfortable and right. I was content, minus that little nagging voice in my head, wishing I had a girlfriend to spend my days with. But there was time for that; I was still young.

It was fine. It was excellent, even, and I was looking forward to starting the night after work.

Then, Nate took a different route.

“I thought we were going to Taco Bell,” I said, thinking that maybe he wanted to stop by a store or something. Grab a six pack for the apartment. Buy those smokes I desperately needed.

But Nate glanced at me, a wild, mischievous look in his eyes. “I have an idea.”

I sank into my seat, a heavy ball of dread sitting inside my stomach. “What’s your idea?”

Nate’s ideas were very rarely good ones. His ideas usually involved someone getting into trouble or hurt. I suspected this one wouldn’t be much different, and I wished we weren’t sharing a car.

“You’ll see.”

We drove in silence for a while with my gut churning and my mind telling me to say something to make him turn around. But I didn’t say anything because, well, I was curious. And wasn’t there always a chance that, for once, his idea could be a decent one?

Eventually, he parked the car and muttered his way through whether it was a good place or not while I watched him with suspicion. Then, he got out and gestured for me to follow. I did as he’d asked and surveyed the area. We were down the block from what looked like a gated community of townhomes or condos or something. The place was nicely landscaped, guarded by a stone wall, a boom barrier gate, and a keypad, and Nate nodded his approval, as if it mattered. I looked from him to the community as we approached the gate.

“Stop looking like that,” Nate ordered as he casually walked around the barrier.

My heart sped up as I hesitated, watching as he strolled along the sidewalk like he belonged there. My poor stomach regretted every single thing I’d eaten that day as I quickly hurried to catch up to him.

“Like what?” I asked, trying to figure out what the hell we were doing without asking.

“Like we shouldn’t be here.”

He casually waved and smiled at an older woman walking her dog. She smiled before shifting her eyes toward me, and her smile dropped.

Nate glanced back at me. “You should’ve left the eyepatch in the car.”

I frowned. “Why?”

“Because you look like we’re up to some shit,” he muttered in a low voice, barely moving his mouth as he spoke.

I leaned closer to his ear. “Arewe up to some shit?”

He shrugged as an innocent smile tugged at his lips. “Maybe.”

I squeezed my eye shut.Fuck. “What the hell are we doing, Nate? Why are we here?”

He took something out of his pocket. I dropped my gaze to zero in on the object in his hand. A wallet. One I had never seen before, and it sure as hell wasn’t his. I mean, first of all, it was pink.

My heart ricocheted off the walls of my chest as I hissed loudly, “Where the fuck did you get that?”

“Tits McGee.”

“Who?!”

“That chick who came to the shop today.”

“Oh, so she gave you her wallet?”

He snorted. He found this amusing. “She didn’tgive meshit.”

I tripped on my own feet and stumbled along the sidewalk, never tearing my widened gaze away from him. "Wait, so you … what?! You … you—"

"Stole it? Yeah."

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