Page 43 of Standing Still

“You read my mind.” I walk over to her. She grins as I take the keys.

“I’ve fed Jedi, so you don’t need to worry about him,” Elle says and comes down the steps after me. “You do know he’ll see you following him,” Elle points out, dropping her purse on the floor when we get in the truck.

“He’s not that smart,” I say, looking for my Mustang ahead of us. “Another reason I don’t want him driving it, he probably doesn’t even use the mirrors,” I grit out.

Elle laughs but tries to smother it when I glare at her. I should be grateful for this distraction. It takes a long time to get away from the awkward morning after chatting. It’ll come at some point.

“What exactly are you going to do when you find where he is?” she asks.

“Watch my car.”

“This is how you want to spend your Sunday, in a parked car, spying on your brother, or your car, I should say?”

“I can drop you back at the Hyatt and do this alone.”

“No, please don’t. This is way too entertaining.”

“So you don’t exactly have a thrilling Sunday planned either.”

“Apparently not,” she mutters.

Finally I spot the Mustang. Imagining I’m some kind of spy or cop, I keep a couple of cars between us, so Denny doesn’t notice we’re following him. There aren’t many places he could be going, and given I’ve told him he’s not to leave town, I don’t expect to be following too far. I do start to feel like an idiot, though. Elle isn’t exactly commenting that I’m a lunatic over my car, but I can practically hear her thinking it.

“So, on a scale of one to ten, how terrified will Denny be if something did happen to the car?”

“Nothing better happen to that car,” I snap. “Don’t even joke about it.”

“Weknow that, but what if we messed with him?”

We stop at a red light. I watch the Mustang go through ahead of us. Shit, we could lose him. I sit up to peer over the roof of the car ahead of us.

“Relax, I see him. He’s actually just pulled into the lot behind that restaurant. So you better drive past a little or pull over before then, if you don’t want him to see you.”

“When did you become such an expert in stuff like this?”

“I’m a writer,” she answers with a shrug. “We research all kinds of weird stuff. Anyhow, what I was thinking was, there is a spare key for the Mustang on your key chain.”

“So?”

“So…”

“I’m not following you.”

“Westealthe car.”

At first, I just look at her. Steal my own car? Then it dawns on me what she means. “You want me to mess with him by taking my car, letting him think it got stolen? Shit, Elle, that is diabolical.”

She grins. “I’ll even stay in the truck. If you’re too scared I’ll breathe on the Mustang wrong.”

“Very fucking funny,” I drawl. The lights change and I head down the road, pulling into a side street. Not a moment too soon, either, when I see Denny walking along and heading into a restaurant in the rearview mirror.

“I could always put a scratch down the side of it if you don-” she cuts off with another grin when she sees my face. “We don’t need to take it far, or even leave. Just move it from where he parked it. See how long it takes him to call you?”

“You’re starting to remind me of Zach. He always came up with shit like this.”

“Yeah, we reminisced a little yesterday. He was telling Patrick about some of the things him and Jared did to the rest of you when you were kids. Then he realized Patrick was storing it away to use on his younger brother and made him swear he wouldn’t do anything like that.”

I can’t help but laugh. Sounds like something my nephew would do. “I kinda did make the deal with Denny, though. I said he could drive it. Messing with him might be a little cruel.”

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