Page 55 of Blue-Eyed Jacks
“Promise?”
As much as it terrified me, I gave in this time.“Fine.Yes, I promise, but only on the back highways and only for two hours at a time.And if I ever get the feeling you’re getting tired, I’m taking over.Got it?”
“You’ve been driving tired for almost a month now,” she shot back.
I had, but that was beside the point.I was the one responsible for this mess, and I intended to shoulder the burden alone.And after finding out George was gone, it was truly alone.Everybody I’d confided in was either hospitalized, missing, or dead except Crystal, who was savvy enough to keep a low profile due to her intimate experience with this type of situation.
And Jackson.
I refused to think about him.He’d told me to stay away, and I promised I would.No matter what.
Changing the subject, I asked Zoe to keep her eyes peeled for a library sign as I puttered down the business highway I’d chosen at random.
“Left, Mom.”
Shit.It was almost as if the building materialized out of nowhere.I circled the block to park in the lot.
“Okay.Hopefully, they won’t ask for my ID.”
Zoe stared at me with a scowl.“I’ve done this before, Mom.”
“What?When?”
The silent “duh” was almost audible.“Since I was six.They taught us how to use a library in school.”
“Right.”I shook the cobwebs out of my head.I needed to stay sharp to not only evade Shock, find a place for Zoe and I to hide, and keep at least a half-step ahead of my daughter, who was becoming more and more like Jackson every day.Why hadn’t I noticed that before?
She broke into my scattered thoughts.“Find a book and read, or stay out here and sleep.I’m going to print out maps.”
“To where?”
She shrugged, and there was a bite to her reply.“ I don’t know.I’ll improvise.Why not make a real road trip out of it?Find a liquor store and go full Thelma and Louise.”
That attitude was definitely inherited from her father.“They died, remember?”
“Well, we leave killing someone and getting chased by cops off the list, okay?”
I stared at her, too wiped out to process where this was coming from.“Killing someone is never a good idea.”
“Killing Shock would be,” she muttered.
Holy shit.That woke me up.“What?No.That’s a bad idea.Not only is it illegal, but we’d have the entire Destroyers nation coming after us, not just one or two clubs.”
“You need a hobby.”
“I can’t have a hobby; I’m a full-time mom toyou.”That was an awful thing to say, and I opened my mouth to apologize but didn’t get the words out because Zoe laughed hard.
“Finally.Let it out, Mom.Tell me how you really feel.”
Her laughter was contagious.But her words dug in.“I love you.And I would drive a million miles to keep you safe.I’d steal; well I think we’ve proven that already.I’d lie.”
She snorted.“I’d bet you’d kill someone, wouldn’t you?”
That was questionable.“I don’t know.”But I did.I looked at her.“If it was a choice between losing you to Shock and going to prison for murder one, I’d take prison.I know I would.”
Her hand crept over the console between us.“Ditto, Mom.”
I shook my head.“I don’t want that for you.”
