Page 40 of Steers and Stowaways
As Tucker perched his hat back on his head, his cell phone buzzed with an incoming message. It was from Mallory.
Martina is acting all business as usual. Chip is still afraid. Very afraid.
He read her text aloud to the others. “He should be afraid. He’s up to his eyeballs in this slime.”
“We need to keep pressing him for information,” Gage agreed. “And by we, I mean you.”
Tucker cocked his thumb and forefinger like a pistol at him to verify he understood. Then he typed an answer to Mallory, knowing she’d probably be blown away by the fact that he was responding at all.
Keep him talking. Let’s win him over.
Her next text made him smile on the inside.
Are we actually communicating? Us?!!!!
It felt like flirting to keep the conversation going, but he couldn’t resist.
Looks like.
They were about to become business partners. Communicating was something they’d be doing a lot more of.
She sent him a meme of a cartoon passed out cold on the ground.
He shot back a meme of a cartoon performing CPR while imagining his lips on hers.
Yeah, they were definitely flirting.
From the other side of the room, Rock coughed into his hand and spoke in a muffled voice. “Feelings.” He coughed again into his hand. “Compromised.”
It was true. Tucker didn’t bother defending himself.
Chapter 8: The Delivery
Mallory didn’t like how quiet Chip was in the backseat. He was stretched across the whole seat with his feet propped up like Cruz had been on the first leg of the trip. He was pretending to be asleep, but her gut told her he was faking it. There was no way any of them could relax at a time like this. Literally any moment, they could be ambushed again.
She watched out of the corner of her eye as he picked up his gaming device to fiddle with it for a few seconds. Then he tipped his head back against the seat and closed his eyes again. She continued watching him for the next several minutes as he checked and rechecked his gaming device.
It dawned on her that he might not be playing an electronic game after all. Not for fun, anyway. Instead, it might be his way of communicating with the world outside the truck, and that could be a problem for her and Tucker. Yeah, Chip’s calls and text messages were being tapped, but was his gaming activity also being monitored? Somehow, she doubted it.
Hoping to draw him into conversation, she stretchedand yawned loudly the next time he opened his eyes. “I’m bored,” she announced to no one in particular. “Who would’ve thought that waiting for our next ambush would be this boring?”
Tucker sent her a look that was hard to read. “If you’d like a turn behind the steering wheel, darling…”
“I’m notthatbored!” She stuck her tongue out at him.Work with me, cowboy.“I might be bored enough, though, to challenge you in a game of whatever it is you’re playing back there, Chip.” She swiveled around in her seat. “So spill. What has you so glued to your screen?”
“Nothing.” He shoved the electronic device beneath his knees. “I’m trying to nap.” There was a pleading edge in his voice for her to let it go.
Not a fat chance, my friend!Excitement shot through her at the realization that she was definitely on to something. “What’s the point?” she grumbled good-naturedly. “We’re almost there. Twenty minutes tops.”
“Thirty,” Tucker corrected, giving her another one of his hard-to-read looks.
Just having his gaze on her was enough to make her heart skip a beat. “Okay, mayberestlessis closer to describing how I feel.” She made a pouty face at Chip. “Nervous. Twitchy. Scared.” She watched his expression for any reaction to the list of adjectives she was tossing at him.
The only word he responded to wasscared.
Feeling emboldened, she posed her next question to him. “How scared should I be, Chip?” She was careful to infuse just the right amount of wheedling and despair into her voice.
“What’s there to be scared of?” He muttered the words in such a low voice that she had to strain to hear them.
