Page 24 of Break for Me

“Oh,” I said. “Uh, sorry. I didn’t realize —.”

I stopped speaking as Jersey dropped back into the car next to me.

“There you go. Call me when you’re ready to apologize,” Memphis said and promptly ended the call before there was a chance for him to respond. I covered my mouth with my hand.

“If you fucking laugh right now, you will be in nothing but danger, my dear,” he hissed at me and started poking around on the screen again. That shit made it even harder not to laugh. I looked back down to the bag of food in my lap and tried to focus on getting it open instead. My zip tied hands made it a fumble-filled process.

“Christ,” the grump mumbled before he reached over to take the bag from my hands and open it himself. He very carefully unwrapped only half of a breakfast burrito before sitting it directly on my thigh.

“You know, you could just cut the zip tie and I could take care of myself,” I said. “Or not. I’m cool with my very existence being a massive inconvenience to you. I’m actually quite enjoying it.”

The entire upper half of his body was across the console so he could put his face right in front of mine while his left hand went to my neck. I closed my eyes waiting for him to start squeezing, but he was only applying just enough pressure to make me uncomfortable; not enough to actually strangle me.

nineteen

JERSEY

“That’s better. I like everything about this version of you. Silent. And so fucking terrified of me that you can’t breathe even when I allow it. Stay this way, Fancy Face, and you might still survive this trip.”

Her eyes shot open after that, but the absolute panic was still in them when she got to look at how close I really was.

“I hate you,” came quivering out in a whisper.

I fucking loved everything about the way that she started to squirm when I smiled. “The feeling is mutual, sweetheart.”

She jumped when I let go of her neck just to grab her hands and slide a knife between her wrists to set her free. I hadn’t moved away from her even the slightest inch and I smiled all over again to realize her hands went to the edges of her seat to hold on for dear life. And the massive breath that she tried to quietly suck in when I did drop back into my own seat made me happier than I’d been at any point in the last two days.

* * *

It worked well enough. She was quiet and uncomfortable for the entire day of driving. We made it all the way across South Dakota without any other incidents or words exchanged. She was noticeably grateful when I allowed her to get out of the car when we stopped for gas, and then equally unimpressed when I went into the women’s restroom with her to make sure there weren’t any windows or other exits before I waited just outside the door for her to come back out. I was still being a moody lunatic by the time we’d stopped for the night just inside the Iowa state line and my nerves were already worn thin from having unwanted company in my passenger’s seat. I preferred solitude for the long drives. The only company that generally didn’t bother me was the Memphis kind, but I’d thoroughly pissed her off and I wasn’t interested in any of our regular avenues for conversation with this other girl in the car too.

I sat in Seph for a few extra minutes in the parking lot trying to figure out how I was supposed to get checked in to our room, get it cleared, and carry our shit inside if I had to keep Trista in tow for all of it. She was a fucking menace at every available opportunity and I had no doubt that she’d find a way to cause a problem somewhere in that set of events. I was still too frustrated to even put the additional effort into problem solving. I chuckled at myself and hit the button for the hatch while I walked around to Trista’s side. The way that she glared at me when I opened her door told me that I didn’t need to offer any instruction. She knew what I wanted and she wasn’t interested in testing my limits any further today. I appreciated her silent cooperation enough that I even held out a hand to let her use me to support herself while she climbed into the trunk with the messed up foot that had to be in overwhelming pain by this point.

It only took a half hour or so to make sure everything was ready before I was headed back toward Seph. I hesitated somewhere between the door to our room and the car with an unpleasant feeling in the pit of my stomach. There were other vehicles in the parking lot this time. None of them were running while I scanned the parking lot, but there was absolutely a pickup truck that had shown up after us and was parked much too close to Seph for my own comfort, even with two empty spaces in between them. I watched the truck for a long few minutes but I couldn’t see through the window tint, especially in the dark. I went back to the driver’s side of my car and moved it to a different space, even closer to the door of our room. My windows were tinted as well and no one would be able to see into this car either. Once I was parked, I awkwardly reached across the back seats to pull the release to lay the back seats down.

“Climb up here,” I said to a very shocked Trista.

“What’s happening?” She asked.

I didn’t bother to acknowledge the question. “Come on.”

She squirmed her way through the small opening and paused for a second across the back seats while she tried to figure out how she was going to crawl through the two front seats. I leaned as close to my own door as I could get to give her the extra space.

“What’s wrong?” She asked again when she’d finally stopped wiggling and landed in the seat.

“Hush.”

I was prepared to sit there all night to keep an eye on that truck; to out-wait whoever I felt like was sitting in it, also waiting on me to move first. I cursed myself quietly for not taking the extra second to walk around the back of that truck to get its license plate number.

“Jersey?” Trista tried yet another time.

Memphis wouldn’t be able to tell me anything based on the make, model, and color alone.

“Do you recognize that truck?” I asked. I wasn’t even sure why I tried it. It didn’t matter how she responded. I already didn’t believe her. I chuckled to myself before she ever answered.

“Which one?” She asked, looking across the parking lot. There were several. We were in the middle of nowhere in Iowa. Most of the vehicles were pickup trucks.

“Blue Silverado. The newer one.”

---