Page 30 of Break for Me

I pulled the tiny radio from inside my jacket pocket and stuffed it in my ear to call Memphis. I opened the camera on my phone again and slid it across to Trista.

“When they’re not looking,” I instructed. She nodded and picked up my phone. This was about to go so terribly wrong.

“Hi again,” Memphis said in my ear.

“Would you recognize Chicago if you saw her, Memphis?” I asked quietly.

“What —? Would I —? Huh?”

“Memphis. It’s not like I’m going to tell on you for knowing who she is. Who the fuck would I tell? You’re the one who talks to everyone. Would you recognize her, or not? Was Texas actually a man? Is he a fucking cowboy in a blue pickup?”

I watched Trista raise my phone quickly to try to discreetly sneak a picture of whoever she was watching over my shoulder. I don’t know what clicked in my brain to tell me that that’s probably who’d been following us. I’d thought of him as a cowboy before I had any reason to, but the truck registration being done in the same way that Memphis handled my shit, knowing he was watching me in that parking lot just like I was him, showing up here right after we did and with a woman was all too much to consider it a coincidence. He was handling shit the same way that I did. If it truly was him, at least that confirmed that the teams who were removed weren’t killed. Conversely, if it truly was him, he was no longer bound to play by the rules of our organization and he was here to fucking steal my payday.

“I do know her,” Memphis finally said.

I didn’t even need to send her the picture after that. I was pretty fucking thoroughly convinced that I knew who I was up against.

“Stay with me until we’re back to Seph,” I whispered. I sent the photo to Memphis anyway just for her to confirm it and I looked back at Trista.

“You know him because he was the one who tried to pick you up before Seattle, right? How’d you get away from him?” I asked Trista. “How pissed is he?”

She laughed and slapped her hand over her mouth just as fast.

“Great,” I mumbled. “There’s a back door behind you. Just beside the bathrooms. It’s a fire exit. That’s where we’re going. Can you see where his truck is parked from here?”

“We’ll walk right by it to get to your car,” she said.

A fucking beautiful break.

I leaned across the table to stare as hard as I could right into Trista’s soul. “You’re about to have a chance to choose who’s company you want to keep. I’m going to need you to get up first and go back there like you’re going to the bathroom. You’ll have a minute or two head start before I come that way too so it doesn’t look obvious that we’re leaving through the other door back there.”

I could fucking see the wheels turning in her brain the moment I’d said the words.

“Triss,” I said quickly to interrupt her thoughts. “You can make this difficult. You can choose to not do exactly as I tell you. You can let him try to kill me. You can get yourself picked up by him again because you might think you have a better chance at escaping him since you’ve already done it once. But I’m telling you now, he will not be able to kill me. And even if he takes you, I will still get you back.”

I reached across the table and took her hand in mine. Her eyes dropped down to where my thumb was rubbing back and forth gently across the top of her hand.

“You won’t get away from me,” I reminded her. “And I will make the rest of this trip back to Pennsylvania the most miserable few days of your entire fucking life if you decide that’s how you want to play this.”

She tried to very slowly slip her hand out of mine, but I tightened my hold so much that she winced at the sudden pain.

“I need to know that you understand what I’m telling you, Fancy Face.”

She swallowed so hard that I could hear it before she nodded her head. I let go of her hand immediately.

“Go,” I said and looked toward the little hallway at the back with the restrooms and the exit.

“Where do you want me to wait for you?” She asked.

I smiled. She was afraid enough that she’d already chosen her side, and she was prepared to do anything I told her in that moment.

“Right outside the door,” I said. “As soon as you see me, run for Seph.”

She nodded again and she was gone.

“God, you’re scary,” Memphis said in my ear.

“How lenient do you think they’ll be about that no killing rule when they find out that former employees are out here interfering with current jobs?” I asked.

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