Chapter Thirteen
Al
“That’s eight down,” Lai sighed, dragging the tip of his pen across our city map, before crossing out another location with his trademark excessive flair.
I exhaled slowly, rubbing a hand over my face as I stared at the mess of circles, crosses, and notes we’d scribbled into the margins over the course of the day: eight lots, eight dead ends.
Not gonna lie, I was starting to lose my patience.
Driving around in his father’s Lexus was already wearing me a little thin, but Lai was making the entire mission almost impossible.
He’d insisted on a full costume change at every stop as though he was touring Broadway, not the outskirts of Houston.
Different accents, different postures; it didn’t matter that no one here knew who the Hell he was.
Lai insisted that he needed a disguise, and I had no choice but to indulge him or risk him taking the Lexus and going home without me.
At least Lai could be charming when he wanted to be; three yard owners had been easily persuaded by the flamboyant, pretty man anxiously looking for his missing car.
How he managed to find men it was safe to flirt with in Texas, I would never understand; they all looked the same to me, rough and no-nonsense, but Lai never seemed to miss.
I wasn’t as convinced of his charms for the others.
When Lai had pulled out a police uniform from his bag and wiggled into it in the passenger seat, I almost swerved into traffic.
But he’d insisted it would work, and somehow, against all odds, it had.
The five other yards had looked up at him, typed in the car details, shook their head, and wished the ‘officer’ good luck in his search.
Each time it worked, I was forced to endure his smug grin as we settled back into the car and crossed off another lot from our map.
However, as night fell, the difficulty went up a notch.
The casual access dried up. The open gates closed.
We considered flashing his obviously fake ID when his uniform only got him a phone number and instructions to call the owner, but I didn’t want to risk it.
I was out on bail and Lai? Lai didn’t officially exist.
“We should try the badge, Al. It gets me free donuts all the time!”
“Just… take off the hat.” I groaned, snatching at the offending headware. “That’s not even a local uniform. Your badge has a heart on it!”
Lai glanced down at his chest, then back at me. “So? It’s subtle.”
“It’s pink,” I hissed through gritted teeth.
“It’s rose gold,” Lai huffed back at me. “Tell Candy to order more realistic stripper costumes for the next time I need to dress up as a cop!”
I stared at him.
He stared back.
Somewhere in the distance, a dog barked, and I resisted the urge to throw the hat into traffic.
“Take it off,” I repeated, slower this time.
Lai huffed dramatically, like I was trying to ruin his fun. I was; I was reaching the limit of how much I could humor him in exchange for his meager help.
Lai could sense the end of my patience. Pouting, he shrugged out of the tacky jacket and tossed it into an already overflowing trash can nearby. “Fine. Let’s just climb the fence, scan the yard, and move on.”
That was a refreshing change of pace. I was getting anxious; I hated that feeling, the way it sat in my chest and refused to budge. I couldn’t stomach the idea of Fox spending another night alone. Sitting somewhere cold and silent, wondering if I was coming back.
Wondering if I’d abandoned him.
The thought twisted something deep and unpleasant inside me. I swallowed so hard it hurt.
Lai noticed immediately.
He stepped closer without a word, his hand coming up to rest against my chest. Not forceful, not invasive. Just there, grounding me in touch.
“Hey,” he murmured, meeting my eyes even as I glanced away.
“I know,” I muttered, though I didn’t actually know anything except that I was running out of time, and patience, and options. I shook my head, frustration bleeding through. “It’s my fault. I should’ve—”
His hand moved, two fingers pressing lightly against my lips to cut me off.
“No,” he said, softer now, but no less firm. “We are not doing that right now.”
I stilled.
“We will find him,” Lai continued, holding my gaze until I had no choice but to focus on him, instead of the spiral I was about to fall into. “And when we do, you can apologize to Fox all you want. Maybe cry a little. Make it memorable.”
I let out a quiet, trembling breath that almost passed for a laugh. “And if we don’t?” I asked.
“We will,” Lai said simply. Then, after a beat, his mouth curved into something sharper, too wicked to be called a smile. “I promised Fox I’d learn how to drive. I fully intend to make him regret volunteering.”
That did it. I smiled, leaning into the touch. “Let’s not waste time then.”
And Lai did not. Instead, he turned, hooking his cane handle over the bars of the fence and scaling it with practiced ease, still as nimble as ever.
I was always amused by how he groaned when getting up from a couch, but on a job like this, gravity was more of a suggestion.
I opened my mouth to tell him to be careful, to remind him that aggravating his injury was a terrible idea, but I already knew he wouldn’t listen, so I followed him up instead, boots hitting the ground with a dull thud as I dropped down beside him.
Lai’s gaze swept across the yard, slow and deliberate, like he was peeling back layers no one else could see. “Look. There, third row from the back.”
I wasn’t a master assassin; I couldn’t see what he could. But I trusted his senses, and I ran. The gravel shifted under my feet as I moved, weaving between cars without really seeing them. My heart was pounding, each step louder than the last.
“Fox!” The name tore out of me before I could stop it.
I couldn’t see him. A black car in the dark was hard to spot.
Then—
A flash.
Headlights.
I closed the distance in seconds, dropping to my knees in front of him, my hands bracing against the cold metal as I pressed my forehead against the edge of his hood. “Fox,” I breathed, my fingers and my voice trembling.
“Al!” Fox was shaking as he leaned back against me. Relief didn’t come gently; it crashed through me, messy and overwhelming and far too close to something I wasn’t ready to name.
“You came,” he said, like he still couldn’t quite believe it.
I let out a breath that might have been a laugh, looking up to reach for the shadow above me. “You doubted me?”
He leaned down closer and pressed his lips to mine, stealing the breath from my lungs.
“Not for a second.”