Chapter 32 #2
At least that tracked with my investigatory skills I’d used while pumping Nico for information at dinner last night.
The time slipped to one minute past two before I gathered my nerve and pushed off the bed.
My duffel bag sat at my feet, and I bent to grab it, forcing any doubt from my mind as I strode to the closed bedroom door.
I refused to allow uncertainty to get inside my head and fuck up all my hastily made plans.
By the time I reached the front door, I was running on nothing more than pure nerve.
I tossed my bag through the open passenger side window of my truck and shoved my hands in the pockets of the windbreaker I’d chosen if I needed something to help me remain incognito.
Though I’d weighed the options of planting a vehicle down the road, in the end, I said screw it. If I had to, I’d punch the engine once I made it to the main road. I knew the area. I could make a couple of random turns to lead them away from my true intentions.
It meant that Slade would know I was on the move, but maybe not figure out that I was coming to him.
There were lots of holes in the plan. Apparently, they weren’t wide or deep enough to make me rethink this idea. Maybe that was for the best.
I opened the driver’s side door and lifted a leg to slide in behind the wheel when a movement inside the cab caught me off guard. Shocked, I yelped and jumped from the vehicle.
Dammit, I never left the windows open. I only did that night to allow me to quietly add the bag without causing noise.
“What the fuck, Sutton?” Nico yelled, crawling out of the cab of my truck. “The fucking bag scared the shit out of me.” He rubbed a spot between his eyes.
“Why’re you in my truck?” I said, with just as much anger in my tone as he had.
“Where you trying to leave to?” Nico countered, feet from me.
We were in an unnecessary confrontation, burning the precious time I needed to get to the airport.
“Fuck,” I said at the way my heart pounded in my chest. Fuck, I said again, this time mentally. I’d been busted.
“That doesn’t answer me,” Nico said, reaching for his cell phone. “You can’t just sneak off right now. What the fuck, Sutton?”
“Who’re you callin’?” I asked and started for Nico.
Under any other situation, I’d do my best to deescalate the moment, but I couldn’t have him destroying something so important to me.
“He needs me to show up there. He can’t keep goin’ at it alone.
The public needs to see me arrive for him.
He’s not in this by himself. You can’t tell him I’m comin’. It’ll ruin everything.”
I wasn’t sure which words stopped him from calling Slade or whoever he intended to reach out to on that damn cell phone, but he lifted his head to stare at me as I edged past him for my truck.
He slowly lowered his phone as he took my arm.
Not in a defensive move, he appeared to not understand my meaning.
He tilted his head to look at me more closely.
“You’re planning to go to Slade in California? ”
“Yeah.” Of course. I rarely left the farm, and that was only for work. I ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner just about every night. Tommy went to the grocery store for those items. Where else would I go?
“You aren’t running from here?” Nico asked, his eyes wary with doubt.
What? My brow furrowed in my confusion. “Of course not.” I hadn’t purchased a seat on a flight, yet.
I planned to do that once I arrived at the airport with cash in hand, but I had to get on the road if I planned to make it on the only flight out this morning.
Time was ticking away. “Fuck it. I gotta go.”
I ducked past Nico and started to take the driver’s seat.
Nico was hot on my heels. “Scoot over.”
“Why? Just walk away. No one has to know,” I said to Nico, who refused to budge as he stood over me. If intimidation meant I needed to move, Nico had that down, but I wasn’t afraid of him.
“He’ll know I’m lying if I lie. Scoot over.
I won’t say anything to him as long as I go with you,” Nico said.
His phone was in his hands again, punching at the screen until he began to type.
I sat there in the quiet for several long seconds, staring at him typing on his phone.
He finally shook his head, grabbed the steering wheel, and hip-bumped me to move me over.
“You aren’t gonna stop me?” I asked, before relenting.
“Get over before I change my mind,” he said. With that tentative agreement, I scurried to move. “We’ll fly there privately. It’ll be easier and faster.”
Would the plane company notify Slade? If Nico came with me, I could keep an eye on him to stop him from warning Slade. A faster ride mattered. All those thoughts flew through my mind, but I didn’t say any of them.
“He needs this,” Nico said, shutting the door, starting the engine. “It’s the only reason I’m not telling him.”
Whether the statement was uttered for me or him, who knew, but I nodded. Grateful.
One challenge down, a bigger one to come.