“No, I don’t want that either.” She frowned. “This cash will get us a motel. We can clean up and go sell the bracelet tomorrow.”
“Nah, I don’t want to do it too close to town. Whoever this belongs to might report it stolen and we don’t want any pawn shop guy identifying us. I say we hang onto it for a couple of months. Head north a little further. Get some distance.”
“Okay.” Lucy nodded, hugging her knees to her chest.
“Hey, we did good for a fair ground. It’s summer, there’s gonna be plenty more of these popping up over the next couple of months. It’ll give us time to save for the winter.”
“Yeah, I know. You’re right.” She forced a smile, trying to be brave, but she was tired and melancholy tonight.
Seeing those girls had thrown her, made her pine for the life she should be living. She missed her parents, Maria, school even. She missed sitting in a classroom and learning. She missed normalcy.
Was the rest of her life going to be like this? Constantly on the run? Living from town to town? She was exhausted just thinking about it. Her eyes lost focus as she played her blocking out the world trick for a minute, trying to numb her mind against reality.
Her tummy grumbled, reminding her that their last meal had been breakfast. Reality could never be blocked for long.
“Do you want me to go buy us a hotdog to share?”
“No.” She shook her head. “I want a shower more. Let’s save up the money for tomorrow night. I want to sleep on a mattress with a pillow. It’s been over a week.”
“Yeah.” Marlin mussed her hair as he sat down beside her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
An owl hooted in the distance, making Lucy flinch.
“You seem jittery tonight.”
Lucy rested her head on his shoulder, thinking about the police. “I just sometimes wonder if this will all catch up with us. What if we’re caught one day?” She nibbled her bottom lip, that familiar fear building inside her.
The law terrified her, not only because she was a crook, but because the law was crooked. She’d seen for herself how the law didn’t guarantee any kind of safety. Those pale green eyes still haunted her dreams.
“Are we gonna die, Marlin?” Her voice shook as she asked the same question she always did when thinking about her parents’ murders.
Marlin kissed the top of her head and replied with the same answer every time. “One day, but of nothing more than natural causes.” He rested his hollow cheek on her head. “I ain’t gonna let anybody hurt you, Cyan. You can count on that.”
Chapter 11
ZACH
April 2014
“Would you drop it, Elliot.” I flung my hands out. With them still inside my jacket pockets, I looked like I had wings. I walked towards the center of Danville, keeping an eye out for my parents. Since I was in San Fran all day tomorrow, they wanted to have a family lunch today to discuss the pending summer. They were nervous about leaving me for six weeks to travel around Europe. It would be another session of me assuring them that I really didn’t want to come as that would defeat the purpose of their second honeymoon.
I promised I’d meet them at our favorite little cafe on Hartz Ave.
“No, I won’t drop it.” Elliot sounded pissy. “She was lying last night and you know it.”
I rolled my eyes, trying to act as though Dani’s deception didn’t bother me. “Look, she’s obviously a private person. Is it really our right to start an inquest on the poor girl?”
“I knew you liked her.” Elliot snapped his fingers and I suddenly wished I hadn’t agreed to spend the morning playing Halo 2 at his place. Thankfully the discussion had been minimal while we were shooting the crap out of each other, but now that he was walking me into town…it was a different matter.
I cleared my throat, ignoring his last comment.
“If you didn’t like her, you’d be hounding her like a dog, wanting to know every secret. I’d have to listen to your endless hypothesis, but you’re all quiet and nonplussed. You don’t want to screw this up with her, so you’re just going with it. It’s not like Zach Schultz. What the hell, man?”
He gave my arm a back hand slap, which actually kinda hurt. I rubbed my bicep and shot him a droll look.
“Okay, fine. It’s not that I’m not interested in why she’s being hedgy, but I don’t know. I don’t want to push my luck. She’s gonna take time to figure out. What if she wasn’t lying? What if she’s just a really private person and your suspicious nature and my need to constantly question everything is just projecting this stuff on her. Maybe she doesn’t want us to meet her dad. Maybe he’s really strict and won’t let her have a cellphone, but she’s too embarrassed to admit that. We don’t know…and that’s the truth.”
Elliot stopped and yanked on my shirt, pulling me to a halt. His cynical brown eyes were on fire, in spite of his deadpan expression. “Is it? Or is it just the truth you want to believe?”
I pushed my tongue over my bottom teeth and looked away from my friend.