As we rounded the corner, a large woman in a white t-shirt with several different colored kittens printed on it stopped in front of us and gasped. The reaction was at our appearances, I’m sure, but then she dropped her mouth open and pointed directly at me. I began to worry about what was happening. Fear that maybe she was involved in this all somehow. Oh god, were they here? “Look, she looks just like her,” she shouted at a man she was with. What the actual hell?
Ignoring the crazy-looking lady, Noah grabbed ahold of my hip and quickly pulled me along with him. All I could do was watch as he almost threw some food and water in the cart before all but running to the cashier and getting out of there at an astonishing speed.
“What do you think that was about?” finally finding my voice, I couldn’t help but look behind me as if she would be right there following us out of the store “Noah?” Had he not heard me? “Diablo? Hey, are you ignoring me?”
I just stood there watching him almost throw the bags into the middle seat of the van, before he finally acknowledged me “We gotta get out of here,” he left the cart beside the van as he climbed back in. “You are going to have to do what you do with the car right now. We can’t wait for it to be pitch black outside”
“What is wrong with you?” My fingers itched to slap him. He was acting crazy right now. I was used to him being calmer than this. He was almost panicking.
“That woman in there knew who you were, Sneaks. Your friends and family have probably declared you a missing person, and I am betting that there was security footage of what happened to us once they started digging. Your face is probably plastered across every news outlet in the states. You’re going to have to dye your hair brown or something.”
“I am not dying it brown. You’re overreacting Diablo”
“I can guarantee that woman is on the phone to the cops right now and it will soon be plastered all over the damn County that you have been seen here, they will know where to come to find us”
“Wait, do you actually think that?” Would we ever be safe again?
There was no way in hell I was dying my hair brown, though. Hell no.
“Yes, I do, and if you’re in the footage from in there as well” he pointed back at the store, “it probably means I am too, and my father is probably going to bask in the media attention. This whole running thing just got a whole lot worse for us. Either that or they’re going to make out that I have kidnapped you”
“Maybe we don’t need to run.” Ignoring the last part of his little rant, I had to believe that someone in his life was looking for him that would have declared him a missing person when he hadn’t shown up.
“Do you not remember that phone call Sneaks when my father asked if we were dead yet?”
“So, what do we do?” My anxiety was creeping up as he started the van.
“We get a new car. We dye your hair.”
“If I’m dying my hair, you are going to have to dye yours too.”
“Why the hell do I need to dye my hair, you’re the one with the most noticeable hair in the world” well, if we wanted noticeable hair, maybe I should dye it bright blue or pink. That would show him noticeable. It was a light gray/silver. Freaking Diablo.
“It’s only fair, and they are looking for a blond, Noah Hartman. You need to dye it darker”
Glaring at me, his eyes bored into the side of my face, I could feel the annoyance rolling off of him, “Fine” he all but huffed. Sometimes he sounded just like a child.
Smiling at winning, however that was short-lived “Do you know how long it took for me to get it blonde enough to color it the colors I do?”
“Hair color or death…. Hmmm, tough choice there.” Was the sarcastic response I got.
“Your assholness is showing” my voice growled at him, “you know what? Maybe we should shave your hair off, that sounds like a good move, don’t you think Noah?”
“Good, I am glad it is, and no, I do not think that is a good idea, you know. You are always accusing me of taking blows to the head. Maybe it’s you, maybe you’re the one who has hit your head one too many times, Sneaks”
Pulling up across the street from the dealership we had seen earlier, he leaned across my body, opening the door and all but pushed me out of it “Go and be a criminal, will you, I’ll keep watch form here.”
“How convenient.” Figures that he wouldn’t help me with this. Not that I actually wanted him to, he would more than likely be a hindrance, and I would end up stabbing him in the eye with the bobby pin tucked into my pocket.
“Sorry?”
“I accept” was all I said before hopping down from the van and running across the street.
My eyes roamed over the array of vehicles in the lot of the dealership. There was not a single soul to be seen, the night sky threatening to take over gave me just enough light to be able to commander a car without the need for a flashlight. My feet stopped in front of a white Ford Mustang with a 95 plate. Perfect for hot wiring. The newer cars had all sorts of tricks to stop you from starting them without a computer or even a cell phone if you didn’t have the key, which I had neither of right now. But the old school ones, It was like taking candy from a baby. Digging in my pocket for a bobby pin I had stolen from Target. Sue me. I bent it into a right angle and began to pick the lock.
Looking up, I could see Noah leaning forwards, looking directly at me. If I didn’t know any better, I would think he was jerking off in the van. Actually, scratch that, that’s probably precisely something he would be doing. Rolling my eyes, I looked back down just as the lock popped open. Smiling over at him, I opened the door and got to work. Without a screwdriver, I was fucked. Getting back out of the car, I waved Noah over.
“What?” He whisper-shouted across the street.
‘I need a screwdriver.’ I mouthed over, surprisingly he seemed to understand what I needed because a minute later, he came back running over with one in his hand. “Here” dropping it into my open hand, “I can’t believe you actually got into it. What was your brother teaching you growing up, Sneaks?”
“How to survive knowing you, apparently.” Eduardo was a good kid. He just hung around some of the wrong people and me, being well, me. I wanted to be involved, much to his annoyance, but I picked up some tricks along the way. Looking back now, I’m pretty lucky because I have no idea what we would have done otherwise. Noah probably would have just thrown a brick through a window and hoped for the best.
“Feisty”
“Shut up and watch for anyone, will you? I have work to do here.” There was still some lightness in the sky, if only minimal, and anyone could see what I was up too if they walked past us.
“By all means,” he waved his hands for me to continue while he slowly made his way back over to the van across the street.
Climbing back into the car and using the screwdriver I removed the plastic cover on the steering column, dropping it down onto the floor with a small thud. Then I began to pull the cables out that needed to be connect. Using my teeth to remove the plastic coating. Spitting them onto the floor and connecting the wires using one of the plasters to wrap around them.
Slipping into the driver’s seat, I smiled as the car burst to life. Flashing the lights at Noah, I slowly reversed the car and drove right out of the lot. Driving around the corner with the black van following behind, we stopped in an empty grocery store car lot.
“Sneaks, I am incredibly impressed and very, very turned on right now, and you are one hundred percent showing me how to do that next time.”
“Just shut up and get in the car.” Groaning I couldn’t stop myself from revving the engine at him.
“Help me, your royal highness,” he motioned to the bags of items that we had purchased from Target.
Chapter Eight
Valentina
Noah made me drive the next leg of our journey while he slept. We were running low on gas already and without a doubt, would need to fill the tank soon enough. Those dealerships never filled
the tanks with more than the bare minimum. Just enough for people to do test drives and for them to move them around the lot.
We had also not changed out of our clothes yet, the ones that we had been kidnapped in. The stench in the car was gag worthy. Between the overpowering hue of sweat and pee, I was ready to bail through the window at any second.
Dropping one of my hands into the Target bag, I pulled out one of the breakfast bars as my stomach began to growl. It was pitch black outside now and I was starting to get sleepy myself. We definitely needed to stop, even if it was just for five minutes.
“Noah,” I managed through a mouth full of food. Trying to hit him with my elbow and missing, by a lot.
A grumble came from him, but nothing more. The pain in my ass was still asleep. I bet he could sleep through a hurricane or something. It was not normal.
“Noah, how much money have we got?” My voice was getting louder, and yet he still didn’t stir. “DIABLO!” Shouting at the top of my lungs, I was surprised that the windows in this old car hadn’t rattled from the sheer volume.
“Shit, what?” Jumping so high in his seat, he banged the top of his head on the roof of the car “Damn it.” Scowling, he turned to me, rubbing the spot-on top of his head, that I was sure was now throbbing from the impact. See, I knew that he took a lot of blows to the head, “What was that about?”
“We need gas.”
“Fuck” dropping his head into his hands, I expected him to say something else, but when he didn’t, I became concerned.
“What is it?”
Lifting his head slowly, he explained, “We only have like, twenty bucks left.”
Twenty bucks? We were not going to get very far on that at all. We shouldn’t have bought all of that stuff from Target. Damn it.
Knowing the items, he got for my wrists, which were still uncleaned and covered in blood, would have taken the biggest portion of that bill after our clothes, of course. I couldn’t help but feel guilty.
“What do we do?” Without money, we couldn’t get any gas, and then what would we do? How would we keep running?
“Pump and run?” was his suggestion.
“Asshole status.” Those people who did that sucked, but if that is what we had to do to survive…
“We, you, just stole a whole car and yet you have a problem with stealing gas?” Knowing that he had me there, what could I say?
“What’s one more felony, I guess.” Orange really was not my color. Trust me, I had dyed my hair orange once, on purpose and it was a look, just not one for me.
“We’re all already going to hell anyway, Sneaks.” Was my companion’s great response.
“We need to get some cash.” We may be able to steal gas a few times, but what the hell were we going to do about food, water. Those were just as important to our survival.
“You wanna rob a bank next? You have gone full-on criminal now. I’m kind of digging it.” He winked at me, and I was not sure if I was beginning to like it or actually hated it.
“For the love of God, no.” But how could we survive without any cold hard cash? My money and cards had been left back in New York in my purse that the masked men had ripped away from me.
“Well, there is one thing we could do, but we would have to get the hell out of town faster than me out of a one-night stands apartment.”
Closing my eyes, I should have been shocked by his statement, but I guess I was becoming desensitized to him, “You’re disgusting.” I said, reopening my eyes and just looking at him, with no expression on my face.
Rolling his eyes, I watched him lifting his butt off the seat and producing a brown leather wallet from his pocket.
“Today’s quota of you telling me that has been fulfilled, thank you” his smile seemed off, and when the next words fell from his lips, I knew why “He’ll be watching my accounts.”
“Wait, how did you keep that?” I thought they had taken it from him at the same time as my purse?
“Distracted them with telling them my cell was in my jacket pocket, they didn’t search me any further”
“That’s, kind of smart” color me impressed.
“I know, right?” Ahh, there he is Mr. Cocky.
“Will you even be able to access the money?” What if he was right and we had been declared as missing to the police? Did they freeze your bank accounts? I should have spent more time watching those documentaries on Netflix. I could have had some answers to these kinds of questions.
“There is only one way to find out” sighing, he flipped through the wallet “Ohh look, condoms” waving the strip of gold foils at me, I held back a groan. He would only turn around and say something along the line of ‘that’s it, baby, I’ll make you moan and groan all night long’. So, disgusting and yet there was something that was warming me to him. I should be concerned about that, right?
“We will need to change our direction then, go further East, get some cash-out as we go, and then turn around and go back West or North. Throw them off the scent”
Nodding his head, he agreed, “That’s actually a good idea.”
“Well, don’t sound so surprised, you’re enough to give a girl a complex.” He laughed at that, putting his strip of condoms back into the brown leather wallet. How many did he have on him at any one time? Jesus.
“So, we use the last twenty bucks to get some gas drive as far East as possible you steal another car while I get some cash out of my accounts, and then we drive North?”
“Sounds like a plan,” how was this my life right now? Going back West would not be a smart idea. That was back directly where we had come from and the chance of bumping into our kidnappers, if they were out there looking for us all the more likely.
“You want me to drive so you can get some sleep?”
“Yeah, that actually sounds good, but can we please use the washroom. I still haven’t cleaned these, and I would like to put some clean clothes on” raising my wrists, they were still caked in dried blood. I really needed to clean them up soon, or I would, without a doubt, end up with a bad infection, and from the looks of things, there was no hope of me getting to a hospital or anything in the near future. My ass didn’t want to die on the side of the road from an infection.
“Shit” slamming a hand down on the dashboard in front of him, he groaned, “I fucking forgot. You need to take some antibiotics or something in case it is infected.”
“Let’s just see what they look like when they’re clean first,” going back to our previous conversation, I asked him, “what if they have frozen your accounts or something?”
“Ohh gas station” he smiled, pointing towards the sign that was glowing in the distance “Well, there is only one way to find out. If they are frozen, let’s test it and see”
Hopping out of the car and moving towards the shop, he almost ran away, shouting, “Fill her up.” Over his shoulder at me.
Asshole, I was meant to be using the washroom to get changed and as clean as you can in a gas station bathroom, but sighing, I filled the tank with twenty buck’s worth of gas anyway.
Putting the nozzle back into the holder, my eyes widened as Noah ran towards me with a handful of cash. A really big handful.
“Accounts aren’t frozen.” He smiled triumphantly at me before shoving it into his wallet.
“How much is that?” I could feel my eyes widen as he flaunted it, no care about who was watching him flash the cash around.
“I could only get a thousand from each account, So five thousand.”
“Why do you have so many accounts? Actually, wait, I don’t want to know.” My eyes widened before looking to the ground “We’re going to have to run now. I thought we had a plan to go East and then move fast?” His father was a powerful man. There was no doubt that he would be notified as soon as he entered one of those cards in the ATM. We needed to move out of this town and fast.
“Yeah, but if we keep going and draw cash out at every ATM, we will have enough to stop at a motel when we ge
t far enough East, we can change our direction and get enough to buy us some time to sort out what were going to do.” A bed sounded pretty good right now, but how long would it be until we were safe enough to stop somewhere for a few hours to sleep for a night?
The reality of the situation came down on me like a ton of bricks.
What were we actually going to do?
We had no plan on how we were going to get out of this and right now, it seemed like all we could do was drive, run away from this threat that could be just over our shoulder at any moment.
Devil In The Elevator: A Hartman Romance Page 8