“You look so different now. I can’t imagine you with all that blond hair,” he says.
“Yeah. They cut and dyed it before this last placement.”
He hands me back the ID. “This may come in handy.”
We make good time, crossing into Arizona just after dark. We’re both quiet, having exhausted all conversations possible. I doze off, and when I wake up, we’re on the outskirts of Tucson.
Everything looks familiar now. Dad took us to Tucson a ton, and I easily recognize where I am. “You want me to drive now? I could get to Phoenix blindfolded from here if I had to.”
Ethan nods and pulls the car over on the side of the interstate. He heads for the passenger seat just as I start for the driver’s side. We get caught in the middle. I have one leg across the gearshift, and it gets tangled up with his. Ethan puts his hand on my waist, and I put my weight on his shoulders to bring my other leg over. We’re touching each other all over, and it’s really got my blood moving. At one point I’m almost straddling him. When we finally get to our own sides, I’m completely flustered. I pull back out on the road, but it’s a few miles before I can look at him again.
We get to Phoenix and immediately try to find a motel. We decide on a Motel 6 that’s right off the interstate. I laugh to myself when I see the sign, since this is the same chain I thought we should drop Julie and Trey off at when they wouldn’t stop making out in the backseat of Ethan’s truck.
Luckily, Ethan gets a room without my having to produce the ID. I don’t think they would be checking for Avery Preston, but you never know. Ethan pops the key card in the slot in the hall, the door opens, and we both look toward the one double bed. I don’t know if I’m excited or horrified.
Ethan sheds his shoes and crawls into bed. He has nothing with him, and I feel another wave of guilt for getting him into this situation. I head to the bathroom with my bag. My fatigue is instantly replaced with nerves. Do I put pj’s on? Do I stay fully dressed?
After I brush my teeth, I decide to stay in my clothes, and flip off the switch in the bathroom. The room is dark. I slowly make my way to the bed, then stub my toe on something hard and let out a grunt.
“You okay?”
“Yeah.” I can make out Ethan’s shape on the side closest to the door.
I crawl into bed and lie flat on my back, hands by my sides. I’m never gonna fall asleep. Ethan rolls toward me, and I press every piece of me into the mattress. His hand reaches out and glides over my waist. He hooks me, pulling me closer to him. My back ends up against his chest, his arm anchoring me to him.
“Is this okay?” he asks quietly in my ear.
“Yeah, it’s nice.” It’s way more than nice, but I’m trying to be cool about it. I don’t know how cool I can be, though, with my body so stiff.
I think he’s already asleep until he asks, “What were you buying a dress for in Shreveport?”
My eyes get huge, and I’m glad he can’t see my face. “Um, Catherine was getting one for the dance at school.”
Ethan pulls me in tighter and nuzzles my neck. “What about you? Were you gonna get one for the dance, too?”
I let out a giggle. “I don’t know. I could be Peggy Sue Wannamaker from Pittsburgh by then.”
He lets out a growl. “No Peggy Sue Wannamaker.” His voice gets low. “We’re gonna fix this. So I’m officially asking you: Anna Boyd, will you please go buy a cute dress so we can go to the dance?”
I turn over and face him. My hands find his face. His feet tangle with mine. “Yes. Ethan Landry, I would love to go to the dance with you.”
He pulls me in for a kiss, and all thoughts of sleep run right out of my head.
My eyes sting when I try to open them. It’s still dark, but I see the faint glow of early morning sun through the divide in the curtain. I move my hand slowly, not wanting to wake Ethan, and check my watch. Five a.m. This is the time to make my move. I will slide out of the bed, leave him a note, and grab the keys. By the time he wakes up, I’ll be gone and he’ll be out of danger.
My back is to him, so I don’t know if he’s awake or not. Listening to his breathing, it sounds deep and heavy, so I slowly inch my way to the edge of the bed. Once I get there, I roll to my stomach and drop my arm and leg over the side. Then the rest of my body follows. It feels like forever, but finally I’m on the floor on all fours. I’m dying to take a peek, but I don’t risk it. I crawl around the bed to the small desk against the other wall. I can’t even think about the nastiness on the floor right now.
I get to the desk and pull down the small pad and pen, and scribble a quick note. I fish the keys out of the pocket of Ethan’s jacket, then jam my feet into my shoes. My hand goes to the knob.
“There’s no reason to do the crawl of shame this morning. I thought we kept it fairly clean last night.” I hear the laughter in his voice and drop my hand.
I stand up and look back to the bed. Ethan is propped up on pillows with his hands behind his head, watching my every move.
He pats the bed beside him. “It’s early, and you’re not leaving without me. So come back to bed, and let’s figure out what we’re gonna do.”
I huff back to the bed, both annoyed and relieved that my plan failed. Ethan pulls me to him, and I snuggle in close.
“What does the note say?” he whispers.
“Don’t worry. I’ll be right back.”
He squeezes my side. “You were really going to leave without me?”
I rise up on my elbows. “I’m not completely helpless, ya know. I have managed to take care of things up until this point.” Granted, Ethan got us farther, faster, than I ever would have on my own, but damn, I’m not some damsel in distress.
He runs his hand through my hair. “I know. I’m sorry. I just don’t want to miss out on the breaking and entering.”
“You’ve gone insane.” I lie back down, my head on his chest.
“I’ve been thinking about what to do with the ledgers once we get them,” he says.
I prop myself up on my hands and look at him. “What?”
“Let’s talk this out. So, your dad’s boss is dead, and now the asshole with the scar thinks he’ll never find the ledgers. He was going to kill you until you told him you knew where they were. He left you alive, knowing the cops were coming, so he didn’t really care that you could ID him. Right?”
“Yeah, I guess,” I answer. For some reason, I don’t like where this is going.
“So I figure, he’s confident he could get to you before any trial or testimony, or you’d be dead. But he can’t get the ledgers without you. Your dad wants to make some sort of deal with him, but I don’t know what you could do that doesn’t get you killed in the end.”
I take a deep breath and say, “I know. I thought maybe we could make copies and put them somewhere safe, or something like that. Tell him if something happens, they goes straight to the suits—ya know, like people do in the movies.”
Ethan nods. “Yeah, we could do that. It’d have to be a great spot, where he can’t find it.”
I put my head back on his chest, and he twirls his fingers through my hair. “I hate to let him get away with killing Brandon and Mr. Price. I don’t care about the drug stuff or the money laundering, but he shouldn’t be able to walk away from that,” I say.
Ethan drops his hand from my head. “I just got a crazy wicked idea.”
I look up at him. “Oh, God, the way you say that makes me nervous.”
“Okay, hear me out. What if we release it to the world?”
“What?”
“We make a video. You tell the whole story about the murders and what you’ve been through. Then we scan the pages of the ledgers and attach them to the video. Then we could upload it onto Facebook or YouTube or something like that. You can also say if you or any member of your family dies—he did it!”
I sit up in the bed. “That’s insane! What would stop him from killing me after that?”
“He’s going to have bigger
problems than you. All his shit is public knowledge. The cops can arrest him. And then he’s got that cartel in Mexico to worry about. What good would killing you do? And the Feds won’t need you anymore.”
“He’d kill me just because I pissed him off!”
Ethan sits up and pulls me in close. “Anna, there’s a good chance he’s going to try to kill you anyway. He’s found out where you’ve been even though you are being protected by the government. You think he can’t find which safety deposit box you’re going to use to hide your copies of the ledgers?”
I pull away from him and roll over, turning my back to him.
He leans in over my shoulder and says, “Just think about it. That’s all I’m asking. Tell me more about the house.”
I flip back around. “It’s a tough house to get into. We shouldn’t have a problem with the main gate; it’s the one for his neighborhood that’s gonna be tricky.”
I describe the layout to him, and we both toss around suggestions, none really feeling right.
“Didn’t you say your friend Elle lives behind that gate, too?”
“I can’t call her.”
Ethan waits a few minutes and then says, “You don’t really have to involve her too much. But if we can hide in the back of her car, we’re in. We could get into the entire community that way. I have a bad feeling the marshals are gonna be waiting for us there. They know how much you want to go home. And now it makes sense why you don’t want them to find you either.”
He’s right. It would be easy on a normal day to get past the front gate. I could say we’re applying for a job at the clubhouse. Go on back. Or I could say we’re with a pool cleaning service. Go on back. It’s a joke, really. But The Reserve is different. Nothing but houses. And anyone not on the list has to be okayed by phone before you get through. I’m sure I’m still on the list as Anna Boyd, but that won’t work. Everyone looking for me is waiting for something as stupid as that. If Anna Boyd comes through, detain her immediately!
“I’m still sort of mad at Elle.” It’s embarrassing saying it out loud, but true. Most of my anger toward her and Laura is gone, but I really didn’t ever want to see either one of them again.
Ethan lies down beside me and asks what happened. I cover my face with a pillow and tell him.
“Brandon, this is the guy who died?”
I let out a muffled yes.
“Do they know you heard them?”
I pull the pillow down and look at him. “No, but that’s not the point.”
Ethan flips me around until I’m on top of him. “If we have to use some two-faced bitch to help get you out of trouble, then that’s what we’ll do.”
I lean down and kiss him. He rolls me over, fitting us together like a glove.
“My mind is so foggy right now. What day is it?”
“Friday. Why?”
I glance at my watch. Five thirty. “You’re right. It’s stupid not to use Elle to get us in there. I don’t want to call her, in case they’ve tapped her phone, but I know where she’ll be in an hour and a half.” I’d bet my life she and Laura will be at our favorite coffee shop having our traditional Friday morning cup of latte.
“How much time before we have to leave?” Ethan says between tiny kisses.
I can’t concentrate on anything while he does that. “Um…maybe thirty minutes…or forty-five…I think.”
He looks at me with that bad-boy smirk. “Perfect, ’cause I was just getting comfortable.”
RULES FOR DISAPPEARING
BY WITNESS PROTECTION PRISONER #18A7R04M:
Know when to call in reinforcements.
WE pull up to Sola Coffee Bar in the middle of Old Town in Scottsdale. We’re a few minutes early, mainly so we can make sure Elle’s not being followed. We’re being overly paranoid at this point, but we haven’t been caught by the suits or Sanchez’s men yet, and I’d like to keep it that way.
Like clockwork, Elle and Laura pull into the lot. I’m a mixed bag of emotions when I see them—the humiliation and anger floods back, but I’m also a bit relieved to see that my spot in the backseat hasn’t been filled. I’m nervous now that they’re so close. They both get out of Elle’s car, and I watch them walk toward the coffee shop. They haven’t changed; both still have long blond hair and tanned skin. They look gorgeous. Laura looks a little too thin, though, and it’s the first time I think about how she might have felt about Brandon and what it was like for her once he died. Were they getting serious? Did she really like him? Or even love him?
“This was a ritual for us on Friday mornings. It’s out of the way from our houses to school, but this is the coolest coffee shop in town. So worth the effort.”
Ethan grabs my hand. “Are you ready for this?”
“I haven’t even told you thanks once. But thanks for everything.”
He pulls me back in and kisses me hard and quick, then we both get out of the car. I have the contacts back in, although I don’t think anyone is going to recognize me with the short, dark hair.
Hand in hand, we walk into the coffee shop. I spot Elle and Laura at our usual table in the back, but I quickly look away. This reveal is going to have to be done with the utmost care. We walk toward them, Ethan blocking most of me from their view.
They both glance at us and then again at Ethan with some interest, and I’m ridiculously pleased about this. He’s hot. And he’s mine. We take a table next to them, and I sit in the chair that puts my back to their table.
Ethan leans in close. “Okay, sit tight.”
Our plan is that he will sit down at their table and quietly tell them I’m right next to them. Hopefully they won’t make a huge scene. He’s not at their table thirty seconds before I hear them squeal and race to my table.
They do a double take, then throw their arms around me.
Ethan comes quickly back to our table, trying to quiet them down.
“Please, y’all, sit down. We don’t need all this attention.”
Laura and Elle sit on either side of me, taking my hands. Ethan takes the seat across the table. It’s weird that they’re this happy to see me, and all I want to do is scream, Why were you making fun of me?
“Oh my God, Anna. Where in the hell have you been? You just friggin’ disappeared one day,” Elle says as she squeezes all the blood out of my hand.
“And what did you do to your hair? It’s so short. And black.” Laura puts her free hand in my hair. “And your eyes! Are those colored contacts?”
Ethan shushes everyone. “Please, let’s whisper and calm down.”
Both Elle and Laura look at him.
“And who are you?” Elle can sound super bitchy when she wants to.
“This is Ethan and he’s my boyfriend.” I hate the blush that’s creeping up my neck when I say it. “If you’ll calm down, I’ll explain.”
They turn back to me.
“I need you both right now. I can’t get into details, but please trust me when I say you cannot tell a single person you saw me here. No one. Not your parents. Nobody.” There’s no way they won’t tell, but hopefully they’ll keep quiet long enough for us to stash copies of the ledgers first. Or get them on YouTube. Or whatever we decide.
“What’s going on, Anna?”
“The only thing I can tell you is my family is fine.” Little white lie. “We won’t be moving back to Scottsdale any time soon. I can’t be seen here, and you can’t tell anyone anything about me. I’m asking you both as my best friends in the whole wide world to please do this for me.” Let’s see how much this means to them.
They look back and forth between me and Ethan.
“Anna, what do you need?” Laura asks.
“Ethan and I need you to get us into The Reserve. I want you to drop us off in front of that small overgrown section, around the corner from the gatehouse.”
They wait for me to say something else. When I don’t, Laura says, “Then what?”
I paste a smile on my face. It feels fake and probably lo
oks worse. “That’s it. We’ll take it from there.”
Elle shakes her head. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t like it. If you go in, you have to come out. Won’t you need help with that too?”
I’m not telling her the rest of the plan no matter how sweetly she acts. If the ledgers aren’t there, I want them to be able to say they dropped us off and never saw us again.
“Anna could get hurt if you don’t do things the way she wants.” We all look at Ethan. “She’ll get there whether you help or not. Trust me. If you do what she’s asking, we’ve got the best chance of making all this work.”
Silence around the table. No one speaks for a few minutes. Finally Elle grabs her purse.
“Okay, Anna. But promise me you’ll tell me what this is all about soon.”
“Of course.”
We head outside. Elle and Laura walk on each side of me, and Ethan trails behind. I look so out of place with them now. My poor body has gotten pale living in areas that are too cold to sunbathe in during winter months.
They’re both talking fast, catching me up on everything I’ve missed since I’ve been gone. I glance back at Ethan and give him a wink. He makes the “talking too much” gesture with his hand and smiles.
I listen with half an ear, not really interested in what they’re saying but extremely happy to be moving in the right direction.
But there is one part of this that hurts. The carefree, normal part. The part of me that was lost when we first moved and that I’ll never get back.
We get to Elle’s car, and Ethan catches up. “Anna, ride with them and I’ll follow behind y’all,” he says, and jogs to the Mustang. We’d already decided to get our car closer to The Canyons for our getaway, and I don’t trust Elle and Laura to ride without me. No telling who they’ll call.
I jump into Elle’s backseat and the memories overtake me. This could have been any Friday morning from my life here in Scottsdale.
Once we’re in the car, Elle says, “Anna, you may already know this, but Brandon died.” Laura turns her head to the side, brushing her hand across her cheek. Is she crying? I might not be able to handle that.
The Rules for Disappearing Page 23