6 Ford

Ford

“How long until they widen the search?” Austin asked as we did our best to act normal while we looked through a rack of “gently used” clothing. As if that was a better way to say second-hand. And I wasn’t snubbing my nose at it. Growing up, “gently used” was the only way I had “new” clothing, but I wasn’t lucky enough to get it from a place as cool as this one.

The thrift shop had this vintage vibe to it, which only made me feel as if it gave them an excuse to upcharge everything.

I wasn’t complaining, but we were seriously limited on funds, and it didn’t help that we had to get new everything since most of what we had on us had been left back in the motel room or in the car that we couldn’t get to.

“Once they clear the motel and make a plan of where to start—”

“How long?” Austin snapped, cutting me off. “Are we talking thirty minutes? An hour? Two so they can get a chopper here?” Austin’s brows pulled together. “Why didn’t they have a chopper to begin with?”

I stared at him, blank-faced but brow raised.

“I’m not saying I want them to have one,” he rushed to add. “It’s better for us that they don’t. Just seems a bit strange, does it not? I mean, you are like the most wanted man in America right now.”

“Am I sensing a bit of snark in there?” I shot back bitterly.

What was it about him that seemed to push all of my buttons at once?

It was starting to get to me. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure him out. On the surface, he seemed easygoing and fun. Most of the time he could be playful, maybe even bordering on cocky. But there were times when he’d turn his gaze on me and the look in his eyes was more cutting. It was like he didn’t trust me. Not that I could be mad about it.

It was the look he was currently giving me that set me off. His eyes narrowed, gaze calculating and cutting. His jaw set, and anger rolled off him in waves. There was something here that went beyond shaky trust.

“How long?” he bit out, pulling me away from my attempt to figure out his different pieces.

“Less than an hour,” I said.

“How did they find us?”

My head shook as I pulled out a hanger donning the ugliest sweater I’d ever seen in my life. I held it up like I was about to ask him how it looked as I turned to face him. I didn’t think anyone was watching us, but it was better safe than sorry, which meant playing the part of shopping.

“No idea,” I said with a forced smile. As he took me in, an amused twinkle appeared in his eyes. “If I had to guess, someone saw me at some point and recognized me from the news.”

“You’re getting that,” he said. He snatched the hanger from my grasp the moment my mouth fell open to protest. I didn’t even have a chance to argue before he dashed away like a kid full of sugar. Before I knew what was happening, he was at the cash register with the huge cloth tote full of clothes we’d picked out.

The woman working hadn’t looked away from her phone since we stepped in, but the moment Austin caught her attention, he seemed to easily suck her in with his obnoxious charm. He had her giggling and twirling her hair. Which meant, she was paying me no mind. I took the opportunity to sneak out the front door.

Careful as I could, I scanned the area. There wasn’t anyone around to see me standing there. The excitement from across the street filled the air around me. We were too close to the situation, but I didn’t have a clue how we were going to quickly put distance between us and the motel. The car was still over there, which meant there was no way to get to it.

The door to the shop opened and Austin walked out, three plastic bags in one hand. If I wasn’t mistaken, there was a sense of relief in his wild eyes the moment they landed on me.

“Come on,” he urged as he coolly walked to the corner of the building, disappearing around the side before I had a chance to catch up with him. I followed him around to the back, where he tucked himself between a big dumpster and the back of the building. His eyes scanned the area, and I found myself following his lead. “No cameras back here.”

I nodded in agreement as I turned my attention back to him.

My eyes went wide as he kicked out of his shoes and began unbuttoning his jeans at the same time.

“What are you doing?” I said as I whirled around to give him some privacy. My eyes bounced around our surroundings just to make sure we were alone.

“I can’t go running around in ripped pants and a bloody leg.”

I heard the sound of ripping fabric, and curiosity got the better of me. I turned back around to see Austin crouching with a knife in one hand and a strip of shredded jean fabric in the other. His legs were bare, and I might have inappropriately taken a peek at his boxers. The man wore boxers. Somehow, it seemed fitting, and so did the pattern of chaotic strings of Christmas lights that crossed all over the damn things. Christmas was months ago, leaving me to think that he either didn’t have a sense of time or a sense of what he wore.

“What?” Austin said as he noticed what my gaze was locked on. “Oh, yeah. Got them as a Secret Santa thing from work. Think it was Jameson, but I can’t be sure. Anyway, I stuck them in my backup bag instead of throwing them away.”

Though it sounded as if he wasn’t fond of the underwear, there was something in the way his lips curled up in the corners that made me think otherwise.

“Here, let me,” I offered as I squatted next to him and took the strip of fabric from his hand.

“Yeah, okay,” he said, voice a bit shaky and confused as he placed a hand on my shoulder to stabilize himself as he stood.

I winced when I saw the deep gash on his shin. It needed to be cleaned out, and could probably use a stitch or two, or at least some butterfly bandages. I didn’t see us getting any of those things any time soon, so I did the best with what I had to work with. I tied the fabric around his leg, pulling it tight before knotting it off.

“Thanks,” he mumbled as I stood.

We locked eyes. Neither of us blinked for a full minute. I couldn’t say why I felt the need to hold my breath. After a beat, the trance was broken when he cleared his throat and turned his focus to one of the bags. I turned my back to him again, giving him some privacy to get changed, not that it really mattered at this point.

“So, if we assume that someone saw you and called it in, we need to figure out where it happened,” he said, then gave a little grunt, that led me to assume he was pulling up a new pair of pants. “It wasn’t at the motel, because I made sure no one saw you.”

That was true, unless someone knew to be looking for me. It had been dark when we arrived, just hours before the sun was due to start rising. Only a couple of rooms had lights on behind drawn curtains, and despite how shady the place was, there hadn’t been anyone lingering in the parking lot. I was out of the car and behind the closed door of the room in under a minute. I was nothing but a shadow in the night if anyone had seen me.

I thought hard. I hadn’t left the car unless I had to. I’d stayed hidden behind the tinted windows of the hatchback.

But there had been one time…

“The rest stop in Kentucky right after we crossed over the border,” I said. Austin had wanted to get out of Virginia before he found someplace to stop and rest. But he just kept going, not seeming like he wanted to stop even though both of us were in desperate need of sustenance and a bathroom that wasn’t the side of the road. Not that he stayed there any longer than it took to piss and grab a few vending machine finds. “That has to be it. That was the only time I left the car. Unless someone’s been following me since I left my house…”

The thought sat like lead in my stomach. But if that were the case, then why had they waited so long? Why hadn’t they caught me when I was stranded without a car and struggling to climb up a mountain in hopes of finding someplace to hunker down? Why not when I was in that empty shack, waiting for a rescue from Reed?

“Let’s just say they were following since that rest stop.” Austin made a face. It wasn’t a happy one. “Then my car is probably burned. Well, there goes that fun idea of sneaking over there so I can rescue it.”

I stared at him with an expression of utter shock. He wanted to go back…

“Are you insane?” I blurted out before I could stop myself.

“Gotta live life on the edge sometimes,” he said with a lazy shrug. “And we need a car.” His face turned serious as he spoke that last part. Good. At least it showed that there was a part of him that grasped the gravity of this situation. “Looks like we’re going to have to lift one.”

The lawman in me cringed. I’d prided myself in staying on the right side for so long. Even working for a system that had corruption, even if I wished it didn’t. Now, I was skating a thin line, afraid that all I was doing was shredding it to pieces so it no longer defined good from bad.

“Don’t suppose I can ask you to be picky about it, can I?” I asked, knowing we were totally screwed and now wasn’t the time to have issues over stealing a car. An object could be replaced— with a bunch of hassle, yes, but at least it wouldn’t directly cause someone pain. And it wouldn’t be life or death, that was for sure.

“You can ask, but I can’t guarantee anything,” Austin replied. The smile he sent me was more of a grimace. “Be back as soon as possible. Don’t move.”

He pinned me with a look that almost had me replying with an agreeable nod, but I was able to cut the urge off at the last second.

His eyes narrowed as he studied me for few more beats of my heart. Then he blew out a long stream of air, deflating his lungs, as he yanked off his ball cap with one hand and ran the other through the silky strands of hair he’d just released. If he didn’t appear so calm and treated everything like it was a joke most of the time, I would have said he was nervous.

“What is it?” he asked, voice low as if he didn’t want to know the answer.

I didn’t like causing him stress. I didn’t know him, and he was helping me out because his boss, in a sense, had asked him to. I was more of a job than anything. And I was okay with that. That said, he shouldn’t have been put in this position. He shouldn’t be mixed up in this shit. If we were caught… well, I didn’t want to think about what it could mean for him.

“I should just turn myself in,” I said, thinking it was the only way to save everyone. Austin. Reed. And anyone else that had been twisted up in this. I had no idea who they were trying to take down with me. If working twenty years in the FBI had taught me anything, it was that there were people who would go to great lengths and beyond to keep their power and hide their secrets.

I felt his hand around my arm, holding me in place as my feet threatened to move me away from our little hiding place. Normally, I would have put him in his place because he had no right to touch me, but there was something about the way his grip was firm yet his fingers weren’t digging into me that had me keeping my mouth shut.

“I’m afraid I can’t let you do that, Agent Priestley.” The harsh authority of his voice caused a shiver to run down my spine. I locked my body down to stop it from showing.

I tilted my chin, meeting his dark gaze out of the corner of my eye. His spine was straight. His face was hard. His stare was… almost blank, but I could see the ticking bulge of his clenching jaw giving away his feelings. His frustration. His… certainty that he wasn’t going to let me do such a stupid thing.

“Call me Ford,” I told him as I forced my body to relax in hopes of silently getting him to understand that I wasn’t going to go out there.

“I can’t do that,” he replied. The blank expression slipped off his face, only to be covered up with an easy smile that didn’t feel wholeheartedly real.

There was something off about Austin. Something I didn’t exactly fear, but was cautious of. Something I wanted to figure out. That shouldn’t have been the reason I gave in to him. It shouldn’t have been the motivation behind staying and letting him help me.

“Fine,” I said with a sigh. “I’ll wait here. I promise I won’t move.”

His hand released me, and he took a step back. Strange as it was, losing his touch left me feeling cold, and I found myself wishing for it back. Then I wondered what the hell was wrong with me.

“Good.” He smiled cheekily, like he’d won and he was relishing in it. He stepped around me, leaving the bags of remaining clothing on the ground. “If you hear anyone coming, jump in the dumpster.”

“No,” I said with a sharp shake of my head. “I have no issue with crawling in there if it’s for the job. I don’t mind getting dirty to get what I need, but I refuse to be one of those people who gets pulled out of the dumpster and tackled to the ground with stains and dirty condoms all over them. If I get caught, I will at least do it with the last shred of dignity I have intact.”

Austin snorted and shook his head.

“Fine. Hang tight. I’ll try to get back before they find you,” he said and then smiled wide.

“Please do,” I shot back as he rounded the corner and out of my sight.