I closed my eyes, just drinking in the touch of her. “I’m a lucky son of a bitch.”
Liam swore low under his breath. “Maybe just a son of a bitch. Because I think our luck just ran out. There’s a police blockade ahead.”
Mae whipped around, facing the front.
I ducked instinctively, flattening myself out against the back seat. But not being able to see what was happening was terrifying. “Talk, guys. What’s going on out there?”
“There’s three police cars blocking the road.”
The instinct to stick my head up and have a look was strong, but I was smart enough to stay down.
Mae glanced over her shoulder. “Can you crawl through to the trunk, maybe? Do one of the seats fold down?”
“Even if they did, I’m six-foot-four. Unless Liam’s BMW turns into a four-wheel drive, I’m probably not going to fit.”
“No need for that,” Liam piped up. “We’re not going through the checkpoint.”
Mae’s panic was palpable. “We’re not? That’s the only way to Rowe’s cabin. Where else are we going to go? If they’ve got this road blocked, they’ve probably got every road out of Saint View cut off.”
Liam nodded grimly and swung the wheel down a tiny side street.
I groaned. “They would have seen you turn off. They’ll send someone after us.”
Liam put his foot down on the accelerator right as the police sirens started up, confirming my theory.
I closed my eyes, shaking my head a little bit. “Well, it was nice while it lasted.”
“Defeatist, much?” Liam bit out, eyes on the road.
He made another turn, and Mae let out a squeal, slamming into the passenger side window. I let out a grunt as I half fell off the seat.
He put his foot down harder, and the car lurched forward. When I snuck a look at Liam, his grin was ear to ear. “Are you seriously grinning that were in a police chase right now? What are you, some closet adrenaline junkie?”
Liam laughed. “What do you think court is? It’s an adrenaline high all in itself. Does it really surprise you that I like fast cars? And don’t be insulting. It’s not a police chase if they can’t find me. It’s hide-and-seek.” He spun the wheel again, taking us down another unfamiliar street.
But Mae seem to recognize it. “Liam, isn’t this your…”
Liam nodded and turned into a driveway. He steered off the crumbling cement, bouncing his car over the grass and pulling it around at the back of the house. “Yeah. It’s my mom’s place. Let’s go see if she’ll let a couple of fugitives hang out with her for the night.”
7
Mae
As quietly as I could, I closed the door to Liam’s car, my palms damp with sweat. Even still, Heath jumped at the noise. I put a steadying hand to his arm.
“We need to get inside,” he murmured.
He was right. There were no fences around Liam’s mom’s place, which had made it easy for us to just drive around the back. But it also meant we were very exposed. All the neighbors could see everything we were doing.
All three of us tensed as the wail of a police siren flew past the front of the house without slowing, its blue and red lights reflecting off the windows of the house next door.
I held my breath, waiting for them to turn around and come back. At any minute, they’d realize we were here and come storming in, guns drawn, shouting about putting our hands in the air, cuffs flashing.
It didn’t happen, but it didn’t help my nerves any. Neither did the jarring ring of my phone. It split the quiet air around us, and I dove on it, desperate to silence it before it drew any further attention.
I was just about to press my thumb to the cancel call button when I noticed the name on the display. I flashed it to the guys while silencing the ringer. “It’s Perry.”
Heath’s eyebrows knit together, while Liam found an old silver key on his keyring and fit it to the back door.
The lock clicked, and Liam blinked. “Can’t believe she hasn’t changed the locks in all the years since I lived here.”
He stuck his head inside to call out to his mom, but when nobody answered, he nodded at me.
“We’ve already made that much noise. I don’t think anyone is here. Answer it. Put her on speaker so we can hear what’s going on.”
I nodded, trying to pull myself together. I liked Perry a lot, but I couldn’t tell her what we’d done. I couldn’t tell anyone. It was a relief to find Liam’s mother wasn’t home. Although we did need somewhere to stay, I didn’t want to involve anyone else in this.
I took a deep breath and lowered my voice, trying to emulate the scratch I’d have if I’d been woken up. At 1 a.m., I should have been sleeping. “Perry?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”
She cleared her throat. “Mae. Listen, I’m sorry to wake you, but something’s happened. Heath—”
“Is he okay?” I closed my eyes, hating that I had to lie to her. But I couldn’t tell her the truth. I had to play along.
“Honestly, I don’t know. He escaped.”
My acting performance was Oscar worthy. “How?”
“He beat the shit out of Rowe.” There was an anger in Perry’s voice I’d never heard before.
I glanced over at Heath, who had absolutely not done any such thing, and then at the bruising and dried blood across Liam’s knuckles. Quickly, he tucked them into his pockets and walked stiffly from the room.
I bit my lip. Until that moment, it hadn’t even occurred to me that he might have been upset about what he’d done to Rowe. It had been for a good reason, and yet, Liam had hurt one of his best friends. That couldn’t feel good. “Is Rowe okay?” I asked. “Where is he? In the infirmary with you?”
“No. I called an ambulance and had him taken to the hospital. He’s still unconscious as far as I know.”
“What?”
He shouldn’t still be unconscious, should he?
Liam reappeared, eyes wide. He obviously thought the same thing.
“I’ll go down there,” I told Perry. “He needs someone with him. He doesn’t have family.”