Seven Sunsets Read Free Page B

hoping you’d keep the leather pants.”
    “They’re ripped,” she said, giving me a telling look as she sat down across from me.
    Fuck, she’d enjoyed it. Her eye was swelling up, and I felt like a dick all of two seconds before I remembered how itchy her trigger finger was— hell, I needed to worry about her killing me in my sleep.
    “So what’s the plan now that you don’t have your money?”
    Stealing a glance around the diner, I saw we were practically alone. I could feel my brows draw together. “You don’t still want to die, do you?”
    Emery shrugged her shoulders, looking away. “Not sure what I want anymore. I don’t want to go back to Manul, I’d rather die.” She glanced at me; her sweet eyes cutting through me, making me remember the first time I’d wished she didn’t want to die anymore. But that was history.
    I closed my eyes. “I can’t let you leave. We had a deal. Anything I wanted until I killed you, but surely, that’s horseshit.” I studied her expression, wondering which Emery was with me now, the weak one or the strong one. I longed to see the fire behind her eyes. “You can’t want to die, and I’m not going to kill you unless you fucking try to kill me or if you run. You’ll have to go to California with me.”
    “What’s in California anyway?” She asked, watching her own hand stir her tea.
    “You could call it another job, and I need an accomplice, one that’s good with a gun.”
    “Oh, need someone to keep your bitch seat warm?” She smirked, and my heart beat faster seeing her fierce side.
    Then I thought, is that what she wanted from me? Did she want to be mine? I thought of our night in front of the fire again. But she hadn’t told me about Manul that night when she told me about what had happened to her husband. Why the hell would I buy that she wanted to be mine? Wishful thinking. I’d sure as hell play along though. I clutched her hand, then fingered the stitches I’d put in her wrist, saving her life just days ago. What a fucking mistake. “Yeah, I need you to keep other parts of me warm as well.”
    Her chest heaved in a breath. “So what happens when we get to California?”
    I gripped her leg under the table, way up on her thigh. “You keep up your end of the deal. I’ll let you walk…if you want.”
    “And what’s the deal now?”
    “Same as before except I’m not going to kill you.” I’d be cashing her in for my sister.
    She half smiled, her fire going out. “Okay.”
    I wanted to tell her it didn’t matter whether she agreed or not but I shut my mouth. The less she knew the better. When we walked out of the diner, I had my arm around her.
    The wind in my face again, I thought about what I never want to.
     
    Somewhere between Tennessee and Oklahoma
     
    “We have to stop and eat. We all need to stretch.” My mama, having won the argument was the boss for the moment. My dad pulled our maroon Toyota over at a truck stop, but I could tell something was still wrong. I couldn’t quite tell if it was my own nerves about becoming a man with my mother’s family who I’d never met or my dad’s nerves I was sensing, but things were tense. That all changed after we ordered our food. My dad put his arm around my mama, whispering into her long dark hair that she was right. He apologized and she smiled sweetly, making everything right with my family again. We were all laughing. My dad was telling jokes and mom put a quarter in the jukebox to play some old song I hadn’t heard before and haven’t heard since. Halley was busy not eating as always, like a normal five-year-old, while I enjoyed getting pancakes in the middle of the day.
    I’d gone to the bathroom. While washing my hands, all the good times of our meal went away as I wondered where they could be taking me. Would they be leaving me with mama’s family? Leaving me alone? How would these people be better than my own father? My thoughts now erratic, I started to get angry with my