Page 65 of Stranger Danger

Then I glance over at Beckett.

Chin dropped to his chest. Eyes closed.

Fresh panic snatches away any idea of sleep that was bouncing around my brain.

I punch his shoulder hard enough to crack my knuckles.

He makes this irritated noise that he always does when I wake him up too early, and folds his arms over his chest, sinking into the seat.

I punch him again.

“Five minutes isn’t going to hurt,” he grumbles.

“Nuh-uh.” I unbuckle the seatbelt and slide closer to grab his face. “No naptime.”

“Ira—”

“If you die, what am I supposed to do?” My voice hits a horrible high pitch, scratching my throat until it’s raw.

He cracks open one green eye. “Drop my body at the precinct and call it an act of God.”

My head snaps back so quickly that something in my neck twinges.

What.

The.

Fuck.

Beckett yawns and stretches his arms, palms scraping the torn-up roof of my car.

“Let me drive,” he says again.

For the first time in my life, I’m lost for words.

I rip off the last of my nails and flick it out the open passenger window. My fingers are tingling like crazy, my thumbnail low enough to burn when I lick the blood off, but it kind of sort of helps.

Maybe.

A van parks beside us, and hope rises in my chest like a bouncy ball—

Beep beep.

Why does everyone lock their car?

Neither of us knows how to hot-wire one, so it’s not as if we can grab a sample while someone’s taking a shit. It’s luck of the draw at this point, and I’m positive I have negative luck.

Doesn’t help that I’ve been replaying Beckett’s words in my head while we wait. Seriously—how can he even say that? Other people don’t matter to me. He does. Him dying isn’t a joke. There’s not some “haha, gotcha” moment that would fix us being on the news if he killed over.

The only thing it would do is shred my final rainbow.

And I know I can’t exist in monochrome.

“You ever seen a sunset?” he asks.

I look up from my hands and out the windshield.

The rest stop building’s obscuring half the sky, brown and gross, but above the treeline’s pretty. Blue fades into cotton candy pinks and purples. Heavy on the lavender. All the clouds are bunched up at the top like they’re holding a meeting and didn’t want to invite the rain in the distance.