“We don’t want that,” Axel said. “But I don’t think you want that, either.”
My stomach twisted itself into knots as Jeff stared down at the two men on either side of me. I half expected him to shoot all three of us right then and there.
Judging from the look on his face, he might have been considering it.
He didn’t pull out his gun, though, thank God. Instead, he gunned the engine, peeling out and spraying us with muddy water as he barreled through the intersection.
“God, I hate him,” I muttered, wiping in vain at the clump of mud that had splattered on my cheek.
“I’m just glad he left without any trouble,” Axel grimaced before smirking when he looked at me. “How is it that you can even manage to look good with mud on your face?”
Micah laughed. “No shit. I was just thinking the same thing. Here, let me help.”
He reached out to wipe the mud away, then flashed me a sheepish grin. “I might be making it worse... It’s sort of like... smudged.”
I started laughing along with him. I’m not even sure why—I was still pissed off and soaked to the bone and also apparently smeared with mud—but there was something so ridiculously, unbelievably surreal about the moment that I just couldn’t stop myself from cracking up.
Axel looked at Micah and me like we had lost our minds, but it only took a few more seconds before he was laughing right along with us.
We were probably all experiencing a bout of hysteria.
“I’m sorry,” I managed to get out between bursts of laughter as I slowly got myself under control. “I just... this night—morning—whatever. If someone pops out of those bushes right now and says we’re all in some crazy reality show right now, I’ll totally believe them.”
Micah slung an arm over my shoulders and gave me a half hug. And I let him do it because... well, to hell with it. It felt good to hug. It felt good to laugh. It felt good to know I wasn’t alone out there, even if the people I was with wouldn’t have originally been my first choice. Or even my second.
They had helped me, though. They had stuck with me when the truck had flooded and when my uncle had come along spewing his craziness.
And while I hated being proved wrong about... well, about anything, honestly... I had to give credit where credit was due. For all our bad history, Axel and Micah had treated me well over the past several hours.
It was still hard to wrap my mind around that fact, but it was a fact.
“So, are we still sticking with the original plan?” Axel asked once most of our laughing fits and giggles had passed.
“The plan of walking back to town and trying not to die along the way?” I sighed as we started back down the road again. “I think that’s the best we can hope for at this point.”
“I agree,” Micah nodded. “We’ve already made it through hell. A little walk on top of everything else can’t be too hard.”
“Jesus, don’t say that out loud,” Axel grumbled. “Next thing you know, we’ll be getting struck by lightning or a meteor or some shit.”
I snorted and was afraid for a moment that I might start the chain-reaction laughter fits all over again. I mean, seriously—the thought of a meteor crashing from the sky and striking us down felt like a real possibility at that point.
“Come on,” I motioned for them to follow as I picked up the pace. “Let’s at least get back to the main road before something else disastrous happens.”
I was honestly more worried about my uncle driving back around for another showdown more than a potential meteor-powered extinction event.
But I wasn’t ruling anything out, either.
“We can probably make it to our studio from here pretty easily,” Axel said. “It’s not exactly the same way we came, but it should still be quicker than trying to walk all the way back to town.”
Now he had my undivided attention. “Your what?” I slowed down a little as I let his words sink in. “What kind of studio? Do you mean your apartment?”
“No,” Axel shook his head. “It’s just a little warehouse where I’ve been trying to shoot this movie I’ve been working on since... well, for too damn long. It’s still pretty rough around the edges—the studio, the movie, all of it—but it’s my dream, and Micah has been helping me turn it into a reality.”
“He’s being pretty modest,” Micah said, grinning. “You should see the place, Jasmine. It’s a real studio. As real as anything I saw in New York while I was there.”
If the night hadn’t already been so full of what-the-actual-fuck moments, I might not have believed the words I was hearing. Even after all the other unbelievable stuff we’d been through, I was still having a hard time wrapping my mind around Axel owning a production studio. Axel? Making a movie? With Micah?