Agent Reyes pulled his posture back, folding his arms together with condescension sitting on the curves of his mouth. “Ah, I didn’t know badasses were afraid of flying.”
“And I didn’t know dickhole FBI agents were a dime a fucking dozen.”
He touched his hand to his chest. “I’m not your first? You wound me, Scarlett.”
“Don’t call me Scarlett.”
God, why my dad ever thought that this was the man for the job today just proved how blatantly brainless he was.
Agent Reyes looked up to the sky, likely cursing whoever was up there pulling this shit on both of us. “I swear, I’ll never call you your name ever again if you just… get in the goddamn car. It’s happening whether you do it on your own or I carry you there. You don’t have a choice on if it’s happening. Only how.”
The cut of his stare was unyielding, and I felt the strangest slap of familiarity.
This guy—this stubborn, rage-triggered, squared-jawed asshole—was just about as bull-headed as I was. If I were in his shoes, I wouldn’t give up either. This man didn’t and wouldn’t break his orders like I wouldn’t break mine.
Sure, my orders weren’t so much that as they were a promise I made to my brother five years ago, but that didn’t change how hell-bent I was on keeping it.
I was going to die, and Agent Reyes was going to take me on this trip. We were unbending, unmoving, and unfuckingbelievable, the both of us.
We would both get what we wanted, and I realized just how to make it happen.
“Alright. I’ll go,” I announced.
Reyes threw his hands up in the air. “And the fucking birds sang in celebration.”
“But we’re driving.”
He snapped his head my way, his victory snipped off at its knee. “We’re not driving.”
The muscles in my face twitched as I tried not to grin. “We’re driving whether you take me or I call my father and he fires you and someone else takes me.”Stepping into him, I flashed my eyes up to his and let my smirk run free. “You don’t have a choice on if it’s happening, Agent Reyes. Only how.”
His nostrils flared, and I almost felt bad for the guy.
Standing just beneath him, my neck craned back to a steep angle to account for the near foot he had over me. Maybe more.
This guy stared down at me like he could stare right through me. He’d perfected marring the would-be stunning color of his eyes to something so bitter, it could be tar. Murky. Dark. Questionable as fuck.
If I was anyone else, I might have squirmed under such an intense gaze, but fuck that and fuck him. I just wanted to get out of here. The sooner we got on the road, the sooner I could find some back alley to stir trouble in or some woods to slip into and wander off until I became that glorious and evasive nothing.
I wanted to be like the breeze. Here one moment, moving in and out of lives and space like an easy breath, and gone the very next.
Reyes whipped out his phone while tossing me mine, punching his fingers across the screen. Maybe he was calling for backup or even to request a reassignment. I couldn’t blame him. I wouldn’t want to be stuck in a car with me for days on end either.
“Sir,” he exclaimed against his phone after a few seconds. Ah. Hi dad. “I’ve picked up your daughter, but we’ve run into an issue. She’s refusing to fly.”
A few seconds of dead silence.
“I understand that a fear of flying is nothing to scoff at, but sir—”
More silence.
Agent Reyes swiveled to face away from me, lowering his voice to a hushed tone. “She’s insisting we drive the whole way.”
My dad wasn’t good for much, but I knew at least he’d be good for this. He knew why I didn’t fly anymore, and not even he would dare try to force me into it.
Not after Jonathan.
“Sir, that will extend our trip by at least three days,” Reyes tried, the patience in his voice coming undone. After a few more moments, he sighed.