Kate Evangelista - Til Death

“You have a car?” I raised an eyebrow at him.

“Just got it back yesterday actually.”

My so-called best friend frowned before he said, “Fine, take her home. Call you later?”

I didn’t answer him. The sadness in his eyes mirrored my own. His lips disappeared into a thin line, like he kept what he wanted to say prisoner. After today, I didn’t have the strength to fix what was broken between us. I needed time. I turned away from him and let Dillan take my backpack. I followed him to the other end of the parking lot.

“What do you mean just got it back ?” I asked, trying to keep up with Dillan’s ground-eating strides.

“I left it in Budapest when I was…sent here. It takes a while to bring a car overseas.”

I accepted his explanation with a slight shrug.

Taken unaware, my heart sputtered the second a dark gray Mustang with black racing stripes running from its hood to its rear came into view. Now I understood why he’d bring that car anywhere. Hell, I’d never let that car out of my sight if I owned it.

“That’s a…” My voice broke.

Dillan stopped by the driver’s side and took out his keys from his back pocket. “A ‘68 Shelby GT500,” he said casually. In short, a very, very nice, classic muscle car. If a vehicle could be a person, the GT would be Dillan all the way—all hard lines and handsome finish.

He opened the door and threw his bag and mine into the back seat. “It’s fine to come near the car, you know. It won’t bite.”

I shut my mouth and took tentative steps toward the car. I grew up with Gramps talking nonstop about this car. He’d dreamed about a ‘68 Shelby GT500 since before I was born. He said he just needed to get lucky at the junkyard and he’d devote everything to restore it. Gramps’s fantasy car—in all its gleaming glory—sat patiently in a high school parking lot. It looked so out of place among the trucks. But that was what Dillan was. He seemed out of place in this little town I called home.

He opened the door for me with an impassive expression. Oh, but he couldn’t fool me. I knew very well that he gloated inside. He had the right to. I’d be gloating aloud if I were him. I slid into the plush black leather seat and ran my hands over every surface I could touch after buckling my seatbelt. Awe, like a slow burning fuse, spread all over my body. My fingertips sizzled. It was one thing to hear Gramps talk and completely another to actually sit inside the fantasy.

“Should I give you two some time alone?”

“What?”

His smile gave me unexpected quivers. “Stop molesting my car.”

“I wasn’t—”

The engine roared to life with a twist of his wrist.

Pummeling my annoyance into submission, I focused on the sweet ride. “Is this a GT500KR?”

“Yup.” He nodded. “Under the hood is a 428 cubic-inch fully restored Cobra Jet V8.” He shifted to third gear when we reached the edge of town.

“That’s 335 horsepower,” I purred. In garage speak it meant the car was a beast on the road. I sighed. “The universe is so cruel.”

He took his eyes off the road for a second to look at me. “You know your cars.”

“I really don’t. This is the only one I know about because Gramps is a mechanic. He knows his cars. And we happen to be sitting in one he’s been dreaming about since forever.” I ran my hand over the dashboard. “How did you get a car like this?”

“Long story short, I had nothing else to do in Italy a couple of years ago—”

“What, no scary things to kill?”

“After seeing the sights, I found this baby in a scrapyard and started putting it together to pass the time.”

“Everything on the Internet about you, is it true?”

“Nothing like a fake life to hide the real one.” He snorted.

I shook my head in disbelief. “Yup, the universe is cruel.”

“Stop saying that.”

“What are you…sixteen?”

“ Seventeen ,” he corrected.

“Right.” I suppressed a grin. Knew he was older. “I’m turning seventeen in November. Only months apart and already you’ve experienced more than I have.”

“You make experience sound dirty.” He chuckled. “You’re not going to mention that Taylor Swift thing again are you?”

“There’s that.” I ticked off points on my fingers. “You belong to a famous family. You look the way you do. You can handle a sword like nobody’s business. You’re smart. And you own an awesome car.”

“If you continue, I’m going to think you like me.”

A roaring blush exploded on my face. “I’m not finished.”

“There’s more?”

“I’m just glad you’re a jerk and your arrogance is annoying.” I faced him and smiled, my teeth showing. “Those are your only redeeming qualities.”

He laughed so hard at my sarcasm he almost drove us off the road. My stomach flipped many times over. I still couldn’t believe such a sexy sound came from a mouth that could say the meanest things. Despite what his laugh did, I stayed on topic.

“I’m sure half the people in Newcastle wish they had your life.”

The laughter stopped.

I glanced back at him. “What’s with the quiet?”

A muscle jumped on his jaw. “You don’t know anything about my life,” he said. Then he looked at me with piercing sapphire eyes. It almost hurt to stare into them. “You know what they say happens when you assume. You make an ass of you and me.”

I swallowed the prickly lump in my throat. “Why so defensive?”

“I’m not defensive.” He sighed, loosening his grip on the steering wheel. “I just don’t wish my life on anyone else. I’m compassionate that way.”

The corner of his mouth curled up as we pulled onto the road leading to the farmhouse. He shifted moods from zero to sixty in less than three seconds. I was beginning to see that he said mean and snarky things as a defense mechanism.

“Why didn’t you want Kyle to drive you home?” he asked after another couple seconds of stiff silence between us. “I thought you were besties.”

I wanted to kick him for being so perceptive. “Don’t say ‘besties.’ It sounds weird coming from you.”

He leveled a pointed stare at me.

“Kyle’s been lying to me,” I said plainly. “We’ve been best friends for so long, and this is the first time he’s ever lied to me.”

“That you know of.”

“Excuse me?”

“Fun fact about life, Selena: everyone lies.”

Anger wrapped my stomach in prickly brambles. “I don’t know what kind of a life an Illumenari lives, but around here, friends don’t lie to friends.”

“Even if it means protecting each other?”

“Even then.”

“Then you’re naïve.”

My mouth opened, but my anger blocked my comeback. He had a point, even if I refused to accept it. My friends didn’t lie to me just like I didn’t…my heart twisted. I’d kept my vision a secret. I didn’t tell Kyle about the puppets or what happened today with the needles. I lied by omission. My righteous indignation crashed, landing as a pile of rocks in the pit of my stomach. Again with the stones in my glass house. Frustration blurred my vision. I had no right to judge.

“Shit. Are you seriously crying?” He pulled over onto the side of the road and turned off the engine. “I’m sorry, Selena. It was a jerk thing to say.”

“You’re always a jerk.” I used the heel of my hand to wipe away the tears that refused to stay in my eyes.

“Shit. Don’t cry. Please, don’t cry.”

“You’re the weak-against-tears type, huh?” My voice hitched. Still, the tears came.

“Occupational hazard.” He hauled me into a fierce hug, sending the now familiar electric current all over my body.