Dinner was corn chips, off-brand nacho-cheese tortilla chips, Butterfingers and chocolate chip cookies. All courtesy of the Daniel Boone Motor Lodge vending machines. To be perfectly honest, I had no complaints. I would have gone for a junk food picnic even if we had another option. The county sherrif used to brag that he spent less feeding prison inmates than he spent feeding police dogs. After years eating green baloney, I happen to take great comfort in vacuum-sealed sugars and powdered cheeses.

The conversation, though, could have been better. I can imagine that most new couples, after declaring their love, might spend hours wrapped in each other’s’ arms, trading childhood memories and life goals and opinions on obscure 80’s comedies. Rev and I didn’t have the luxury of idle chatter. We had to talk strategy.

“So you think someone went after the girl, right?”

“Must’ve,” Rev said. “She wasn’t beat halfway to shit when I talked to her. Maybe her pimp did it and someone paid her to blame it on me. Maybe someone paid her to let them beat her up. Maybe she didn’t get paid at all, just beaten half to death and threatened. I’d like to know which. It’d be fun to find out just how much my freedom is worth to these guys.”

“I don’t want you coming with me,” I said. “I can talk to Leathers by myself.”

“Bullshit,” he said. “You know I’m not letting you go into that den of wolves by yourself.”

Yeah, I knew it. My protests fell on deaf ears. Rev would find a way to come with me, even if I snuck out in the middle of the night. Just like I would find my way to his side if he tried to leave me behind. Maybe we were both too stubborn for our own good; but if we were going down, at least we were going down together.

“What do you think Leathers has to tell us?” I wondered aloud, not expecting Rev to say anything I hadn’t already thought of. We’d already decided that we needed to act on what Gino said. It was the only lead we had. All that chasing after red-headed kids had led us nowhere. I had barely even tried to process the fact that there might actually be some money hidden somewhere. I thought it must be another trick, another dead end, another bluff.

“I imagine he’ll tell us whatever Millions told him,” Rev said.

“I don’t think my dad and Leathers could have much to talk about,” I said. “I think he must have overheard something. You know what a barfly he is. And no one bothers talking quiet around him, because he never opens his mouth except to order a beer.”

“He doesn’t even do that. He and Luis have their own form of sign language.”

“So someone slipped up around him. Why would he talk to us about it? And how would Gino know that he knew?”

Rev shook his head, brushing cheesy crumbs from his stubble, then grimacing at his orange fingers. I grabbed his hand and licked his index finger clean, grateful for his smile.

“That’s…disgusting,” he said.

“Get used to it,” I teased, giving him his hand back. “I happen to be a disgusting girl.”

“I can tell,” he smirked. “I think I’ve got some chocolate smeared on my lip, if you want dessert.”

“Always,” I cooed, leaning in for a kiss. And as usual, it didn’t end at a kiss. Half an hour later, and my stomach was rumbling again, my appetite ignited by our acrobatic routine between the sheets. Rev went to replenish our dwindling supply of saturated fats, and I decided it was time to call Janie. I grabbed the phone off the bedside table and dialed, grateful that Janie’s number hadn’t changed in so long that I still knew it by heart.

Which was more than I could say about the rest of the phone numbers in my now-destroyed cellphone...

“Girl! Where have you been! You know your house burnt down, right? Holy shit, it was such a mess. There were, like, fourteen fire trucks outside - for hours. No one knows where you are! I was worried sick! Where are you? Oh - I saved Daisy, Jonesy, and Lynnette…but I’m sorry. Peter is ashes in the wind.”

“Poor Peter. And poor Daisy,” I said. “At least we don’t have to pay for cremation.”

It was silly, but I did feel a pang of sadness at the news of my plastic flamingo’s passing…

“Seriously, though. Where are you?”

I wanted to tell her. I wanted to tell her everything. The holes in the motel ceiling, the smell of a junkie’s sweat, the feeling I got when Rev kissed me, the way Purrloin was getting used to her car carrier after years of resisting it, the fear in the darkest pit of my stomach - the constant fear, beating its steady rhythm underneath everything else. Any moment, it could all fall apart. They could find us. Riding around in that goddamn Bel Air, bullet holes and all. I might as well have been riding around with a mariachi band singing our names through a set of stadium speakers.

“I’m…away,” I said.

“Duh,” Janie grunted. “Where’s away?”

“I can’t tell you,” I said, closing my eyes tight. Without Rev there, I felt like the room was caving in. Janie’s voice was the worst sort of reality check. She was the past. She was the time when things were good. When my biggest problem was getting dog shit out of my scrubs. When I had the luxury of dreaming up lives and personalities for my lawn flamingos. When my father was alive, before I ever heard of any money, before I needed a bodyguard, before I had to make that drive to Guvcheck -

No. That wasn’t something I’d take back. I wouldn’t give up Rev to go back in time.

“Earth to Misty,” Janie’s voice was annoyed. “Why can’t you tell me? Are you on Survivor? Area 51? Planning a surprise party for me? What the hell?”

“I just..I can’t. I don’t know….if I’ll ever…if I’ll ever get to see you again, Janie.”

Oh, great, I was crying. Big, fat tears.

“What?! What does that mean?! Is it Rev? Did he kidnap you? The cops said he kidnapped you! Tell me…”

“Just…I miss you. I miss you so much. And if I can talk to you when this is all over, you’re the first person I’m gonna call. But right now, I just need you to know you’re the best friend I ever had. I love you. Take care of the flamingos. Give them my love. Be good, Janie. Be so, so good.”

I hung up before I could break down any more. When Rev returned, he found me bawling, staring at the phone. He dropped everything, came to me, folding me in his strong, inked arms. It wasn’t enough - but it was so close that it hurt.