City of Kinetics

TWENTY-ONE ✴ We're Fugitives Now

       It turned out that Kane had drugged them for a lot longer than they had originally thought. What Mila assumed was a short car ride from Sweetie's to his drug mansion turned out to be eight whole hours. Kane had brought them to a small town called Greenwich.

       After the news sunk in, the car had fallen into complete silence as Jason drove. It didn't take him long to find the highway leading west, and according to the car's GPS system, they were exactly seven hours and forty-six minutes away from Nexus City.

       Kane hadn't followed them, or if he had, he was far behind. They had been driving for twenty minutes in complete silence before the girl they picked up from Kane's mansion suddenly spoke out.

       "I'm Evelyn, by the way," she said. "People just call me Ellie, though."

       Nobody said anything right away, so Mila decided to be nice.

       "I'm Mila," she said, giving her a small smile.

       "Leila," Leila said.

       Jason looked at her from the rearview mirror. "I'm Jason."

       Hunter stayed silent, clearly unimpressed. Leila frowned at him and reached forward, pushing on his shoulder. He immediately grabbed her wrist, turning to scowl at her. Leila only scowled back.

       "Hunter," he said, letting her go. "So, tell me why we shouldn't arrest you for working in Psychotics."

       Evelyn's eyebrows shot up. "Arrested? What are you, cops?"

       "Division," Hunter said, looking ahead.

       "No shit," she said, her lips pulling up into a grin. "Um... I helped you escape?"

       Jason chuckled. "That's a pretty solid reason, but not enough."

       "I've never done anything illegal," she said. "I worked as a cleaner."

       "A cleaner?" Hunter repeated, clearly not buying it.

       "I swear. I mopped floors, vacuumed, washed dishes, and even did laundry," Evelyn told them.

       "But you worked for a known gang," Hunter pointed out.

       She shrugged. "They paid me fifty bucks an hour to clean and keep my mouth shut."

       Mila looked at Hunter and Jason. "You're not really going to arrest her, right?"

       "Why shouldn't we?" Hunter asked.

       "She helped us escape," Leila responded.

       Jason rolled his eyes, a grin playing on his lips. "We didn't arrest Mila, did we?"

       Mila's eyebrows furrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

       Hunter sighed. "Look, Evelyn, we'll drop you off wherever but if I catch you with Psychotics again, I'm throwing you in jail. Deal?"

       "Deal," she said immediately.

       "Great," Jason said. "Where to?"

       "Nexus City."

       Hunter's eyebrows furrowed and him and Jason glanced at each other.

       "You're from Nexus?" Mila asked, also confused.

       She shook her head. "No."

       "Then why do you want us to take you there?" Jason asked.