Hidden Away

Chapter 4: Bad Connection

"You want me to do what?" I stood in the parking lot with my arms crossed. No way. I wasn't getting into this again. All I wanted was a hideaway for a bit. Did they want me to be discovered?!

"Um, it's not big of a deal," Sinead remarked. "What I've heard from Devin is you're the robber of the bunch. If you're going to be living with us and hiding from the cops, feeding off of us, you have to pitch in. Devin leads, Rocky is the tech genius and brilliant at distractions, I'm the spy, and you can be the one who actually does the robbing."

"How do I know you aren't going to leave me?" I said. "I'd be the one taking the fall."

There was way too much pressure on me. I hadn't done this in years, and although they didn't know that, they knew I was still a wanted criminal.

"Yeah, well, we all have to take risks. Besides, you're new here. If it makes you feel better, you can think of it as an initiation."

"Why the heck would hazing make me feel any better?" I demanded.

"Guys, stop," Devin interrupted. "Sinead is right; Maddie, you take some stuff. It's just a little bit of food. It's not even that bad."

I had to play it cool. "Maddie" did this all the time, apparently.

"Okay. Fine. What am I getting?"

"Anything you want."

"Where am I supposed to put it?"

Sinead tossed me a fashionable oversized black purse. "Talk with a Jersey accent if you want to add some flair to your part. And put these sunglasses on."

Did they think this was a game?

It wasn't!

Not anymore.

"This is going to look so obvious," I said.

"It can hold a lot, though," Sinead told me like she had experience.

"Hey, wait, what's my job for this, guys?" Rocky piped up.

"Just cover for Maddie if she needs it," Devin instructed.

I was so thankful Devin wasn't putting Sinead and I together.

"What about Sinead?" I said with a twinge of sarcasm. "What's she going to do? Anything, I don't know, useful?"

"She'll also be covering for you."

Oh. So she would be working with me a bit. Excuse me if I wasn't jumping up and down with joy.

"Okay. Let's do this, I guess."

I thought it was really stupid to have me going out in public just an hour away from where I killed that man, but Devin was confident as always.

"I thought you were supposed to be helping me?" I hissed to Devin before he left for his car.

He only shrugged.

"Hey, can I be your boyfriend?" Rocky asked me on the way into the grocery store.

I slapped his hand away as he tried to take mine. "What? No."

He backed away a few inches. "Can't even let a fella down easy?"

"Oh, shut up," Sinead muttered under her breath.

"She doesn't get along with anyone, does she?" I said through the side of my mouth.

Rocky looks to me, then to her, then back to me. "You said it, not me."

Once inside the store, I held my purse closely to my body with one strap down so I could easily slip some items into it inconspicuously.

"How about we're in a relationship but it's 'complicated'?"