Silver Stilettos

19 | all roads lead to Reed

"I'll drive," said Dom, breaking the stunned silence with a long-suffering sigh. Something flashed in her palm.

"My car-it's-but-"

Dom dangled her keys in front of my face. "I said it's fine, I'll take you home."

I could hear the rabbiting of my own heartbeat. Fear, shock, and anger catapulted up my lungs, through my throat, past my tonsils, and out my mouth. "My car is gone, Dom, do you not get that? It's stolen, and my keys, shit, I don't have my keys, and-"

"Em's car is in the garage. She was blocked in," said Lenox, still huddled next to us. She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered, even though it wasn't that cold. "You left your purse in the closet. I guess she-"

"Helped herself?" I finished acerbically.

Lenox winced.

I whipped out my phone, found Emily's last text message to me, and replied to it with: Are you going to be back soon?

We stood in silence for a moment, shuffling our feet. When my phone didn't immediately light up with a response I sent another message to Emily. You're so dead.

"Look, she's an idiot. She's going to go buy cheap champagne from some pimple-faced loser at the liquor store who doesn't realize how colossally stupid it is to break the law for a pretty face. And then she's going to come back, find you gone, and unless you want to stay here with Baron and the rest of the brat-pack, you'll just tell her to get your car to you first thing tomorrow morning." Dom snapped her fingers to illustrate the ease with which the situation could be handled.

Lenox was nodding in approval, but I gaped at Dom, wondering how she expected me to be on board with freaking grand theft auto. "You don't understand. Maybe your parents won't notice if your cars mysteriously vanish, but mine will. And if they find me back home without it I'm going to have to explain why Emily has it and then it'll come out that she was getting alcohol and-you do know my dad is a cop, right?"

"He's a detective," Dom corrected, surprising me with her knowledge. "I'm pretty sure he won't give a rat's ass about a few bottles of champagne. He's got actual murders and stuff to deal with."

"You obviously don't know my dad," I mumbled. "He wouldn't even let me have a sip of wine to taste until last year."

"We can stand here and argue about it or we can get in my car and go home and sleep in our nice, warm beds." Dom's eyes bored into mine, hinting that there was only one right answer.

"I can't go home," I was forced to say. "They'll notice if I come home and my car isn't with me."

"You can spend the night with me," Lenox said with a bright smile. "My mom works late so she won't notice—or care—"

I cut her off mid-sentence. "Take me to Reed."

Dom's lips flattened as she walked to her Audi, parked right behind where mine should have been. I could tell she didn't think it was a good idea, but in front of Lenox, she obviously didn't want to make an issue about it. In silence, she unlocked the car.

We clambered in and strapped our seat belts on, pretending the heavy awkwardness wasn't noticeable. At least that's what I was doing. I let my head lean against the window and I stared at the houses as we drove through Emily's neighborhood. Soft light glowed behind windows and I wondered about the families inside. Were they like mine, warm and affectionate? Were they like Reed's, shrouded in secrets and danger?

My shoulders jerked when the car lit up with a blue glow. Turning my neck, I saw that Lenox was tapping her phone.

Emily still hadn't replied to me. Fear and anger knotted in my stomach. Releasing an exhale, I turned back to the front, but not before Dom caught my eye.