“Oh.” Daryl nodded. “That makes sense.”
There was a moment of silence in the car. Then Chris shrieked loudly enough that Gilroy jumped, and the car swerved. Parker, not bothered by any of this, continued to snore. “What?” Teri asked, looking toward the back.
“He’s on my side,” Chris yelled, shoving her brother, who shoved back.
“Am not!”
“Are so!”
“This reminds me of my brother,” Gilroy said, and it was like everyone in the car quieted to hear him. “We fought all the time when we were kids. And when we were adults…” His voice hardened. “My father thought he should be the one to take over the family business. Even though I was more suited for it and more experienced. And how are you supposed to react when you’re passed over like that?”
His words hung in the car. “Well, but it all worked out, right? Because then you joined the CIA.…” Teri’s voice trailed off.
“Right,” Gilroy said. “It worked out in the end.” Teri was about to ask how much farther it was they were going, when Gilroy slowed the car down and signaled. “We’re here.”
Teri looked around. “We are?” She’d never thought about where spies stashed their go bags, but she hadn’t expected it to be a rest stop off the highway. This was not the kind she’d stopped at on road trips, big travel plazas with an Auntie Anne’s and a Starbucks inside. This was small, just bathrooms, vending machines, a few flickering lights. It was also deserted. Only one other car in the parking lot.
Teri gave Chris and Daryl all the cash and change she had on her so they could pick out their snacks. They piled out of the car, and Teri handed Gilroy back his suit jacket. She started to join the kids at the vending machine. But then she noticed Gilroy hadn’t moved. “You okay?” she asked.
“Fine,” Gilroy said, sounding like he was talking himself into something. “Just preparing myself. After all, this is what I trained for. At Quantico.” He nodded toward the woods. “I’ll just be over there.”
Teri was surprised he was going into the woods, but after a moment, it made sense. He probably had stashed his stuff somewhere nobody would ever look twice at. And this rest stop certainly fit that description. “Could you leave the keys?” Teri asked, as she shivered. “I think it’s going to be too cold for the kids to wait outside.”
Gilroy looked at her and hesitated, a pause stretching on for what Teri thought was a simple request—for a car that wasn’t even his. “Oh, sure,” he finally said, tossing them to her. “I’ll be back soon.” He walked around the back of the rest stop, then disappeared from view.
Teri watched him go. Something was bothering her, something in the back of her mind. But she couldn’t put her finger on what.…
The kids returned, laden with snacks. Parker handed her an open bag of Fritos, and she took it, picking out a chip slowly. Her mind spun. “What’s Quantico?” she finally asked.
“It’s the FBI training school,” Chris said immediately.
“Not the CIA?”
“That’s Langley,” Daryl said patiently.
Parker gave her a pitying smile.
Teri felt a cold sensation in her stomach. “Get in the car,” she said. “Keep the doors locked.”
The kids didn’t argue—maybe something in her expression let them know she was serious. She deputized Chris to be in charge, then headed to where Gilroy had gone, shivering in the November cold.
She’d expected him to be in the woods beyond the rest stop, maybe digging his go bag up. She hadn’t expected to hear him talking to someone.
There was a man standing next to him. He was dressed in dark clothing, a head shorter than Gilroy. “These kids think you’re in the CIA?” he laughed.
Teri quickly ducked behind the nearest tree.
“I had to do something,” Gilroy said. His voice sounded different now—rougher edged, with an accent creeping in around the edges. “I had to get them out of there and get them on my side or they would have phoned the police. And I couldn’t have that, not when we’re so close to pulling this off.”
“And what will you do with them now?”
“I’ll take care of them.” There was a chilling finality in this answer. Teri forced herself to keep breathing. She wished she hadn’t listened to quite so many true-crime podcasts.
“So to business. You have them?” the other man asked.
“Obviously. You have what I want?”
“Show me the ice first.”
“Right here,” Gilroy said. Then there was a long pause. “I swear they were right here.…”
Teri ran. For once in her life, she didn’t need to ask someone what she should do.
She ran around the back of the rest stop, back across the parking lot, beeping open the yellow car as she went. She threw herself into the front seat—all the kids were in the back—and started the car with shaking hands.
“What’s going on?” Chris asked.
“Where’s Gilroy?” Daryl added.
Teri moved the seat up and pulled out of the parking lot as Gilroy ran toward them, fury in his eyes, the other man at his heels.
“Who’s that?” Chris asked.
“Put your seat belts on,” Teri said. She stepped on the gas as she aimed the car toward the highway, as fast as it would go. She gripped the steering wheel tightly and glanced back at the kids in the rearview mirror. “We’re getting out of here.”
CHAPTER 18
Kat
Beckett?” I asked, even though of course it was him. I was just trying to make sense of it. “What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same question,” he said, taking a step to the side so we wouldn’t be in the middle of the sidewalk, and I followed. “Where’s Stevie?”
“Oh,” I said, stalling as I played with the toggles on my coat. I knew this wasn’t going to be like with Cary, where I could just pretend that Stevie and I had gone our separate ways, and not expect any follow-ups. “It’s… we…” I took a shaky breath. “We had a big fight and then we got separated, and I waited and waited but she never came back for me.… She just left me behind in the subway.” Tears stung my eyes as I finally said these words out loud.
“Wow,” Beckett said slowly, rocking back on his heels, adjusting the stack of pizzas in his arms. I noticed now that he was more dressed up than he had been at school, in dark pants and a blue button-down, an open black peacoat over them. For just a minute, like right now, it was like I could see past all my annoyance and anger at him, and there he was—the guy I’d been truly friends with for a year. “But—why were you even with her? I thought she was going into the city to have dinner with her dad.”
I shook my head. “Her dad cancelled,” I said. Beckett rolled his eyes, like he wasn’t surprised by this. “He had to work. So we were going to take the reservation, but then…”
“Wait, how are you guys still separated?” Beckett said, frowning. “Why didn’t you just call her?”
Just like that, I remembered that Beckett was from the Before Times, a world where everyone had a cell phone and could receive things like calls and texts. “I left my phone back in Stanwich,” I said. “And… I broke Stevie’s phone.” I hadn’t planned on saying this, but the second the words left my mouth, I knew they were the truth. Why had I been pretending otherwise? Who did that help? I had been taking her phone all night, not even really asking. I’d grabbed for it and sent it flying—this was on me.. “It was my fault. And that kicked off our fight. She left me behind and ended up with Brad.…”