Page 89 of One Good Crash

After a long, awkward silence, Jax said, "By the way, it includes a company vehicle."

I whirled to face him.It did?I didn't recall seeingthaton the paperwork. "Really?"

Looking decidedly unenthused, he replied, "Really."

As for Jaden, he looked more irritated than ever. "But Morgan didn't get a vehicle."

"Yeah, well," Jax muttered, "she didn't show the same initiative."

I didn't even know what that meant. From what I could tell, Allie had shown nearly no initiative at all, at least when it came to securing this job.

Once again, I turned to look at her. Now, she wasn't even facing us. Sometime in the last few seconds, she'd turned toward the front door. As I studied her face in profile, it was easy to guess her thoughts.

Somewhere outside wasanothervehicle, one she'd borrowed without permission. She'd need to return it. But how? And when?

Poor Allie.She didn't even know the worst of it.

But I didn't want her to think about that now. She should be celebrating, not worrying. I summoned up my sunniest smile. "That's great," I said, turning back to Jax. "So what kind of vehicle is it?"

With no trace of a smile, he replied, "An old Ford pickup."

I gave a little shake of my head. "What?"

"Yeah," he said, "Jaden bought it a couple hours ago."

I hesitated. "You don't mean—"

But thatwaswhat he meant, which is why an hour later, Allie and I were in that very same pickup, looking for a new place to rent.

Chapter 38

We'd been driving for maybe fifteen minutes, and so far, she'd said nearly nothing. Obviously, she wasn't happy, and it was easy to see why.

I bit my lip. "Maybe he won't besobad."

From behind the wheel, Allie didn't even glance in my direction. Instead, she kept her eyes straight on the road and said nothing in reply.

I tried again. "And now, you don't need to worry about returning the truck, so that's good, right?"

The truck was so ancient, it was a genuine classic. It wasn't cheap either. I knew this because I had a rough idea how much Stuart had paid for it just a couple of months earlier.

Given how much he loved that thing, I was half-surprised he'd sell it at all, which only fueled my curiosity.How much had Jaden paid for it?

Whatever the dollar-amount was, it had to be a lot. But of course, I knew how this went. The real payment hadn't been for the truck itself so much as a bribe to keep Allie out of trouble.

In spite of how much I disliked Jaden, I had to admit, he'd done Allie a huge favor today.

Then again, he probably didn't know the full story. If he'd known it was for Allie's sake, he might've torched the truck, pointed the police in her direction, and called it a day.

Pushing that distressing thought aside, I looked to Allie and said, "And the pay's pretty good, too, right?"

Her only response was a muttered curse.

The knot in my stomach grew just a little bit tighter.God, I hated this.I'd known Allie for years, and our only big argument had been the one we'd had just before I moved down here.

But the way it looked, oursecondbig argument was just around the corner.

I sighed. I might as well get it over with, or even better, head it off entirely. "Allie, listen," I began. "I'm really sorry–"