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Ru and Zo were hospitable and understanding to Jade and me as we fueled up for battle. Though the cousins only knew of our dealings with the muscular Trevor, they supported us as if they were aware of our upcoming fight against the Raven. When we left the Cozy, so few hours remained. Clues kept Jade and me spinning in circles as we paced the storage unit lot.
“‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’and ‘I Wanna Be Adored’,” I mumbled for the umpteenth time.
“Stone Roses and Joy Division,” Jade countered. Still, no new insights were forthcoming.
“Love, rejection, heartache. The same clues as before, just with different lyrics.”
“And the British link,” Jade added. She glanced conspicuously at my phone.
“Okay,” I said.
After no reply from my plethora of text messages, it was time to dial Titus. When it went to voicemail, I cringed. Titus’s smoldering accent combined with his podcasting voice told me to leave a message. I promptly hung up.
“No answer?”
Jade checked the time on her ring watch. “Nearly seven. It’s still early. Maybe your swoon sets his phone to silent while he sleeps. Give it another hour, and we’ll try again.”
We trod on. “I walk this route every once in a while,” Jade said. Conversation was the only fuel keeping our thoughts rolling.
“With Gill?” I asked. The answer was obvious. I’d walked the same path only yesterday with the same escort.
“Yeah,” Jade answered, staring off into the distance. “I try to give Nell and Pax space. Mostly when they’re disagreeing.” She used air quotes to emphasize the last word.
“That’s probably wise. Nothing you could do would stop one of their fights anyway.”
“True.”
“Is that why you’re eager to hit the road?” I asked. “Gill mentioned how once you leave you’ll probably never come back. Are Pax and Nell why?”
Jade’s eyes went wide. “He said that? The goofy boy doesn't understand sarcasm when he hears it. Yes, when D.M. is ready to roll, I’m planning to hit the road. Just not like you. I won’t live on the road. A couple of nights here and there, sure. I’ll use D.M. at local events. A hundred miles away tops. I’m not planning to roam that far or for that long.”
I said dumbly, “Your enthusiasm must have confused Gill.”
“That’s because he only hears half of what I say.” Jade took a moment to collect her thoughts before continuing. “Pax and Nell are the real reason I don’t want to leave. Other than being family. I want to make sure they’re stable before I take off. That they’ve decided what they want with each other.”
“You don’t want to leave Nell only for Pax to leave her too.”
Jade brightened. “Exactly. You get it. Now that they’re talking about marriage. Well, we’ll see.”
“If Pax can get D.M. moving.”
Jade rolled her eyes. “That’s a whole other set of problems. Seriously, how hard is it to find solid parts these days?”
I didn’t respond. Jade’s truth detector would flare no matter what I said. Godzilla was retro, vintage almost. That made his parts difficult to source and pricey to get. However, what did I know about more modern vehicles? Nothing. Let alone food trucks.
“Let’s visit in Godzilla.” Jade’s suggestion brightened my mood. “At least, until we try Titus again. I’m too tired to keep this trudging up for long.”
My mouth ran away with me before my brain could process it. “That way, when we have to rescue Nell, we’ll have one last sprint in us.”
Jade’s face sank. “Is it really going to come back down to that? Again?”
“More than likely.”
“Well, blast and curse!”
I snickered at her strange way of swearing. She caught my sideways expression. “You have little ground to stand on, Miss I-Only-Swear-Using-Snack-Food-Items.”
“Not only.”
“Mostly!”
“Sometimes breakfast dishes and coffee treats.”
Jade snickered as she went to the keypad and fingered the passcode. Nothing happened. She pushed the numbers again with the same result before jabbing them with the knuckle of her index finger.
“Stupid power outage!” she raved. “It must have reset the locks. I hope not every garage is dealing with this. Mr. Skinner’s phone will ring its way into the next town if that happens.”
Poor Gill, I thought. Yet another obstacle in the way of his rest. The guy ran on so little sleep already. Between guarding the block, rushing to help the Morris girls, and helping Pax fix up D.M., there wasn’t time for much else.
“I don’t get why the Raven is so set on destroying Nell!” Jade waved her arms in the air in frustration.
I swallowed back an I told you so. “There’s not much about the Raven that makes sense. There are patterns of behavior.”
“Yes, you’ve said that already.” Jade’s frustration crackled in her gravelly voice. “If the Raven is marking a murder and not a horrific accident, that means someone plans to kill her. That doesn’t make sense.”
“Yes, you’ve said that already,” I joked, knocking my arm into Jade’s. Her stiff strides softened.
“This whole thing has grouchy Jade seething.”
“Understandable.”
Jade paused at the corner where the alleyway met the sidewalk in front of Twisted Sisters. She grabbed my hand, holding it in both of hers. Turning her tractor-beam truth serum eyes onto mine, she took a deep breath before explaining.
“Whatever happens, I refuse to believe you are the one causing this chaos. I also loudly and boldly declare that you are my friend. No Raven of death will shatter that! Ever.”
I teared up. Wouldn’t it be great if declaring something made it so? I didn’t bother giving my thoughts a voice. Instead, I hugged this new pal of mine and let her hug me. Whatever happened, I would always remember the Morris sisters with fondness and gratitude.
Jade pulled back at the sound of keys rattling in a lock. We stepped closer to Twisted to see Nell awake and staring at us with deep concern.
“A post-it?” Nell shook the bright pink square at her sister. “I woke up and nearly clocked myself in the face fighting off this note.”
Jade chuckled. “Sorry about that. I’m running on fumes.”
“And why is that exactly? Why are you and Penny up and wandering around the Canyon at all hours?”
“It’s eight,” Jade stated. “I’m normally up at this hour. Baking.”
“Yeah, but not after two nights of accidents and insanity. Why aren’t you guys passed out in your beds or drooling on the couch?”
Jade shrugged. “Guess we’re strung out on stress.”
It was a plausible reason. Jade didn’t shudder when she delivered it, meaning it was true even if it wasn’t the whole truth.
“Get inside, you weirdos. I got a call from Zo and Ru saying you were involved in a situation this morning and that the prowler is—”
“Right here!” Fake Trevor snuck up behind Jade and me. We’d been too excited by Nell’s appearance to notice his approach.
He placed a hand on Jade’s shoulder, making Nell scream with fury. She charged before I could warn her. This could be it. I went to step between the man and the artist when a man in a brown coat stole my thunder. A shorter man wearing shorts and high tops followed him. They battled “Trevor” to the sidewalk.
Gill came into view, flagging down a police car. Both the security guard and the officer collided with the mess of men pulling them off of each other.
“What’s going on?” Gill hollered. He clocked the stalker man with a right hook before he finished his sentence. “Trevor” slumped to the sidewalk. His head landed atop a pair of gray Converses. I shook. My breath hitched as I stared not at the man wearing the sneakers but at the shoes.
“Penny?” the owner of the Chucks asked in a whisper so lilting his accent was barely audible.
I looked up at his face, unable to see through my tears. “Titus?”