Sure enough, Ezra led us to his car. Well, what was left of it, anyway.
“Where’s Kai?” I asked, panicking.
Ezra and I ran around and found Kai unconscious near the trunk.
“Kai!” I yelped, falling near his side. Kai stirred, his eyes droopy. “What happened?” I asked him, cradling his head in my lap.
“What took you two so long?”
“Ruby tore down all the ribbons,” I explained.
Kai took a deep, frustrated breath. “She clubbed me over the head with a rock.”
I turned his head around to check out the damage. It wasn’t too bad, really, just a little blood. The bump was significant but manageable.
“Can you sit up?” I asked him.
He leaned forward and Ezra helped him sit all the way up then leaned him against the tire. “I can’t believe she did that,” Kai said, bringing his hand to his temple.
“Who? Ruby? The complete stranger who couldn’t keep track of her clothing?” I sarcastically bit out.
“Not now,” Ezra said, examining his cousin’s head. He stood and pulled his cell phone out of the trunk. There was a huge dent there where Ruby had tried to get in.
I didn’t think she realized with those old cars you couldn’t get into the trunk without the key. I stood and peered inside.
I gasped.
“What?” Kai asked.
“She ripped the inside to shreds, man.”
I could hear Ezra on the phone with the police. I bent down to Kai’s level, literally and figuratively.
“Why did you leave in the first place?” I asked him.
“We saw you both slip behind the waterfall and Ruby figured you two could use some privacy, or so she said. Stupidly I thought she wanted to be alone with me too.”
“Kai,” I breathed out, exasperated. I fell beside him, leaning against the car door.
“How could she do this? She was so hot.”
I snorted. “Seriously, Kai.”
“Did those few hours we had mean nothing to her?”
I laughed. “Get it together, Kai. Look at your cousin’s car.”
He groaned. “I know. He’s going to kill me.”
“If it’s any consolation, he’s already in a foul mood. I can’t imagine it could get any worse.”
“Whoa, really? Why?”
I examined his bump again. The bleeding had almost stopped. “We, uh,” I cleared my throat, “we had a sort of strange, intimate moment back there, but then he, like, bailed. I ran after him like a little lost puppy and demanded he fess up, buttercup.”
“And?”
“He did that sullen Cullen crap.”
“Ah,” Kai offered. Helpful. “Can I just—”
“No.”
He eked out some sort of sound suggesting I should listen.
I sighed. “Fine, spit it.”
“Can you just trust me on something?”
“Who? You? The great judger of character? Kai the common sense guru?” He laughed then moaned in pain, grasping at his head. “Go on then.”
“I admit I don’t have the best judgement of very many things, but Ezra I know. Give him time, Jupiter.”
My head dropped low as I considered what Kai was telling me.
“Do you know something I don’t?” I asked.
“I know enough,” he answered, “but that’s all you’ll get out of me.”
I needed to talk to Frankie. Then I remembered I’d stuck my phone underneath the seat and Ruby saw. “Shit!” I stood up, opened the door, and threw my hand beneath the seat in the back. “Damn, she got my phone.” I gasped. “That beyotch! And my hat! And my bag of goodies!” I stuck my head out to look at Kai. “She is a scandalous hooker! Kale chips, my ass!”
“I’m really sorry about that,” Kai apologized.
I climbed out, closed the door, and sat next to him. “It’s okay, at least my bags and laptop are okay. Thank God for old cars, huh?”
He nodded. We sat in silence for a moment.
“Dude, this is the trippiest trip I’ve ever been on in my entire life,” I told him.
“Bet you wish I’d kept Mary Jane around, huh?”
“I’ve never even touched the stuff.”
“What in the world! How is that possible? Aren’t your parents from, like, another dimension?”
“Shut your mouth, high Kai. We’re organic, but not that organic.”
He started to laugh but sobered when he saw Ezra hang up.
“Cops’ll be here soon,” Ezra said.
Kai panicked. “I thought you were just filing a report or something! What if they finger me for the fire?”
I leaned forward. “Yeah, ya stool pigeon. We don’t want no gumshoe ’round here.” I threw a thumb Kai’s direction. “Bugsy here can’t do another turn in the big house. A couple of goons promised revenge. It’ll be the meat wagon for him for sure!”
Ezra’s stony expression told me he wasn’t impressed with my 1920s gangster vernacular, which was a shame, because I was a dame packing some serious idiomatic heat.
He held out his hand for me to help me up. I refused it, which would have sent a powerful message if I hadn’t forgotten that my hands were scraped up and consequently my standing from a sitting position had all the finesse of a turtle on its shell. Eventually he gave up waiting for me and slid his hands underneath my arms, lifting me like a toddler. Dang it.
Ezra grabbed his first-aid kit and a new T-shirt from the trunk and carefully unwrapped my hands. More delicately than I thought possible for a boy with hands Ezra’s size, he placed squares of antibiotic-treated bandages across my palms then wrapped them both in gauze.
“Keep your mouth shut about the fire, Kai, and you’ll be just fine,” Ezra threw over his shoulder.
When the cops got there, Kai acted so sketchy the police demanded to search the trunk. Thank God they didn’t find anything. Ezra tried to explain away Kai’s insanity by blaming the situation and eventually they took us seriously. They took statements from all of us and promised to send copies of the reports to Kai’s parents’ house for insurance purposes.
“I’ll get you a new phone as soon as we get to Chicago,” Ezra promised once the police left.
I sighed. “It’s all right, dude.”
“No,” Ezra said more forcefully than I thought necessary. “It’s my fault that pyscho took it. I should have listened to you.”
“I hate it when you’re reasonable.”
He bit back his smile. “I’ll even replace your hat.”
“Don’t push it,” I told him, pointing a finger in his face.
This time he smiled. “Get in the car, Jupiter.”
“What did you say at the waterfall?”
“Get in the car, Jupiter.”
“What’s in the bag?”
“Get in the car, Jupiter!”