Her friendship with Gertie was still in the "budding" stage, but she enjoyed her company and didn't want to see her get hurt.

She'd only be doing this once, though.

She'd forgotten to ask if she could turn on the radio before Gertie began her deep breathing, and didn't know if that would mess up her efforts to go to her happy place before offering herself up to an abductor, so Charlene drove in silence.

About half an hour later, she pulled into the parking lot of a convenience store. This already seemed like the kind of place where you could get murdered after dark. Charlene shut off the engine.

"Every five minutes," she told Gertie.

Gertie nodded. "Thank you for this."

"Thank me after you end up not dismembered."

"Morbid humor isn't really what I need right now."

"It's what you get. Are you sure you want to do this? I bet we could find a late-night sushi place. Go to a movie. Knock on a stranger's door and offer to reorganize their bookshelves."

Gertie opened the car door. "I'm heading north. I'll let you know if anything changes. Just sort of keep heading in that direction."

"All right. Please be careful."

"I will."

"Be constantly aware of my therapy bill if this goes bad."

"I'm trying to save my cousin."

"I know, I know. I apologize. Good luck."

Gertie got out of the car, shut the door, and walked off.

This was suddenly not as exciting as Charlene had thought it might be. Her stomach twisted itself into knots like Christmas lights when you pulled them out of storage. She needed a Xanax.

Everything would be fine. Gertie had already done this dumb shit many times without getting hurt, so she'd be fine tonight, too.

It was five minutes after eleven. Gertie had been gone for one minute. Charlene could still see her. It was too early to check in.

Charlene scrolled through Instagram for four minutes, then sent Gertie a text.

Still alive?

The answer came back right away: Yep :)

Charlene played on her phone for another five minutes.

How's it going?

Fine.

It was probably time to move to a new parking spot. Charlene turned on the engine, wondering how she was going to make it through the next couple of hours without having a nervous breakdown.

* * *

Gertie kept her hand inside of her pocket, fingers wrapped around the stun gun.