“Getting us out of here.” I tap my fingers on the steering wheel. I can see the guys in the valet stand still watching me, and if I sit here for much longer, they will definitely know something is up. I try to shift into drive, but the gearshift doesn’t move.

Peak stares at me, and as calm as she looked before, she seems really fucking concerned right now. “Sorry,” I say, giving her a weak smile. “I forgot you had to be pressing on the brake. I remember that now.” I push it into drive and ease off the brake, letting the car roll forward a bit.

“This is a bad idea. You don’t even have a license.” And she’s right. It is a bad idea, but it’s also the only other idea I have that ends with me still here.

“Do you want to get out?” I ask, my foot planted firmly on the brake again. And I mean it too. I might be running away from home, I might even be in the middle of grand theft auto as we speak, but. The valet guy knocks on my window; we’ve been sitting here a long time. But I can’t go, not until she answers.

She hesitates and then shakes her head, and I could kiss her face—would be, actually, if the guy from the garage wasn’t still knocking.

I lower the window. “Sorry, we were just trying to decide where to go eat. Am I in your way?”

I’m scared he’s going to say something, like he realized something was up and called Gray or my dad, or that he could tell I didn’t really know how to drive, or that the police were coming to arrest me for driving without a license. But he just says, “There’s a great lobster bar down by the pier; it should be pretty quiet tonight.”

“Thanks, we’ll be sure to check it out.” I flash him my most winningest smile and hit the gas. The car jerks forward, and I ease it onto the road, tightening my grip on the wheel and saying a quick prayer that I can handle this.

“Ridley,” Peak says, but when I look at her, she’s turned toward her window. Whatever words she was planning to say dying on her lips.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Jubilee