How to Hack a Heart

Chapter Fourteen

Even after it begins to get dark, we continue to drive. Around ten o’clock I start to worry a little when Nico starts to look pretty sketchy. His shoulders slump down, and his eyes keep falling shut. I’m already Petrified Petra about cars. Mixing Sleepy Nico and a deathtrap on wheels doesn’t sound like something that will result in a happy ending. I force him to pull over at the next motel we see—or at least the first one that doesn’t appear to have a serial killer waiting in the bushes to come out and eat me.

I’m too delicious to be eaten!

Nico pulls into a parking space and taps his hands on the steering wheel. He blows out a sigh, before he turns to look at me. “So…what do we do now?”

Yanking my beanie down, I look around nervously. “Well, I’m figuring we’ll sleep here tonight and come up with a plan by tomorrow. We obviously can’t go back to D.C., until this whole thing clears up. We’ll keep going with the search, but we can’t be it in directly. At least we got through all the interviews.”

He nods his head slowly. “I didn’t even get to tell my father I was okay. What’s he going to think? He comes home to a house broken into it, and I’m gone. Do you think I can send him a message or call him?”

I take an uneasy gulp. “We’ll discuss it in the morning. I have to figure it out. It might be too risky. I have to come up with a plan too, but I think a good night’s sleep will get us on the right track.”

Aimlessly, he rubs the back of his neck. “True.”

“How much money do you have?” I think back to the five thousand dollars I have. It sounds like a lot on paper, but in the real world and when a person’s on the run, it’s not that much. This motel is probably going to be at least a hundred dollars for each room. And we’re going to have two rooms. No way is Nico going to get up in my grill for three straight times in a row. My grill needs to stay protected. I don’t even have my half gallon of mace to save me!

Frowning, he shrugs. “I’m not sure. My dad made up the bag for me, since he knew what I would need in case of an emergency. I’m not sure how much cash he put in.”

“We’ll just have to find out later. I’ll cover us for now.” As I lean over my seat, my shoulder lightly brushes Nico’s. I reach the bag just as I realize the consequences of my actions. Gah, unintentional touching! Where’s the hand sanitizer when a person needs some? My shoulder is in desperate need. I have PRJ cooties on me!

I pull out three hundred dollars and hand it to Nico. “Get two adjourning rooms preferably near the car, so we can run at a moment’s notice. Oh, and ask if they have Wi-Fi and what their password is. I do hope they came up with something creative like ‘The Gingerbread Man stole my toothpaste!’ instead of just ‘One two three’ or something like that.”

He gives me a strange look and gets out of the car. Cautiously, he looks around for any security cameras and pulls down his beanie a little more. Aw, I’ve taught my baby well! He’s becoming just as paranoid as me. Should I be proud of that fact? After scoping out the surroundings for a minute more, he heads inside. While he’s in there, I lock the car just in case I missed any lurking serial killers. There’s no way they’re getting any of my chocolaty action!

While Nico’s off getting the room, I think back to my earlier words. Do I even have a plan? I knew we needed to get away from the evil quasi-mob peeps, but do I actually know what I’m doing? I’ve never gone on the run before by myself and especially not with a handsome llama-hater who has one of the most recognizable faces in this region of the U.S. Will his father send out a search party for him? And if so, will my butt be on the line? How’s it going to look if some random hacker took off with the Director of the FBI’s son?

I’m not a freaky kidnapper in a pedo van, but who knows what weird assumptions the government will come up with? Things get really mixed up when a government’s official family member goes missing. Will my chocolately action have to pay the price?

I slump down in my seat. Hacker Girl didn’t see this in her spandex-filled future. Am I actually going to have to use those wigs I packed? Buy some dye for Nico’s luscious hair? There is no way people aren’t going to gobble up this story like a turkey. Nico’s face is probably going to be all over milk catrons. This blows.