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“I’m going to get us some peanut butter and bread. We can make sandwiches. We only have a thousand left in my account, and we need to make it last. You coming in?”

“You don’t need to do that, babe. I said I’d take care of things. And I did.” He grins at me. “I got us some cash.”

I squint at him. “How did you do that? You rob a bank?” I laugh at my joke.

His grin widens. “Not a bank. They’re too secure.”

He doesn’t say anything else, and that worries me, but it’s insane to think he’s stolen money, so I laugh at him and go inside the grocery store. I come out ten minutes later with the groceries and shove them in the back seat, along with all our worldly possessions. There’s not much back there, just our clothes and our dreams of the future.

I get back behind the wheel. “Where to?” We’d been driving wherever the wind took us, sleeping in the car, stopping where we wanted. But I know that has to end soon. We need to get jobs. Start a life together. Randy’s been promising we’d find a place to settle.

“Let’s go north. It’s too hot here.” Randy tugs a baseball cap onto his head. “I’m done with this southern humidity.”

“All right. But I want us to tour some apartments soon, while we still have a down payment.”

“We have more than enough, babe.” Randy leans back like he’s going to sleep.

I do like his upbeat attitude, but I wish he’d be practical as well. I had to quit school when my parents kicked me out. I don’t even have a high school diploma. I was working at McDonald’s, so I know I can get another fast-food job, but I don’t want to work when the baby comes. I want to be a full-time mother. Randy’s had a hard time finding work, which makes me a little worried. Now with the baby coming, I know he’ll try harder.

I pull out onto the street, but a cop car turns on his lights behind me, so I slow down. Randy jerks awake, his eyes wide. “What are you doing? Keep going.”

“What? No. The police are pulling me over.”

“Don’t pull over!”

I trust Randy, so I go forward, not wanting to disobey him. “Why?”

“They’ll arrest me. Go!” He waves frantically at me.

Panic courses through me as I press on the gas. “Why will they arrest you?”

“Go, go, go!” Randy yells.

I can’t think, so I just do as Randy says. I go. But the police follow right behind me, turning on their sirens.

“That way!” Randy shouts, pointing toward the highway.

My heart pounds loud in my ears as I turn the corner. I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m running from the police. Why am I doing that? “What did you do?” I scream at Randy.

“I told you. I got us some cash!”

I turn on the highway and speed up, sweat dripping down my back. The police car is right behind me. There’s no way I can outrun them. “You stole it?”

“Go faster!” He hits the dashboard and swears at me, and I’m stunned. I’ve never seen this side of Randy before.

“I’m not doing this,” I say, slowing down.

Randy reaches down under his seat and pulls out a gun. He points it at me and swears again. “You’d better do what I say, or you’ll never see our kid!”

Terror rips through me and I punch the gas. “All right, all right. I’m going.”

My arms shake so bad I have a hard time staying on the road. My stomach lurches and I’m going to throw up. Randy nudges me with the gun. “Faster.”

I can’t believe he’s doing this. I start to see everything he’s done for me in a new light. That expensive necklace he gave me. Did he steal that, too? I had wondered at the time how he’d been able to pay for it. The thought makes me sick. His parents are thugs, but I didn’t think he was, too.

The car sputters and I look down at the gage. “We’re out of gas.”

Randy swears again and hits the dashboard, a crazy look in his eye. “All right. Pull over. I have an idea.”