For as long as Boyd can remember, he's been pushing pins into a map. Carson City, Las Vegas, Albuquerque -- all places he wants to see, for a dozen different reasons that wouldn't mean a thing to anyone else. When he finally gets a chance to purchase the '70 Plymouth Duster of his dreams, at a price that even he can manage, Boyd jumps at the opportunity.<br><br>Oliver seems like just another kid with a broken dream when their paths cross in Vegas. Against Boyd's better judgment, he offers to let Oliver hitch along for the ride when Oliver confides the need to get out and get gone.<br><br>But isn’t long before Boyd realizes Oliver's reasons for running are more complicated -- and more dangerous -- than Oliver let on. Boyd doesn't like people who play hardball, and he definitely doesn't like people messing with a man who's managed to light a fuse that Boyd forgot he had.

Road Trip

Oliver’s eyelids dropped reverently closed, leaving Boyd with the distinct impression that Oliver was hungrier than he had let on. No one liked coffee that much.


Several swallows followed before the cup was set down and Oliver wrapped both palms around the cup. Mine, the gesture said. “What do you care anyway?”


Boyd shrugged. “I don’t, I guess. I just wondered.” A thought was playing through Boyd’s head and he was doing everything in his power to shut it down.


Good turns, his conscience answered back.


The whole of him was leaning towards principle more than caution, however; he couldn’t shake the feeling that Oliver was a payback owed, some kind of a good deed expected from the universe in exchange for the one that had been granted to him. As such, against his better judgment, Boyd asked again. “Is Towson where you need to be?”


Oliver lifted an eyebrow. “My question first. What’s it any concern of yours?”


Chapter 7