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

“I think I’m just going to drive until I’m ready to pass out,” Boyd had told Oliver, thirty minutes of silence later. Oliver had merely smiled.


“I can’t decide if I should stop for coffee or let myself get tired,” Boyd had said, an hour following the first statement, just to break the quiet. Oliver had licked his lips, turned towards Boyd for the briefest one-second glance, and then back to the passenger window.


Forty minutes after that, with his eyes getting heavy but the rest of him still itching to go, Boyd lowered the window to let in the now-cool night air and began to holler over it. “Can you feel that?”


Oliver looked over and knitted his brows in an undeclared question.


“Tension,” Boyd shouted. “There’s so much of it in this car right now, I was worried the wires would start shorting out.” He smiled. “Maybe some fresh air will help, hmm?”


The question went ignored. Instead, Oliver slumped deeper into the seat. “Can we stop soon? I’m itchy to move.”


Chapter 35