The Outliers (The Outliers, #1)(38)

“So?” Jasper asks, knowing the question is much, much bigger than it sounds. “Which way?”

Neither option feels right or good. Jasper stares at the steering wheel like he’s considering. We should go home, that is what I think. Even if the police are waiting there for me. Even if they make me go to a hospital. Too much bad has already happened. We’ve gotten too lucky. We should call it quits while we’re ahead, or at least, still alive.

I’m about to say that—let’s go home—when Jasper pulls ahead and turns left. Onward and toward Cassie.

“Just until we get a signal,” he says, like it’s a thing we’ve agreed on. And I nod, even though I still feel like we should probably do the opposite. They are all bad choices now.

But going on toward Cassie and Seneca does mean we have to drive right past the diner. I hold my breath as we pull back onto Route 203 and I see that big sign for Trinity’s Diner floating again way too high in the distance. I brace myself for police cars. Sink lower in the seat, out of sight. But there are no flashing lights like Doug had said, no police. Maybe it should be a relief. No police means they’re not out looking for me.

But it is not a relief. Not at all.

“Do you see Lexi or Doug?” I ask.

“No, I don’t think so.” Jasper looks around some more. “I don’t even see their car.”

This too makes me feel worse. And I can tell from the way he says it that it doesn’t make Jasper feel better either. Because if Lexi and Doug are not in that parking lot, they could be anywhere.

“Do you really think Doug was trying to keep us from getting to Cassie?” I ask, as we roll on past and I push myself back up in the seat.

“Yes,” Jasper says without hesitating.

“And you really think it has something to do with a sex slavery ring?”

“No,” he says, just as fast.

“Oh, then what do you think it does have to do with?”

Jasper keeps his eyes on the road. “I have no idea.”

We’re quiet as we drive on, like we’re both trying to come up with some better, less frightening explanation for what has happened to Cassie and how it might connect to Lexi and Doug. But both of us are coming up empty.

“You know, I wanted to kill you back there when you yelled after that old guy,” Jasper says finally. “Pretty crazy how you got him to give us the keys.”

“Yeah, crazy,” I say, because that is the operative word. “It takes one to know one, I guess.”

“I don’t know,” Jasper says. “You had the right call with Lexi and Doug, too. If I’d noticed the empty car seat I might have been suspicious or whatever, but not enough to get out of the car. Imagine what would have happened if Doug had gotten us out in the middle of nowhere. I’m pretty sure I’d be dead right now. You’re two for two.”

“When you’re freaked out by everything, you’ll eventually be right about something,” I say, but I feel aggravated. Does he actually think all I need is one pep talk from him and I’ll be all sorted out?

“Maybe you should try to be more positive.” Now Jasper is annoyed that I’m annoyed. Because I guess I’m supposed to be honored or something that he is trying to help me. “You’d probably be less stressed all the time.”

My nostrils flare. And here I’d almost forgotten completely why I didn’t like him.

“Now, why didn’t I think to tell you that when you were trying to rip the steering wheel off back at the gas station?” I say. “How about I’ll learn to ‘be more positive’ when you learn a little anger management.”

Jasper glances in my direction and, annoyingly, actually seems hurt. “Just trying to help.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t need your help,” I say. “Cassie does.”

I feel embarrassed as I look down at my phone. Why am I even getting into this? Do I actually care what Jasper thinks? I check for a signal as the diner fades into the distance behind us.

“Anything yet?” Jasper asks. His voice is different now, chilly. And maybe I’m even glad. We don’t have to be friends, he and I.

“Do you think she’s okay?” I ask. If he’s going to be honest with me, now would be the time.

“Yes,” he says, too quickly for me to believe.

“Why?”

“Because she has to be, right?” and when he looks at me this time, his eyes are shiny in the dark.

“Yeah,” I say, my own throat burning as I turn away from him toward the windows and the darkness beyond.

It isn’t until that moment that I realize what I said to that crazy old man was true: I don’t know what I’ll do if I lose Cassie, too. How will I ever live without her and all her insane manic energy, making me see past my world of worry?

“So, did you ask your dad or what?” Cassie peered at me over the top of her Western Civilization textbook.

For the past hour, she’d been sitting in a beanbag chair in the corner of my room, pretending to study. But I could tell she was mostly texting behind her book. To Jasper, maybe. It was only the beginning of October and they weren’t officially dating—yet. I was still hoping something might head it off at the pass. So mostly, I pretended that it—whatever it was—wasn’t happening.