Middle of Knight (Jack & Jill 2)

“Oh, that reminds me. Did you remember my printer ink?”

“We did.” He handed her the car keys. “They’re in the trunk.”

Felicity frowned as she snatched the keys while shaking her head. “Was it just too much for you to haul them inside?”

“Something like that.”

As she brushed past him, Tom gave Luke a suspicious look.

Luke grimaced. “There’s a pretty good chance I won’t live to see the sunrise.”

“You forgot her ink?”

“No. It’s in the trunk—with Jessica.”

*

It broke Jessica’s heart that her beloved would die soon, but there were certain acts of complete disrespect that were punishable only by death. Locking someone in a trunk was one of them. They’d had some good times together and for that, she was not only grateful but sympathetic enough to make sure his death would be quick with minimal suffering.

Had she been able to predict such an act of sheer evilness, she would have purchased batteries for her electric pillar candles. Instead, she waited in the dark, knees bent to one side, hands laced behind her head. She wore a dragonfly shower cap, blue nitrile gloves, and a mustache molded from Sticky Tac. On the inside of the trunk lid was a sticky note with sloppy I-wrote-it-in-the-dark handwriting that read:

I’m going to let Jones hump your $300 pillow and play tug of war w your socks when U R DEAD!

“Ahhh! Oh my gosh!” A woman’s voice screeched.

Jessica felt like a vampire with the bright light frying her cornea—a deaf vampire thanks to the shrill pierce of Felicity’s scream. Everything came into focus a little at a time. The note still stuck to the inside of the lid, the horrified, yet confused look on Felicity’s face as she seemed to be reading it, and then the Holy Grail.

Jessica smiled as she sat up, pulling the mustache from her lip. “Hel-lo, Thelma.” She snatched the dangling keys from Felicity’s hand and hopped out. “Get in.” She slammed the trunk and slid in the driver’s seat. Yep. Just as she imagined: better than sex.

“Thelma?” Felicity questioned as she hesitantly got in the other side.

“Thelma and Louise. But don’t worry, we won’t drive it off a cliff or anything … at least not today.” Jessica tossed the gloves and shower cap in the backseat. “Buckle up. Once I start the engine we’ll need to be spinning the tires out of here. Oh … and keep an eye out the back window to say goodbye to Luke. In less than ten seconds he’ll be on your porch having a heart attack or possibly a stroke.”

“What’s going on?”

Jessica loved that without knowing a single detail, Felicity buckled up. Of course the skinny-dipping mom would be all in. It was wrong for Jessica to have doubted her for a single moment. She moved the seat up, stomped on the clutch, and turned the key. The seductive rumble of the engine, finally under her control, made it hard to focus, but she needed to get out of there because the timer had started.

She backed out of the drive, shoved it into first, and waited, one hand white knuckled on the steering wheel, the other fisting the round black ball of the gear shift.

“There they are. Blow your boys a kiss, Felicity.”

And she did because Felicity Jones was one. Cool. Chick.

Jessica tattooed the concrete with the back tires as she squealed out of the drive. She took a mental picture of Luke’s reflection in the rearview mirror: slumped shoulders, hand over his chest, slightly bent at the waist, mouth agape.

Priceless.

“I think the joke is supposed to be on Luke, but then again, he sent me out to get the ink, knowing you were in the trunk. And you were wearing a shower cap, gloves, and a mustache so … I’m confused.”

“Let’s just say your son would rather me ride in the trunk than sit in the driver’s seat. No offense to you of course, but he may have control issues, and I’m usually not all judgmental that way because I like control too but—”

“So you didn’t voluntarily get in the trunk? He drove home with you in there?”

“Correct. I’m not going to lie and when I say this I’m speaking to my partner in crime, Thelma, not Luke’s mom.” Jessica grinned. “When he first shoved me in the trunk I didn’t try to fight him. It caught me off guard, but I honestly thought he was trying to do something kinky with me.”

Felicity laughed to the point of a girlish giggle. “So what did you do when you realized he was locking you inside?”

“Started plotting his death.”

“Oh my goodness, he’s his father through and through.”

“Tom? No way.” She shook her head.

Felicity nodded. “Yes, he is. Tom used to be a control freak when we first started dating. It didn’t help that I was pregnant.”

“Wait, you were pregnant when you started dating.”