Guild of Truth 01 - Silent as the Grave by Mary K. Norris

was too busy thinking of what she was going to tell the police. It’d been a good long while since she’d had to deal with governmental authority. And she wanted to keep it that way. She’d spent the last few years keeping her record as spotless as possible, but she doubted seven years would look as good to the authorities as it did to her.
    She shifted in her seat.
    The last thing she wanted to deal with was punishment for being pegged as an accomplice. Could they even do that to her? She’d fled for her own safety — surely they’d see that.
    Not if Jared and Garnet already convinced them otherwise.
    She wrung her hands together.
    Beside her Felix chuckled. “What are you so nervous about?”
    “A lot, actually.”
    “Like what?”
    She stayed silent.
    They came to a red light. Felix nudged her with his hand. “Come on, hit me with it.”
    She eyed him for a moment. “Fine.” She punched him in the arm.
    His eyebrows rose in challenge. “So you wanna go there ?” He feinted for her knee and she jumped, a small laugh escaping her.
    “Green.” She pointed toward the street light.
    Felix was forced to focus back on the road.
    She scooted closer to the passenger door in a vain attempt to escape his long reach. Why did he have to be so damn playful? “You asked for it, you know,” she pointed out.
    “So you’re saying I started it?”
    “Absolutely.”
    He pretended to contemplate that. “Well, then, I should warn you I always finish what I start.”
    The look he sent her had heat rushing straight between her legs.
    “So are you going to tell me what’s got you so jacked up?”
    She pulled her mind from the gutter.
    What the hell, she thought. She’d already told him some of the story. The worst it could do was cause him to run from her. And wasn’t that what she wanted anyway?
    “I tend to try and avoid the police. I got enough of them when I was in high school. I earned myself a little record that I’m worried is going to creep up and bite me in the ass.”
    “It is a nice ass,” he commented.
    She wanted to punch him again but his humor helped ease the nervousness inside her.
    They drove a few miles in silence before he broke it. “What happened in high school?”
    “Two things happened, actually. Isaac Gregory and Tyson Miller.”
    Felix’s jaw tensed. “I’m not going to like this story. I can already tell.”
    Cali smiled. “That makes two of us. Isaac wasn’t so bad, it was Tyson who really screwed me.” She stopped as old emotions welled up within her. “The short version is that Isaac and Tyson were both druggies. With Isaac I got caught with possession of marijuana and got fined for it. No big deal. I dumped him the next day. Tyson … Tyson was like a cancer. The trouble with him just kept growing. I was young and stupid, he was eighteen to my seventeen, and I thought he was the coolest thing on the planet. A couple months after we started dating he took me to a party. There was drinking, weed, you name it, they had it. I was pretty drunk and high by the time Tyson slipped some kind of benzodiazepine into my drink.”
    Felix’s knuckles had gone white around the steering wheel.
    “When I finally woke up I was in the hospital. I was really messed up but luckily the cops had been on their way when I was given the drug so Tyson didn’t have time to do anything to me. But he sure as hell did enough. There was still marijuana in my jeans. I’m pretty sure he put it there, but it doesn’t matter now. I was fined, had my license suspended for a year, was sent to a detention facility, and had to do community service.”
    They were back at a red light.
    “If I ever cross that guy, Tyson, I’ll kill him.” The serious protectiveness on Felix’s face was as misplaced as his harsh words. It should have scared her. It didn’t. In fact, it did the exact opposite. It made her feel worthwhile.
    “Well, you can see why I have a problem with the police. My family never really believed