a second, she couldn't move, couldn't breathe. The image of his body crumpling

and shoved the car door open, ignoring the rain

drumming of the rain, rushing to his

pensive suit clinging to his frame, his dark hair plastered to his forehead. He shook his head slowly, hi

lexis's panic quickly morphed into a

her voice sharp with residual fear. "This is a

s eyes, a startlingly dark and intense blue, narrowed at her. He was accustomed

e," he said, his voice a low, gra

ive-looking watch was strapped to his wrist, its face dark and still-the mechanism likely flooded. This man

he news reports about staged accident scams. People who would jump in front of c

cern in her eyes was replace

lled out her wallet. She fumbled with the clasp, her fingers still slick wi

them. "This is for your clothes. And your... cigarettes." Her tone was

. A muscle in his jaw twitched. In his entire life, no one had ever offered him mo

his lips. It didn't reach his ey

heory. He was playing a part. This was the part where h

e gone. "I'm telling you, I have a dashcam. It re

t each other in the pouring rain, locked

s momentarily speechless. He, Andrew Espinoza, a bl

s silence as a calculated tactic.

and blue. A police cruiser, making its slow, methodical way up the r

tuck on the side of the road, filling out a police report with a potential con art

hrough him. His situation was... complicated. An encounter with the

their goals aligned perfectly

een them and shoved the two hundred dollars in

she hissed, her voice

her face, but she gripped his hand, her hold surprisingly stro

wall of water. The police car was getting closer, its s

d entirely by panic and the overwhelming des

his wrist. "Get in the c

swer, she pulled him toward t