HELLO READERS! I DECIDED TO GO AHEAD AND POST THIS CHAPTER AS WELL TODAY BECAUSE IT IS A LITTLE SHORT. I HOPE YOU ENJOY IT.

WITH LOVE

~N~

CHAPTER 10

Once we get back to the car Jace opens the back door and tell me to get in. He tells me not to bother trying to open the doors because they have the child safety locks on. I silently slide into the back seat and Jace climbs into the front with Mark.

"Did you get everything? Let me see."

Mark hands Jace the bag from Rite-Aid before saying:

"I got everything you told me to get; I went ahead and got you a toothbrush and some toothpaste too. I know how you like to brush your teeth all the time kid."

Jace shuffles through the contents of the bag with his long fingers and then places the bag on the floor at his feet.

"Thanks for the toothbrush, I see you got coffee, did you get any food?"

"You're welcome, yeah I got a couple of donuts and there are a couple of bagels in there for you too. I know you're not into the sweet stuff too much."

"Cool thanks man, I don't suppose you got any cream and sugar for the coffee did you?"

"Since when do you want that stuff for your coffee? I thought you always took yours black."

"I still do, but maybe she doesn't."

I want to tell Jace that I drink my coffee black too, but I say nothing. I am acting now, I have my cards open where I can see them and I have to remember to keep my poker face on. I will wait to be spoken to, and then and only then will I speak. Why is Mark being so nice to Jace? Buying him a toothbrush, remembering that Jace doesn't eat sweets, these are nice things but Mark is not a nice person. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe through all his craziness this is how he is with Jace when things are calm.

"Here's some coffee, sorry there is no cream or sugar. Do you want something to eat? There are bagels and donuts here if you're hungry."

I slowly reach up and take the coffee from Jace and tell him the coffee will be just fine. Jace doesn't turn to look at me as I take the coffee, nor does he say anything in return when I tell him I don't want any food. Mark on the other hand is turned in his seat so that he is facing both Jace and I. He pays little attention to Jace as he leers at me.

"Not hungry Clarissssa?"

"No thank you."

"How's your coffee?"

"Fine thank you."

Jace keeps his eyes focused out the windshield as he nibbles on a bagel as thought he could care less about our conversation. But I can see that his shoulders are squared with attention.

"No thank you…Fine thank you….huh looks like Jace taught you a few manners while I was gone didn't he?"

"Yes sir."

"Well she still look to be all in one piece, so how did you do it Jace? How did you convince the little bitch to behave herself?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about Mark. She has done nothing but behave herself since we took her. As far as her newly spoken manners go, it's probably because she knows that if she co-operates she will get to go home."

"So what did you do for a whole hour with her while I was gone then?"

Jace says nothing to this question, he just keeps looking out the windshield.

"Come on Jace look at her, are you trying to tell me you two just talked about the weather for an hour?"

"Of course we didn't talk about the weather Mark, actually we didn't really talk at all."

Marks eyes go wide and he rapidly rubs his hands together before he begins to speak again.

"Alright now were getting somewhere! So tell me Jace was she good? Did she put up a good fight? I love it when girls fight a little first, it makes me hard."

Up until this moment Jace was looking straight ahead, but after what Mark said his head snaps quickly in Marks direction. Throughout their entire conversation Mark never took his eyes off of me. His leering only grew more intense as they talked. I kept my eyes on the headrest in front of me but I could still see him looking at me, I could still feel his eyes on my skin.

"Shut your mouth! You're disgusting you know that. She's just a kid Mark."

"You know what they say Jace, if they bleed then they can breed. Besides I still say she's lying about her age."

"Stop it, just stop it Mark. And stop looking at her like that. I didn't touch her and you're not going to touch her either. Do you understand me Mark? You will not touch her."

The tension inside the car is getting intense now. I let a few tears slip down my cheek before curling my body into a small ball in the back seat. I cup my hands over my ears to give the impression that I don't want to hear them talk any more.

"Jeez kid I was only fucking around. Relax will you? What kind of plan did you come up with? Where are we going?"

Like a flip of a switch the rising tension fizzles out of the car. I remain in my ball in the backseat and try to fall asleep. I try but I want to hear Jace tell Mark where we are going since Jace didn't tell me when we were in the woods.

"Okay here's the plan, you're probably not going to like it but it's the best I can come up with in our delicate situation. So just hear me out okay?"

"I'm listening…"

I can hear Jace shuffling the map to, I assume, show Mark where we will be going.

"See this town right here? Williamstown is only about a half an hour drive from here if we take this road and then this road."

"Why don't we just take that road right there Jace? That looks like a shorter route."

"It is but remember we need to be cautious about driving in the daylight. No we'll take the roads I showed you to get there."

"Okay we'll take those roads, but why Williamstown? What's there?"

I hear the map shuffle and I hear the pages of the travel guide being fluttered open.

"See this? This place here rents out cabins. Private, off the beaten path cabins. When we get there you can drop Clary and I off and you go in a rent one of the cabins for yourself. Make sure you tell them you want a real private one."

"How will you know which cabin they put me in? How will you find me?"

"I looked at this place on the map; it's not really that big. We can just walk to the cabin. Don't even worry about it."

"Okay this all sounds good to me Jace. Why did you think I wouldn't like it?"

"Because it cost 90 bucks a night with a minimum of a 2 night rental."

"TWO FUCKING NIGHTS! WE ARE NOT STAYING FOR TWO NIGHTS!"

"Stop yelling, see this is what I meant when I said hear me out. We don't have to stay two nights but we will have to pay for two nights."

Mark lets out a small giggle before he says:

"Jace we have two duffle bags full of money in the trunk, you really think I give a shit about paying for a night we won't be using?"

Jace lets out a loud sigh.

"No,no,no Mark we talked about this. We can't touch a single dollar of that money until we get to Mexico. It's too risky."

"Shit that's almost two hundred dollars Jace. It's bad enough we have an extra mouth to feed, it's bad enough it's going to take three times as long to get there than we planned, and now this. I don't think we will have enough money to get us through the trip if we have to spend two hundred dollars on a room every night."

"We won't have to spend two hundred dollars every night. We can sleep in the car for the rest of the trip. The only reason we are renting this cabin is so that she can dye her hair and so I can study the maps so we can get our routes planned out."

"Yeah but come on Jace, two hundred bucks. That's a lot of our budget down the drain. Shit even if we are careful about limiting our food and shit, not to mention that means I won't have money for a couple of beers, I still think we are going to run out of money. No I don't like it. Come up with something else because this plan is shit."

The tension is back inside the car again. I quickly calculate the risk before I unfold myself from my ball and sit up before saying:

"I have money…."

They both turn and look at me with a startled look in their eyes; as though they forgot I was in the backseat. Mark just looks at me as Jace says:

"What do you mean you have money? How much money?"

I reach into my back pocket and remove a card from my wallet and hand the card to Jace.

"What is this? A credit card? A bank card? We can't use this Clary, it can be traced."

"No its one of those pre-loaded cards. It was loaded with cash. If you take that to an ATM you can withdraw the money and it can't be traced."

Mark finally decides to chime in on our conversation and says:

"Is that true Jace? Can we do that without it being traced?"

"Yes it's true. Lots of people use these. She's right if you load them using cash there is no way it can be traced. Clary how much money is on this card?"

"Five hundred dollars."

"Shit Jace did you hear that? Five hundred bucks! What the hell is a thirteen year old girl doing with that kind of money?"

"My dad gave it to me, he said to keep it for emergencies."

"Why would you give this to us?" Mark asked.

"It's my fault you two are in this situation. It's my fault that you have to change your plans. I just want to go home, and if me giving you the money helps get me there then it's yours, take it."

A wide smile spreads across Marks face; but Jace remains stone faced, but I can read it in his eyes, they are saying "good job Clary". With my own eyes I tell him "I got this."

"It's nice to know that you realize how much you have fucked things up for us Clarissa. As long as you continue to be a good girl you should be safe."

Mark's eyes are dark as he speaks those words to me. I don't like the way they looked when he was talking about me being a "good girl", almost as though he meant if I were his "good girl". My mind swirls back to what he said to Jace earlier about how he likes it when girls put up a fight. I choke back the urge to throw up the coffee in my stomach, the black coffee, the same black color of Marks eyes.

"I just want to go home. I just want to see my dad. I promise I won't be any trouble. I promise to do whatever you want me to do."

"Hear that Jace? Whatever I want her to do; she says."

"I heard her Mark. She won't be any trouble, just like she hasn't been any trouble from the start. Just because she said she would do whatever you want her to doesn't mean you should take that so literally. So stop looking at her like that."

"Come on Jace I'm sure she meant both of us when she said that. I'm not usually one for sharing, but hey, me and you are tight right?"

"ENOUGH! What did I say about keeping this situation as stress free as possible? Stop talking like that. You aren't going to touch her. I am not going to touch her. WE are NOT going to touch her. Do you have any idea how scary this all is for her to begin with? Can you imagine what's going through her head when you say shit like that?"

"Technically you already touched her…"

"What? I never touched her. What the hell are you talking about?"

Jace is panicking, he's panicking and that's not good. BLUFF JACE BLUFF!

"Yesterday in the van you had your hands all over her. I watched you Jace. I heard you whispering to her."

"That's different and you know it Mark. She was scared and in pain. What I did was comfort her. Comfort her after YOU scared her, after YOU hurt her. Don't make what I did into something ugly like that. She's just a little girl. She's just a little girl and I'm done talking about this. FUCKING DONE!"

Silence….

Tension in the car is at maximum level….

Jace and Mark are in the middle of a deep stare down….

Have you ever watched one of those old western movies? You know the ones where there are always two cowboys standing on main street; and they're both having a stare down to see which one of them can draw their six shooter first. Right now Jace and Mark are those two cowboys. I wish I could think of the right thing to say to calm the tension. I wish I could reach out and run my hand along Jace's cheek to calm his rapid heartbeat. I wish I could take his chin in my hand and make him look into my eyes. I wish I could lean forward and kiss his beautiful face. To kiss away that little "v" between his scrunched eyebrows. To kiss away the tightness in his jaw. To kiss those lips. STOP IT CLARY! I decide to curl back into my ball and try to sleep. I have my eyes tightly closes but every hair on my body is standing to attention because of the silence.

Suddenly the engine roars to life causing my body to jerk with surprise. The car begins to move and before I can think too much about whether or not Mark is driving us in the right location the darkness pulls me down and I fall asleep.