With Just a Look

He’s thinking about Waingro. Thinking about how much he wants to kill the son-of-a-bitch for almost ruining everything for him. The anger consumes him so much that it’s making him reckless. He’s driving erratically, fingers gripping the steering wheel fiercely, jaw clenched. He doesn’t like being this way. He’s someone who keeps his cool. If he feels the heat, he walks. That’s how he rolls. And that is exactly why he knows he should not make a hard left and exit the highway prematurely to go after him. It’s calling to him like a siren. He knows better than this, so he tries his best to ignore it. Still, it’s hard not to think about it after losing so much. Almost everyone in his crew is dead or on the lam. He should see it as a sign, a sign to walk away. There’s no going back from this. The heat is here. They need to go their separate ways, like he told them to.

Eady says his name softly, getting his attention and snapping him out of his thoughts. He looks at her, her beautiful blue-grey eyes, and he sees her soul. It’s what made him fall for her. It’s what made him, for once in his life, consider committing to something that he cannot walk out on. For God’s sake, he’s told her to run away to New Zealand with him. New Zealand is a lie. He has a contact there, and they’ll go, but he wants to be in Fiji. In any case, she’s here. She’s scared. But she’s here. She wants to go with them. There’s something between them that he’s never felt for anybody else, and he wants so badly to preserve that. He’s afraid he’ll never feel it again.

He thinks about what he wants. He wants to feel the cool night breeze on his skin, sand between his toes, her head resting on his shoulder as they look out at the sea, at all the tiny luminescent algae that remind him of skyscrapers in Los Angeles. He yearns for what they had on the balcony but without the faint sound of sirens, without that feeling of dread that someone was watching them or he’d get a call about a job any second. Most of all, without the feeling that what they had would disappear.

He looks at her and wants to be with her.

So he doesn’t take the exit to the hotel. He doesn’t let Waingro bother him anymore. Waingro isn’t going to be a problem in New Zealand, Fiji or wherever they end up. Instead, he rests his hand on Eady’s knee, squeezing it, telling her that he is present, that he is ready for this, and that he is so happy she is coming with him. He keeps driving to the airfield. They get on the plane, and he leads her inside. It’s a small plane. But it’s comfortable, and it’s only the two of them. One of his crew members -- someone who wasn’t part of the heist -- is flying the plane. It’s late. They’re both tired and a little on edge. He tells Eady everything will be okay. But Neil isn’t quite ready to rest yet.

It’s only when the plane is in the air, Eady is snuggled up against him, and his contacts confirm everything is okay, then, and only then, does Neil let himself relax.