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Chapter One

Peering into the dark winter night, Josh Grady gripped the steering wheeluntil his knuckles cracked. His teeth chattered and his expelled breathlooked like puffs of dragon smoke inside the battered cold car. “Damn it,Brian, can’t you figure out the frickin’ heater?”His friend fiddled with a few knobs on the dashboard, trying to see by theflickering interior light. “Would if I could, dude. Couldn’t we have waited ‘tilyour dad was done fixin’ this junker before taking off?” The thought of what Dad would do to his sorry ass once Principal Monroecalled was ten times worse than freezing to death. Mark Grady knew how tohit where it hurt. “Maybe it’ll warm up once we get going.”“Dreamer. We coulda left in the morning.”“Nope.” Josh stared out at the dark road before him and shivered. “Nowor never. I’d like to

live

to see fifteen, thanks.”Brian snickered then yelped as a spark flew from the dash and singed hischeek. “Ouch!” He sat back and crossed his arms. “This could be a sign fromGod. Go back, and steal a better car.”“God who?” Josh laughed before the smell of burning fuses made himcrack the window, sending in a blast of cool air that fogged up thewindshield. He used his bare hand to wipe away the frost, accidentallyswerving a little into the other lane and oncoming traffic.“Whoa!” Brian said as the other car beeped.Adrenaline burned through Josh’s veins like a straight shot of his dad’scheap whiskey. “Sorry, the road is slicker than snot. Ice.” He slowly broughtthe car back into his own lane, both hands on the wheel, his butt on the edgeof the bucket seat. “Ready for the freeway? Why’s it so dang dark?”“Probably because it’s almost midnight, jack ass. Do you even have thelights on?”“The lights!” Josh searched his side of the car until he found the switch.“What are the chances they work? I mean, no radio, no heat…” He pressedthe lever up and suddenly he could see the road ahead like a beacon towardIdaho, and eventually, California and sunshine. A few semis roared by as Joshcarefully maneuvered onto the interstate. Not bad, he thought, for a kidwhose only experience driving was in stolen moments like this. “We’re onour way.” The thrill of the unknown pounded through his blood.Brian laughed. “I can’t believe it.”“What?” Josh flexed his fingers while keeping his palms on the wheel.“What makes you think we can get this piece o’ crap all the way toCalifornia?”“It’s the only way.” Josh ignored the scared feeling in the pit of hisstomach, along with the red alarm flashing in his conscience. Maybe he

should

turn back and face the music. So what if he got held back with all theother losers and never made it past the ninth grade? Rage jumped on his

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conscience and knocked it out with a one-two punch. He deserved a chance,and he wasn’t going to get it in Spokane, Washington. If he was gonna behonest, he was running away from a lot more than just his dad and PrincipalMonroe. His gut heaved and he took a deep breath of frigid air. “Quit bitchin’. The roads will clear off.”“Sure, once we get past Montana.”“You, pal, are way too uptight.” Josh rolled his tense shoulders, carefulnot to move too suddenly in case the car drifted over. Nobody evermentioned the fact that driving was hard-core stressful. The car maxed outat sixty before starting to shake, so he stayed in the slow lane. “You got anyweed?”Brian grinned and pulled out a plastic baggie from the front pocket of hisflannel shirt. “Oh yeah. Would I let ya down? But man, you better make surewe get all the way to L.A., cause if I have to go back home my brothers aregonna

kill

me.”“No way, you grabbed their

whole

stash? Leaving them zip, nada,zilcho?” Josh laughed, feeling wild. “Either you got guts, or you are onestupid dude, Bri.”His friend pulled out a rolled joint. “Let’s go with guts. You said we werereally going - course, next time having more than ten minutes to pack wouldbe good. I had to leave my favorite pair of jeans in the wash.” Brian lit theend and inhaled. “But I got the important stuff. Enough weed to sell, smokeor trade. Whatever crawled up your ass didn’t realize we’re gonna be freezin’our cojones off on the beach. At least until we find jobs.” Josh’s conscience piped up again. Exactly who was gonna want to hiretwo high school dropouts? He curled his lip. “What, you chicken?”“Keep dreamin’.”Okay, Josh thought as he rubbed his nose, what if I’m totally screwing mybest friend over? Sure,

he

had to leave, right, otherwise his dad was gonnakill him and dump the body out behind the auto shop, but Brian…Brian wasonly running away because Josh had talked him into it. Made it sound cool. Asuper adventure, which was probably going to turn out to be a disaster, likemost of Josh’s plans. Brian’s dad was great, too. Took all three of his boysfishing and camping. Sometimes Brian’s mom would go, too. Josh tried to imagine his own mom, but she’d been dead for two yearsalready, and the memory wouldn’t gel. He remembered she hated bugs. Howstupid was that? Not the part about her squealing around a spider, but thatof all the memories he could have, that was the one that stuck.Brian said, “You gonna stare into space or drive, man? Here.” Josh accepted the joint and inhaled, squinting his eyes so that he couldsee the icy road before him. He pushed the memories of life with Mom aside.His parents had both majorly messed with his life, so what did he have tolose? “Not a thing,” he muttered, handing the joint back.“What?” Brian asked in a low voice.“Never mind.” Josh checked the rearview mirror and saw nothing butdarkness. The kind that felt as empty as it looked. That was the past, Jack,

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and he was kissin’ it good-bye. He would keep on driving until the car fell tofrickin’ pieces, and then he’d hitchhike the rest of the way, if he had to.Brian started snapping his fingers against the dash, playing an imaginarydrum, lost in his own stoned world. Josh interrupted, figuring he’d give hisfriend one more chance to bail. “I am never comin’ back here, Brian. Youabsolutely, one hundred percent sure you wanna go?”Brian opened one eye and peered at him. “I’m here, right?” Then heopened his other eye and cocked his head to the side, his expression curious.“What?” Josh squirmed uncomfortably and swiveled his gaze out towardthe shadowy pine trees that grew tall on the side of the freeway, like guardsor something. Then the back tires skidded as they hit a patch of ice andsweat popped out over his upper lip. He strangled the wheel and tapped thebrakes. Aw dang it…was he supposed to tap the brakes, or lift his footcompletely off? Maybe there was, like, a valid reason people had to takedriver’s ed. The car evened out, but Josh was way too tense to feel goodabout it.Brian, Mr. Mellow, said, “I don’t know what happened, right, but your dadwouldn’t really kill you. Maybe give you a shiner or two - If you wanna goback, we can. You can stay with me until your dad chills out. I can return mybrother’s stash and they’ll never even know it was gone.” Josh would have rolled his eyes, except he needed both of them on theslick highway. His gut hurt despite the weed. “Not happening.”Brian tapped his fingers on his knee. “So, are ya gonna tell me, or what? You get another crappy grade?”“Bombed my algebra test.” Josh hated the math teacher, a bitchy womanwho expected him to do homework. What a joke. “But that’s not the worst of it. Frickin’ Landon, that’s the problem.”Brian stopped tapping. “You try and cheat off his test?” Josh’s hands fisted around the wheel. Simmering anger boiled. “No way! Iwas done, right, waiting for the bell to ring, and carving my initials into thebottom of the desk. Landon ratted me out and our jack-ass principal claimedI had a lethal frickin’ weapon.” Josh snorted. “Like I could do more than cleanmy fingernails with that cheap piece of crap.”Brian laughed and punched him in the arm. “You’re the jerk! Your initials?Dude, you should have just stood up in front of the class and announced thatyou were defacing school property. What a chump.”“I was bored.”“Whatever! Pocket knife? Why’d ya bring it to school, anyway?”“I don’t know. I just forgot I had it, I guess.”Brian lifted both brows in disbelief but didn’t challenge the statement.“Okay. So, uh, did you threaten Landon with it, you know, once he told onyou?” Josh shifted, hating that his face grew hot with shame. “So what? You’veseen it, that thing couldn’t even break the skin!”“Major snafu. Did you get expelled?”