Chapter Text
Maybe stealing the car of Hollywood’s most famous magician isn’t Reggie’s smartest idea, but compared to some of the others, it isn’t the dumbest either. It’s just the easiest, because his car just happens to break down in front of Caleb Covington’s mansion.
Okay, maybe he was cruising the neighborhood because he knew the piece of junk he’d stolen from Trevor Wilson back in San Francisco was about to fall apart, but that’s besides the point. The point is that Reggie only steals from rich bastards who have more money and cars than they know what to do with, and Covington’s very expensive Mercedes-Benz convertible is right there for the taking.
Time is of the essence, so Reggie ditches Wilson’s car as soon as the engine splutters to a stop, grabbing his rucksack and racing over to the Mercedes. The hood is down, thankfully, so all Reggie has to do is hop in and hot wire it. Easy peasy, he’s done it a million times before.
Well, not a million, but like, twelve, at least. Enough to know that he can pull this off without a hitch.
At least, that’s what he thinks until the front door of Covington’s mansion flies open right as the car sparks to life beneath his fingers.
Reggie snaps his head up to look at the source of the sound, expecting a security guard or maybe Covington himself coming out to yell at him or maybe shoot him, but instead a young man with flowing brown hair leaps into the passenger seat and says, “Drive.”
Reggie blinks slowly at him, not quite able to process this turn of events.
“Uh,” he says, “you know I’m stealing this, right?”
“I know, dude! Drive!”
Reggie doesn’t need any more instructions than that. He slams his foot on the gas and careens the car out onto the road. The man laughs as the door to the mansion slams open again.
Caleb Covington himself stumbles out onto the driveway, holding a skateboard, which Reggie finds odd. He wouldn’t have pegged Covington as the skateboarding type.
“You ungrateful piece of shit!” Covington shrieks. He hurls the skateboard to the ground.
“Wait, stop!” Reggie’s passenger cries, and Reggie slams on the brakes.
The man jumps out of the car, sprints back to the driveway, dodges Covington’s reaching hands, scoops up the skateboard, and rides it all the way back to Reggie before jumping back into the car, Covington hot on his heels.
“Okay,” the man shouts, “go go go go!”
Reggie takes off again, and the man lets out a victorious whoop as they leave Covington in the dust.
Reggie’s just about to ask all the questions running through his mind when the man grabs the rim of the windshield, raises himself up and twists around.
“Fuck you!” he screams, then collapses back into the passenger seat with a giggle.
“Ah, man,” he grins. “That was awesome. Thanks, dude.”
Reggie turns to gape at him as much as he can without taking his eyes off the road. “Uh, you’re welcome?”
They crash out of Covington’s private neighborhood, through the gate Reggie crashed open earlier. A glance in the rear view mirror tells him that Covington isn’t following, at least for now, so Reggie turns to get a better look at his accomplice.
Which is mistake, because he’ll never be able to focus on the road now. The man is gorgeous, with flawless brown skin, killer cheekbones, and long, wavy hair that tumbles down around them. He runs a hand through it as he laughs, his eyes crinkling adorably at the corners. The motion reveals a small hoop earring on his right ear, and Reggie can’t see the other one, but he really hopes there isn’t an earring there too.
The man notices him staring and turns his gorgeous smile onto Reggie.
“Hey, I’m uh, I’m Willie.”
Reggie snaps out of his daze, eyes quickly returning to the road. “I’m, uh…” he trails off as he realizes that maybe giving his real name to someone who just aided him in carjacking a celebrity isn’t the best idea. Besides, from the hesitation in his sentence, Willie probably isn’t his real name either.
“I’m Peter.” Okay, maybe a little too close to the truth, but he thinks he deserves some credit. He’s going through a lot right now.
Willie studies him with a knowing smirk, making Reggie’s hands grow sweaty (well, sweatier) on the wheel. “That’s not your real name, is it?”
Reggie’s face immediately begins glowing bright red. “How’d you know?”
“You make a better thief than a liar, man,” Willie chuckles. He reaches over and claps a hand on Reggie’s shoulder, making him jump. “It’s okay, Sparky. You don’t gotta trust me.”
“Sparky?” Reggie asks, swerving to cut around an old lady going way too slow.
“Yeah,” Willie says. “Clearly you’re good with electricity and shit if you could hot wire this that quickly.”
“Sure,” Reggie nods. “Yeah. Yep. No need to mention the time I got electrocuted fixing an amp in the rain.”
Willie tosses his head back and laughs like it’s the greatest thing he’s ever heard. “That’s even better! Man, Sparky, I’m so lucky I ran into you.”
“Yeah, about that,” Reggie says, pulling onto the highway. “How exactly did you run into me?”
“I’ve got a better question for you,” Willie says. He turns to Reggie and his smile falls into something deadly serious.
“Why are you stealing my father’s car?”
“What?” Reggie slams on the brakes out of instinct, only starting the car up again when someone honks loudly behind him.
Willie just keeps looking at him, calm as anything. “Why are you stealing my father’s car?”
“Covington’s your dad?”
“Mm, yeah, last I checked,” Willie hums, quirking an eyebrow.
If Reggie weren’t weaving through traffic at eighty miles an hour, he’d knock himself out with the steering wheel right now, just as a punishment for his own stupidity. Of course Willie isn’t his real name. It’s William, as in William Covington, heir to the entire Covington fortune. His adoption made big news a few years ago, with Covington being heralded as a saint for adopting a poor homeless orphan boy. After that, though, the media buzz faded until Willie was only seen or heard from when he appeared silently at his father’s side in publicity photos.
“Oh my god,” Reggie groans. “I have to take you back.” The cops are probably going to think he kidnapped Willie for ransom or something, and that is not something Reggie wants to add to his steadily growing rap sheet.
“No!” Willie yelps. He grabs Reggie’s forearm, causing him to swerve a bit before he gets the car back under control. “Don’t take me back. You can drop me somewhere if you want, just as long as it’s far away from him. I can’t go back there.”
Reggie recognizes that desperation in his voice. It was in his own not two weeks ago. But still…
“Sorry, man, I’m not going down for a kidnapping I didn’t know I was committing.”
“It’s not kidnapping,” Willie insists. “I’m twenty and I came with you willingly.”
Reggie lets out a long sigh and checks the rearview mirror to make sure they’re still free of followers. “How far is far away from him?”
A grin spreads back across Willie’s face. “I dunno. Where are you going?”
“I dunno,” Reggie echoes, “Nebraska, maybe.” It’s a lie, Reggie knows exactly where he’s going and it sure as hell isn’t Nebraska, but he’s not going to drop Willie off wherever only to have him turn around and tell the cops where to find Reggie in Texas.
“That’s perfect,” Willie says. “Nebraska, here we come.”
“Hang on,” Reggie says, because he definitely hasn’t agreed to anything yet. “What if your dad is looking for you? I’ve already got enough people on my tail, I don’t need Covington coming after me too.”
“He might,” Willie says with a shrug. “But not right away. He plays chess, not checkers, and I have the element of surprise this time. I didn’t plan anything, I just saw you out the window while we were eating dinner and ran.”
“This time?” Reggie asks.
Willie waves off his question. “Look,” he says, “the second you suspect Caleb has any idea where we are, you can drop me. I’ll take any mileage I can get, and if he does find me I’ll make sure to throw him off your trail. Deal?”
Reggie chews his lip as he considers the pros and cons. His instincts are screaming at him that this is a horrible idea, but at the same time he knows what it’s like to escape from a place that isn’t really home. He doesn’t know exactly why Willie needs to get away from Covington, but he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he sent Willie back to a situation anything like the one Reggie just got out of.
Worse comes to worst, he figures, he can always just drop Willie somewhere outside of California, wish him the best, and then continue on his way.
“I’ll get you out of the state,” Reggie says finally, “but that’s it. You’re on your own after that.”
“Thanks, man,” Willie beams. “You have no idea how much this means to me. I owe you one.”
As if on cue, Reggie’s stomach growls. “Well,” he says, “did you happen to take any money from that mansion of yours? Because you can start by buying me dinner.”
Willie slaps the dashboard with a giant smile. “Deal. You pick the place. Anywhere you want.”
So maybe stealing Caleb Covington’s car wasn’t Reggie’s best idea, but if it leads to a pretty boy buying him dinner, then maybe it wasn’t his worst either.