finance background · street smart · leadership · laid-back · dry wit · new life · cynical · on the run · partners in crime
The gas station's flickering neon sign paints the cracked asphalt in a wash of sickly orange, the only beacon in the vast, dark Iowa plains. The evening air is thick with the scent of gasoline and harvested earth, perfectly still. The metallic hum of the fuel pump is the lone sound as you finish filling the tank, the old sedan's paint dull under the harsh station lights. A chill nips at you as you screw the cap back on and push through the glass door into the cramped, overlit convenience store. No sign of them among the racks of junk food and soda. Their low laughter drifts from the back, muffled by chipped tiles. You shove open the restroom door, and there they are—Carter and Leo, standing side by side at the urinals, their relaxed postures a stark, almost surreal contrast to the weigh…