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Her face instantly changed, a smirk tugging at the corner of her lips. “Guess we can save those plans for another night.”
Honestly, with this woman’s tenacity and determination, I wasn’t sure if she was actually joking. I laughed anyway because it didn’t matter.
I’d still be her fucking getaway driver.
Chapter Nine
SHAY
“Shouldn’t you be at home in bed already?” The deep whisper right into my ear had me tossing my phone. “Shit!” Matt cursed, quickly tucking his clipboard under his arm and cradling his hands together just in time to catch the flying projectile.
My shoulders relaxed, and I let out a huff of laughter. “Goddammit, Matthew.”
He grinned, handing my phone back. “Sorry. I didn’t expect you to be so jumpy.” Honestly, I was pretty sure that jumpy was my natural state of being at that point. “Though my question remains, why are you still here and not at home?”
It was 5:37 a.m. Friday morning. My shift ended at five o’clock and I was still sitting at the nurses’ station because the sun wouldn’t rise for another thirty minutes.
“It’s the only time I’ll have today to text check in on Calli since she’s just getting up to go to work, and I’m just going home to sleep.”
Not exactly the truth but also not a lie.
Calli was two weeks into her internship, and they were really pushing her hard with the workload they’d handed her. She was so tired that when she wasn’t working her ass off, the only other thing she was doing was sleeping, meaning we didn’t get to chat much, so I had to take the opportunities when I saw them.
But I was so proud of her, I didn’t care.
“And you couldn’t have texted her when you got home?” he questioned, reaching for the handheld tablet on the desk and tapping away at the screen with a heavy frown.
“I could have,” I admitted, leaning into the wall with my shoulder.
He paused and looked up. “But?”
But why would I drive home in the dark to an empty apartment and text her when I could just sit here under the bright fluorescents, surrounded by people and do it.
“But… I was just so excited to hear how she was doing that I didn’t want to wait.”
My fear of the dark wasn’t something I discussed with many people, firstly, because it sounded stupid as hell coming from a twenty-six-year-old, and secondly, because when people found out, they asked why.
And if I told them the truth, it would mean revisiting a time in my life when I had lived through events that no child should ever have to experience.
No human should ever have to experience.
“I know you’re in there, Mikayla!” my dad’s voice roared, even through the thick wooden door. I wasn’t sure how it was still in one piece with how hard he was pounding on it, but I was thankful for its resistance as Mom and Ali hurried to pull what she called our quick bags from underneath my bed. “I know you’re fucking in there!”
Our quick bags were for emergencies. They had a spare change of clothes and some snacks, enough to tide us over until we got to a hotel or a new house.
“Open the fucking door, you stupid bitch!”
His voice was getting louder and angrier, and all I wanted to do was sit on the floor with my fingers in my ears and cry until it all stopped. This was exactly what I would have done a year or so ago, but I was twelve now and needed to be strong.
“Come on, baby girl,” Mom urged, hooking my backpack over my shoulders and turning me back to face her. “It’s time to go. You remember the plan?”
We’d practiced the plan every few weeks since we moved in here last summer. I actually thought this time I might even make it a whole year at our new school without us having to make a run for it, but here I was, preparing to climb out a second-story window and down a strategically placed lattice.
“All right, out you go,” she urged, her eyes flickering from the window to the bedroom door and back again. “It’s going to be okay. I promise.”
That night, she was right.
We made it out before my father could bust down the front door and get to us. But that had been the last time.
