“No,” I lied. Swallowing harshly. “Listen– I just remembered I have an appointment,” I paused, glancing at my watch for show, “in thirty minutes. I completely forgot about it. Can you cover my tables for a little bit?”
He blinked. “Yeah, sure, of course?—”
“Thank you.” I was already moving toward the back, pulling my apron off, and tossing it on the counter as I grabbed my jacket and bag from the hook inside the kitchen door. I was out the back door before Rosa could ask where I was going. I didn’t look back. I didn’t need to. I know what was waiting for me.”
Victor was quiet while I retold the story. Driving and listening, waiting for me to finish. Taking in every piece of relevant information.
“I panicked,” I admit. “Marco was scared. He talks to everyone, and gets along with them. But I could tell he was scared.”
“He was right to be,” he agrees.
I look at my hands in my lap, thankful they are not shaking. “I keep thinking about the timing of it though. He said he came in about an hour before I got there. Which means they’ve been watching the café.”
“They’ve been establishing a pattern, yes,” Victor says. Which doesn’t settle my anxiety at all. “They weren’t ready to move yet, though, still gathering information. Until now.”
“What changed?”
He was quiet for a long time, watching the street light, waiting for the red to turn green. We are only two blocks from the school. I count them as we go.
“I don’t know.” He admits.
He pulls up in front of the school, and I am out of the car before it fully stops, anxious to get to Evie, to see that she is safe with my own eyes. The front office is warm against the cold outside, and the receptionist looks up when I come through the door, but I don’t stop. Evie is already standing from the chair she’d been in, braid slightly loose on the left side, backpack on, her eyes searching mine for answers already.
“What?” she asks. “What’s wrong?”
I put my arms around her, needing the four seconds of comfort. She gives them to me despite all the questions swirling. Then shepulls back and looks up at me, reading my face the way she has every day since we ran.
“What happened?” she asks, quietly enough that the receptionist doesn’t hear.
“I’ll explain on the way home,” I tell her. “Come on.”
Turning toward the doors, she follows me out, and when she sees Victor leaning against his car at the curb, she pauses for a moment. Looking at me inquisitively once more.
“Hi,” she says to him.
“Hi,” he says with a smile. “How was school?”
“It was fine, until the receptionist made me sit in the corner under the air conditioning vent,” she protests. “Who runs the air conditioning in the middle of winter anyways?”
He laughs at that, opening the back door for her. I wait until she’s inside, the door closed, and Victor is making his way back to the driver's side before I get in. And even then, I take a minute to take in our surroundings. Checking to see if I see anyone watching us.
Victor looks at me with knowing eyes and just nods. A silent exchange that says we need to move, and I slide into the passenger seat, pressing the door lock as soon as it shuts behind me.
“Victor?” Evie says, without looking away from the rearview mirror.
“Yes?”
“Are we going to be okay?” She asks in the smallest voice I’ve ever heard from her.
The car is quiet for a moment. I watch him take the question seriously as his eyes meet mine.
“Yes,” he says with absolute conviction. And I know by the look in his eyes that he means it.
Chapter Seventeen
Victor
The school disappears in the rearview mirror, and I have my phone out before we clear the first block. Dialing David.
