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Raine sat with feet curled beneath her, piping-hot cup of tea in her hands. Her dark hair was pinned loosely atop her head, and she was dressed in ratty clothes—oversized T-shirt and loose track pants—that were splattered in beige and teal splotches of color. It was something Maggie hadn’t noticed until now.
Raine pointed toward the small table beside Maggie’s chair. “I brought you a tea as well.”
Maggie scooped the warm mug into her hands and took a sip, relishing the heat as it slid over her tongue. But still she shivered. She knew it was going to take a lot more than a warm drink to drive away the stark cold inside her body.
“Have you been painting?” she asked, thinking the question sounded lame and desperate—but she so needed a bit of normal right now.
Raine frowned, took a sip of tea, and settled into the sofa. ?
?Are we really going to talk about my sad attempt to freshen up the spare room?”
Maggie stared at the brunette but remained silent.
Raine’s expression softened. “I’d like to know what’s going on in that brain of yours, because I can see the wheels spinning, and I’ll be honest, Maggie, it’s kinda scaring me.” Raine took another sip of her tea and leaned forward. “It’s never good to react to a situation when you’re upset. Believe me, I know.”
Maggie said nothing, because deep down, Raine was right. She just wished she didn’t feel like she was already behind. That she needed to be gone from Crystal Lake like yesterday.
“You can’t dump Cain because some pervert snapped a few pictures of you guys together.”
“This isn’t about Cain.”
“No?” Raine settled back into the sofa. “What’s it about, then?” Her tone was conversational, but the glint of interest was sharp.
Maggie stared down into her teacup. Steam rose from the surface, but it did nothing to thaw the ice in her veins. She grasped the cup tighter, so tight her knuckles cracked and her skin burned from the heat. She wanted to smash it against a wall. She wanted to scream at the top of her lungs, pull her hair out, and break something.
Mostly, she just wanted to curl up into a ball and cry.
She did none of those things. Instead she looked Raine in the eye and spoke. “I’m leaving town.”
“Leaving town?” Raine sputtered. She’d obviously not been expecting to hear that. She wiped a few drops of tea off her chin. “What do you mean? To hide out? Where will you go? Shit, Maggie, if you really feel the need to get some quiet over the next couple of days, come and stay with me.”
“Thanks for the offer, Raine, but that’s not what I meant.” Maggie ran fingers across her forehead and winced as pain lashed across her skull. She was well on her way to a lovely migraine.
“You don’t understand. As soon as I can, probably Saturday afternoon, Michael and I are leaving Crystal Lake, and we’re not coming back. I should leave tomorrow, but I can’t take Saturday away from my son.”
Raine was shocked. Her mouth opened, but no sound came out. She took a sip of tea, her eyes never leaving Maggie, and when she spoke her voice was tremulous.
“But that doesn’t even make sense. Don’t you think you’re overreacting? Just a little bit?”
Maggie gazed across the room at Raine. An image of Dante—his face twisted in rage, his skin tight, and his fists flying—crossed her vision, and she blinked rapidly to clear the image. She shook her head. “No, I’m not overreacting.”
Raine studied her in silence for several long moments. “What are you not telling me, Maggie?”
Maggie’s eyes shifted to just beyond Raine. She heard the shower running and knew that Michael would be a while. Could she trust Raine? Would it be all right to share some of this burden and confide in a friend?
A shudder racked her frame, and Maggie realized her clothes were still damp, from being outside and so was her hair. She leaned over and grabbed the throw blanket off the corner of the sofa and wrapped it around her shoulders. She couldn’t get sick. There was too much to do.
“I didn’t come to Crystal Lake because I’d planned on it—because I had family close by or friends here. I’d never heard of this place until…” She exhaled and paused for a second. “I let Michael choose our destination, and do you want to know how we did that?”
Raine nodded slowly but remained silent.
“He closed his eyes and pointed at a map. A travel map I took from his father’s car. It was a tiny red dot in a sea of dots, but there it was, Crystal Lake. That’s why we came here. I figured if we chose some random town, it would make it that much harder for us to be discovered.”
Maggie saw the moment as if it were yesterday. The police had just taken Dante away, and she knew her window of opportunity was small. His daddy’s money would have him out by noon the next day.
Michael’s finger had directed their fate, and they’d left Savannah within the hour, armed with two large bags of clothes and the stash of cash she’d been hoarding for the last few years.
“Who are you running from?”
