AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Are you okay?” Jesse asked in a small voice.
I squeezed my eyes shut. “Yeah. Maybe not. I thought that asshole was going to hit me for a second there.”
“Why didn’t you run away?”
Two more deep breaths and I felt a bit calmer, calm enough to turn my head to look at him. He was deathly pale, and his eyes looked huge. “Because then he would have hityou.” I grabbed my water bottle from its holder and chugged down a few gulps. Right, time to adult. “Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”
“Just my knee.”
“Okay, great. That’s great.” My nausea was subsiding, and my hands weren’t shaking quite so badly. “Um, so, what were you doing on this street, anyway? It’s nowhere near your house.”
“Gabe didn’t come to pick me up, so I thought I’d walk home, but then I got lost.”
“Fu—crap. Shit, sorry for all the swearing, kiddo.”
“It’s okay.”
“Let’s find out where your dad is, then I’ll get you home. Can you pass me my bag?” When he did, I noticed his hands were shaking a little, so I did my best to summon a reassuring smile. “We’re okay, right? No one actually hit us, even though we were really scared they were going to, right?”
He nodded, but he didn’t look too sure.
“Okay, how about you do this with me.” I breathed in through my nose and out through my mouth. “Now it’s your turn. Yep, exactly like that.” We took another few breaths like that together, until I was satisfied that Jesse didn’t look like he was about to pass out. “Let’s call your dad.”
It rang for so long the call disconnected, so I tried again. “Where the fu—bloomin’ heck are you?” I muttered, registering Jesse’s grin out of the corner of my eye. Gabe finally answered on the fourth try.
“Gabe, it’s Allegra—” What the fuck? Why didn’t I just say Ally?
“Allegra, I can’t—”
“I’ve got Jesse with me.”
Silence for a long moment. “Thank fucking Christ. Is he okay?”
“Yeah, we’ve had some dramas, but I’m bringing him home now and we’ll tell you all about it when we see you.” I hung up and dropped the phone back in my bag. “Okay. Let’s get you home.”
We got there before Gabe, so I made the executive decision to let us inside the house and bring in some of the bags from the trunk of my car. I was still a bit hyped up and figured maybe Jesse was too, so I said the first thing that popped into my mind: “Hey, you wanna learn how to make pizza, kiddo?”
“Okay.”
CHAPTER21
Gabe
Pulling into my driveway, in behind Ally’s black jeep, I turned off the engine but didn’t get out straight away. I’d just experienced thirty minutes of the most abject terror a person could feel. I thought I’d lost my son and my gut was still churning. Realizing that I wouldn’t feel better until I’d laid eyes on him, I forced myself out of the truck and toward the house on shaking legs.
I opened the front door to a cacophony of noise. Ally had hooked up her phone to my Bluetooth speaker and was playing some really loud music. She was on the step ladder, hunting around in the cupboard above the fridge, while Jesse stood next to her, silently watching.
He was okay. He really was okay.
Relief surged through me. “Jesse!” I rushed forward and before I could think twice hauled him into my arms. He was a little stiff at first, but I couldn’t let him go yet. Not with the fear still circulating through me. Finally, I felt his arms come around my waist and he let out a shuddering breath.
Ally looked down, giving me a reassuring smile. “He’s golden, aren’t you, kiddo?”
With my hands on his shoulders, I pushed him back a bit, so I could check for myself. “I’m so sorry, I had a dead battery and had to wait for Jake to come get me. I called the school, and they said they’d tell you to wait for me. They didn’t?”
He shook his head. “I thought you weren’t coming, so I started walking home. I got lost, then…”
I looked at Ally. “Then?”
