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The way she smiles through her tears tells me that’s the right move. The only move.
I make a right turn, then hit the gas.
EPILOGUE
LEONA
Six Month Later
“Tristan! Come on, let’s head back. I want to get dinner started.”
“Five more minutes?” He stands at the water’s edge, hands on his hips.
“You said five more minutes twenty minutes ago,” I remind him with a grin. “Come on, help me pack up our stuff.” Elijah will be home from work soon. It’s nice when we have a day off at the same time, but I sort of like having dinner ready for him when he gets home, too. I never would have thought of myself as wanting to be a homemaker, but I’m starting to come around to the idea.
So long as I’m with him, I’ll be anything he wants.
It’s only a few minutes’ walk to the apartment, a trip we’ve taken many times. Finding an apartment so close to the beach was like a miracle, but then life has been nothing but a series of miracles for the past six months as far as I’m concerned. The fact that we got away from New Haven in the first place was almost too much to believe—I barely slept the first few nights, so sure somebody would find us and take us back. Or worse, kill us for running away, for driving across the country until we reached Florida. By then, most of the money Elijah took from his dad was gone, and the car was practically running on fumes.
Lucky for us, there’s always work in a beach town. We both found jobs at a hotel a mile away, so it’s easy to walk back and forth in the Florida sunshine. Some nights, I’m so tired I can barely drag myself through the front door, but it’s worth it.
And when I wake up in the morning to the sound of the ocean, and the squawking of seagulls, I’m almost afraid this is a dream. Like I’ll wake up in that bunkhouse—or worse, tied to a bed where Henry looms over me, with all kinds of filthy ideas dancing behind his eyes.
Instead, I wake up next to Elijah while Tristan sleeps in the other bedroom next door. It’s not a very big place, and nobody would ever call it luxurious or even modern, but it’s just fine for us. I’ve never imagined being this happy, but then I couldn’t have imagined them, either. We’re a family, the three of us, and even though it took Tristan a little while to understand why we had to leave—and why we had to do it the way we did—it didn’t take long for him to come around. As it turns out, he understood a lot more than Elijah gave him credit for. He had overheard Rebecca and Henry talking more than once while he was supposed to be tucked away in bed, and he knew bad things were going on under our noses.
“Go get washed up,” I tell him once we’re home, kicking off our flip-flops inside the front door. “How does spaghetti sound?” I know it’s one of his favorites, but I always want to make it seem like he has a say in things.
“And garlic bread?”
“What do you think?” I tousle his curly hair and give him a gentle shove toward the bathroom while I get to work in the kitchen. A soft breeze blows in through the open window, stirring the curtains, and something about it makes me insanely happy. Freedom. I came so close to having it taken away forever.
Still, shadows hang over me sometimes. Like at night when I can’t fall asleep. When there’s a thunderstorm outside, or Elijah’s working the overnight shift at the front desk, and I’m alone in bed. I can’t help but wonder if they searched for us. If they figured out where we ended up.
So far, we haven’t heard anything or even seen anything that seemed off. No shadowy stranger watching us, no weird phone calls. We’ve made phone calls, though, reaching out to the police in Reno with tips about a human trafficking ring nearby. I always scour the news after we make those tips, but there is never any report about discoveries or even an investigation. Maybe they’re not taking us seriously because we stay anonymous and always call from different places. Once we crossed the border into Mississippi, another time, we called from Georgia. Just in case they’re tracing the calls.
I’m taking the garlic bread out of the oven when the front door opens, and my heart skips a beat. Elijah’s smile is weary, but it warms me inside anyway. Even when he’s tired after a long day, he always comes home wearing a smile.
“It smells amazing in here.” He wraps me up in a tight hug before giving me the sort of sweet, tender kiss that’s become a habit.
“Dinner’s almost ready. How was your day?”
“Full of kids coming in for spring break.” Yes, it’s amazing I managed to get a day off at all. We’ll both be working extra hard this coming week. Part of me wonders what it would be like to be one of them, to live a so-called normal life. Carefree, fun, full of parties and getting laid.
But no, this is better. Even though we’re not exactly rich, and we work our asses off, we’re building something real together. And no matter how hard the day has been, there’s always somebody to look forward to seeing when I get home.
“Dinner!” I call out to Tristan, who wastes no time sitting down at the little table in the kitchen. While I’m plating up dinner, he tells Elijah all about the big waves he jumped over today and the massive sandcastle we made together. The love that shines in Elijah’s eyes when he looks at his brother makes my chest hurt in the best way. He is such a good brother. One day, he’ll be a good dad, too.
The phone rings just as I sit down, and the three of us look at each other in surprise. We have a landline just because it was here when we moved in, but nobody uses it. If somebody’s calling from work, they call our cell phones.
Elijah shrugs before getting up to answer the phone mounted to the kitchen wall. “Hello?”
He turns to me, his eyes narrowing, and I jump up to lean in close as he holds the phone out for both of us to hear.
The voice is distorted, gravelly but clear. “Stop contacting the police in Reno. The police department is part of the trafficking ring at New Haven. They protect Rebecca and William. Making calls will only make it easier for her to find you.”
“Who is this?” I blurt out, gripping Elijah’s arm.
“How do you know about this?” he demands.
