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“Are you fucking kidding me!” She yelled and stood up from the table.
“Shh!” I rushed forward and put my hand over her mouth, “Keep it down or P will come down and I’m not ready to face her right now.”
“He’s here?” She swatted my hand away, “In Belden? Why? How? Did you talk to him?”
“I don’t know why he’s here.” I said and ran my fingers through my tangled locks. “He was at Cherry’s last night with the Black Eagle crew, but I didn’t know it was him; he had a mask on, and it was dark. But his eyes-.” I groaned, “His fucking eyes.” I rubbed my temples with my fingertips and started pacing. “And then there was some sort of brawl after I left between the Eagles and another crew. The ER was full of patches today and he was there and he just… said, ‘Hey’.” I threw my hands up exasperatedly, “Like nothing fucking happened!”
“Oh my god.” She cringed and then looked at me. “Oh my god, Delilah,”
“I know!” I cringed.
“What if he came to do to you what he did to Blaine?” She rambled, “Or Penelope?” She gasped as panic gripped her.
“Stop.” I cursed and swung around with my finger pointed directly at her, “Don’t you dare say another word about her like that or I’ll lose my fucking mind.” I cried, “Believe me, I’ve already imagined every single scenario possible about why and how the fuck the man who’s supposed to be serving a life sentence is now breathing the same fucking air as us five years later, thousands of miles away from home.”
She grabbed her phone off the table and her thumbs swooshed over the screen rapidly. “Hang on.”
“What are you doing?”
She held her finger up to me and put her phone to her ear as I groaned and paced around the small kitchen as my mind circled itself into a frenzy. “Detective Dailey, please.” She said politely and watched me as I swung back around.
Detective Dailey was the man that put Fox behind bars five years ago. God, she was smart to think to call him. And I was the one spiraling into a panic attack while she was being smart.
How the fuck did we switch roles?
She groaned and rolled her eyes and whispered to me, “Voicemail.” Before putting on her best phone operator voice and leaving a message. “Detective Dailey, it’s Maddie Beckett. I’m calling about Fox St. Claire. My sister, Delilah, said that he’s here, in our new town. We have so many questions about that, please call me back as soon as possible. Thank you.” She hung up and slammed her phone down on the table. “Was he mean to you?”
“No,” I shook my head helplessly, “He was… Fox.” I sighed, “The Fox from before, when he was kind and gentle and protective-.” I cried out, “Everything I ever wanted.”
“What are we going to do?” She asked.
I shrugged my shoulders and shook my head hopelessly, “I don’t know.” I whispered as tears pooled in my eyes. Her face crumbled as she raced across the space and wrapped her arms around me, holding onto me as I fell to pieces for the first time since the birth of my daughter. “I’m scared, Maddie.”
“I know.” She whispered, squeezing me tighter, “We’ll figure it out, I promise.”
“He can never find out.” I pulled back to look at her, “He’ll lose his mind if he knows the truth.” I shook my head, “He’ll kill me, Mad, out of spite and anger, he’ll kill me with his own bare hands, I know it.”
“Shh.” She pulled me back against her chest, “He’ll never know. I promise.”
She held me for a long time as I fought to compose myself. I knew I couldn’t break down like that, because I had to be strong for her and Penelope, but it didn’t stop the overwhelming urge to crawl in a hole and hide. They always looked to me for guidance and strength so, I couldn’t fail them now. Not when this was all my fault to begin with.
They needed me.
I just had to figure out how to get the fuck out of Belden with Fox St. Claire never knowing where I went.
It was the only way to protect what was left of my family.
I’d die to protect them.
And if Fox ever found out the truth behind my secrets, there was a real chance I’d get a one-way ticket to the cemetery.
Four days went by uneventfully since seeing Fox in the ER at my shift. It was Thursday, and I was off work from the hospital today and tomorrow and didn’t work at Cherry’s until tomorrow night.
I walked around the small grocery store in the center of Belden with my tiny paper list and threw as many of the items possible into the cart as quickly as possible while I was free for a few hours. Penelope was at school; she went half days to the elementary school for Pre-K and absolutely loved it.
But I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t considered pulling her all together until we moved.
Because Maddie and I had sat down Sunday night after Penelope went to bed and laid out a plan. We needed to move. Quickly. As far away from here as we could manage. I applied to a million different RN positions all over the western United States and now just waited to hear back on one. Any one of them would do, as long as it started asap and was far away.
