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“Why is this happening?” I asked. “What do they want with us? We’re nobody.”
Rune glanced at Emmie, who sat on the couch in front of the biggest television we’d ever seen, staring at the images that flashed different colors right on her face.
“I don’t think you’re nobody. I think this is about Wes. Someone is after him, and they’re doing what they can to get to him. I don’t know what’s going on between you two, but clearly, they see you as a way in.”
I shook my head. “That doesn’t make any sense. We haven’t had contact in years, and even if we did, it’s not like we have anything in common.”
I was human, and he wasn’t. I was living paycheck to paycheck, and he wasn’t. I had a life far away from here, and he was the kingpin in the city. At least, that is what I understood the more I saw of him and how he barked his orders to everyone.
The only thing we had in common was Emmie, but I wasn’t going to tell Rune that. I wasn’t sure how much he knew or didn’t know, and it was better to keep to myself as much as I could where Emmie was concerned. She’d been through way too much in her young life to have to wonder about conversations about a potential father, too.
That part would have been the most normal of it all, though. It felt like protecting her was also a case of too little, too late.
“I’ll check in on you soon,” Rune said. “In the meantime, make yourselves at home. There’s food in the fridge and pantry, more than enough rooms to choose from, and all the tech you could dream of. Just don’t go outside for now, okay?”
I nodded. I wasn’t going to open that door ever again if it meant staying safe. That was what a safehouse was for, right? Safety?
When Rune left, though, I didn’t feel safe at all. I was terrified that something would go wrong again.
I turned to the living room and joined Emmie on the couch.
“What are you watching, kiddo?” I asked.
“It’s a cat,” she said and pointed at the giant screen. “He sucks at hunting the mouse.”
I watched theTom and Jerryshow that I’d grown up with and smiled.
“Want to know what I think?” I asked.
Emmie nodded, and I brushed her long hair out of her face. It was getting more and more tangled as the days went by. After we watched a show and calmed down a bit, I would hunt the house for a brush if I could find one.
“I think he secretly wants to protect the mouse, and he’s just pretending so it looks like he does his job.”
Emmie scrunched her nose. “No one likes their job.”
I laughed. “I like my job.”
“You’re always tired,” she said.
“You’re right. Just because I like my job doesn’t mean I don’t want to rest sometimes. Rest is good.”
“Can we rest now?” Emmie asked, looking at me with her large blue eyes.
A pang shot into my chest. Now that I’d seen Wesley again, I realized just how much her eyes looked like his. There was so much of him in her, I’d just blocked it out because I hadn’t needed the reminder, and it hadn’t mattered. Now, after last night…
I pushed the thoughts away. Whatever that moment of weakness was, it couldn’t happen if we were ever together again. I couldn’t fall for a man who could flip a switch like that and push me away, and after what I’d seen today… God, I couldn’t fall for that man. Period.
“Are you okay?” I asked Emmie.
She nodded.
“Let’s talk about today.” I reached for the remote and turned off the television.
“What about it?” Emmie asked.
“It was scary.”
“Yeah.”
