AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“She’s not here!” a man yells. Accented words. From India maybe. Him and another man, pulling at me. Dragging me away.
I swing my fist, but it meets air as the men duck.
Then Hangman’s there. “Get away,” he orders them. He grabs my shoulders and shakes me. “Settle the fuck down!”
Fire trucks arrive, then ambulances. What took them so long? My baby’s inside! What the fuck is wrong with everyone?
“Dr. Whittaker’s not here,” the Indian man explains to Hangman. “Not in the building.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Hangman barks.
It helps, his voice, the irritation in it. The ball of panic in my belly starts to unfurl. “She’s not here?” I say, daring to hope.
“No,” a girl with blue hair says. “She left.”
“She wasn’t in the blast?” I know I’m asking the same thing different ways, but I can’t stop myself. I need reassurance.
“She was,” Blue hair replies. “Well, heading towards the building I think.”
“None of us saw,” a woman with a pink top says. “But she wasn’t in the building when it blew.”
“She left,” the Indian man says. “She shouldn’t have though. She was hurt.”
None of this makes any sense. Hangman doesn’t think so either. “Where the fuck did she go?” he barks.
I see the shake of their heads. “Don’t know,” Blue hair says. “But she was pissed when she left.”
CHAPTERFORTY
Evanee
As I speed towards Reno, my scattered thoughts are on repeat. The explosion, the aftermath. Trigger. What if. What if. What if.
WHO?
That’s the better question, Evanee. I take deep breaths as I concentrate on my driving.You don’t need to ask yourself that. You know.
I weave through residential streets too fast and not fast enough, heading to my parents’ house. My home. The place I grew up in. It couldn’t have been dad. He’s overbearing and controlling, but he would never do anything to hurt me. At least not physically.
Would he?
I rip around the corner of the estate and roar up the driveway. My tires squeal as I come to an uneven stop at the front of the house. The car door handle won’t cooperate, or maybe it’s my hands. They’re trembling.
“Open the fuck up!” I scream as I heave my shoulder against the window. A pain shoots down my arm and I gasp, but it helps settle me. I force myself to slow down, pull the handle with deliberate care, and shove the door open. I’m still barefooted but I have my new shoes. They’re black, thank god.I pull them out of the box they were in and shove them on my feet.
The front door to the house opens and dad steps out onto the landing, staring in horror. “Evanee,” he cries as he takes the stairs two at a time. “What the hell happened to you?”
I shove at his chest when he tries to touch me. “You didn’t do this, did you?” I scream at him, blinking to hold my tears inside as I think of the betrayal should he say yes.
He’s shaking, his lips bloodless. “Do what? What the hell happened?”
“Someone blew up my clinic!” I shove at him over and over, forcing him to retreat. “Was it you?”
He flushes as the concern on his face wages war with his anger. “How the hell could you even think I’d do something like that?”
Relief numbs me temporarily. “I couldn’t. I shouldn’t.” I sound weak. “You were so against—”
“I would never do anything to hurt you. I’m not a monster.” The sag of his shoulders, the sadness in his voice reassures me.
