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I’m yanked back to reality when a high-pitched voice screeches, “Tessa!”
I look around, expecting to see someone else to respond to the name given to me when I was first brought to Red House. No one here knows me by that name. I left that name behind. There’s no way anyone would call me by that, but fear still grips me with its deadly claws.
“Tessa!” the voice calls out again, and this time, I look up and see the last person I would ever expect to see. Christi rushes my way excitedly in her high-heeled shoes. My eyes dart around the food court, studying every face, looking for him.
Christi stops right in front of Hannah and me. Acting like she’s a long-lost friend, she pulls me into a hug. “It’s so good to see you,” she says loud enough for Hannah to hear.
Hannah looks at me curiously, but I don’t know what to think of the situation. Did Christi run away too? What are the chances that she would be here if she did run away? We were never friends. In fact, she was Mr. Perfect’s favorite. I can’t see him letting her go. Hell, I can’t imagine her running away. She seemed to love her life at Red House.
Christi holds me tighter when I try to move away. “He’s been looking everywhere for you. He’s going to be so pleased with me for finding you,” she says just for my ears, her words dripping venom.
She finally pulls away and starts tapping on her cell phone. “What are the odds that I would be here shopping at the same time as you?” Christi says innocently. “Such a small world.” She smiles brightly at Hannah.
Without thinking, I grab the phone from her hands and throw it in the fountain. The ground is shaking under my feet as I stand, pulling Hannah up with me. She doesn’t fight me. In fact, she positions herself between Christi and me.
“Who the fuck are you?” Sweet, soft-spoken Hannah is gone. This Hannah is a freaking badass who actually makes Christi take a step backward and pause. It doesn’t knock Christi off her game for long.
“Yeah, Princess Tessa, who the fuck am I?” Christi snarls, glaring over Hannah’s shoulder at me with enough malice to melt the paint right off the walls. “Shouldn’t have touched my phone, bitch. Daddy’s just parkin’ the car, he’s going to be pissed you wrecked my phone.” Her lips twist up in an ugly smile. “Can’t wait for the family reunion. We’ve sure missed you at the house.”
The world around me is narrows until it feels like I’m in a tunnel. My breaths are coming in ragged pants, and I’m clinging to Hannah’s hand like she’s the only thing keeping me grounded to the here and now. Honestly, she very well may be.
Christi throws her head back and laughs. “You’re so fuckin’ pathetic. Your little issues aren’t gonna keep you safe this time. No more special treatment for you after your little disappearing act.”
My entire world shifts, and every hope and dream I have allowed myself these past months is shattering down around me. I know right here and now that I will never truly be free. Hundreds of miles away, and they still managed to find me. Fate is a fickle bitch, and it seems I’ll never quit paying for however I wronged her.
Slade pushes between Hannah and Christi, completely blocking my view. He’s a brick wall between her and us. Despite her being five foot seven and skinny as a rail, Slade is putting off vibes like he’s come up against a vicious predator. He’s not entirely wrong. Christi has tormented me from day one at Red House. She took special joy in seeing me broken and battered after a client left. She would tell me how my screams echoing through the walls were like a lullaby to her.
“Who the fuck are you?” Slade asks in what I would call a scary-calm voice. His tone doesn’t match the aggression that is pouring off him in waves. He’s like a dog who isn’t growling or barking, but its fur is standing on end, and you just know if you got close enough, it would snap at you. Slade is ready to snap.
My eyes dart around the food court, wondering if Christi was telling the truth about him being here. She’s just mean enough to lie, but the sick pit in my gut tells me he’s close. Christi says something to Slade that I can’t make out because he just walked in. He looks exactly the same. Dark suit, perfectly polished shoes—absently, I wonder who is polishing those shoes now that I’m not there to do it, Christi? No, it’s probably, Lisa—his dark hair, sprinkled with gray is slicked back. If you didn’t know any better, you might say that he’s handsome. But one look in his cold, dead eyes tells you that he’s got a heart of stone and a pitch-black soul.
He scans the food court looking for Christi. His eyes skate right past me, and his gaze lands just in front of me where I know Christi stands just on the other side of Slade. Nelson Grant, who I still think of as Mr. Perfect, takes in the scene for a moment. Then as if his mind is just catching up with what his eyes saw turns his attention back to me. His lips slowly curl up in what some might call a handsome smile, but I’ve seen that same smile painted on his lips as he beat me with his belt.
Panic wells up inside me, and this time, I’m not frozen. Everything in my entire being is shouting for me to run. I grab Slade’s arm, trying to get his attention. I frantically pull on him until he turns his attention to me. He gives me a questioning look.
“Gotta go. Now. We gotta go…” I don’t stop tugging on him, trying to pull him along. Hannah is still right by my side, holding my arm.
My whole body is quivering from fear. When Slade doesn’t immediately move, I let out a panicked sob. “Please!” I beg.
Christi is cackling like the Wicked Witch of the West, if she just called me her pretty, I could believe for a second this is some crazy nightmare version of Oz and not a mall in the middle of New York City miles and miles away from Red House. I came here because a big city offers autonomy. I should’ve been just another faceless name in the crowd.
Instead of acting, Slade asks me what’s wrong. He seems determined to get answers before taking action. My eyes flick between him and Mr. Perfect, who is slowly making his way through the throng of people. Every step closer, ratchets up my anxiety.
I can’t answer. I’ve lost the power to form words, and my response is some kind of pathetic death moan. It’s Hannah who seems to pick that Christi isn’t the real threat. She follows my line of sight, and I’m not sure what she sees when she looks at Mr. Perfect, but whatever it is makes her act.
“We have to go. Now.” Hannah pulls me away from Slade and starts running. The mall is packed with people, but Hannah doesn’t slow down. She darts between other shoppers and, in one case, knocks into a teenaged boy who falls into a kiosk causing merchandise to go everywhere.
I can hear Slade behind us cursing a blue streak and yelling for us to slow down. We ignore him. We push our way through another group of shoppers, and there is a break in the crowd. Hannah picks up the pace, pulling me as fast as our feet can carry us towards the doors.
Slade is seconds behind us as we burst outside. He’s no longer asking questions. The lights of the SUV flash as Slade unlocks it. He doesn’t stop to open our door for us, he rushes to the driver’s side. Hannah yanks open the door and shoves me into the backseat, then practically crawls on top of me to get in herself. Our door is barely closed when Slade slams the car into gear and speeds away.
I watch out the back window as Mr. Perfect and Christi burst out of the mall. The last thing I see before we turn onto the road is him backhanding Christi so hard that she falls to the ground. I turn in the seat and pull my legs up to my chest and bury my head in my knees.
Oh, God. Please. Please don’t let this be happening, I beg. Please let this all be another bad dream. Just this once. Please.
Hannah slides over to me and pulls me into her arms. She rocks me and tells me everything is going to be okay and that I’m safe. Nothing she says calms the hysteria that’s bubbling up to the surface. I’m not safe. Nowhere is safe. I’ll never be safe again.
Distantly, I hear Slade speaking. I drag myself back way from the edge enough to focus. “We’ve got a situation. Shit went bad at the mall.”
