“But I wasn't talking about just now. I mean in general, you're incredible.”
She pushed her head back into the cushion and looked at him. “Really?”
“Really.”
Just say thank you, and leave it at that. Learn how to take a compliment.
But she wanted to know. “How?”
“Well.” He propped his head on his hand and shifted his weight until he lay beside her. He tucked the afghan tighter around her.
She snuggled in, feeling safe and protected.
“Let's see. You're raising two kids.”
“Neither of whom are speaking to me at the moment.”
“And you're a successful business owner.”
“Well, I get the payroll paid and the lights on. I don't know if that qualifies as successful.”
“And you have a beautiful home.”
“With the help of Rosa.”
“Who's Rosa?”
“The best maid service in town. I got her in the divorce settlement.”
“And you're…” He waved a hand down her body and back up. “And you're a knockout.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I'm not in very good shape. I almost knocked myself unconscious with the Shake Weight.”
He rolled his eyes and began to roll away. “You're right. You're a complete loser. The only reason I'm here is because I feel sorry for you.”
She laughed and pulled him back. “Wait, wait. You're right. Accepting compliments is not my strong suit.”
“Now that you do suck at.”
“So help me practice some more.” She grinned and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Let's hear some more about what a knockout I am.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Cait stuffed her hands deep into the pockets of her coat and walked away from the bus station like she knew where she was going. This had seemed like a good idea three hours ago. Now that she was alone in a strange town and it was getting dark, and she wasn't even sure exactly where she was, it didn't seem quite as smart.
It didn't help that the old fart who'd ridden two seats in front of her and had stared at her the entire two hour bus ride to Roosevelt was still staring at her. It was creeping her out. He had to be older than her dad, and he didn't look like he'd bathed in a couple of weeks. His hands were covered with gray and white wiry-looking hairs.
She knew the university campus was west of downtown, west of where she was right now. But she couldn't remember exactly how far. And right now anything more than fifty feet felt entirely too far.
She picked up her pace and clutched at the straps of her backpack. As she passed an office that was closed for the night, she checked the reflection in the dark window. He wasn't back there, but she could only see a few feet behind her. When she reached a shop that sold wigs, she stopped as if she was looking at them, then gave a quick glance back.
Crap. He was still there. Still staring at her. Crap crap crap.
She felt tears welling up and started to walk again, almost running. Downtown Roosevelt was closed down at this time of night, nothing down here except offices and a few shops. She looked around for a cop, but then wondered what she'd do if she found one. Her mom might have already called the police by now, or the hag whose purse she stole. They might be looking for her.
Then again the way her life was going, it might be weeks before anyone noticed she was gone.
She looked as far as she could down the street, but she didn't see any sign of the university. Where were all the college hangouts? Where was the restaurant her mom had taken them to when they brought Pam up here? Where was some place safe?
She told herself not to look over her shoulder, but with every step she felt him getting closer and closer until she could almost feel one of those nasty wiry hairs poking the back of her neck. She darted a glance behind her.
He was right there. Cait let out a strangled scream and ran.
Her feet slapped the pavement and her heart pounded mercilessly in her chest. She could feel his breath on her neck, feel his old gnarly hands reaching out for her, ready to snag her backpack and pull her into an alley. The faster she ran, the more she could feel him behind her.
Yellow light spilled onto the sidewalk a block ahead, and she realized there was something open down here. She sobbed with relief and forced herself to run faster.
She saw a neon cup of coffee on the storefront and raced for the door. When she reached it, she whipped around, feeling those hairy hands on the back of her neck.
He was gone. There was no one on the sidewalk, no one she could see anywhere around.
Her knees went weak and the tears she'd been trying to hold back spilled over. She stood with one hand on the door handle, fighting to catch her breath, looking down the street, her eyes searching darkened doorways, wondering if he was hiding in some alley, waiting for her to grow comfortable.
“Are you going in?”
Cait gasped and whipped around. A guy stood directly behind her, reaching for the door handle.
“I'm sorry,” she said. She swallowed hard and stepped out of the way. “I was just…looking for someone.”
He smiled. He had a nice smile, a reassuring smile. He looked a little older than Pam; he was probably a student at the university. “You might as well wait for them inside where it's warm.” He opened the door and waited for her to go in.
Inside sounded like a good idea. Cait took a deep breath and found a table. She slipped her backpack off and dropped it onto the seat before she sat down. She kept one eye on the front window while she fished inside her pack for her cell phone.
Stupid Pam. Still not answering her phone. Cait hadn't left any messages because she knew the first thing Pam would do was call Mom and tell her what was going on. But she needed her sister now.
“Pam, for crying out loud, answer your phone. I'm in Roosevelt. I need you to come get me. I'm on that street where the bus station is, at a coffee shop. Some weird old hairy guy was staring at me on the bus and now I'm all freaked out and I need you to come get me. Call me back.”
She closed the phone and slid closer to the wall. Was this an all night place? Because she didn't think she wanted to walk out that door again until either Pam came, or the sun came up. Who knew where that freak might be hanging out, waiting to jump on her.
A waitress came over and Cait ordered a grilled cheese sandwich and Sprite. She thought about getting fries, too, but decided against it. She still had a couple hundred bucks from what she'd stolen from her dad's wallet and another two hundred from cashing in the blonde woman’s bus ticket, but she didn't want to blow it all. The ticket to Roosevelt had cost fifty, which she thought was ridiculous for a bus ride. As nasty as that thing was, they ought to pay her to ride on it.
She tried to relax a little while she waited for her sandwich, but it was hard. She didn't think she was going to cry anymore, but she couldn't stop the feeling that she was completely alone in the world. She couldn't remember a time when no one knew where she was. If she disappeared right now no one would ever know what happened to her.
She checked her phone to make sure she hadn't turned it off by mistake, but the screen was still showing a strong signal. Where the hell was Pam? Cait had called her three times since she'd decided to leave Piedmont, but had hung up when she got voice mail.
What if Pam had gone to a friend’s house for the weekend? What if Cait had come all the way up here and now Pam wasn't even here?
The waitress set her plate down before Cait could let that idea sit for too long, which was a good thing. If she couldn't find Pam, she'd just get a motel room. She had the money, and she wasn't a child. She could take care of herself. Hadn't she already proved that by coming here?
She ate her sandwich and wanted a lot more, but she just sat and didn't order anything else. She checked her phone again.
“Your friends never showed?”
Cait looked up to see the guy who'd held the door open for her standing beside her.
He was c
ute. He wore a bomber jacket and a black leather braided necklace.
Maybe he thought she was a college girl. Maybe he thought she was waiting for her sorority sisters or something.
She sat up straighter and shrugged. “Guess something came up.”
The front door opened. It was the hairy guy.
Cait's heart lodged in her throat and she gasped.
“Are you okay?” the guy asked.
She pushed back in the booth, her eyes glued to the man. The old guy stared at her as he walked slowly to the front of the coffee shop.
“Hey.” The cute guy slid into the booth across from her. “Do you know that guy?”
“I think he's following me,” she whispered. “He keeps staring at me.”
“Yeah, I noticed that. Where did he come from?”
No way she was going to tell this cool guy that she'd run away from home and ridden the bus here.
“I don't know. He was just following me while I was coming here.” She checked her phone again. “I'm waiting for my sister to call me. She's supposed to meet me here. But she's not answering her phone.” She flipped open the phone. “Damn it, Pam. Answer your phone.”
The guy snapped his fingers. “Hey, Pam is your sister? Pam…” He frowned and tapped his forehead.
“Way. Pam Way.”
“Yeah, I know her.”
“Really? Are you in a class with her or something?”
“Yeah, we're in the same English class.”
“Cool.”
“See, I knew you looked familiar. It's because you and Pam look kind of alike, except…” He made a motion toward her.
“Yeah, she's blonde. But people do say we look alike.”
He looked over at the old guy. “Now, he is creepy. I wonder why he keeps staring at you like that?”
She shivered. “God, I don't know. But if he doesn't quit I'm going to scream at him.”
The guy smiled. “My name is Eric, by the way.”
She smiled, feeling suddenly shy. She was so glad he was here. She didn't feel quite so alone now. “I'm Cait.”
“Well Cait, I think you better get in touch with your sister before this guy tries to do something besides stare. This place is going to be closing in about half an hour.”
“Half an hour.” Crap. What was she going to do then?
“Yeah.” He stood. “I've gotta get back to my dorm and study for my midterms. Take care of yourself.”
“Yeah, sure. Nice to meet you.” Oh God. He was leaving. He was leaving her here alone with a deranged, unwashed maniacal starer. She ordered herself not to cry.
He took a few steps away, then turned back. “Look, what are you going to do if Pam doesn't call? Do you have another ride?”
She shook her head. “I guess I'll just get a cab.” She'd taken a cab before. Never by herself, of course. And she'd never had to tell the cab driver where she wanted to go. And she'd never had to tell a cab driver she didn't know exactly where she wanted to go. But she could do it.
“That's expensive. Which dorm does Pam live in? I think it's-”
“It's Dover Hall.”
“Yeah, Dover. That's what I thought. That's not too far from mine. Why don't you just ride with me? I can drop you by there, and if she's not there you can at least get her roommate or one of her floormates to let you in.”
Cait sagged with relief. “Man. That would be great.” She grabbed her backpack and sucked down the rest of her Sprite. “I do not want to hang out here all night.”
Cait took one last look back at the creepy old man and followed Eric outside. She buckled into Eric’s pickup and tucked her backpack at her feet. “Thanks so much for doing this. When I get to Pam’s I’m going to let her have it.”
“Does she know you’re coming?”
“Not exactly. I mean, I called and left a message. But she hasn’t called me back yet.”
He nodded and pulled onto the street. “Well, it’s a busy time right now, with midterms and everything. She’s probably just in the library studying.” He looked over at her and smiled. “So, what college do you go to?”
Cait smothered a grin and wiggled her toes. So he did think she was in college. “I’m at Piedmont Community College.” Oh, why had she said that? Community college was so lame! “But I’ll be here next year.” She could see the university now, at the end of this street. She felt better knowing she’d at least been headed in the right direction. If that old fart hadn’t been following her, she’d have been fine.
“Awesome.”
“Hey, I think that's her dorm,” Cait said as they approached the university. The building looked familiar.
“Nah, that's not it. The dorms all look alike.”
“Oh. Okay.” Cait sat back in her seat and frowned. They must all look alike, because she was sure that had been Pam's dorm.
“Dover is around on the other side of campus. We'll swing around behind the stadium and go that way.”
He drove through the dark streets, bobbing his head to the music on the radio. Once he looked over at her and smiled, a really cute smile that made her stomach do flips. She wished the girls in the woodwind section of the band could see her with a college boy.
Except she wasn't ever going back to that school again. Ever. Not when everyone there knew everything about her life and how much it sucked.
She could make out the looming shadow of the football stadium. They'd gone for one game at the beginning of the school year, and her dad had bought her a jersey with the quarterback's number on it. That had been just three weeks after he'd announced he was moving out. The fatheaded jerk. Moving out of their house and in with Denise. And now it looked like that wasn't going to work out either because he was already hanging around with some trashy looking blonde. At least Denise had had a decent dye job and her teeth were all straight.
She was so focused on her disgust with her dad that she barely noticed Eric was parking the car in the shadow of the stadium.
“Here?” she asked, punching the button for her seat belt. “Is this near Pam's dorm?” All she could see were shadows.
“It's not far.” He scooted across the seat toward her. “But what's the rush? Let's sit here for a second and get better acquainted.”
Cait's heart thudded, and she had to swallow. But she didn't want him to think she was a juvenile. She felt suddenly in over her head.
“Umm, sure. Except…” She inched closer to the door. “I really want to see my sister. We can talk in her room.”
He reached across and locked the door, that same smile on his face. It didn't look so charming now.
“Hey,” she said. She reached for the lock. “Cut it out.”
His hand closed over hers, tight. “Come on.” His fingers squeezed hers. “Don't freak out on me. I'm not going to hurt you.”
Suddenly she felt pretty sure he was going to hurt her, and very badly. “I want to get out.” She struggled to get her hand free.
He just tightened his grip more. It was plain to see that her strength was no match for his, but that didn't stop her from trying.
He turned until he had one knee on the seat beside her and his other hand loosely cupped her neck.
“Stop it,” he said. “You asked for this.”
“I did not!” She flailed in the seat, panic gripping her by the throat. She pushed to slide out from under him. “Let me go!”
This wasn't happening. It couldn't be happening, it wasn't real, he wasn't really going to hurt her.
Except his hands were painfully tight on her wrists and despite how hard she fought, he was succeeding in getting her down under him.
She heard her own sobs, and some noise coming from him. He was laughing, she realized, and fresh terror filled her. Not only was he hurting her, but he was enjoying it.
She writhed and pushed as hard as she could. “No!” But she felt herself being dragged down anyway. His hands were everywhere at once, grabbing her, pinching, clawing, and it was gross, it was so gross and she w
as so scared and she tried to stop his hands but he was too strong and too fast and finally a voice in her said she had to concentrate on one thing at a time and right now she needed to forget about those disgusting hands and do what she had to do to get out of there.
She reached above her head, cringing at his hands on her breasts and fumbled for the lock. She got it unlocked before he realized what she was doing, but the door was still closed when he slapped her so hard her ears rang.
He grabbed her wrist. His knee was between hers, pushing down hard so that he was pinched the inside her thigh against the seat and it hurt. He leaned forward to grab her other wrist and she felt air, and realized that if she brought her knee up right then…
Slam! She felt something squish beneath her knee.
He howled and slid off, and she grabbed the door handle and tugged it hard. In one movement she shoved with her feet and shot out of the cab of the pickup, landed on her shoulders, then her hips, knocking the breath out of her, and then she was up and running, running running as fast as she could.
She wanted to scream. She knew she should scream, she should call for help, but everything in her was caught up in getting away, as far away from there as she could, and it felt like her legs were full of lead and she couldn't make any space between her and the guy with the hands. She was afraid to even look back.
She ran around buildings and through bushes and jumped over bike racks, knocking her knees and slamming into things, but she kept going because she was sure he was still back there, right behind her.
Finally she was able to make noise, but it wasn't the scream that would bring her help. She whimpered, weak, terrified little sobs that kept her heart in her throat. She didn't know where she was, she didn't know where that guy was, and she was sure she wouldn't live to see the morning.
She spotted a light, and she ran for the small porch that led up to a big building.
The door was locked. She yanked the door against the jamb until it rattled loudly enough to wake up the entire town, but no one came.
She turned and plastered her back against the door, suddenly sure the guy, Eric, was behind her. Her chest heaving, she scanned the area around her but didn't see anything move. The night was silent around her except for some traffic noise coming from the other side of the building.
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