Then there was the hair. Theo’s was a natural shade of brown that had a wave to it no matter what she did to her hair, whereas Tara’s was a platinum blonde that was poofy at the top, slicked back into a tight ponytail that made her look harsher despite the more roundedness of her face.
Then there were the clothes.
I’d only bought Theo what I saw her wear at The Bridge—yoga pants, sweats, soft jeggings that were stretchy, and basic colored t-shirts without much flare to them at all.
She’d loved them.
But looking at Tara, who was dressed in a silk shirt, white slacks, and high heels? Yeah, I knew that Theo would never be comfortable in that.
My Theo was all about comfort. Not that she wouldn’t be willing to get dressed up if the occasion warranted.
I had a feeling Tara wouldn’t dare look anywhere near comfortable because it gave her a layer of protection—of unapproachability.
“I wanted to see if I could get a few things from my old place,” Tara lied through her lying fat teeth.
If fat teeth were a thing, Tara would have them.
She knew something.
I wasn’t sure how, but I knew that she did.
What the hell?
My mind started racing as I watched Rome shake his head.
“The Wheelers moved in there not long after you moved out,” I said to Tara. “Your stuff has been gone for a very long time. You could possibly go check the Goodwill on Eighth Street, though. They might still have a few of the things you left behind if you’re lucky.”
Tara’s eyes narrowed at me, but again none of the emotions took over her entire face.
So fucking weird.
Now that I was looking for it, I could see how forced everything that she gave us was.
Monster started to scratch on the door, and before I could turn and open it to allow him out, the door opened behind me.
I felt my heart leap into my throat as I turned.
Thank God I was standing in front of the door, otherwise Tara would’ve seen Theo.
Holy fuck.
She startled when she saw me standing right there, then read the expression on my face.
But before I could say a word, Tara started talking.
“That’s against the law,” Tara tried.
Theo looked automatically sick to her stomach as she backed farther inside. Monster, seeing his opening, slipped out.
The moment he got to where Rome was standing, he sat, then started to growl at Tara in a low, intimidating rumble.
“That’s not illegal,” Rome said. “Since I was the one paying for all that shit. You left, it all went to Goodwill. End of story. Why would you come now? Why not just call?”
“It was a ring. My grandmother’s. It meant a lot to me,” Tara continued to lie.
Monster ramped up his growls, causing Tara’s eyes to go to him.
Tara started to cross her arms over her chest and narrow her eyes, and I saw another difference between the two women.
None of Tara’s emotions reached her eyes. They were all partial. As if she was smiling, but it was one that didn’t travel up her face to encompass her eyes.
For instance, there were no frown lines at all as she glared at Rome. Who didn’t narrow their eyes or anything when they were glaring? Wasn’t that what a person did?
“I can see you still have that awful dog,” Tara sneered.
The ‘awful dog’ had been awful based solely on the fact that Tara hadn’t liked him. Even more, Monster hadn’t liked her, and had always expressed his dislike of her even when he was a puppy.
“I do,” I confirmed. “I can see you still have the unwarranted hate for him.”
Tara sneered. “That dog used to shit on my lawn.”
He had.
But…just sayin’…that lawn had belonged to me. And it’d been at the divide of the property lines.
That, and I’d hated Tara, so I’d allowed my dog to shit on her part of the dividing line just because I liked to piss her off.
So sue me.
“Still likes to and the Wheelers don’t give a shit,” I told her.
Tara scoffed. “I’m sure they do.”
“No, they really don’t,” I confirmed.
The Wheelers were great. They were the perfect couple to have in a rental house, mostly because when they were there, they were friendly and courteous, as well as fun. But, the majority of the time they spent in their RV traveling around the continental US.
That was when Andy got out of the vehicle that was parked a little farther down the street.
I hadn’t realized he was there at all.
“Can we go already, Tara?” Andy snapped. “I have places to be.”
His eyes went first to Tara, then to us, then back to Tara.
He knew that he’d interrupted something rather heated and liked it.
“I’ll be there when—” Tara began to say.
“Now,” Andy interrupted. “Or you’re fucking walking home.”
Tara’s face went utterly emotionless. It was quite an eerie sight to see.
Tara huffed, took one last look at her old place, and then started walking quickly to the car.
How had I not seen Andy until now?
Because you were blinded by crazy, that’s why.
The car started, and seconds later it was halfway down the road.
Rome’s eyes went round, and he stared from Theo, who was now standing in the doorway, to Tara who was quickly speeding down the street and shook his head.
“I’m not sure how I never saw it before,” he said softly. “But I definitely do now.”
I turned to Theo without a word.
“I need you to check Linnie,” I said softly. “Wake her up…ask her if she has something on her that, I don’t know, could be used as a tracking device of some sort.”
God, it could be absolutely anything.
Thank God I was smart and stored all her shit at the rental property that I owned next door, the one that Tara had stayed in with Matias.
When I’d pulled onto my street, a thought had occurred to me that maybe I should go through her shit and make sure.
But I kept second guessing myself, thinking that there was no way in hell that they’d plant a tracker in a little girl’s shit.
So I’d stored it at the rental house next door, thinking that it was a good idea.
My phone rang, causing me to reach into my pocket to get it.
“We can’t locate Tara,” Hoax said into my ear, sounding worried.
I laughed humorlessly. “I can.”
Hoax started to curse. “She’s there?”
“Not anymore, but not really at my place. At her old place,” I said softly. “I stored all of her stuff there.”
“We’ll be there in twenty,” he said.
I was already shaking my head. “Don’t bother,” I muttered. “She’s gone.”
“We’re still coming,” he insisted.
I shrugged despite the fact that he couldn’t see me. “Suit yourself.”
Chapter 16
I’m too old to care if Kiki loves me. I’m still trying to find out if Annie’s okay.
-T-shirt
Theo
Goodbyes sucked.
Goodbyes to the man that you’d fallen in love with sucked even more.
Goodbyes hours before goodbyes were supposed to have happened?
Well, that was just horrible.
After Tara’s visit, things had happened so fast.
I’d gone from having the evening left to spend with Liner to having only a few minutes to pack what I wanted to keep and take with me.
Hoax was standing there impatiently with keys to a non-descript black car with blacked out everything and tint on the windows so dark, I couldn’t see inside, and I was standing right next to the car.
I was trying to tell myself to grab the door handle and get inside, but
I just couldn’t do it.
I couldn’t force myself to open the door.
But before I could turn around and inform Liner of that, a tattooed arm snaked around my side and opened it for me.
I licked my lips and turned, unsurprised to find Liner standing so close.
Rome and Hoax were talking beside the car I was about to plant my ass inside—a car that I’d already strapped Linnie into over ten minutes before—and I couldn’t make myself move.
“It’ll be okay, darlin’,” he promised.
“You’re gonna be okay,” he promised again.
I felt my resolve crumpling and all of a sudden, I started to cry.
He pulled me into his chest and dropped his chin down on my head, pulling me in so close that there wasn’t a single inch of space between us. His arms around me felt so right that I stopped crying just as suddenly as I started.
“You’re breaking my heart,” he informed me.
I licked my lips and tasted the salt from my tears.
“I’ve never felt so much…everything…as I have the past week,” I told him. “The moment you walked into my life, things didn’t seem so bleak. For once, I was thinking about tomorrow instead of trying to get through today.”
He didn’t say anything, and I continued without waiting for him to think of a response.
“I just want you to know, that no matter what happens to me, you’ve given me everything I ever wanted out of life for the last four days,” I whispered, pulling out of his arms and wiping the leather of his vest free of my tears. “For four days, everything was right in my world. And I’ll forever remember that you gave me that.”
His hands slid free of my body and when I finally got the courage to look into his eyes, it was to find his on me, looking like I’d just sucker punched him in the stomach.
“Take care of yourself, Liner,” I whispered. “I’ll never forget you.”
His eyes were haunted as I finally scrounged up enough courage to seat myself in the black car.
When Liner didn’t immediately close the door, I reached for it but paused when it was almost all the way closed. “Take care of yourself, Josiah.”
With that, I closed the door and didn’t look back up again.
Hoax fell into the car moments later and started it up with a push of a button.
“Nice car,” I murmured when it growled to life.
I would not look out the window. I would not look out the window.
“Meant to go fast,” he said. “And bulletproof. Damn near anything proof. Also cost about half a million bucks to make it that way.”
I didn’t say anything to that, hoping that we wouldn’t need to test out the bulletproof part today.
Though, saying that, bullets had never been in Tara’s bag of tricks. Electrocution, scalpels, artificial insemination? Yes. Bullets, no.
“That face was an odd one,” he said as he put the car into drive and started pulling away from the curb.
I swallowed hard and tried not to look out the window…but failed.
When I glanced to the side it was to see Liner standing in the middle of his front lawn, arms crossed tightly over his chest, staring at the car leaving like it was his soul leaving his body instead of just me.
I looked away as tears threatened to spill over my lids once again.
“I’m remembering the fact that Tara is an asshole and has helped ruin my life.” I didn’t see a point in lying, so I didn’t bother to hold my words hostage. I just let them flow free of my mouth and didn’t care that he might or might not agree with me. “I used to wish I was never born.” I paused. “But then Linnie was born, and for once in my life, I saw what pure innocence looked like.”
“Why didn’t you fight?” Hoax asked.
I thought about that question for a long time and then decided honesty was best.
“When I was eight, I tried to fight my sister when she tried to drown me in the bathtub,” I said softly. She zip-tied my hair to the drain—you know that part that crisscrosses at the bottom of the drain? I thought she was being sweet by braiding my hair. Sometimes she could be that way. Sweet. I took it for the boon it was and allowed her to do that since it meant she wasn’t trying to kill me any longer. Only, when she was done, she yanked me back into the bathtub by my hair and then sat on me while she anchored my hair to the drain by connecting the zip-tie through the top of my hair. The braids made it to where I couldn’t pull it free.”
Hoax remained silent.
“Anyway, long story short, if I’d just allowed her to do what she wanted—which was partially drown me just to see what I’d do, I wouldn’t have been tortured over the next couple of hours,” I said into the darkness that stretched out as far as the eye could see. We were no longer in the city anymore. “She filled the tub up until it was lapping at my nose and mouth. Kept it running until the hot water was so hot that it scalded my skin. Which eventually turned cold as hell. At first, she sat there and watched, but then she got bored.” I swallowed hard. “My hair in the drain kept it from draining as fast as it normally would have, and the water being on full blast kept it at a level that I was constantly almost swallowing water.”
“Fuck,” Hoax said.
“Anyway, that went on for hours. Or what felt like hours. I don’t really know,” I admitted. “That night, after she finally let me go? I cut off every inch of my hair.” I laughed. “Which then pissed my father off, causing him to beat the shit out of me.”
Hoax’s hand tightened on the steering wheel so hard that the leather creaked.
“I don’t like your family,” he said simply.
I grinned. “Welcome to the club.”
We drove for what felt like hours, switched out vehicles, and then drove for more hours.
“Your child is doing well,” he surmised on hour eight of the trip.
I glanced into the back seat to see Linnie still sleeping. “She’s always been a good sleeper from what I’ve been told. Tyson, my brother, told me that from six days old she slept through the night.”
Hoax didn’t say anything at first, so I chose to ignore him and instead focus on the landscape passing us by at an alarming rate of speed.
We were headed toward El Paso.
And from there, maybe out of the state completely.
I hadn’t asked because I didn’t want to know.
Each mile that passed felt like more and more of the oxygen had been stolen from my lungs.
Which sucked because I was supposed to be happy that I was finally getting away from my family, and instead I was thinking about all the things that I left behind—mainly Liner.
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry for treating you like I did at first,” Hoax said. “I’m protective of those I count as my family.”
I didn’t say anything to that.
“And, I was a complete dick,” he continued.
My lips twitched, but a smile still didn’t break free.
“Also, I know that you have feelings for Liner,” he continued. “But for his sake and yours, you need to remember that he’s not safe anymore. Tara knows something, and if you ever think of making contact with him again, remember that Tara will be there in the wings, waiting for you to fail.”
He had a point.
One I didn’t like, but a point nonetheless.
“I wrote Liner a letter,” I said softly. “Would you give it to him?”
He grunted out a reply. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
No.
But I wanted him to have it anyway.
And then we arrived at our new place—which was, in fact, very near to El Paso, but happened to be Morning Glory, Texas and not El Paso itself.
“Why this place?” I asked as we started down a quiet street.
“It’s near Fort Hancock,” he said. “And there’s a couple of people we know on the base that would be able to help us if we needed it in a pinch.”
&nb
sp; That made sense.
He pulled into a small neighborhood and then continued down the quiet street until we arrived at a small house that looked straight out of a magazine.
“Nice,” I whispered. “Though, just sayin’, this is way more than I expected us to have.”
Hoax looked like he was fighting with himself for a few long seconds, and then nodded his head. “It is. We don’t normally go this fancy, but Liner chipped in.”
Liner chipped in.
“How?” I wondered.
“By buying it for you,” he said. “We originally had an eye on one closer to the base, but Liner had some of our staff send him floor plans and pictures and he liked this place. Knew you’d probably like it, too.”
I did like it. There was no probably about it.
My heart constricted that much more.
“Come on, let’s go inside. I’ll show you around, give you the documents you need, then take you into town where I’ll show you where Linnie will go to school under her new assumed name. Also, where you’ll be working,” he said.
I blinked, then swallowed hard as I asked, “I’ll be working?”
Hoax grinned. “Unsurprisingly, Liner got you this job, too.”
***
Liner
“I wasn’t sure that I wanted to give you this,” Hoax said to me the next morning. “I contemplated it, then I decided that I was an asshole for even thinking that this was my decision to make. So, here it is.”
I took the letter in his hand, knowing without seeing proof that it was from Theo.
“Thanks,” I said, not bothering to call him on the fact that he almost hadn’t handed me the letter at all.
“You’re welcome,” he paused with his hand on the doorknob. “For what it’s worth…I was in the wrong. Even Rome told me.” He inhaled deeply, then let the breath out through clenched teeth. “I just didn’t want to see you get hurt like Rome. You’ve already been through enough.”
Hoax didn’t know me all that well.
Nobody really did.
But they all acted like they were my mother instead of my friends half the time.
Snitches Get Stitches Page 14