Total pages in book: 213
Estimated words: 201920 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1010(@200wpm)___ 808(@250wpm)___ 673(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 201920 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1010(@200wpm)___ 808(@250wpm)___ 673(@300wpm)
His eyes are so serious. He seems so much older to me now.
“You can come with me,” I tell him. “I don’t want to leave you here. Come with us.”
The weak smile is pulled into a smirk, one cloaked with sadness. Goodbyes are never easy, but they shouldn’t hurt this much. “Don’t stay here,” I beg him. “I want more for you than this.”
“I can’t leave my brothers,” he tells me and then licks his lips before handing the money back to me. “Take it.” The bills brush against my knuckles and I’m reluctant to take it, but I do. “Find a better place than here.” The money weighs heavy in my hand as he pulls his away. I won’t take it. If anything, I’ll leave it in the mailbox and pray one of them finds it.
“It’s good you’re skipping out,” Carter tells me in a tone that lets me know something’s up.
“What’s going on?” I ask him, feeling my nerves ramp up.
“I heard Eddie say Romano wants to talk to you on Monday. I think they know you’re involved and they’re pissed they didn’t know.”
“Good thing I won’t be around Monday.” I start thinking about all the possible outcomes of that meeting and I don’t like a single one of them. I could never rat Marcus out, he’d kill me. And even if I did, Romano would kill me for following someone else’s orders. I have protection from no one and enemies everywhere.
“Did you tell her?” Carter changes the subject abruptly. “Does she know you killed them?”
I shake my head, wishing all of this was a nightmare I could wake from. All of it but Chloe. “I had to lie to her, but it’s never felt like that,” I tell him, confiding in my best friend one last time.
“Felt like what?” he asks me.
“Felt like I was hurting her by lying to her. I’ve never wanted so much from someone and to give her so much in return.”
He smiles a genuine but sad smile that reaches his dark eyes. “I knew you loved her,” he says lightheartedly. Brushing his thumb against his nose, he peeks behind him. It’s darker now than it was before, not a single star in the sky to cast light down on us.
“I think it is love,” I tell him and kick the rubble on the broken concrete.
“It’s all right to say it,” he jokes, “I won’t make fun of you.”
“I only just got her. I can’t lose her, Carter,” I confess to him. If it wasn’t for her need to run away from here, I’d stay for him.
“Go ahead, I’ll be all right,” he tells me, and I want to believe him. “Hey, do you have that stuff though? Before you go?”
It takes me a minute to realize he’s talking about the sweets. I have the last vial in my pocket and I know Chlo is never going to want to take it again, so I hand it over to him.
He’s quick to slip the vial into his pocket. “Thanks, man. It’s been rough sleeping.”
Giving him a nod of understanding, I wonder if I should tell him that Chlo thinks some of her paranoia is from the drug, but I think she’s wrong. She was right the entire time. Call it fear and intuition maybe.
“I hope it helps you sleep,” I tell him and then glance back at the car.
“Get out of here, man. Get out while you still can,” Carter tells me and it fucking hurts that I’m leaving him, but I have to. I have to get the hell out of here and take Chloe far away.
I have to reach out and hug him, pulling him hard into my chest. And he’s quick to give me a hard pat on the back, followed by a grip I’ll never forget.
There’s no way I’d have made it out alive without him. I know that much.
Before the tears can show, I pull away from him, the only family I’ve ever had. “She can’t stay here,” I tell him as if I’m begging him to understand, but he already knows.
She’s never belonged here.
“Come with us,” I plead with him one last time even though I already know his answer.
“I have to stay.” His voice is calm this time like he’s resigned to his fate.
EPILOGUE
Two weeks later
Chloe
The cool wind flows through my fingers as I rest my hand against the window. We’ve been off the highway for a little while now, still venturing into the unknown.
It’s odd how the unfamiliar can offer so much comfort. How easy it is to leave everything behind and start a new life.
Countless times I’ve felt the fear of what could be waiting for us if we ever went back. And almost as if Bastian can read my mind, he asks me every time we stop somewhere new, “How about this place?”