Chapter 3
Kayla
I’m up early the next morning. Renee texts me when she arrives, and I let her in.
“Thank you,” I tell her quietly. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I work the early shift.
Renee comes over to watch Noah, so he doesn’t have to get up that early.
I’m grateful for her. She was one of the first people I met when I moved here.
Noah and I met her a few weeks after we settled here.
She’s the only person I’ve allowed to see where we actually live, and that’s just out of necessity.
She found out about my early mornings and volunteered to watch Noah; it was too good an offer to turn down.
She shuts the door quietly. “I brought donuts.” She slides them onto the table.
That solves the worry I had about what they’d eat for breakfast. I force away my worry about money and smile at Renee. “Thank you. Seriously.”
She simply raises a brow. “You’re going to be late. Seriously.”
I smile and wave. “See you. I’ll bring back lunch.”
“Go.”
I slip out quietly into the hallway and make my way down both sets of stairs.
I crack the door open and breathe a sigh of relief when I don’t see the guys from last night.
I walk the few blocks to where Jessie thinks I live and walk towards her as soon as I see her car.
“Good morning,” she says in a sing-song voice as I climb into the passenger seat.
As soon as I’m buckled, she starts forward. “How do you have so much energy first thing in the morning?” I ask.
“Caffeine. Lots and lots of caffeine. I already had two cups of coffee at home this morning.”
I smile despite myself and try to wake myself up to face this day.
She turns on the music after that, and neither of us say a whole lot for the rest of the drive.
She parks the farthest she can from the door, and we head toward the restaurant.
It’s not actually open yet, so we knock on the back door and wait for someone to open it for us.
Butch holds the door for us, and we hurry inside, ready to get to work.
It will take us the entire hour to prep the restaurant and food to be ready to open at seven.
The kitchen staff will already have been here since five, and the baking staff even earlier than that.
“Morning, Butch,” I tell him as I follow him to the kitchen.
“Mornin’.” He pushes open the door to the kitchen and disappears. Jessie and I both grab one of Mama May’s flower aprons and tie them around our waists before walking out into the main part of the restaurant to prep for opening.
“Kayla,” Mama May calls out before I can get there. “My office.”
I stop and turn towards her, but she’s already disappeared behind the swinging door that leads to the kitchen. I face Jessie, but she just shrugs. “I’m sure it’s nothing.”
The swinging door opens again. “Jessie, you too.” Mama May disappears as soon as she says the words.
Now, it’s Jessie’s turn to be surprised. “Guess we’d better go see what she wants,” I say as I start towards the kitchen.
“Yeah, I guess if we’re going to get fired, we may as well get fired together,” Jessie says.
“You’re not getting fired,” Butch says in a huff, but I’m not sure I should trust him. He’s as close to Mama May as anyone, but even he can’t control what she does. She's her own person. I lead the way to Mama May’s office and knock on her closed door.
“Come in.”
I open the door and step inside, and Jess follows me.
I haven’t been in here since I got hired.
I remember how nervous I was that day and how desperate.
That was close to two months ago now. I so appreciate this job and really hope we’re not getting fired.
“Sit,” Mama May says without looking up at us.
She’s working on a bill or something she’s holding up in letter form.
I feel Jess’s eyes on me as I sit, and I try to give her a reassuring smile.
I absently wonder if this is about my car; I really hope not because I refuse to take Jessie down with me.
Jessie’s been working here longer than I have, and I don’t want her to lose her job just because I have an unreliable car and she’s been helping me.
“If this is about my car, I’m going to get it fixed,” I finally say after what feels like forever.
Mama May lowers the paper she’s holding, so she can look over at me. “What about your car?”
“Just that it’s in the shop again. But like I told you yesterday, it won’t interfere with my work.”
Her eyes meet mine. “Good. See that it doesn’t.” Her words are verbatim from yesterday.
She moves the paper again, so that her face is covered. “So, are we good? Was that it?” I ask.
She finally lowers the letter to her desk and looks over at us. Her eyes bounce between the two of us before they land on me. “A man was here last night looking for you.”
Her words could not have shocked me more. Then, they register. A man. I’m already on my feet, panic coursing through me. “I have to get Noah.”
“Kayla, stop.” Mama May’s words are just shy of harsh. “Nobody told them anything.”
My brain stumbles over the words, and I turn around. “Them?”
“There were two men, actually,” she admits. My panic increases. “Neither of them match the description you gave me of your uncle.”
That manages to catch and hold my attention. “But they were looking for me?” She nods, and my panic returns. “Then they’re probably here on behalf of my uncle; I have to get to Noah.”
Mama May takes a deep breath and sighs. “Kayla, sit down.” I do as she says, but my mind is racing.
“Nobody told them anything about you; I made sure of it. And I’ve made sure every employee keeps their mouth shut about you or any other employee going forward.
” She watches me a moment. “You're not the only employee I’ve ever hired with a past.” I don’t know what to say to that, so I don’t.
She faces Jessie, and Jessie puts her hands up.
“I won’t say a word.” She glances at me, and I can see the questions in her eyes. Questions, I’ll have to answer at some point.
“Thank you,” I tell both of them. I try to approach this with a calm head. “What did they ask about me?”
Mama May leans back in her chair and studies me. “That’s the funny thing. They didn’t ask about you, exactly.”
I narrow my eyes at her. “What does that mean?”
She studies me and then looks over at Jessie before looking back at me. “They didn’t ask any specifics. The questions were so general that I would have overlooked them if you hadn’t told me your past.” She pins Jessie with a look. “Do you have anyone you’re hiding from?”
Jessie’s eyes widen, and she puts a hand to her chest. “Me? No. Why?” I’m just as confused as she is.
“That’s how vague the questions were,” Mama May says.
“What did they ask?” I ask her.
“Well, only one of them did the talking. The other was silent, but he was the one in charge. I’d bet my life on it.”
“The one that asked the questions?” I ask trying to clarify.
Mama May shakes her head. “No, the one that didn’t say a word.” Her eyes meet mine. “In this business, I’ve met a lot of men, some scary men. But that man?” She doesn’t look away. “He was the scariest man I’ve ever dealt with.”
Fear blooms, and I resist the urge to jump in Jessie’s car and drive to Noah. “Can I just check with my babysitter, please?” Mama May waves me on, and I pull out my phone and call Renee. Please answer. Please be all right.
Renee answers. “Kayla? Is everything all right? Aren’t you supposed to be at work?”
“Renee, is Noah all right?” I ask, unable to wait any longer.
There’s a pause. “Yeah, he’s still asleep. What’s wrong?”
It takes my stressed-out mind an extra minute to catch up to the fact that she’s whispering. “Are you sure?” I can’t help but ask.
It’s silent a moment, and then I hear my phone ding. I pull it away from my ear and see I have a text from Renee. I open it and see my brother asleep on his air mattress. The knot inside my chest loosens, and I feel like I can breathe again. “Kayla, what’s going on?” Renee asks quietly.
I try to gain control of my racing thoughts. “I just needed to check. Everything’s okay; I’ll tell you more when I get back this afternoon. Thank you, Renee. Seriously.” I take a breath. “Thank you.”
“It’s no problem.” She waits a beat. “You sure you’re okay?”
“Yes,” I force out. “I’ll see you in a few hours.”
I can tell she’s unconvinced, but she hangs up anyway. “Can somebody please tell me what’s going on?” Jessie asks.
Mama May stands to her feet. “It’s not my story to tell.
I will give you girls five minutes and then you need to be on the floor.
” She turns her intense gaze on me. “You’re safe here.
No one will tell them anything about you or your brother.
If they should come in again, we’ll get you out the back door.
” She pulls out her phone. “I’m showing all my staff their picture, so everyone knows who we’re looking for. ”
She turns the phone towards us. I'm not really sure what I thought I'd be looking at, but it’s not what I see. “Whoa,” Jessie says quietly. I stare at the phone, committing as many details to memory as I can. The two men are sitting across from each other in a booth. I know instantly that they were the two men I watched walk in last night. The man on the left is good-looking with shaggy brown hair and a sculpted jaw. But it’s the guy on the right that catches and holds my attention.
I know instantly that this was the quiet one, the scary one, as Mama May says.
He’s got reddish-brown hair that’s in great need of a cut.
He looks like he hasn’t shaved in at least this decade.
He's wearing, of all things, a long sleeved shirt when I know for a fact it was ridiculously hot yesterday. I look closer and see it’s a flannel shirt; that makes absolutely no sense.
“Wow, they’re both really, really, really—” Jessie seems to catch herself and looks up first at me and then Mama May, who has her brows raised.
“Hot,” Jessie whispers. I give her a wide-eyed look, and she wrinkles her nose. “I’m sorry; they are.”
“What did they ask?” I force myself to look away from the phone and back at Mama May.
“They were all really vague questions. Like I said, I wouldn’t have thought twice about them if I didn’t know you were on the run from your uncle.
” Mama May eyes me. “They asked me a few casual questions like how long I’d owned the café and how many people I employed.
They, well, the one that talked, asked if I had a high turn-over rate.
We chatted about that a little bit, and then they asked if I had any new hires and how the newer ones were working.
I didn’t tell them any specifics,” she rushes to say.
“When he asked if my newer hires were male or female, I wizened up and told them I had to get back to work. So, like I said, they were general questions. But I wanted you to know.”
I blow out a breath. “Thank you.”
She stands and walks over to the door. “Five minutes.”
Then she leaves us alone. Jessie turns to me. “You’d better start explaining.”