Chapter 1 #2
“No. If your car’s gone, that would ruin our cover. You’ll be fine, I promise. Just trust me, ok? If you have an extra minute, maybe clean your room and throw all your dirty underwear into the laundry bin. Susan, one of my cops, will be staying there, pretending to be you. Don’t embarrass me.”
“Shut up,” I said, though inside I was grateful for his teasing. It made packing and chatting in the middle of the night feel somewhat normal. I put my laptop in its case and tossed in a pretty, unused notebook as well.
“Also…grab any files or legal documents you have, like your birth certificate, passport…things like that. So you have it with you. Just in case.”
“Just in case what? He burns my apartment down?” My gaze lifted to the bookshelf next to my fireplace, combing over every precious book, photo album, and picture frame I owned.
“Just grab them. Don’t overthink it. It’s just in case this takes longer than we’re planning. If you’ve got some extra cash on hand, grab that too.”
“You’re so bossy,” I muttered, pulling documents from a file cabinet. A lump in my throat began to form before I swallowed it and focused my attention on the task at hand.
“Do you even have extra cash around?” he demanded in the obnoxious older-brother voice he’d perfected over the years.
“Yes. Just not seven secret stashes in all different locations like you told me to, Grandma.”
“Bet you wish you’d listened now. Also, leave your cell. I got you a new number and another burner phone.”
To anybody else, that statement might have crippled them. To me, it was just another Thursday night with my brother. I’d been through a dozen burner phones and now kept a list of my friends’ numbers in a little black book, like it was 1990.
I went silent for a few moments, grabbing a second suitcase and stuffing it full of jackets, scarves, hoodies, and beanies. Not that I would be going anywhere that would require wearing multiple layers and clothes with buttons, but it was fun to imagine.
“You’re not sending me to a beach, right? You said we weren’t going that far away?” I attempted to confirm.
“Not a beach and stop talking. I’ll tell you in the car. Are you almost done? I’m ready to come up.”
“Don’t come up,” I insisted, though everything inside of me protested my words. I would not be scared in front of my brother. I would start acting like a main character if it killed me—which, apparently, it might. “I’ll be fine. I’m headed out now. I’ll meet you at your car.”
“No. You’ll meet me at your apartment building exit, where I will be waiting,” Will said stubbornly. “If you’re not down in one minute, I’m busting down the door.”
I hung up and did one final sweep of my apartment.
I had only lived here for two months. Long enough for it to start feeling more comfortable, but not long enough to feel like home.
After moving all of my things once before, this time, I opted to put most of my stuff in a storage unit and live in a furnished apartment.
It was fine. It was just until…Leroy went away. Or lost interest. Or…
Did something scary enough for me to move again or scary enough to get caught.
I gripped the door handle, took a breath, and…stayed just like that for another long moment.
My brother was downstairs, a gun at his hip, ready to fight my bad guys, and I was incredibly grateful that I had him. It would be so easy to text Will and have him come up and walk me to his car.
But he couldn’t always be with me, and I was determined to not need him to be. So I took a shaky breath, flipped open the lid of the tiny bottle of Mace I kept on my keychain, and yanked open the door.
The hallway was empty. Just as I suspected. One sleepy yellow light dimly lit the shared space between my apartment and the three others on my floor.
It was always empty.
Like it, too, was waiting for that one time it wouldn’t be.
I paused, listening for any unnatural sound or disturbance in the air, before I quietly closed and locked my door.
I tiptoed down the stairs and jolted at the sight of a male body waiting at the locked glass doorway, staring inside.
Once my brain recognized Will, dressed in dark jeans and a black hoodie, my body relaxed. The porch light outside highlighted Will’s disheveled blond hair as a breeze picked at it slightly.
He gave me a wry smile when I came to the door, as though us meeting in the middle of the night was completely normal.
“Still late as usual, even under duress,” he remarked, pulling the two duffel bags off my shoulders and heaving them onto his.
“I kind of wanted to see if you could actually break down that door.”
“Child’s play,” he remarked breezily. “I see you brought two bags. What all did you pack in here?”
“All my boy band posters. If this place goes up in flames, then my collectables have to come with me.”
He snorted as he led us toward a black, unmarked police car.
“Where are your lights?” I asked as I settled into the passenger side.
“Your extremely awesome brother just got promoted to detective. It comes with a less flashy ride.”
“What?!” I gasped and leaned across the console to give him a hug. “That’s amazing. Congratulations.”
He palmed my forehead and pushed me away. “Thanks.”
I locked the doors the moment we were settled. He started the car and began backing us out of the driveway.
“So…where are we headed?” I asked. “A safe house somewhere, I assume.” I had stayed in a safe house once in Montpelier. Just for a night, before I moved into my current apartment. It hadn’t been ideal, but I’d already pretty much resigned myself to this fate.
There was a slight hesitation before he responded, “Yup.”
I shot him a look, waiting for him to expound.
He gave another long pause before he said, “Autumn Ridge.”
I stilled. My stomach clenched tight as I processed this information.
I had zero problem with my hometown, other than the fact that we had no family there anymore.
In the years after my parents’ divorce, my dad had relocated to New York and my mom to Arizona.
Will and I had been the only two who stayed when we both moved to Montpelier years ago.
Since then, I’d never had a reason to go back.
“Where’s the safe house in Autumn Ridge?”
Will rubbed the back of his neck, carefully checking his rearview mirror before answering.
“For you, it’s on the Walker Farm.”
I blinked. The Walkers? As in…The Walkers? As in Tate Walker’s family?
“What? Why?” I demanded.
“Some of their boys are home for a while.”
My suspicion meter crept higher. “Who?”
“Who what?” he asked, all innocence.
“WHO is home?”
“Jaxon and Luke.”
I kept my focus on him, waiting for him to say it. He didn’t. “Tate still lives in Burlington, right?”
He paused slightly before he said, “Yup.”
Before I could investigate, he continued.
“Why are you mad? You like the Walkers.”
“That doesn’t mean I want to insert myself into their lives.”
“You’ll be fine. It’s just for a week.”
I set my head back on the headrest as Will drove.
The Walker boys were as wild as they were charming and as fun as they were town rascals.
Jaxon Walker had been my age and a good friend, but he was engaged to Ari’s little sister.
Ben was married—or had been married…I wasn’t quite sure, but I didn’t think he lived at home.
The youngest Walker, Luke, always had a young and wild kind of aesthetic, and I wasn’t sure how Will was okay with entrusting him with my life.
The Walker parents, Tom and Ann, were the salt of the earth, give-you-the-shirt-off-their-back kind of people.