“Sorry,” I muttered.
But to my surprise, he laughed out loud. “Don’t be sorry. You have nothing to be sorry for. I agree with you one hundred percent.”
I got to my feet and went over to help him up. He couldn’t put much weight on his bad leg, so I shoved my shoulder into his armpit to support him.
“It’s a good thing I didn’t hurt my ankle today,” I said. “We wouldn’t have known who was supporting who.”
In truth, my ankle was still hurting, but not as badly as when I’d first done it, and it was nothing like the injury Angelo had sustained.
“We need to make it back to the road,” I told him. I’d always taken his lead on everything, but I wasn’t going to let him take control of this situation. “We can’t stay on foot when you’re like this. We need a car, you need to see a doctor, and you need to rest.”
For once, he didn’t argue with me.
I didn’t know how far from a road we were. I’d never needed to have much of a sense of direction growing up in the compound, and while Angelo had seemed confident in where we were going, to me it all looked the same. Trees, and bushes, and more trees. I was cautious of where I stepped now, too, worried we’d come across more traps. I knew we’d have to be pretty unfortunate to step on a trap for a second time, but I was still paranoid. That, combined with the weight of Angelo wedged against my shoulder, meant we were slow going.
“How far until we reach the road?” I asked him eventually.
“I’m not sure. At our pace, it could be another couple of hours, at least.”
My heart sank at the prospect of spending another few hours like this. “I wish we hadn’t left the motel.”
“We had to, Catalina. We can’t risk them catching up to us.”
I didn’t have to ask who ‘them’ was.
“They’re not going to find us now, surely? There’s nothing to connect us to where we are now. We can’t have left a trail.”
He smiled down at me, but the expression felt forced and didn’t meet his dark eyes. “No, we haven’t, at least not since the motel, but that’s exactly why we can’t go to the hospital.”
“What about if you gave a fake name?”
He pursed his lips and inhaled. “I can do that, but at some point they’ll want to see some paperwork. That’s just how things work.”
Once more, I was reminded about just how little I knew of the world. I didn’t like that feeling.
When it got really cold at the compound, the small fish pond in the grounds would freeze over. Not completely, but enough that the fish would still dart beneath the layer of ice. Sometimes, when I’d been small, I’d stand on top of the ice and watched their little world moving beneath my feet. I knew it was dangerous—the ice fragile and ready to plunge me into chaos at the slightest crack—but I still did it. That was how I felt now, as though my tiny hold on the world was about to break at any moment.
“Can we not make a run for it after you’ve been treated?” I suggested. “Surely the hospital staff won’t be able to watch us the whole time we’re there?”
He cocked his eyebrows. “With this leg? I’m not sure I’m going to be running any time soon.”
“You come up with a better plan, then,” I snapped, “because we can’t keep going like this.”
I hated us fighting. It hurt my heart. But things would only get worse if he ended up with a bad infection. What would happen then? I couldn’t stand the idea of losing him, and I would be utterly helpless without him.
His body relaxed and he exhaled a long sigh. “No, you’re right. We can’t. Let’s get to the road, and then somehow find a car, and go to the nearest hospital. I’ll give a fake name and address, and we’ll take things from there.”
I almost wilted in relief. “Thank you.”
I still wasn’t sure how far away the road was, but at least now we had a plan. We couldn’t have continued to walk through the forest like this.
We still needed to make it to the road, however.
After an hour or so, we sat down to rest, drinking some water and eating the remains of the breakfast we’d taken from the motel. We unwrapped flaky croissants from the napkins and ate them hungrily.
Angelo eased up his jean leg and winced at the sight of the black and purple bruising.
“It looks worse than it is,” he said, noticing my horrified face.
“Sure.”
We finished eating and got back to our feet again. It was heading into mid-afternoon now, and we still hadn’t come across a road. A part of me wished we’d turned back to the motel while we’d still had the chance. I knew Angelo thought his father and Torres might be able to track us down there, but I was worried we’d end up having to spend another night out here, and that Angelo’s leg would only get worse.
Suddenly, Angelo drew to a halt. “Hey, can you hear that?”
I stopped with him. I could hear something. A kind of rushing noise, or a low hum. “What is it? Wind? A river?”
“No, I think it’s traffic.”
“Really?” I didn’t dare to hope.
“Come on, this way.”
He moved with a lurching walk, but had picked up pace, and I hurried after him. Within a few minutes, a bright flash of color appeared between the trees, together with the roar of a car. It quickly vanished, but even as we hurried forward, another car zoomed by.
We stepped out onto the road. Cars passed by in both directions, and Angelo stuck his thumb into the air.
I stared at him. “What are you doing?”
“Hitchhiking.”
“Hitchhiking? You mean people actually do this in real life?” I’d read about it in stories, but thought it was just a fictional thing. But Angelo—my overprotective Angelo—was actually suggesting we get into a car with complete strangers.
He flashed me an amused grin. “Where do you think fiction comes from? Most of it happens in real life, too.” He thought for a moment. “Well, unless you’re reading about zombies, or werewolves, or something set in outer space, in which case you can be sure it is just made up.”
I shrugged. “I guess I never really thought about it before.”
It seemed there was a lot I’d never given much thought to before—too much. How had I gone through my life so blind to everything outside of the four walls I’d grown up surrounded by? Was it just that I’d been given no choice, and because I’d watched women like Yolanda simply getting on with what life had offered her, or was there something fundamentally wrong with me?
The cars seemed to come in flurries, several at once, one behind the other, and then nothing for a while. We received a couple of honks of a horn, but no more than that. In a couple of hours, it would start to get dark. I could already feel the temperature dropping. I didn’t want to spend the night stuck out on the side of the road. I felt even more exposed than when we’d been in the middle of the forest.
I could see Angelo was starting to struggle too. He was shifting around on his one good leg. His shoulders were hunched and his face strained.
“Go and sit down,” I told him. “Let me take over.” He opened his mouth to argue, but I didn’t let him speak. “Just do as you’re told.”
He shut his mouth again and meekly nodded and lurched his way back onto the bank, away from the road. I was starting to like this new side of myself. I’d never gotten people to do as I asked them before. I’d never even tried.
I took up the same stance Angel had been in, one leg in front of the other, my hip jutted out, my thumb pointed out at a right angle to my wrist. The first few vehicles drove by without even acknowledging me, but then to my delight, a truck signaled to pull over.
“Hey,” I called out to Angelo. “Someone’s stopping!”
A man leaned out of the truck, offering me a wide smile as I ran over. I vaguely heard Angelo calling after me as I ran, but I didn’t want to risk the driver pulling off again before I reached him.
“Thanks so much for stopping,” I said, reaching th
e cab of the truck.
“No problem, Miss. Where are you headed?”
“Whichever town nearest has a hospital.”
“A hospital? What do you need a—” His words cut off as he caught sight of Angelo hauling himself toward us. “Oh, right. I hadn’t realized there was the two of you.”
My stomach dropped. The man had thought I was alone, and I figured that meant he’d stopped for a whole different reason than he would have done if he’d realized we were traveling as a couple.
“Is that a problem?”
The smile returned, but I could see it was more forced than it had been. “No, course not. Happy to have some company.”
“Thanks.”
Angelo opened the back door, and I nodded for him to climb in first. I had the horrible idea that if I got in first, this man would just drive off with me and leave Angelo standing on the side of the road. Angel seemed to understand my thoughts, as he gave me a brief nod and slid into the back seat, before putting out his hand and pulling me in after him. I slammed the door shut.
“The name’s Neil,” the man called from the driver’s seat as he pulled the truck back out into traffic.
Angelo leaned forward. “I’m Adam and this is Caroline.”
“Nice to meet you both. You mind me asking what happened to the leg?”
“Bear trap,” he answered honestly. “We were out for a hike.”
A flicker of confusion in the rearview mirror. “You folks regular hikers?”
I laughed, the sound too nervous. Fake. “No, clearly not. I don’t think we’ll be doing it again in a hurry. Ended up lost and wandering around in circles. We were happy to find the road.”
“I bet you were.” He frowned again. “And where did you say you were from?”
Angelo stepped in. “Here and there. We’re kind of traveling around right now. Moving between places. But if we could get to a hospital that would be awesome.”
“Well, I wasn’t planning on stopping off at the next town, but since you’re hurt, I guess I can make a pit stop at the hospital.”
“Thanks,” I said. “We really appreciate it.”
I exchanged a glance with Angel, who gave me a restrained smiled in return, and reached out to squeeze my knee. He must still be in pain, but he was putting on a brave face.
“How long until we get there?” Angel asked, leaning forward again.
“Only an hour or so.”
It was an hour where we were sitting in comfort, so I didn’t mind the drive. I just hoped the people who worked at the hospital wouldn’t ask too many questions when we got there.
Chapter Fifteen
Ten Years Earlier
“HEY, ANGELO. CAN YOU help me out?”
I lifted my head from the book I’d been reading—a text I needed to complete before going back to school for the next semester—to see Jonathan West, one of my father’s associates, standing over me.
“Your father needs an important invoice paid, and he said he was going to leave the check out for me before he left, but he forgot. You know where he keeps the key for his office so I can nip in there and grab it? I’m sure it’ll be on his desk.”
My father was away on business, as he often was, only this time he was out of the country. He’d be on a plane right now, and was several thousand feet in the air, so I wasn’t able to call him, and neither could anyone else, for that matter.
Jonathan West was an adult, and I’d been taught to do what adults asked, but my father’s office wasn’t somewhere he allowed people to go unless he was in there as well.
“I don’t know. I don’t think I’m allowed. My father doesn’t like people in his office.”
“Come on, kid.” He nudged my foot with his. “Your father is going to be more pissed when he sees the invoice hasn’t been paid and hears that it would have been if you’d just helped me out a little.”
I hesitated. The last thing I ever wanted to do was upset my father, and his work was the most important part of his life. If I hadn’t done what was needed and it interfered with his work, he’d be angry, too.
“I’m not sure...”
“You’re almost a man now, Angelo,” he said. “Men sometimes have to step up when needed.”
I bit my lower lip, trying to weigh which was the right decision to make. Right now, I didn’t think either option was a good one. It felt like a trap.
“Can’t you ask Bruno or one of the other men?” I was trying to wriggle my way out of the responsibility.
“I already have. None of them know where he keeps the key. They all told me to ask you.”
My stomach sank, and I exhaled a sigh from the bottom of my lungs.
“I’ll be two minutes, I swear.” He put both hands in the air as though in defense. “You can stand right at the door so you can tell your father you stood guard the whole time. I’m sure he’ll thank you for helping out and not doing nothing when we were in a bind.”
I scrubbed my hand over my face then put down my book and got to my feet. “Okay, I suppose it’ll be all right.”
I’d grown over the last year, and now I was as tall as this adult man, though I wasn’t yet as tall as my father. I hadn’t filled out yet, though, and was still all lanky limbs with a narrow chest.
Johnathan West clapped once. “Good man. You saved my balls, that’s for sure.”
I gave a tight smile. “You’re going to have to wait here while I get the key.”
I knew one thing my father wouldn’t be happy about was if I let West know where he kept the spare key hidden. It was a key only to be used in emergencies, such as a fire, but I guessed this counted as an emergency. I knew it was important that the people my father worked with got paid on time. I’d often overheard conversations about fingers being broken because of money owed.
My father kept the key to his office hidden in a cut-out inside an old encyclopedia in the library. I left Jonathan West where he was and made my way to the library. Checking suspiciously over my shoulder every thirty seconds to make sure I wasn’t being followed, I found the book containing the key and palmed the small piece of metal.
I went back through the house to where West waited exactly where I’d left him. I didn’t know why I thought the man might be up to more than he was letting on, but I swore I wouldn’t let him out of my sight until he was out of the office and I was able to lock the door again.
“Come on, then,” I told him, jerking my head to show we needed to go.
We walked in silence to the office, and I opened the door and stepped back to let Jonathan West inside. Exactly as he’d said, he went straight to the desk, quickly scanned the surface, and then reached down and picked up a slip of paper.
He waved it in the air. “Got it.”
I nodded.
West crossed over to where I waited and stepped back out into the hall. I caught sight of the piece of paper he was holding, and it was a check. So far, everything seemed to be exactly as he’d said.
“Thanks, buddy. You saved my bacon, that’s for sure. I need to hand this over at a meeting tomorrow, and I would have been skinned alive if I’d shown up without it. Your father wouldn’t have been happy either.”
I nodded, my gaze flicking to the floor. I just wanted him to be gone now, so we could get this whole awkward incident behind us. I wanted to forget it had ever happened.
A week passed, and by the time my father returned, I pretty much had forgotten it had happened. I’d replaced the spare key in the encyclopedia in the library, making sure no one had seen me doing it, and got back to my studies. I’d be going back to school next week, and I didn’t want to be behind. I was already conscious that I wasn’t quite like other boys in my class. I couldn’t put my finger on what it was, but I always felt like the outsider, like I didn’t fit in with the rest of them, no matter how I tried.
My father had been back a day already, and he’d said little to me. I didn’t mind, it was easier that way.
But then I got the call.
I froze, instantly cold. My balls contracted inside my body, and I felt myself shrivel inward. Instinctively, I knew what it was about, and I wished I could go back in time and tell Jonathan West no, I couldn’t let him into the office. I’d made the wrong choice.
Knowing I couldn’t disobey my father’s wishes, I unfurled and crept up the stairs to the office. The door was shut, and I lifted a shaking hand to knock. My other hand tapped against my thigh and I counted the taps, mouthing the words. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
The tapping wouldn’t save me. It would make no difference to whatever punishment I was about to be dealt, but that didn’t stop me doing it. I had no control over it.
“Come,” my father barked.
I sucked in a breath and opened the door.
“Angelo,” he said as I walked in, “I understand this isn’t the first time you’ve been in my office since I’ve been gone.”
I shook my head. There was no point in lying. “No, sir. It isn’t.”
“You allowed someone else in here, too.”
“Yes, I thought I was doing the right thing. Mr. West told me he needed a check you’d forgotten to give him.”
His gaze snapped up to mine. “I don’t want to hear your excuses. You’re not to use that key unless it’s an emergency.”
“I thought it was an emergency, sir.”
He slapped his palm down on the desk, and I jumped. “Do not talk back to me.”
I dropped my gaze. “Sorry, sir.”
He exhaled a frustrated huff of air. “Approach the desk, Angelo.”
Still trembling, my heart running like horses’ hooves in my chest, I stepped forward.
“Put your hands on the desk.”
I knew exactly what was coming. “No, Father. Please. I’m sorry.” I didn’t want to cry—I was fourteen years old now and almost a man—but my eyes filled with tears.
“I’m sorry isn’t good enough. You need to take what’s coming to you. Pain makes us remember things, Angelo. Without pain, we don’t learn. We don’t grow.”
Unbound for Him Page 10
