by Amber Lynn
Rachel shook her head, causing her bouncy blonde hair to shimmer in the dim light above the door. With the lightbulb just shy of going out, it said a lot about how perfect the other woman’s hair was.
Her hair wasn’t the only thing perfect about Rachel. Willow’s boss had to be the star of the town, with her long, thin body and beautiful ocean-blue eyes. She looked like all she needed was a set of wings and she’d be the perfect topper to any Christmas tree.
“Of course. It was silly of me to think you’d actually spend your time off work hanging out anywhere other than your apartment. You do know there’s a perfectly good library and park in this town that I’m sure Peter would love to visit.”
It wasn’t the first time either place had been mentioned. The fact that it was eight o’clock at night meant both were poor options, but Rachel continued to try to make Willow and Connor feel like they were part of the community. Willow couldn’t come right out and say they were hiding out, so she took the suggestions with a smile.
“Maybe tomorrow. Is everything okay downstairs?”
Willow had been lost in her thoughts, so she didn’t hear any commotion. Not that Rachel would come running to her for help if something was wrong. She just couldn’t think of another reason the woman would show up at her door when the restaurant was still open.
Rachel rolled her eyes and shook her head. Apparently, the idea of Willow coming to the rescue was just as ridiculous in her mind.
“Everything’s great. But.” She paused, and her eyes looked like they held an apology. “Janie just called and said she’s come down with something and won’t be able to work in the morning. Do you think you can cover the morning shift and still come in for a few hours tomorrow night?”
The look had warned Willow that the words wouldn’t be positive. Getting more hours in was exactly what she needed, but Janie waited tables. Willow didn’t mind working in the kitchen, helping out with cooking and cleaning the dishes. There were only a few people in the kitchen at a time. The dining room always had at least a dozen people in it. During morning rush, there was usually close to fifty people out there.
“I know you said you wanted to stay in the back,” Rachel continued, “but between the tips and the extra hours, you’re talking at least a hundred bucks.”
Willow tried to hide how much the money would mean to her, but the widening of her eyes was sure to relay just that. In the grand scheme of things, a hundred bucks wasn’t a ton of money. It would make a big dent in their funds to run if anyone showed up looking for them. It was enough to buy them train tickets at the very least.
And there hadn’t been a sign of trouble. A few hours among the people she saw on the streets every day wouldn’t kill her. Willow told Rachel she was up for the extra hours and wished the woman a good rest of the night. That left Willow with about ten hours to try to deal with the nausea rolling in her stomach.
Chapter 4
“Don’t give me that look, Brayden Walker Ritchie. You have a lot of nerve showing your face here.”
The smile on Brayden’s face widened as his sister’s eyes narrowed into slits and she endeavored to pull off the “I’m going to kill you” look. Suzy had tried to master the look since she was a teenager, but it always came off more on the demented side than murderous.
He wasn’t sure exactly what look she thought he had. He’d just walked into his sister’s thrift shop with Trevor in tow. They were both starving after a long car ride, but Brayden wanted to see if Suzy had any details about his mystery woman and kid before they stopped at the diner. Since Suzy lived in town full-time, she probably knew all about the newcomers.
In her current combative stance, she wasn’t likely to dive right into the gossip, but Suzy lived for gossip. She’d been on the bad side of it for so many years, thanks to her ex-husband being a giant dick. It always surprised Brayden that she’d come back to town, after moving just across the state line into Hagerstown for a few years, and started right back up where she left.
She didn’t have any official title in the gossip tree, but Brayden liked to call her the queen bee. And the nickname was only partially because she towered her dark brown hair into a modern version of a beehive most days. Suzy knew everything that went on in town, and more often than not, was the reason why everyone else in town seemed to know everyone else’s business.
There were times that facet was annoying as hell, but Brayden hoped for once it would work in his favor. He just had to deal with the fact his nephew must have ratted him out. That was the only reason he could think of that would put Suzy in her current mood. It was odd that he hadn’t received a phone call to warn him an ass chewing would be her way of greeting. Suzy wasn’t one to bottle things up, at least not with her big brother.
“Does it help my case at all if I start out by saying I’m pretty sure Noah has an overactive imagination?”
He didn’t pretend her irritation came as a surprise. His night of babysitting hadn’t gone exactly as expected, but he really hadn’t known what to expect in the first place. It had been the first time Suzy had gone on a date since the divorce. She had almost backed out when her other sitter options had fallen through, but Brayden had stepped up.
Deep down, he wasn’t sure how he felt about her putting herself back out there. It was a big step for her, and he didn’t want to stand in her way. His protective instincts where his little sister was concerned were on high alert. He didn’t want to see her hurt again.
So, when she’d called and said she had gone through every one of her babysitter options and come up empty, he volunteered to watch his nephew for the first time alone. He even went as far as suggesting the tyke stay the night. Suzy had been clear it wasn’t that kind of date, but she deserved a nice night off.
“Did he imagine you keeping him up until after midnight watching horror movies? Or the boxes of candy he claimed you gave him that kept him buzzing after you dropped him off the next morning?”
Suzy’s voice normally held a mild tone. Not really high or deep, just kind of middle of the road. As she listed off his offenses, it dropped into a menacing timbre he’d never heard from his sister. He only heard that kind of tone from opposing players trying to scare him into giving the puck up.
Clearly, Trevor wasn’t prepared for the growling either. Brayden could hear a shocked intake of breath from behind him. His sister’s reaction, while not ordinary for her, wasn’t a shock. Brayden actually felt a tinge of pride that Suzy showed her anger. After living with her jackass ex so long, he often questioned whether her backbone remained in place.
“I can explain.”
And Brayden prepared to do just that, but Suzy held out her hand and shook her head. The hair piled up on her head had to weight a ton, making Brayden wonder how often she had to visit the chiropractor. Simply turning her head must have strained most of the muscles in her neck.
“I don’t want to hear your excuses. I want to hear you tell me it will never, ever happen again.”
“I’ve got a great suggestion,” Trevor said. His voice sounded bored, like it had the entire way from the city. “Don’t let big brother babysit anymore. Now, can we please get something to eat. Unless you’ve got some of those boxes of candy handy.”
As far as suggestions went, it sounded like a genius idea coming from Trevor. Trev wasn’t an idiot by any means, but his thoughts tended to get a little clouded by hockey, food and sex. He did mention food, so maybe that made the useful advice surface.
“No one asked you, Trevor. Go play in traffic or something.”
Oddly enough, that backbone Brayden had thought about always seemed to be there where Trevor was concerned. They never spent more than a few minutes in each other’s company, but Suzy made it clear those were minutes she wanted back without his presence. Brayden didn’t ask, and frankly, he didn’t want to know what was up with them. He only knew they hadn’t been together. And he preferred it stayed that way.
“Only if you lead the way, Suzanne.”
Suzy bristled hearing her full first name. Their mom was the only one who ever used it, and it generally only came out when she was in trouble or Mom had that concerned tone in her voice. She hated when their mom broke out the name. Suzy looked like she wanted to take a skewer and stick it straight through Trevor’s dick. The thought made Brayden cringe, and he wished he couldn’t read his sister as well as he could.
“Okay, before we get lost in one of your classic arguments, I only planned on being here a few minutes to ask if you know anything about a woman and kid showing up in town recently.”
The vehemence lifted from Suzy’s eyes as she turned away from Trevor and focused back on Brayden. He was usually able to know where her thoughts were, but the blank expression taking over her face gave him pause. A spark of recognition or confusion would’ve been normal. Brayden didn’t know how to read a blank face.
As the seconds ticked by, probably only two or three but could’ve easily added up to minutes, the knot in Brayden’s stomach grew. The festering that had started after meeting the woman made its way through his body and felt like an elephant sat on his chest.
Maybe he could read a blank face. His mind told him the only thing it could mean was that he was too late to help the woman and little boy. He hadn’t heard about anyone dying, or rather being murdered, in town, but that was instantly where his head went. There wasn’t another reason for the blank stare.
Trevor bumped shoulders with him and laughed. It took Brayden a second to register that as the ways the woman could’ve died played out in his head. None were pretty, but he kept coming back to some ogre wrapping his hands around her dainty neck and choking the life out of her.
“So that’s why you were so keen on getting back here. You’re new love interest is here.”
The words from Trevor brought Brayden out of his gloom and doom thoughts. He scoffed at the idea, still feeling the effects of letting the woman down.
Suzy’s echoing scoff and sigh fully made the images drift away. There was disgust in that scoff, not the horror and regret Brayden heard in his own.
“Big brother would have a better chance asking a fish out than trying to get Laura to agree to a date. I heard she practically put a knife to Benny’s throat this morning when he tried to touch her butt.”
Brayden’s heart stopped beating. Laura. Apparently, her name was Laura. And as of that morning, she was still alive.
The relief that spread through him was short-lived. What the fuck was Benny doing touching her? The man had been married for over a decade.
“Yeah, I know that look,” Suzy said. “You’re away so much you miss a lot of the gossip. Benny and Charlene are on the outs. Evidently, that means Benny thinks he can sleep with the whole town.”
That idea made Brayden’s eyes narrow. Suzy saw the anger brewing, judging by the way she quickly jumped to continue.
“At least most of the town. He knows better than to mess around with me.” She rolled her eyes and nodded in his direction, like that explained things. “Look, I’ve got a store to run, and I’m still pissed about your babysitting. If you’re only here asking about Laura, I’d advise not to, but I know you. And, since you’re probably on your way there, Rachel is the person to ask.”
Brayden wanted to ask for more information, but the bells on the door jingled, and Suzy fled to help a customer. There was no other word for how fast his sister turned tail and ran.
He had no idea how to deal with the lack of any clear information. The only thing clear was that he wasn’t the only one who noticed Laura, and he needed to make sure Benny, and the rest of the guys in the town, understood she was off-limits. He couldn’t be around to protect her all the time, and some of the guys could be dicks.
Yeah, he told himself, that was why he left without a proper good-bye with his sister and jogged across the street to Rachel’s. He assumed with all the whining about being hungry, Trevor wouldn’t be far behind.
Chapter 5
Willow felt every hour she worked in her bones. It was like someone took a saw to every one of them and made small cuts in them. Not enough to drop her into collapsing pain, but they seemed to rub on each other differently. Like there were a hundred new little points that took her steps closer to an arthritic old woman.
But the extra money made it totally worth it. Even if she almost got fired because an idiot customer grabbed her butt. She’d been looking over her shoulder for too long. It brought out protective instincts she had no idea existed.
The guys eating breakfast with him thought it was hilarious. Willow had no idea who the guy was. It didn’t matter. The jolt of fear she felt when he grabbed her shook her even hours later as she washed dishes from the lunch rush.
It was a good thing the day would bring in almost two hundred bucks to her funds. With that much money, her and Connor could move on to the next town. She hadn’t really thought about where that would be, but they couldn’t get there soon enough.
She just needed to get through a few more hours, and then tell Rachel she needed her check for the week. Willow hated leaving without giving more notice, but things like the scene in the dining room drew attention to her, and she couldn’t risk it.
It was almost time for her break before coming back to finish the day out in the kitchen. Knowing there were four more hours in her day that she’d be up just made her more tired. She had no idea how Rachel spent fifteen or so hours a day manning the diner. Willow had spent some all-nighters in the lab, but between running around with orders and dealing with the customers, she was spent.
Keeping her eyes opened seemed like a monumental task. The same could be said for Connor. He sat in the corner of the kitchen, his usual place when she was working. Each time she looked over, his eyelids drooped even more. She’d told him an hour ago to get some sleep, but he was fighting it out.
Where he got his stubbornness was beyond Willow. He’d been so meek before they ran. She took the displays of a personality as a good sign, but she worried a little where it may lead. If the stubbornness came out in the grocery store or something, it could cause a scene.
Yet, another reason to keep on the move. If Connor had thrown a fit the day in the grocery store when the man was asking about cereal or when he’d sat in the corner all morning while she worked, people would notice them. Of course, they weren’t invisible, but drawing attention instead of just blending in meant questions.
And neither one of them could afford people asking questions. She wasn’t sure how she’d made it this long without someone trying to dig deeper into where they came from. At nights, when she wasn’t too exhausted from work, she stayed up and went over her backstory to make sure if ever asked, she’d have answers.
It was actually kind of fun to have a make-believe life. She’d spent enough time dreaming of one over the years that it came naturally.
Laura and Peter Newman were from Duluth, Minnesota. She had various facts tucked away if anyone asked. School mascots, the Greyhounds and Hunters. Average snowfall, around eighty inches. Visions of Lake Superior she can describe from hours of staring at photos. The list went on for miles.
Then there was the story of Connor’s father. As stupid as it sounded, she thought keeping details close to the truth on that front made sense. Connor looked nothing like her, so the few times someone mentioned it, she said he looked like his father, which was true. Then she said he was dead, which was the truth she dreamed about.
The thought made her smile. Part of her felt evil for wishing someone’s death, but no one deserved it more than that heartless jerk. It was pathetic that heartless jerk was the extent of her vulgarities towards him.
Sometimes she felt like the ten-year-old girl who woke up in a dark basement. Her social development was pretty much stunted at that age. No matter how many movies she watched, she didn’t know what was real most days.
Like in the diner that morning, did the dad sitting with his two daughters really have a look of devotion in his eyes. Willo
w couldn’t remember ever seeing that look, but as he sat and joked with the girls, hanging on their every word, the first word that came to her mind was devotion. Was that how it was supposed to be?
Willow didn’t think it had ever been that way with her father, and it sure as hell wasn’t that way with the guy who took away over half of her life. Not that he was ever a father figure, but he’d been the male figure in her life forever. As sick as that thought made her.
A whimper pulled Willow away from her rambling thoughts. She needed to remember to keep the craziness hidden until she was alone. At least loading the dishes into the giant dishwasher was a task that didn’t need her full concentration.
Directing her gaze to the sound she heard, she saw Connor with a scowl on his face. The bustling of the other two people in the kitchen, Barry and Mel, working to get ready for the dinner crowd, wasn’t interrupted at all by the distressing noise. They obviously hadn’t been woken up by his nightmares before. Each time she heard the sound, Willow’s heart sank.
She grabbed a stained, but clean, towel from the counter next to her and dried her hands as she made her way over to where the boy slumped against the wall. She hated seeing the furrows in his brow. If she didn’t stop the nightmare from playing out, the whimpers would turn to screams. As much as she’d been thinking about staying under the radar and not being noticed, a screaming kid in the back of the diner would make all that worrying seem silly.
Over the weeks that they’d been in hiding, she found only one thing soothed him. It was something she’d done over and over when they were locked in that basement together when he was younger and crying set off his father.
“Hush little baby, don’t say a word. Mama’s going to buy you a mockingbird. If that mockingbird won’t sing, Mama’s going to buy you a diamond ring. If that diamond ring don’t shine, Mama’s going to buy you some fishing line. If that fishing line should break, Mama’s going to bake you a chocolate cake. If that chocolate cake don’t keep, Mama’s going to sing ‘til you’re fast asleep.”
