Run (Never Waste A Second Chance Book 1)

by Whiteaker, Janice M.

  Time stopped. This was it. There was nowhere to go, nothing to do. He wanted to close his eyes and picture Mina’s face, not wanting Rich’s bloated, unshaven face to be the last thing he saw. But he couldn’t. He watched, frozen as Rich’s finger twitched against the trigger. He wondered who would find him. Please don’t let it be Mina.

  The pain of loss radiated through his body. He was so close. If only he hadn’t been so wrapped up in his own problems he could have had more time. More time with Mina. More time with the kids. He’d wasted it being an ass and now he would never be able to get it back.

  “Bye brother. It’s been nice knowing you.”

  Thomas held his breath and waited for the inevitable sound of the shot that would end his dreams and his life. The noise that came was not the pop of a hand gun firing, but a dull metallic thud mixed with a sickening crack. He stared in horror as Rich’s head jerked to the side at an unnatural angle, his eyes bulging from their sockets before glassing over as his body crumpled to the ground.

  Standing just behind him, staring down at the unmoving body at her feet was Mina, a shovel still gripped in her fists and held over her shoulder, ready to strike again.

  Thomas stood, shock freezing his mind and muscles, and stared. Mina’s chest was heaving, her hair and eyes wild, a deep red flush covering her face. After a few seconds, she crept to where the gun had fallen and carefully picked it up, switching on the safety. She stayed bent over, watching Rich intently. When she finally turned to look at Thomas there were tears running down her face.

  “He’s not breathing.” She wiped her cheek against her shoulder. “I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t mean to…” The words barely tumbled out of her mouth before sobs wracked her body, finally snapping Thomas into action.

  He took the shovel from her and tossed it away, then unwrapped her fingers from the gun that nearly ended his life and tucked it in the back of his waistband. He pulled her into his arms and held her as he tried to process what just happened.

  Less than a minute later, he heard sirens that quickly grew louder and louder. Gravel spewed from the driveway as car after car came peeling in.

  “Tom!” Jerry’s voice came from behind Rich’s truck.

  “We’re here. Everything’s okay.” That wasn’t true.

  He held Mina tight unable to look down. See the man he’d thought of as a brother, was his brother, dead at his feet.

  “Mina and I are okay but we might need an ambulance for… for Rich.” He knew an ambulance wouldn’t help anything, but knowing it and admitting it were two different things.

  Uniformed and plain clothes cops swarmed the barn, guns drawn. Jerry knelt down next to Rich’s lifeless body and felt for a pulse before saying something Thomas couldn’t hear into his radio.

  Activity swirled around him but he felt disconnected from it all. He closed his eyes and focused on something that a few short minutes ago, he thought he may never have the chance to do again. He held Mina in his arms and made her a silent promise. One he would cherish every minute of keeping.

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  “Are we gonna order pizza?”

  “Honey, I don’t know. You’ll have to ask when we get there.”

  “Are you and Thomas staying?”

  “We are going to dinner.”

  “Like a date?” Charlie was full of questions as they drove to Nancy’s house.

  “Yup. Exactly like that.”

  “Is he gonna keep staying at our house?”

  Mina took a deep breath. She really wished he could be staying at their house, but Nancy was struggling with being alone at her house since-

  “Cause I’d probably like it if he did. He was really good at video games and helping me with my homework.” Charlie looked at his lap. “Kinda like a dad, but better.”

  The sound of his little voice broke her heart.

  It was a miracle it was still beating after all the heartbreak of the past few days. It broke when she had to tell the kids their father was dead. It broke again when she heard Thomas tell Nancy about Rich. It broke when Thomas recounted all Rich said in the barn. Now it was breaking again for her sweet little boy.

  Charlie didn’t remember his dad before drugs and money ruined him. He’d never had a really good man in his life and after experiencing it just a short time, he was desperate for more.

  Mina smiled at him in the rearview mirror. “Well, Nancy needs him very much right now, but I’m very sure one day soon, he will be coming to our house a lot.”

  “Yeah he will.” Maddie wiggled her eyebrows and made kissy faces at her from the passenger seat.

  Mina rolled her eyes. No point in arguing. It was true.

  She pulled the van onto the gravel driveway, unable to stop herself from looking at the barn. In that barn she had saved Thomas’ life. Twice. The second time, only succeeding by taking someone else’s.

  As they stopped in front of the white farmhouse the front door opened and Thomas stepped out onto the porch. Both kids jumped out, overnight bags slung over their shoulders and ran to the house. Maddie threw him a smile as she slipped past him, but Charlie hit him full tilt. Thomas’ eyes were wide with surprise at the bear hug the little boy gave him. She got to the porch just as Charlie let go and started dragging Thomas inside to show him whatever cool things he’d packed with him.

  Thomas looked back over his shoulder at her. “Mom’s upstairs. We’ve gotta leave in twenty minutes.”

  She nodded and closed the door behind her before heading up the narrow staircase. Only one light was on, making it easy to find Nancy where she sat in the middle of her bed, surrounded by the contents of an old cardboard box that sat on the floor.

  She hadn’t seen her friend since the night she’d stopped Rich from killing Thomas. It was easier to think of it that way as opposed to the night she killed Rich.

  Thomas, Mina and Nancy sat with the police as Thomas explained what happened. She thought Rich being dead would be the worst of it, but it wasn’t, not really. As a mother, which Nancy was to him, finding out your child was capable of the things Rich had done would be devastating. Add to that an ultimate betrayal by her sister, and Mina wasn’t expecting what she saw in front of her.

  Nancy looked beautiful. Her hair was down, slung over one shoulder, still wavy from the braid she must have recently taken out. Her face was scrubbed clean, her cheeks rosy from the warmth of the house.

  “Hey.” Mina didn’t know what to say. She loved Nancy so much and knowing she’d done something to cause her pain had been eating her up.

  Nancy looked up and smiled. “Hi honey.” She patted a spot on the bed beside her. “Come sit with me.”

  Mina did as she was told and sat down, eyeing the items covering the blanket.

  “I went looking for that diary.” She picked up a small bound journal. The cover was printed with rainbows that had faded over years spent in an old box in an attic. “He was telling the truth. Looks like Sam was with her almost the whole time he was with me.” Nancy opened the book and flipped through the pages, sadness dulling the blue of her eyes. “I should have known I guess. Looking back I can see it.” She tossed the book into the box on the floor. “You only see what you want to I guess.”

  She turned to Mina and reached for her hands. “I never thanked you for saving my son. Both times.”

  “I don’t know that you should thank me, at least not for the second time.” Mina felt a tear run down her cheek. She knew it would take a long time for her to come to terms with what she had done. She had expected it to be the same for Nancy.

  “You did what had to be done and proved me right. Thomas did need someone very special. If you hadn’t been there, Thomas would be dead and Rich would be in prison. I would have lost them both.” Nancy squeezed her hands, her gaze holding Mina’s. “And I’ve lost so much in my life. Some of it my own fault.” Nancy stared across the room and Mina couldn’t shake the feeling her friend was talking about a different kind of loss.

&nbs
p; Nancy shook her head and blinked a few times before turning her attention back to Mina. “I wish things were different. I tried so hard to help him. I did everything I knew to do.” She released Mina’s hands and began gathering the folded pieces of paper around her.

  She took the stack and put it in the box beside the diary. “Sam wrote all these to my sister. I couldn’t read the first one. Maybe someday.”

  “I’m so sorry.” Her voice quivered with the strain of holding in tears.

  “You have nothing to be sorry for.” Nancy paused to look at her thoughtfully.

  “How did you know?”

  Could she tell her she’d known from the first moment she met Rich he was bad? The way he spoke, tried to control the room. The dullness in his eyes, even when he was smiling. They were all things she’d seen before and promised herself she wouldn’t ignore the next time.

  “Sweetheart?” Mina spun around at Thomas’ voice in the doorway. “We’ve got to go if you want to make it to the movie.”

  She turned back to Nancy. “Are you sure it’s all right? We could all stay here and order pizza and watch a movie.”

  “No way. I have looked forward to getting those kiddos to myself all day.” She lowered her voice. “And I think he’s needing you all to his self.”

  They laughed as Thomas leaned against the door frame with one eyebrow raised, tapping his watch. Mina threw her arms around Nancy’s neck. “I love you.”

  “Oh honey. You know I love you too.”

  She threw the last of the letters into the box and set it on her dresser. “I better get downstairs and see what these kids want to do tonight.” She breezed past Thomas and headed down the stairs calling to the kids as she went.

  “Ready?” Thomas held his hand out to her. She reached for it and instead of leading her down the stairs like she expected, he pulled her hard against him, wrapping one arm around her waist and using the other to tilt her face up to look at his. “Thank you.”

  She looked up at him, not sure she deserved the thanks she kept getting and unsure what to say even if she did. Does one say ‘you’re welcome’ for killing someone? “You don’t have to thank me. You would have done the same thing.”

  “You’re right. I would do it a million times over if I had to. And I wouldn’t feel bad about it.” He gently rubbed the space between her eyebrows she hadn’t even realized she’d crinkled up. “But you do.”

  “How do you not feel bad about something like that? I took a husband from his wife and a father from his children.” She rested her forehead against his chest trying to breathe through the pangs of guilt squeezing the air from her lungs.

  “I think Rich reminded you of someone you knew well. Ready and willing to do whatever it took to get what he wanted, taking out anyone or anything in his way.” Thomas ran his hand down the back of her head, using his fingertips to gently massage her scalp as he moved. “Just remember that when you start feeling like you’ve done something wrong.”

  She stepped closer, wrapping her arms around him, and turned her head so she could hear his heart beating slow and steady in her ear. “I think what I feel the worst about are the times I’m almost happy he’s dead. Because if he wasn’t…” Her voice caught.

  “I would be.” He cupped her face in his hands bringing her eyes to his. “You saved my life doing what you did.”

  “Again.”

  “Yes again.” Thomas laughed pulling her back against him.

  “I love you so much.” He kissed the top of her head, her eyes, her cheeks, and then finally her mouth. A soft slow kiss that reminded her, just in case she needed it, of just what she had protected. The only person who had ever made her feel safe, loved, cherished. “And not just because you keep showing up to save my ass.”

  Thank you so much for reading RUN. It is the first book in the

  Never Waste A Second Chance trilogy.

  Keep your eyes out this fall for the second installment, Regret, which continues the story of Nancy and Paul.

  If you would like to see what I’m working on now and what books I’m releasing next, head on over to my website at www.janicemwhiteaker.com and sign up for my mailing list.

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