It was all theory, but she had seen enough when her father confronted them to confirm her ideas.
“This isn’t something that will just go away by us running,” Jason commented.
“First of all, I’m driving so we can go faster. Secondly, I need to get the heat off of us. Greg is a problem that always comes back. Trust me, I already know it. Staying home, where he could find us after he makes some calls and figures out the whopper I told him, will only speed up getting myself killed. I would rather delay that, if you don’t mind,” Tess said.
“Holy—”
Tess cut her sister off. The twins seemed to be taking turns going into shock.
“I’ll go to the cops before something like that happens, Ash. Not all of them are dirty. I need time to think if there’s a better solution than turning myself in to keep Greg from getting to me or you guys.”
“We knew,” Ashley guiltily admitted.
“Knew what?” Tess said back. “That Greg was mad, bad, and had a grudge against me? Knowing that wouldn’t have stopped what happened. I already told you guys, none of this is your fault.”
“Dad was seeing us every week. We didn’t tell you, or Mom. He even knew you were staying with us again,” Ashley explained.
Tess sighed.
“You knew a different Dad than me. Greg’s good at hiding his real personality. Hell, his career used to depend on him being able to fake being an upright citizen. So yeah, I’m not upset that you kept his visits from me. I’m sure he’s the one who asked you to do that anyway.”
“He did,” Jason said. “We were blind.”
“You might think you’re grown up but, guess what, Jase, you’re not adults. I’m the adult. That makes me the one responsible for your safety. How about the fact that I let guys that have gotten mixed up with the mob into our house and put you in danger? Do you blame me?”
“No,” Jason immediately answered. “They’re not bad guys.”
“And Greg can be a good father too, sometimes. He’s our dad, and of course, you would trust him and do what he says if he hasn’t even given you a reason to not trust him. This blame game isn’t helping,” Tess insisted.
She looked in the rearview mirror, cursing internally for getting lost in the conversation with the twins instead of paying attention to their fellow travellers on the road.
The lights from the bikes were gone. She didn’t remember passing any turnoffs, but either she had been speeding and the bikes had fallen behind, or the bikes had turned off onto some small road she had missed.
“Mom tells us the truth about him sometimes. When she’s sick, she has nightmares,” Ashley said.
It sounded soft and scared. Nobody had told Tess about her mother’s nightmares before, but then, they hadn’t really been speaking.
It wasn’t fair to the kids that they had been left to handle this all alone.
“I’m sorry, Ash. Jase, you too. I should have been there,” Tess said. “I should have been the one to tell you guys the truth about Greg. All of this could have been avoided if I had stuck around more and tried harder.”
“I thought you said the blame game isn’t helping,” Jason reminded her.
“Motel!” Ashley announced. She pointed.
Sure enough, a sign announcing Baylee’s Night Owl Inn with a vacancy sign was ahead of them. It wasn’t neon, although that was expected this far into the country. The single street light in front of the sign had to be enough to get attention.
Tess slowed down, signalled, and pulled into the parking lot.
“Okay, can you guys wait here while I get us a room? I don’t want anyone getting a close look at you. I’m going to say we’re all the same age, friends on a weekend trip,” Tess proposed.
“Sure,” Jason said. “Do you think you can get two queens and a couch in a place like this?”
“I’m calling dibs on a bed,” Ashley said.
“I don’t know, but Ashley and I can share a bed if needed, right?” Tess proposed.
“Okay,” Ashley agreed.
“Thanks,” Jason said, then he reached forward and put a hand on her shoulder before Tess could get out of the car. “Everything’s going to be okay,” he added.
“We’ll work it out,” Tess agreed. “I know it’s a disaster right now, but I swear, I’ll figure a better plan out by morning.”
“Thanks,” Jason said again.
“Can we tell our friends anything?” Ashley asked, already whipping her phone out and thumbing it on.
Tess had let the kids both have their phones—their lifelines as the kids have insisted upon calling them—but warned them both not to contact anybody about what was going on and leave a trail to be followed.
They tried to get Tess to take her phone too, but after typing off her message, Tess decided it fitting to leave it behind.
That was her last hope.
Her father couldn’t crush it, wouldn’t ever know that Tess had left a plea for help and understanding with the friends she had purposefully bullied away in front of him. She allowed herself that hope, however foolish it might seem to anyone else.
“You can mention to your friends that you are going out of town to visit family. That’s it. You already told your friend that is watching Sneakers for us that same story.”
Sneakers was a sweet doggy problem they couldn’t take with them on the run. It had been hard to leave their pet behind, especially when he had been so recently freed from doggy jail, but a lot of places wouldn’t accept an animal.
Their options were so limited already on where to go that having them narrowed further by keeping Sneakers with them had been an unnecessary risk.
Ashley had felt her friend would argue with her family to take care of Sneakers no matter how long it took them to return for him.
“Fine, no real details,” Ashley said. “Dad’s not going to be talking to our friends, you know.”
“He found you pretty fast,” Tess said, turning the car engine off.
Gas could add up to an expense they couldn’t afford pretty quickly, too. She wasn’t wasting it.
“He called us directly,” Jason said.
“He picked you up at your friend’s house, right? Besides, Greg was a cop. He knows a lot about finding people. We have to be smart about this,” Tess said. “Now, wait here, so I can get us a room to crash for the night.”
The check-in process wasn’t as painful as she had been anticipating. Although she was young, it was late, and they had the only other car in the lot. The place was a bit desperate for business. They didn’t even insist on a deposit, accepting the amount for the night’s stay upfront.
The room key felt solid in her hand, something she could squeeze her fist around without worrying it would be crushed. It was a lifeline that wouldn’t snap.
She’d made the right choice.
One door opens when another closes.
You just had to make sure you walked through the right one.
“Grab your stuff. We can leave the car parked here,” Tess said to the kids, ducking her head into the car.
Jason was on his phone, texting madly.
Ashley was lying back and resting in the passenger seat, having reclined it as far as it would go.
Did both of them forget about the motorcycles running them down earlier? Neither seemed all that concerned at the moment.
Tess sighed and closed the driver’s door, heading to the trunk. Whoever it was behind them earlier had to have gone past. There were no motorcycles in the lot. The bikes had been close enough that even if they had circled back, they should have been here already.
It had been paranoia, like Tess had assumed.
They all walked to the room with their meagre possessions in their arms
The accommodations were cheap. Exactly what they had paid for and not one extra pillow or scratchy sheet more.
“What a dump,” Ashley whined.
“It’s called a hideout. Think of it like a tree fort. The bare necessities,
and more importantly, out of sight,” Tess said.
“You should put the car around back if you want to stay out of sight,” Jason remarked.
“There is no back parking lot, Jase,” Tess said.
Jason shrugged. He dropped his bag on the closest bed by the door.
“This is mine,” he announced.
“Maybe you should take the far one. It’s big enough that you and Ash could share if you guys are comfortable. I can take the one by the door,” Tess offered.
She’d keep her body between the door and the kids in case anybody came through it.
“I get my own bed. You girls take the other bed. It’s closer to the bathroom,” Jason insisted.
Tess narrowed her eyes at him.
She’d bet he was trying to make up for earlier when he’d walked out of the house with Ashley, on her orders, instead of trying to save Tess from Greg. Either that, or he was trying to be manly.
This was a small thing he was asking. Their door had a solid-looking lock, newer than anything else in this place.
“Fine,” she agreed. “But keep the drapes drawn. I don’t want to be woken up at the crack of dawn.”
Jason nodded.
Tess tossed her bag onto the floor at the foot of the second bed.
Ashley put hers on top of their bed and started unpacking everything in it. Tess wanted to tell her not to waste her time as she would have to pack it up all over again in the morning, but the jerky way her sister was pulling things out of the bag made her hesitate.
Everybody coped in their own ways.
Jason protected them by sleeping by the door. Ashley unpacked everything like they weren’t suddenly homeless and on the run.
Tess could empathize because she had to keep on moving until she dropped from exhaustion. Otherwise, she would keep replaying the last few minutes she had with the guys before she forced them out the door, over and over, except with a differently imagined ending.
“Can I take the first shower?” Ashley asked, still unpacking.
She sure had gotten a lot stuffed into her bag.
“Yeah,” Tess agreed. “You can go second, Jase.”
“Sure, thanks,” he said, flopping himself onto the bed.
He looked for the television. It was small and not even a flat-screen.
Wow, she didn’t think they made them like that anymore. It was practically an antique.
“Where’s the remote?” Jason asked.
Tess walked over to the television stand, grabbed the only remote, and tossed it to him.
“Are these vibrating beds?” Ashley asked as she put her unpacked bag at the foot of the bed and saw the money slot in the footboard.
Her tone was scandalized.
“Got any quarters to try it out?” Jason asked, sounding more curious than his twin.
“We’re not wasting quarters on a shaking bed,” Tess said.
The twins were acting like kids seeing a ride-on toy at the mall. Both of them pouted, of course, when she refused to waste their change.
Tess laughed.
It was the normalcy of the moment. Teenagers being self-absorbed, focussed on such a silly thing. It felt good. She shared with them that they looked like little kids being denied and even Jason smiled at the comparison.
“Can you get us something to drink?” Jason asked. “I saw a vending machine outside, and if there’s spare change from the machine, maybe we can get one ride in?”
“Fine, if there is change. Pop, water, or juice?” Tess asked, picking up her wallet-purse again.
It was small and had a long shoulder strap. Maddy had gotten it for her sixteenth birthday, knowing Tess preferred something simple and functional. She didn’t need to carry her whole life around in a baggage-purse.
“Juice,” Ashley said, heading into the bathroom for her shower.
“Same,” Jason said.
Neither of them thanked her.
Tess didn’t mind. She doubted they thanked their mom, either. Not because they were rude, but because family did stuff like this for family, and nobody made a big deal about it.
The kids would probably say an automatic thanks when she handed them the drinks.
Outside had gotten even more isolated and dark since their arrival. It was spooky.
Her focus had been on the kids earlier when she came in. Now, she was alone. The motel owner had even turned off the office light. They must be the only customers of the night.
She remembered seeing a doorbell on the office door, and a little sign that had said to ring it for after-hours service. This place sure wasn’t busy.
The vending machines had a flickering overhead light to show their location. There was one for food and another for drinks.
The kids might want to split some chips, cheezies, and chocolate M&Ms. It used to be their favourite movies-at-home mix.
Tess was going to get herself a cola if they were eating junk food. She was drained from everything that happened. The sugar would go a long way in restoring her energy. Maybe one bottled water too, to rinse down all that sweetness.
This was not an adulting decision.
It meant she would have to give Jason, and probably Ashley, a quarter each for a ride on the beds. Whatever. Today had been full of tough decisions that Tess hadn’t felt ready to make, but she did it anyway because the kids were relying on her.
For tonight, she was done making decisions that were best for others. It was okay to be a little bit selfish.
Feeding the machine change, she bent over to read the number and letter combo for the bottled water at the bottom of the machine. It was so dim that she could hardly read it, especially because it seemed half of the machine’s internal lights were burnt out.
The flickering light from overhead made things more difficult than being helpful. When she straightened back up and punched in the combo for her drink, she saw a shadow move in the glass-front reflection of the machine.
Gasping, she tried to turn around, her heart thudding with fear.
A hand clamped over her mouth.
The tall male behind her shushed her, a familiar scent wafting from his mouth.
Licorice.
2
Tess
Stuck between Pepsi and a Hard Dick
Tess screamed against the palm over her mouth. Not because she was afraid of some stranger kidnapping her. She’d identified who caught her by that familiar licorice.
She screamed because she was mad to be caught at all.
Tess tried her damndest to bite, elbow, and twist out of his unyielding grip. She had to settle for stomping down on his booted feet when everything else failed.
“If a pumpkin is spitting mad, does she spit seeds?” Keir asked.
He wasn’t the one holding her.
Keir’s voice came from the left. He stepped beside the vending machine and leaned against it. He was wearing a motorcycle helmet. The flickering overhead light kept her from getting much of a look at his eyes to know if they were amused, per usual, or mad.
He looked intimidating as hell. Tall, dark, and dangerous.
His twin, behind her, wouldn’t even need the dark to intimidate her with his version of their shared looks, pierced and punked. The first time she saw Kade, she’d known he was dressing a part.
How much of that had been made-up?
Kade loosened his grip when she suddenly relaxed, giving in. The only way free was to make them believe she wouldn’t run.
“Caught you,” Kade whispered into one ear.
“Impossible,” Tess muttered against his loosened hand.
Wishes didn’t come true for wanting.
“Did you think we would let you run after we saw you let the Big, Bad Wolf into your house?” Kade asked.
Greg was known as the Wolf.
It meant Kade had heard of him, or figured out who he was shortly after their unexpected introduction.
The knowledge made Tess decide to nip Kade’s hand. He shouldn’t be messing with people
like Greg. It was too dangerous. The twins really ought to know better.
The twins’ own mother had paid a high price for messing with the wrong guy.
Leaving that message behind on her phone had been a mistake. She couldn’t let the guys get further involved in her messed-up world. She needed to cut them loose to fix this error in judgement.
Stupid, impulsive choice.
“Turn around. Pretend you never found me,” Tess bit out, hard.
She could still play the persona she’d shown them in front of Greg. Make them think this was the real her.
She tried to move a step forward to get some space.
Kade followed her, his hand on her shoulder.
“I won’t tell if you don’t say a word,” she offered in a softer tone.
To Bastion.
She didn’t say that part out loud.
Keir laughed. It was light and easy. She envied him.
Sighing, she squatted down to get the drink she had paid for already. Kade wouldn’t give her enough room to bend over properly. It gave her a moment to think.
What was she going to do now?
Her act earlier had been a five-star role to get the guys to think she duped them, so that they would then dump her and leave her alone.
“Look, I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings. I’m leaving town, as you can see, and I didn’t leave behind anything I’ll miss.”
It was harsh. She said it fast, forcing herself to keep firm instead of breaking and crumbling as she felt on the inside.
“Pumpkin, you’re not getting out of trouble that easily,” Kade said, tangling his hand in her hair.
She whimpered and tried to twist.
He gripped her hair more firmly in a ponytail at the back of her head, limiting her mobility greatly.
Snagged by the tail like a wriggling mouse. Ugh!
That kind of dominance play made her think of Bastion and his bossy attitude.
She felt herself respond. The guys had all said Kade wasn’t a pushover, either. Maybe he’d been pushed too far at her house in front of Greg. Now, he was pushing back.
Was this the real Kade? The one before the accident.
Duplicity (Victory Lap Book 2) Page 3
