I gave Catalina a little shove. “Go! Get in the passenger side.”
She shot me a wild, worried look, but I nodded encouragingly. My heart was in my throat, and I was poised for a yell to come from the house, demanding to know what we were doing.
“Go,” I told her again.
She gave the briefest of nods and vanished around the passenger side. I sucked in a breath, slowly closed the lid of the trunk, and ran to the driver’s door. I’d never driven a vehicle quite this old before, and I prayed the key to the trunk was the same as the one for the ignition. I guessed I was about to find out.
I slid into the driver’s seat, Catalina in the passenger side. “Stay low.”
Jamming the key into the ignition, I sent up a prayer, and then turned it. The engine roared to life. The car was a stick shift, which I wasn’t used to, but I slammed my foot down on the clutch and managed to ram the gearshift into reverse.
I reversed the car out of the driveway and onto the road. Quickly, I checked to see if the woman or anyone else had noticed the car moving, but no one chased after us. I kept checking the rearview mirror to make sure no one was chasing us down the street, but it didn’t look as though we’d been seen.
I glanced over at Catalina. She was huddled in the seat, her hand to her mouth. When she realized we’d made a clean escape, she straightened up again. I thought she was going to be angry or upset, but instead she flashed me a grin, her eyes wide with amazement.
“Oh, my God. I can’t believe we just stole a car! I’ve never even been in a car before. My heart is pounding. Look at my hands!” She put out her hand for me to see the shaking.
I laughed. “We can’t keep it for long. That poor woman is going to notice it’s gone sooner rather than later, and then she’ll report it stolen. When she does, the cops will be looking out for it. We just need to put some distance between us and the town, and then we’ll dump it, okay?”
“I wish we didn’t have to dump it.”
“Yeah, me neither. But we don’t have much of a choice.”
Chapter Eight
Present Day
WE DROVE WITH MY HEAD on Angelo’s shoulder and my hand resting on his thigh. He covered my hand with his own, in between needing to shift gears. It was as though now we had accepted our relationship for what it truly was, neither of us wanted to stop touching the other for even a second.
I wanted to be able to relax in the car and enjoy being with Angel, just the two of us, but it was hard when I knew the vehicle we were traveling in was stolen, and that most likely the cops, plus Torres and Angelo’s father, were all out looking for us. I wished there was a way we could change how we looked and become different people. I said as much to Angelo.
“You know, you can be whoever you want to be,” he replied.
I sat up straighter, lifting my head off his shoulder to look at him. “What do you mean?”
“You don’t even exist out here in the real world. There’s no record of you ever being born on file. You don’t have a driver’s license or a social security number. If you were picked up by the cops, they’d never know where you came from.”
I pursed my lips. “I don’t know if that’s something I like.”
“It just means that if you were to get fake ID, there wouldn’t be any real ID hanging around for someone to tie you to.”
“Fake ID? I don’t understand.”
“You know...” He shrugged. “Something that’ll tell people who you are—like your name and date of birth, and home address.”
“I don’t have a home address.”
He shot me a crooked smile. “No, you don’t, but you just make one up. You can make up your name and birthday as well.”
“Why would I want to do that?”
“So people can’t find you, if they’re looking for you.”
“Oh, I see.” I stared down at my lap. “I’d like to have an ID one day, but not a fake one. I’d like to have one that was really mine, that made me a real person.”
He glanced from the road to give me a concerned look. “You are a real person, Catalina.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Not in the eyes of everyone else. To them, I’m a possession.”
He reached across and squeezed my hand. “You’re a real person to me. You’re not a possession. I’ve known you your whole life, and you’re the realest person I know.”
I gave him a sad smile. “Thank you, Angel. I love you.”
“I love you, too. We’re going to figure this out, okay? And get you that ID someday, too.”
I watched his profile as he studied the road as he drove. His lips had thinned, his nostrils flared, and his jaw was tight. Something I’d said had upset him, and I hated that. I didn’t ever want to be the one who made him feel bad.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, unable to bear not knowing.
He remained staring straight ahead. “Nothing.”
I wasn’t going to let him off the hook that easily. “You look sad.”
He shook his head, still not looking over at me. “I wish I’d been able to change things for you sooner. I wish I’d taken you away from that place years ago. I’m furious with myself for accepting that things had to go the way my father planned. I’ve been an adult for six years now, Catalina. I could have done something sooner, and I’ll never forgive myself for that.”
“But you still did something,” I said. “That’s all that matters. We can’t change the past, but we can change our future.” I knew my words wouldn’t stop him beating himself up about it, but I didn’t like to see him in pain.
“I hope so.”
I didn’t push him any further. I knew what he meant by ‘I hope so.’ He hoped the police weren’t going to catch up with us about the stolen car, and that Silas Cassidy didn’t call on his men to hunt us down, and that Elliot Torres didn’t claim what was his. There was so much uncertainty about our future, and if we’d even have one together, but there was no point in beating ourselves up about the past.
“We’re going to need to dump the car soon,” he said. “It’s going to mean some more walking.”
“That’s okay. I can handle some walking.” I’d felt better since we’d eaten and changed our clothes. Though we’d both only managed to snatch a couple of hours sleep out in the forest, we had youth and adrenaline on our sides.
He seemed to read my mind. “I’m hoping we’ll find a motel at the end of it this time.”
“A motel sounds like heaven.”
“I can’t promise you heaven, but there will at least be a shower and a clean bed.”
“That sounds heavenly to me.”
I let out a sigh and snuggled closer to Angel’s shoulder. My eyelids were heavy, and my thoughts began to drift off and blend in that way they did when I was somewhere between awake and asleep. Peace settled inside my soul, and I wished we could stay this way forever, just the two of us, without any interference from the outside world. I knew I was dreaming—in a quite literal sense—but it felt good to think that way, if only for a short time. Angelo Cassidy had been my world for my entire life so far, and I didn’t want that to change.
I lost track of time as I dozed, warm and comforted by the solid presence of him beside me.
“Catalina. Hey, Kitty-cat.”
His voice jerked me awake, together with his hand shaking my knee. I hadn’t even realized I’d been fully asleep.
“Huh? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. We just passed a motel about a mile back. I think we should dump the car somewhere off the road and walk back to it.”
“You do?” I glanced anxiously over my shoulder, though the motel was long gone. “I don’t know. What if the police find the car and realize we’ve gone to the motel?”
“We’ll keep going a little longer to put them off the scent, and then I’ll drive the car off the road and hide it between the trees. An old car like this isn’t going to have a tracker or anything inside it. Chances are the cops won’t even find the car.”<
br />
I chewed on my lower lip, still not liking the idea. I’d been warm and comfortable and weirdly content for a moment, and we were about to throw the little bit of comfort we had away again.
“But what about the woman with the children? You said we’d get the car back to her. She won’t get it back if we hide it in the forest.”
Angelo shot me a look, and I could tell he was getting exasperated with me. “We’ll call it in anonymously tomorrow, okay?”
I nodded, not wanting to fight with him. “Sure.”
I guessed he knew best. What did I know of surviving in the real world? Absolutely nothing. I wasn’t sure I could even trust my own instincts, and I hated that. It made me feel utterly out of my depth.
He kept driving, staring straight ahead at the road. I reached out and touched his thigh. “Are you mad at me?”
He glanced over and gave me a smile. “No, Catalina. I’m not mad at you. I love that you care. I just hate that we’re in this situation in the first place. But none of this is your fault, so don’t feel bad, okay?”
“Okay.”
He leaned forward, craning his neck, and slowed the car. “This looks like as good a spot as any.”
Thankfully, there were no other vehicles on the road for anyone to ask what we were doing. Angelo swung the car off onto the side of the road, and then kept going at a much slower speed, bumping and jolting the vehicle across the rougher terrain. The suspension wasn’t much on the old car, and I held onto my seat as we went over a particularly large bump, throwing me out of it. He carefully navigated between the tree trunks and, when I glanced back, I discovered I could no longer see the road.
“This should do it,” he said, bringing the car to a halt. He pulled his sleeve down over his hand and started to wipe the steering wheel, gear stick and door handles.
I frowned. “Why are you cleaning it?”
“I’m not. I’m ridding it of any fingerprints so when the cops pick up the car, they won’t be able to tie me to it.”
I looked doubtfully at all the things I might have touched. “Should I do the same?”
“It won’t do any harm, though they’d never be able to match you to anyone, since you don’t even exist in the system.”
He was right, but I wiped everything down anyway. I might not be in the system right now, but that might change one day, and if I ever had the chance of becoming a real person with a normal life, then I didn’t want to be linked to a car theft.
When we were done, we climbed out of the car, bringing our bags with us. Just as he’d promised, Angelo took out his wallet and removed a twenty-dollar bill and put it in the glove compartment.
“Hopefully, the woman will find it later,” he said, “and some bent cop doesn’t just decide to steal it.”
My mouth dropped. “A police officer wouldn’t do that, would they?”
He shrugged. “Not all of them, but there are plenty of not so nice cops around. Why else do you think they’d happily take money from my father in order to turn a blind eye to any reports of something not so above board going on at the compound?”
I didn’t know. I didn’t know much of anything, it seemed. All I knew was from the books I’d read, and all the police officers in those books seemed like the good guys, even if some of them did have drinking problems and were married to the job.
We slammed the car doors shut and wiped down the handles, and then shouldered our bags.
“Should only be an hour or so walk back,” Angel said. “You ready?”
The promise of a hot shower and a soft, clean bed at the end of it was more than enough to get moving. We stayed on the side of the road, close enough to the trees to be able to dart back into them if we heard any other cars coming, but the roads were mercifully quiet.
“Can you smell that?” Angel glanced up at the sky and frowned.
“Smell what?”
“Rain is coming.”
I joined him, looking up at the sky where heavy whips of dark gray clouds had gathered. Sure enough, a moment later, a fat, cold drop smacked me on the shoulder.
“Shit.” Angel stopped to dig around in his bag. “Did you bring a raincoat?”
I shook my head, feeling stupid. I hadn’t thought to, but then I’d thought we were traveling in a car when I’d packed to leave.
He pulled out his jacket. “Take this.”
“But then what will you wear?”
“I’ll be fine. Just take it, Catalina.”
The rain was coming down heavily now, flicking the top of my head, back, and shoulders like angry, accusatory fingers. I pulled on the jacket and yanked the hood up to cover my head. But Angelo was only in the long-sleeved t-shirt he’d changed into back at the diner, and already he was getting soaked. I tugged the jacket back off.
“What are you doing?” he yelled, the sound of the rain hitting the road and canopy of the trees around us threatening to drown out his voice.
I held the jacket up, creating a small shelter. “We can both get under.”
“I’m already wet. There’s no point in you getting wet as well.”
“I’ll be fine. Skin’s waterproof. Now stop being such a martyr and get under here.”
He finally relented, but his shirt was already soaked at the shoulders, the light gray now dark with water, the material clinging to his biceps, shoulders, and pectoral muscles. A wicked thought went through my head, and for one crazy moment, I considered throwing down the jacket and just letting us both get soaked and pulling off his wet shirt and running my hands all over his glorious wet skin, kissing in the rain. But I knew his reaction would be to tell me I was crazy, and to want to have me somewhere safe and warm, so I held back on my urges. Maybe I was growing up after all.
We hurried along, the coat held over our heads, our sides squished together so we took up as little space as possible. The bottoms of my legs were soaked, the material of my jeans slapping against my shins, and my feet slopping around in my sneakers. Even though it was still the afternoon, the light had vanished from the sky, absorbed by the thick rainclouds above.
I wished Angelo hadn’t driven so far from the motel he’d seen, but I knew he’d only done so to protect me. I wasn’t going to complain. I put my head down and kept going. I could handle a little rain, especially if I had Angelo by my side. What I couldn’t handle was the thought of trying to do this without him. If I didn’t have him, I might as well go back to the compound. Just as he’d pointed out, I was a nobody out here. I didn’t even exist.
I needed him far more than he needed me, and while I wasn’t going to tell him, that scared the hell out of me.
Chapter Nine
Present Day
“LOOK! WE’RE ALMOST there.”
I spotted the lights of the motel we’d passed up ahead. Thank fuck for that. I felt bad forcing Catalina to walk so far in the pouring rain. Maybe I should have dropped her off first and then gone to hide the car, but I didn’t want us to be separated, and I also didn’t know if there would be security cameras at the front of the motel. I didn’t want anything to link the two of us back to the stolen vehicle. Nothing that would give my father any clue to our location.
Catalina was shivering against my side, and I held her closer, my arm around her waist, while my other hand held the jacket over my head. She held the other side, creating a canopy over us. I wished she’d just worn the damned jacket, but I knew she was determined not to let me get wet either, even though the damage had already been done by the time we’d held it over ourselves.
A handful of vehicles were already in the motel parking lot. I eyed them cautiously, making sure I didn’t recognize any and that none looked like unmarked police cars, or vehicles my father’s men might drive. I wasn’t sure how we were going to make our way from the motel in the morning, or even what our next plan was. While a part of me just wanted to hunker down with Catalina and forget about the outside world, I knew the outside world hadn’t forgotten about us. The longer we stayed in one place
, the more chance there was of someone catching up to us.
It was my worst fear—seeing Catalina dragged away by Elliot Torres. I’d managed to prevent it happening at the compound, but things would be ten times worse if he caught up to us here. Before we’d run away, he still would have looked kindly at her—at first, anyway—but now he’d be furious with her. The whole point of doing the training my father had set was to prevent him being angry with her, but I’d made things a thousand times worse.
We reached the motel’s reception.
“Come on.” I jerked my head toward the door. “Let’s go and get a room.”
She smiled at me gratefully and followed my lead into the reception. A man in his sixties sat reading a battered paperback by an eighties horror writer. As he flicked the yellowed pages, he chewed down on sunflower seeds, spitting the shells into a trashcan at his side. He was so engrossed in what he was reading, he didn’t even notice us standing there.
I cleared my throat. “Excuse me.”
He sat up straight and put down the book. “Sorry, folks. Didn’t see you there.”
His gaze took in the sight of our wet clothes. “Weather’s taken a turn for the worse,” he pointed out unhelpfully.
I forced a smile. “Certainly has. We just got caught in it.”
“So I see.” He frowned. “How did you get here? Don’t you have a car?”
“Yeah, but it broke down a couple of miles back.” I deliberately gave him the wrong direction, not wanting him to link the abandoned car to us, should the police come around asking questions. “We’ve got someone coming out to tow it, but they’re going to be a couple of hours, so I figured we might as well get some rest while we’re waiting.”
He frowned. “A couple of hours. That’s no good. I can call someone closer, if you’d prefer. I know the guy who runs the garage in Fremington.”
“Oh, no, that’s okay. It’s a family friend, and they’re doing it as a favor. We don’t have a whole heap of disposable income, so this is just an extra expense we could do without.”
For Him: The Complete Series Page 22
