I keep my head down and my hands shoved inside my pockets. I miss Rosie like crazy and wish she were here, but that was never realistic. There’s no way I could pull off this mission with a toddler in tow, and I’d never put her in this kind of danger, even though I don’t really think anything bad is going to happen.
Still, she’s everything.
I fight the urge to walk faster. Better to blend in. Besides, I’m just on a stroll down a block I’ve been on a dozen times before toward a big residential building I’m very familiar with.
I slow once the brick-front row comes into view. The trees here are skeletal and reaching toward the gray sky like fingers from the frozen soil. An old man shuffles past with a little white yappy dog tugging at the leash. Music blares from a car. A young girl’s got her face buried in a phone, and she laughs at something.
I’m not sure why I’m so nervous.
I cross the street and head up a stoop. The door’s unmarked. There’s a buzzer and not much else. No number, no name, nothing to identify it. That’s on purpose. This place never gets mail. From what I understand, it doesn’t really exist. Not officially, anyway.
I hit the bell and wait. When nothing happens, I hit it again and start counting in my head. If I reach thirty and there’s still nothing, I’ll walk away and just chalk this up to being wrong.
But the door suddenly unbolts, making me jump.
It opens a crack.
“Allie? What are you doing here?”
Gabe’s voice.
“I thought we should talk.”
He glances over my shoulder. When he doesn’t see anything, he opens the door slightly wider.
He’s unshaven. His cheeks are dark with stubble. His clothes are rumpled like he slept in them, and I notice the obvious bulge of a pistol at his waist.
“You alone?”
“It’s okay, Gabe, honestly. If Mass wanted to kill you, you’d just be dead.”
He grunts, jaw tightening. “Perks of being a Dragon.”
“Will you let me in?”
Another short pause before he finally sighs and steps aside. “Funny how hard I worked to get you here, and now you just show up all on your own.”
“I’m not sure funny’s the word.” I follow him into the house and close the door behind me. The place isn’t very well decorated. Mostly the walls are white and empty. There’s some random, mismatched furniture, but otherwise not much effort has been spent on making it feel like a home.
Because it’s not.
“How’d you find me?” he asks over his shoulder. We sit together at the kitchen table. “I’d offer you some tea, but I’m fresh out.”
“It’s your safe house. I figured if you weren’t at home, you’d be here.”
He scowls a bit and leans back. “I always knew it was a mistake to tell you about this place.”
“Oh, come on. It saved my butt more than once.” I smile to myself. “Instead of coming home tipsy, I could crash here until the early morning and then get an Uber back without Mama or Papa noticing.”
He taps a finger against his bicep. “I never liked the way they treated you. It always bugged me how they kept you in a little cage. Like Mama thought you should behave and accept yourlife just because you’re a woman. But then you went and got pregnant, and I kept thinking, what if I hadn’t enabled you?”
“It’s not your fault I got pregnant.”
“I know that. But I could’ve been a better influence.”
“You did great, Gabe, honestly. The pregnant thing was my own stupid mistake. I probably would’ve gotten in more trouble if you hadn’t been willing to cover for me a little bit.”
He looks around the room. “So where is your famously ruthless husband, anyway? I assume he’s pretty pissed about the whole jailbreak attempt.”
