I cut my eyes back to him. “Don’t fucking touch me.” I reached for my hip and held it there.
He tracked where my hand went. I didn’t have a weapon on me. I used to and I should’ve, but I didn’t want to take anything to the foster center in case it fell into the wrong hands. It’d been a decision I had debated long and hard about. When I made that decision, Creighton’s men had still been tailing me. I never changed my habit.
But my fingers automatically curled what would’ve normally been there. This man would see that habit, and I was leaning on that, hoping he’d know I had some way to defend myself against him.
I let the guy get a read on me, knowing he wasn’t going to take my tone personal. He was probably set in place to be the first wave of security in this warehouse, by whoever was his immediate boss.
It was a gamble if I used Creighton’s name now. He might not know it, and if he did, he’d sound the alarm to go to his boss. That boss would take time to get here. There’d be a whole process they’d have to go through to verify I wasn’t lying when I was using the highest boss’s name because if I was, that was a crime meant for death. Of course, if I went that route, it’d take the time to deal with everything, but more than likely, I’d get the answers I needed about Satya easily. They’d lead me to wherever she was staying and give me any information I wanted to know.
But Satya could bolt before I got to her.
“You’re not just anyone, are you, girlie?” He leaned forward, his crazed and drunken look falling away.
I was correct. He was security. It’d been his mask. He was very sober right now, giving me another assessment. “Who are you?”
“Look.” I debated on what exactly to tell him. “I work at the center down the way. You know it?”
“The new one? The big fancy one?”
I hesitated before shrugging. “Yeah. A girl I’m worried about ducked in here. I’m not here to blow her situation. I just want to make sure she’s safe.” Now I was the one to assess him because if he lied to me and gave me some bullshit about how of course she was safe, she was with family, I was going to find a weapon here, and I was going to use it to beat him. And when I was done, then I’d use Creighton’s name.
Maybe he read my intention or not, I didn’t know, but a new emotion flickered over his eyes. He sidled away from me, waving behind him. “She’s set up in one of the back rooms. As long as you don’t mess with anyone, no one will mess with you. You got me?”
I clipped my chin up and down. “I just want to make sure she’s okay.”
He was already done with me and had turned. His hand rose again, giving another shooing motion.
I shooed.
She was in the fourth room, in what looked like had been an office.
She was kneeling on a sleeping bag on the floor, and sat up when I knocked lightly on the door. Her jaw dropped, and she had to blink a few times before she scrambled to her feet. “H-hi-whatareyoudoinghere?” Her face twisted up, and she blinked again, before her mouth curved downward. “Did you follow me?”
I didn’t answer her right away, taking in the room.
She had a pile of books near her sleeping bag. One of those solar-powered flashlights. Her backpack was in the corner by her head. She’d been looking at her phone, and it was gripped tightly in her hand now. She held it up as if it were a weapon to keep me back. Sheets were strewn up to cover the windows, along with a blanket that had been clipped in place to hide the floor-to-ceiling glass so no one could lookin from the hallway. A lawn chair was in the other corner, along with an empty place where another sleeping bag might’ve been. Some water bottles and food items were in a pile. Cereal bowls. Spoons. Napkins.
Crap. She was living here.
“Let me guess.” I eyed her bag again, spotting something white tucked inside. “If I were to check your bag, you’d have a thing of toilet paper. Also guessing that’s probably why we’ve needed to refill the bathrooms more lately even though we’re not having more kids at the center.”
She flushed, and she was going to spew.
I waved that off before starting to sit, then catching myself. “Do you—” I gestured to the bottom half of her sleeping bag. “Would you mind?” I didn’t want to risk the floor.
“Uh. Yes.”
I sat anyway.
“Hey!” Now she was standing over me, still clasping onto her phone.
A sadness came over me, blanketing me, and everything else, all my confused emotions at seeing Creighton, faded away. None of that mattered because right now, only this girl mattered.
Maybe she saw the change on my face, or who knows, maybe she was just sensitive and could feel the change come over me, but whatever she’d been about to say, she didn’t.
I tried for a smile, but knew it was probably small. “Can you sit?”
She did, slowly. She kept watching me. “If you’re going to call the cops—” she said, warily.
