With the envelope still in hand, Kaelee got into her car, heart pounding in her ears. Even though all the car doors were locked, she started to shake. Small trembles turned into larger ones as she looked around. The desire to open the envelope warred with the fear of what horrible things it hid. Feeling it through the envelope made clear it was papers; she could feel binder clips and staples inside.
She tossed it on the passenger seat and connected her phone to the car. Kaelee wasn’t sure where she wanted to go or what she should do. Leaving an envelope on a car wasn’t likely to be considered harassment or any other legally actionable thing, and the truth was that even if it were actionable, she didn’t want to get into a legal battle with that man or with his fleet of slick liars. She wanted to use her trust and her book money to live her life, not fight her ghosts.
“Why? Why are you fuckers contacting me?” Kaelee shifted into gear and drove, pulling into the already heavy traffic.
The nation’s capital and a holiday weekend made for a bad mix. Even if she had somewhere she wanted to be, Kaelee wasn’t sure she’d want to face the flight backups in Dulles or Reagan National; she certainly wouldn’t want to be on the I-95 or the Beltway in a few hours. The surface streets were already busy, but not yet stop and roll.
As she drove, Kaelee turned randomly, watching her rearview mirror and wondering if she was being tailed. She couldn’t keep eyes on her mirrors and drive safely. There were always so many nondescript black sedans in the District that she couldn’t say if they were the same or different cars. All she knew for certain was she didn’t want to go home in case she was being followed.
If they can find my car in a grocery store parking lot, they already know where I live,logic insisted.
Which means they can show up at my door,fear added.
The thought of finding her parents at her door made Kaelee’s chest hurt.
She steered away from her address. The image of barricadingherself inside threatened to overwhelm her tenuous grasp on control. She wasn’t going to make it easy for them to talk to her face-to-face.
She couldn’t crash Toni and Addie’s holiday, or even say for sure if they were home. Addie’s family lived in California, where the show filmed, too, so the couple crossed back and forth across the nation.Not with them. Not on a holiday.She couldn’t let the Alden selfishness ruin her friends’ holidays either. Hotels were safer than houses in many ways. Room service, anonymity, crowds of witnesses; a hotel would fix this weekend’s crisis. For the big picture, she didn’t know yet.
Without thinking it through, she hit Greta’s number.
Kaelee didn’t want to think about why she felt her tension decrease at the sound of Greta’s voice a moment later. “Hey! How are your holiday cooking plans going?”
“Decided to bail on this city and drive north,” Kaelee said. “I’m thinking either hotel and takeout or… I don’t even know. I’m not staying here, though.”
“Oh… Are you okay?”
“Honestly? Not really.” Kaelee turned again on a random road, steered into a parking lot, and parked in a vast open space where she could see if any cars or people on foot approached her. She was reasonably sure no one was currently following her. Thoughts of trackers on her car made her debate whether she ought to take the train or even fly to wherever she was going, but right then being without a car sounded a lot like being trapped.
Rental car. That’s the best plan.
“Talk to me?” Greta asked softly after a long, quiet moment.
“There was an envelope on my car from my family.” Kaelee glanced at it in the passenger seat. She didn’t feel ready to open it. She needed to see what bullshit it held, but the thought of doing that filled her with dread. She told Greta as much and then added, “I want to run. I know it’s just an envelope, but I haven’t heard from them in years and now this is twice.”
“Running is better than getting drunk. That’s progress,” Gretasaid. “Do you need to stop at your apartment before you head out for the weekend?”
Kaelee felt embarrassed that she had been driving around the last week with a packed suitcase in her trunk, but right now it felt like she had been prepared, not foolish. She said, “I have a pair of suitcases and a few boxes in my car. After he called… I don’t know. I just wanted to be ready in case I had to go.”
“Makes sense.” Greta let out a long breath. “I don’t have plans for the long weekend. If you wanted company… I mean, you could come here, or I could meet you somewhere.”
“What are you saying right now?” Kaelee watched several cars in the parking lot. Nothing about them seemed alarming, but nothing had seemed amiss before she went into the grocery store either.
“I miss you.”
Despite the fear thrumming in her skin, Greta’s admission made Kaelee smile. “Yeah?”
“I do. I missLee,too.” Greta’s voice was as raw as Kaelee often felt when she admitted that she was well beyond feeling casual here.
“I’m a trainwreck, you know?” Kaelee pointed out. “I would like nothing more than to run away with you, but I am still who I am. Hell, Kaelee Carpenter might not even exist if I have to run.”
“You don’t have to run.”
“You don’t know them.” Kaelee watched another of the ubiquitous black sedans drive into the lot where she was sitting. “Deep pockets, Greta. Deep hatred.”
“Meet me and tell me all about it.”
“Are you sure?” Kaelee wanted to.
