“When will he be here?” Ethan asks.
“In a day or so. That’s the soonest he can manage. Until then, I want both of you to be extremely careful.” Dad holds up his hand, stopping me before I can interrupt him. “And I know what you’re going to say, Anna. I don’t care that it’s been a week and nothing else has happened. This guy is a killer. I want you staying close to home. Maybe even stay home from school until Agent Williams gets here.”
I burst up from the couch, pissed, and run to my room. It’s already started. My freedom is slipping away and the suits haven’t even gotten here yet. Throwing myself across my bed, I bury my face in my pillow.
It’s only a few minutes later when Ethan knocks on the door and pokes his head inside. “Can I come in?”
I nod and turn my head away from the door. I feel the bed dip when he sits down beside me.
The silence is heavy.
I glance around the room, absorbing each little piece of my time here. Photos cover a corkboard next to my dressing table showing new friends from Natchitoches next to the old ones from Scottsdale that I don’t have to hide anymore. A poster from a concert in Shreveport cozies up next to one promoting the Mardi Gras Ball I snagged from school. Mementos litter the dresser: a napkin from our favorite restaurant, tickets from the chick flick I dragged Ethan to, and a flyer from Pearl’s Pizzeria. It’s the room of a girl savoring every moment of freedom she has.
“I’m done running away.”
Ethan lies down next to me, linking his fingers with mine. “You don’t know that they’ll make you leave.” He pauses a moment before saying, “Would you have ever told me about the note?”
I turn around and face him, our noses just inches apart. “I’m not sure. I’d be lying if I said this doesn’t scare me. It does. It scares me to death. I don’t know what the suits are going to do. I don’t know if this warrants putting us back in protection. But if that’s what they want, I don’t think hiding is the answer. He found us before, and he’d find us again.”
Ethan whispers, “You have to promise me something. Don’t do anything risky. Promise me you’ll play this safe. We’ll figure it all out later but you have to be safe now.”
I want to give my word that I’ll do everything he’s asking for right now. But I can’t. I don’t know what the next few days hold, but I won’t sit back and be a victim of my own life. I couldn’t do it before and I sure as hell won’t do it now.
“Okay. I’ll try.”
Dad is true to his word; he’s not letting me out of his sight this morning. Even when I move from the kitchen to the den, he’s right behind me.
Teeny watches him pace back and forth around the room, looking out of the window every five minutes. “Dad, you’re acting like a freak this morning.” She’s lying across the couch, the book in her hand forgotten for the moment.
We haven’t told her what’s going on. She’ll find out soon enough and she might as well enjoy the last day of freedom. For her, I want reality to wait.
I gesture for him to knock it off—act normal—but he ignores me.
“Sissy, can we stop by Georgia’s house on the way to the store today? She’s letting me borrow a book and I want to start it tonight.”
Since today is Sunday, it’s also grocery store day. On Sundays, I always make a menu for the week and shop for what we need. I found out really quickly that having a plan is better than winging it. I’ve been playing Mom for longer than I like to think about and this was a hard-learned lesson.
“The shopping can wait,” Dad says from the corner of the room. “I thought, maybe, you both would like to come to work with me today.”
We try not to look at him like that’s the dumbest thing in the world he could have said. Dad still works at the factory where the suits stuck him when he first moved to Natchitoches. He’s not on the assembly line floor anymore, he’s in the accounting office, but I’m still really surprised he stayed since he could have easily gotten a better job. Maybe he felt uneasy working for another CPA firm after he found out his old firm was laundering money for drug dealers right under his nose.
“Are you serious?” Teeny screeches. “I only have two days off from school each week and there is no way I’m spending them hanging out in your little office at the factory. Please.”
Even though Teeny sounds like a complete brat, Dad and I smile. She hid in her shell for the majority of last year and any emotion—even bratty—is welcome. It means she’s back to her regular self.
I just pray she doesn’t relapse when Agent Williams shows.
Teeny goes back to her book and Dad motions for me to follow him to the kitchen. I’m barely through the door when he says, “I need to take care of some work so I’m free when Agent Williams gets here. He just called and said he’d be here just before noon tomorrow.”
“Dad, we can stay here. I’ll lock the door.”
He’s shaking his head before I finish. “No. That is not acceptable.”
“What if we hang out at Ethan’s while you’re gone?”
His face is unreadable while he considers this. “You go to Ethan’s and you come straight back here when I call you and tell you I’m home. Nowhere else. Do I have your word?”
I nod. “I’ll call him and tell him to come pick us up.”
