It’s probably longer given how hard I startle when Kai shakes me awake.
“We need to head out of here before it gets too light.”
I rub at my eyes, willing my brain to be less tired. “You couldn’t escape during winter with fourteen hours of darkness to skulk about in, no. You escaped during summer when we have to squeeze the entire enterprise into less than eight.”
“Nice summary, there,” he says, stopping to lay a kiss on my sleepy forehead. “Next time throw in that I didn’t choose the seasons. If anyone’s to blame, it’s a baby. Are you really going to lay blame on a poor baby who hasn’t even been born yet?”
Good effort but with a yawn straining at the fixed bone of my jaw, I’m not drawn into the implied guilt trip. “If it’s warranted.”
“Wow. Mother of the year.”
“Hey, other people’s babies don’t count.”
He scoops me off the bed before I can insert any more of my foot into my mouth and throws me into the shower. “Three times since check-in,” I grumble. “I don’t know how dirty you think I am, but this is just getting insulting.”
“Far, far too dirty,” he jibes back. “Just the way I like it.”
There’s an odd stiff note to his voice but I can’t fathom the reason. Given we’ll soon be on the move again, therefore exposing ourselves to being captured, it could be anything or nothing.
Perhaps this is just how he sounds on a Thursday, and I haven’t spent enough time with him to know that.
When I step out of the bathroom, everything’s been packed into the back of the vehicle and Kai is standing, keys in hand, waiting. “I’ll just park it on the street, so we don’t have to navigate past the office, okay. Can you do a sweep of the room to make sure nothing’s left behind?”
“Aye, aye, captain,” I assert but the quip doesn’t raise a smile. He’s definitely tenser than yesterday.
Because his baby’s on the way.
Yeah, that. I haven’t poked and prodded at that idea too much because just the glancing thought causes a wealth of pain, like poking my tongue into a rotting tooth. In a different world, I’d want to be the mother of his children but even if we weren’t on the run, I think I might have left that idea a few years too late.
There’s a faint dusting of light near the horizon. Enough to lift my spirits and make me feel better about the coming day. I watch as Kai parks the new car just past the motel entrance, facing the way we’ll soon be driving.
I duck back inside the room, getting to my knees and checking under the bed, then eyeing the bench and wandering into the bathroom. Clean.
Well, a mass of wet towels lies on the floor, with more perched on the towel rail but apart from that, clean.
From outside comes the squeal of braking tyres and my heart seizes, then dumps a tonne of adrenaline into my bloodstream.
I dart into the room, slamming my palm against the light switch, then crouching low, peering into the darkness, cursing each second that passes before my eyes adjust enough to see.
When they do, they widen. A half dozen police officers are outside, dressed to the nines in protective equipment, sheltering behind their cars. Everyone I see holds a weapon.
The armed offenders squad.
From never having had a gun pointed in my face to now having it happen three times in three days; that must be a new record.
I dive behind the bed, heart pounding, skin crawling. My head thumps with sickening regularity.
Trapped. You’re trapped.
My brain flits to the bathroom window, performing calculations when I already know the answer. I won’t be able to get out through it. Even if the police don’t have it covered, I can’t squeeze through the tiny gap.
Then my mind jitters straight to another fear. Kai. My limbs tremble.
Did he get out before they spotted him? Floor the accelerator once he saw the flashing lights.
I don’t have a clear line of sight from where I’m grovelling in fear.
My guess is yes. Myhopeis yes.
