“There’s no one out here.”
“Thanks.”Slowly her eyes adjusted to the sunshine.Grace inched out and surveyed the delivery area as Johnny had.She clung to the door as if it tethered her to safety.No sign of Dominic.
“You sure you don’t need me to call the cops?Family?Friends?Anyone?”
“No.Please don’t.I won’t be a problem—”
“Lady, I’m not worried about you being a problem.”
Summer heat baked the back lot.She hesitantly let go of the back door and carefully stepped onto the oil-stained asphalt.The delivery area backed up to the employees’ entrances for the grain and feed store, the post office, and a rarely staffed real estate office.Its lone Realtor was a part-time long-haul driver.Grace had used that to her advantage when she’d found her little rental house online and finagled the keys without ever having to meet anyone in person.
“Hey, lady.You need anything?Food?Formula?Something?”
His humanity squeezed her heart.She shielded her eyes as tears pricked, but she didn’t have time to tell him how much that might mean to a woman in trouble.Grace just smiled.“Thank you for even asking.”
She hurried toward the feed store’s delivery bay and climbed the stairs to the employee entrance.With a little prayer for luck, she tried their back door and let out a deep sigh of relief as it creaked open with an overused, under-maintained groan.
The sweet smell of grain and corn hung in the air.Machinery beeped, and voices floated nearby.Her eyes adjusted from the summer sun.Overhead fluorescent lights illuminated the space stacked with boxes and pallets.She’d never been inside the feed store before, but its customer parking lot was always busier than the Shop ’n’ Save.Their inventory towered around her.She hurried down the makeshift aisle, searching for a way into the store.
“Hey,” a forklift operator yelled as Grace crossed an open space.“You can’t be back here.”
Grace ducked her head and rushed by.
“Yo, you’re going the wrong way.”
Shit.She paused and turned toward him.
He wasn’t a tenth as helpful as Johnny, but he did lift his hand and point a different way.
“Thanks.”She rushed that way and, a moment later, saw the entrance into the store.Grace burst through without any of the hesitation she’d had stepping out of the grocery store’s back door.Dominic wouldn’t be in the feed store.He was probably sitting in the air conditioning, making crypto deals on his phone, counting the minutes until Grace would stumble out of the grocery store like a bumbling idiot, straight into his clutches.He always thought she was stupid.At least that worked in her favor this time.
The feed store’s bright lights beckoned her into its aisles.The merchandise caught her off guard.There was far more than livestock food.She rushed through the section devoted to shoes and boots and farther into the store.A cordoned-off area with large metal troughs held center court.Grace slowed and, curious, glanced down.Little chickens waddled under heat lamps.
She moved next to a toddler standing on tiptoes while her mother focused on the fussy baby in her arms.
“Dwucks.”The toddler reached toward the chickens with an outstretched finger.“Dwucks!”
“Chickens,” the mother corrected.
A tiny pain panged in Grace’s heart.The frazzled woman didn’t notice Grace but had something Grace desperately wanted.A simple life.Kids.She realized everyone had their problems.The fussy baby and the exhausted mother were clearly having a moment.But that was a moment that Grace would never have.Because of Dominic.She had to focus.
Escape was paramount.Grace glanced around.She’d had no idea what was actually in a feed store.Maybe if she hadn’t been scared to leave her rental for anything more than food, she would have known.
Grace ducked behind a display of pest control options.Across from the safety of the baby chickens, she called her brother Hayden.
No answer.
She could leave a message, but what would she say?She’d seen an expensive car parked at the grocery store and had known with every ounce of her being that her ex-husband had tracked her down?Grace would have to admit that she hadn’t told him the complete truth about how she’d been living.Staying off the grid had been important.But she’d done something wrong for Dominic to realize that she was alive, much less track her down.
Grace redialed her brother.The voicemail picked up again.She cleared her throat and, after the beep, left a message.“Hey, it’s me.I don’t know how, but Dominic’s out early.And he’s here.At the grocery store.He knows about me.”
She swallowed the rising wave of panic and inhaled, then let it out slowly.The adorable little cabin that she’d secretly called home for the last few months and her car would have to wait until she returned.Ifshe returned.She had to put distance between herself and Dominic.Calling Hayden had been a bad idea.Now he would freak out and have questions she wouldn’t want to answer.
The most important question was already reverberating through her thoughts: How did Dominic know?“Actually, Hayden.Sorry.Ignore me.Everything will be fine.If it’s him,” she said, knowing damn well it was Dominic, “I’ll figure out a plan and let you, Dad, and Mari know.Bye.”
Hayden wouldn’t ignore her.
Damn it.Why hadn’t she thought her next move through before calling him?Oh, yeah.Because her brain short-circuited when Dominic was involved.She had places to go; friends who had helped her in the past and would again.All she had to do was get there without being seen.
