“Here we go. The large ones are on this shelf, and the extra-large ones are below. Did you have a style or color in mind?”
“Something plain. Black if you have it,” I tell her, imagining how it will look pulled across Jagger’s muscular chest or Dex’s thick biceps.
“How about this?” She holds up a black shirt made of a stretchy material.
“Perfect.” I grab four of each size, which gives each of them a spare, and she takes them from me.
“Do you need anything else?”
“Not today, thank you,” I tell her as I follow her to the cash register. I’m able to cash out easily, and a couple of minutes later, I’m walking out of the store with a proud smile on my face.
Pete opens the door as I approach, his big grin matching my own. “Everything go okay?” Sly asks as I climb in, and they close the door.
I hand him the bag and nod. “Yep.”
He looks in the bag and then looks up at me. He doesn’t smile, but I can tell by the tightness in his eyes that he’s pleased. “You did well, little bird.”
I warm at his praise, my legs pressing together to try and get rid of the feeling there as I clear my throat and ask, “Areyou going to change and go back in with me?” I ask hopefully.
But he shakes his head as Jagger pulls out of the parking lot and onto the road. “Not here. We’ll stop a few towns over, where we can go shopping for real clothes.”
“Can’t you just buy the stuff online?” I ask, thinking about how Robert seemed to order stuff through his phone all the time.
“We don’t have an address.”
“Couldn’t we just use a motel address and stay there for a couple of nights?” I ask, not understanding how this online stuff works. “Or does it take weeks to arrive?”
“That might actually work,” Sly says after thinking about it for a moment.
Jagger flips open the phone, types something, then passes it to Sly, who reads it aloud.“We can buy gift cards at a gas station and load them, so we don’t need a credit card. We should buy food that way, too.”
I hadn’t thought about needing a credit card to make the purchases. But if we can use our cash for gift cards, then that could work.
“That’s a great idea. It’ll reduce the chance of us all being seen or caught,” Pete adds excitedly as he grabs my hand and squeezes it. “You’re beautifulandbrilliant!”
I squeeze back, my cheeks warming from the praise. It makes me happy to help make them safer. I didn’t want my friends to leave me.
“We just need to find another motel that won’t require ID, then we can hunker down for a few nights and stock up on clothing and essentials.”
“Do you think Amazon sells knives?” Pete asks, pulling me into his side and wrapping his arm around me. I hadnoticed how easily they all seemed to touch me, as if we’d known each other for a while. I guess through the letters we had.
Although, it’s still kind of hard to believe that the men I’ve been writing to for nine months are really right here with me. I never thought this would happen. And they escaped…for me.
“Yeah, they sell almost everything. I think we could get a few hunting knives for sure,” Sly says with a nod.
“Can I have one?” I ask, making everyone turn to me. “What?” I ask, scanning their surprised faces. “I want to be able to defend myself, too.”
“You don’t need to, you have us now,” Dex says, crossing his arms over his chest.
“But in case you’re busy or distracted. Just in case of an emergency?”
“I think it’s a great idea,” Pete says, pulling me tighter to his side. “I’ll show you how to use it first, though, so you don’t hurt yourself.”
“Deal,” I say happily as I rest my head against his chest and settle in for the drive.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
WREN
