“All right?” I asked curtly, stopping her in her tracks with a look.
Her eyes watered over before she nodded her head. “I’m on it. Give us fifteen minutes.”
“I can give you ten. Now, go.”
And as I helped her to her feet, she scrambled to get herself inside.
While I stood at the top of the steps and watched that fucking car drive back, and forth. Back, and forth. Back, and forth.
It’s time to protect the people I have put in danger.
Fourteen
Lexi
“Everything okay out there?” Chloe asked the second I stepped inside.
I thumbed over my shoulder. “If you go outside, you can’t ask me. I don’t have time. Go to your apartment and pack up.”
She furrowed her brow as I brushed past her. “Why? What’s going on?”
“Natty!” I exclaimed. “Sweetheart!? Wanna go on a road trip?”
“Yeah!” she rejoiced.
“Lexi,” Chloe said.
I turned around and shrugged my shoulders at her. “Either do as I’m telling you to do or slip outside and see for yourself. But I don’t have the time to explain.”
I heard some rustling around behind me as I started throwing some of my things into a bag. I heard Natty humming to herself before the front door opened, and out of nowhere Chloe yelled “what in the ever-blessed fuck?”
Which meant that my daughter took off running.
“Natty! You have to keep packing!” I called out.
“Mommy?” she asked. “Who’s this guy outside?”
I shook my head as I zipped up my bag. “He’s just a friend, sweetheart. He’s going to lead us to our road trip vacation. But we can’t go anywhere unless you pack up, all right? So, please start packing!”
I heard Chloe talking softly to my daughter before the front door slammed closed. I shook my head as I blazed a trail into Natty’s room, and the second the two of them appeared I shot Chloe a look.
“Not right now,” I said, “right now, would you just do as I’m asking you to do?”
She nodded before she knelt in front of Natty. “Pack up all of your favorite things, okay? I’m going to go do the same, and then we’re going to take an awesome road trip. Yeah?”
Natty was all smiles. “I can’t wait. I like meeting new friends.”
I forced a smile. “Then, come over here and pack up your stuff so I can help Auntie Chloe pack.”
“Yay!” she exclaimed. “We’re going on a road trip. We’re going on a road trip. We’re going on a roooooad triiiiiiip.”
And the second I slipped out of her bedroom; I closed the door behind me before Chloe took my hands within hers. “Want to tell me what’s going on now?”
I drew in a deep breath. “Dean’s back.”
She scoffed. “Yeah, I garnered that much. But, how the hell did any of this--?”
I placed my hands on her shoulders. “It’s so much and I don’t have time to debate this with you. But, for reasons that are too long to explain, we’re in trouble. Something happened at the hospital, someone died while I was keeping watch, and now Dean’s coming to get us to help keep us safe. Now go. Fucking. Pack.”
