It wasn’t like it was his responsibility or I could stop him selfishly.
Percy gave me his boyish smile then he was running toward the firehouse, coffee abandoned on the bench. Big emergency, huh? How odd.
Since this is a small town, I bet every firefighter in town converges on the same location. I wonder if he can even afford to switch with Solomon and why they are going out of their way just for me.
The street emptied as the sirens faded into the distance.
I told myself I wasn’t disappointed he’d left.
So to take my mind off it, I spent the next fifteen minutes trying to figure out my next move.
Another town or another name. Maybe a new life built from nothing. The thought exhausted me before I’d even started. Ihad no money and no ID. I couldn’t even afford a bus ticket out of here.
Minutes passed and the street stayed empty.
I was just convincing myself to stop staring out the window when I heard it.
Footsteps in the hallway. Slow, deliberate.
They stopped outside my door.
My blood turned to ice.
A knock. But it was not a polite knock. Instead, it was loudly demanding.
“Mira.”
I knew that voice.
I’d heard it in my nightmares for two years. I’d heard it whisper terrible things while his hands did worse. I’d heard it say my name a thousand different ways, and not one of them had ever sounded close to love.
“I know you’re in there.” Hudson’s voice was calm. The voice he used in public, the one that made people think I was crazy when I tried to tell them what he was really like. “I can wait all day, baby. Or you can open the door and we can have a conversation as adults.”
The handle jiggled but the lock held.
For now.
Shit. Shit, shit, shit!
I backed away from the door, my brain cycling through options at a speed that felt too slow and too fast at the same time.
Window.
I crossed the room in three steps and grabbed the frame, yanking upward. It didn’t budge. I tried again, putting my whole weight into it, and the wood groaned but held fast. Painted shut or warped from age.
Or just my shit luck continuing its winning streak.
Come on, please!
A shoulder slammed against the door behind me, the bang echoing through the room. I yanked harder at the window, fingernails scraping against the frame, and it moved maybe half an inch before sticking again.
Another slam. The wood around the lock began to splinter.
I pulled until my arms burned, until my shoulders screamed, and the window gave me nothing.
The door exploded inward. Hudson filled the doorway, exactly as I remembered him. Handsome in that bland, forgettable way that made people trust him.
The kind of man who knew how to hurt you without leaving visible marks.
