Page 142 of To Hate Adam Connor

“Love you, Lucy,” Aiden murmured, his eyes already closed.

My heart melted in my chest, and I secretly plotted ways to kill the oh-so-put-together bitch. Maybe a heavy camera could fall on her face? That would be fun. Who’d yell at a kid when they offered to give you a hug just to make you feel better? Like who in the fucking world?

“I love you, too, little human,” I murmured back and brushed a light kiss on his cheek.

I felt my eyes slowly start to close, so I scooted down and got a little more comfortable without waking Aiden up.

I wasn’t sure if it was seconds or minutes later, but something woke me up. Groggy and not exactly sure what was going on, I looked around and listened to see if what I’d heard was Adam.

The door didn’t open. There was no sound of a car. There was no Adam.

I’d muted the TV before I’d closed my eyes, but the light from the movie was enough that I could see around clearly.

When that weird feeling didn’t go away, I rubbed my eyes and slowly sat up.

It was then I heard the sharp sound of a twig breaking. My heart beating heavily in my chest, I pulled back the sheets and peered out from our little hiding place, toward the backyard. It was dark outside, and more than that, the couch in front of the windows was making it impossible to see outside from my point of view.

On my hands and knees, I crawled out of the fort and waited.

Listened.

Nothing.

But then, something.

I saw someone walking past the window as his or her shadow fell on the wood flooring right in front of me.

Holding back my gasp, I crawled back and started to shake Aiden.

“Aiden. Aiden, you have to wake up.” My voice was barely audible.

He moaned and blinked his eyes open.

“Aiden you have to get up for me, okay?”

“Is Daddy back?”

“Not yet, sweetheart, but I need you to get up now, okay?”

“Okay,” he mumbled, letting me pull him into a sitting position.

I heard a clicking that sounded suspiciously like someone trying to open the door, but a second later it was all silent again.

Aiden kept rubbing his eyes, but I pulled his hands down to get his attention again. “Aiden, listen to me. I need you to—” Holy shit! I realized I’d left my phone in Adam’s room when we were stealing more pillows from him. “Aiden, as soon as I say so, we will run to your dad’s room, okay? Can you do that for me?”

“But why?”

“Because we need to hide, okay?”

“Is this an emergency?”

“Yes. Yes, it is. We need to hide so I can call your dad and tell him to come back here, okay?”

He scratched his head and gave me an adorably confused look, which would have been cute if the possibility of danger wasn’t so imminent.

“But, if there is an emergency we are supposed to call nine-one-one and Dan. Daddy told me so.”

“You’re absolutely right, but first we need to get to your dad’s room so I can get my phone, okay?”

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