Page 51 of Callow

Christ.

“If it’s alright with you, can I talk to your mom for just a second?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Daph said, giving me a small smile.

Sabrina followed me a few feet away. “Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine. I just wanted to ask you if it would be alright if I head back to your place with you so I can set some new locks up? And a door alarm. I also may or may not have pepper spray and a taser waiting for you.”

Sabrina looked up at me for a long moment, her eyes round and a little watery. Before, suddenly, she was throwing an arm around me, and sinking into my chest.

“Thank you,” she said, voice muffled by how she was pressing her face into me. “I didn’t even know where to start.”

“I can also offer you something decidedly more… deadly for protection,” I told her. “If you want it.”

“Not yet,” she said, sucking in a deep breath, but not moving away. “Maybe. But not yet. I don’t want to make decisions like that right now.”

“I understand. And you can always go the legal route for that if you want. A buddy of mine owns the shooting range in town where you could go and get a feel for one before you decide to own one.”

“That’s a good idea,” she decided, pulling away, but doing it so slowly that I knew she didn’t want to. “After Daphne is… better. I think I might have Britney take her home after school for a while. Just for my peace of mind.”

“That’s probably a good idea.”

“I don’t want her to be afraid to be home alone. But… I mean… who can blame her right now?”

“Mom?” Daphne called as a nurse moved back into her exam room, making Sabrina rush away again.

I’d been right about it being several hours later before anyone was even drawing up the discharge papers.

Daphne was sitting off the side of the bed with her new light pink cast, her legs dangling, bare feet swinging impatiently.

“Gonna see if I can get you some slipper socks,” I told her.

By the time I came back with them, the girls were ready to get going, clearly sick of being in the hospital.

“Do you want to drive?” Sabrina asked.

“Sure,” I agreed, still having the keys in my pocket anyway.

I stored the wet clothes in the floorboard of the passenger seat as Sabrina climbed in the back with Daphne.

The tension grew in the car the closer I drove to their apartment building.

In the lot, I found that Sully had someone else come and pick him up, leaving the club’s SUV for me.

“You went kayaking?” Daphne asked, looking at the roof.

“In the bay,” Sabrina confirmed. “Then had a picnic on a small private little island.”

The look on Daphne’s face said she was sorry to have interrupted. As if that shit was her fault.

I got out first, going into the SUV to find a big plastic container full of the supplies I’d asked for. And then some. As well as the SUV’s keys.

With that, we moved in a unit into the building, both the girls tense until we got into the apartment.

“Is that fingerprint powder all over?” Sabrina whispered to me after she got Daphne all set up in her room.

“Yeah. They don’t clean up their mess.”

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