Page 10 of Laying it Bare on the Run

He thought I was beautiful? My lips curved into a small smile. Maybe he worried he would scare me off if I knew he was attracted to me. Of all of the things to be concerned about, that didn’t even register on my huge list. Instead his words filled me with a warmth in the space in my chest that had been left so cold since the last of my family had been ripped away from me. The empty chill that had resided in my heart heated ever so slightly. It felt really good but before I could get too caught up in relishing the feeling, I had to figure out what to do about my current situation. He had said we didn’t have to talk about anything I didn’t want to talk about and that he’d give me some time. So maybe after a little bit of time I would be able to find the courage to share with him what had me on the run. Shoving those thoughts aside, I walked into the bathroom. After brushing my teeth, I stared at my reflection in the vanity mirror while I brushed my hair and I caught a glimpse of hope flickering in my eyes. It was ever so brief but it was there.Did I dare believe? When I no longer resembled something the cat had dragged in, I padded out to the kitchen.

Cannon was standing at the end of the bar, busy mixing ingredients in a large metal bowl. I didn’t know how many pancakes he was planning on making. An unopened package of sausage sat on the other side of the bowl. He smiled at me as I stood in the open space where the hallway ended and the open area for the living room and kitchen began. A granite topped bar separated the space from his small kitchen and a tan plush couch served as a marker for his living room. A matching loveseat and chair sat on either side of the couch and a wooden end table with a small lamp hugged the space between his couch and chair and a coffee table was perched in front of the couch.

But it was the huge flat screen television hanging on the far wall that grabbed my attention. The news was on which wouldn’t have been such a big deal if the reporter hadn’t just announced, “The body of Vincent Key was found in his parent’s home in Dyersburg, Tennessee yesterday. Coroner states he had been there for a while and died of a single gunshot wound to his chest.”

They flashed to a picture of my parent’s home as I clutched my chest and fell against the side wall. Oh God, it took someone this long to find him. Tears welled in my eyes.

“His parents and youngest sister had been killed six months ago but his other younger sister, Harper, is still believed to be alive. Although she hasn’t reported to her job in two months. If you have any information on her whereabouts, authorities are asking you to contact your local police.” My picture popped up on the screen and I barely suppressed a gasp.

Cannon hadn’t made a sound but I could feel his gaze on me.

Slapping a hand to my mouth, I twisted slightly to meet his curious and guarded stare. “Oh God. Please don’t. They’ll kill me. I can’t trust anyone. I took a huge risk coming here and trusting you.” Tears rushed down my cheeks in a never ending current. I hadn’t meant for him to find out like this. The emotions slamming into me full force had me shaking and growing light headed. My brother had lain in the house all this time. I couldn’t take care of him so no one else had either. And now it was on the news and they were making me look like a suspect. And Cannon . . .

“Why is this on our news . . . unless . . . Did you kill your brother?” Cannon’s words struck me down where I stood.

The blood drained from my face and I slid unceremoniously to the ground into a heap. After curling in on myself, I sobbed with all of the fear, grief, uncertainty, and exhaustion plaguing my body. I needed to run from here. He’d turn me in for something I didn’t do and they’d find me. The last months on the run and my brother’s death would have been in vain. All because I dared to trust again. I slammed my hands over my ears.What the hell was that horrible sound? Make it stop. It took me a moment to realize the awful sounds came from me. From the deepest reaches of my soul, my agony erupted from me in the most bone chilling and almost other worldly noises. But I couldn’t get the racket to stop.

“Hey, Harper. Shh, it’s okay. Calm down. Come here.” Cannon touched my arm and made to tug me to him.

“Don’t touch me!” I seethed, tears still streaming down my face, snot dripping from my nose. “How could you think I would kill my own brother? How?” I wailed. I somehow managed to pick up my head and fix him with my bleary burning eyes. “I did everything I could to save him! He was ALL. I. HAD. LEFT!”

He went to touch me again and I swatted him. He immediately threw up his hands in surrender. “I'm so sorry, Harper. I don’t know why I asked that. I think the cop in me overrode the man in me for a moment. And I just blurted without thinking first. I’m so sorry. Even though I don’t know you that well, I don’t believe for a second you could do something like that. Please look at me, Harper. Please.”

Something in his pleading voice brought my gaze back to him. My body still shook with uncontrollable sobs and a small dose of anger, but I managed to stare at him through a fountain of tears – and God help me but I saw remorse. At least I hoped it was because I unsteadily crawled into his lap and allowed him to wrap his strong arms around me. They held me tight but in a comforting way not a restraining one.

One of his hands found its way up my spine and into my hair where he gently played with the strands. “I expected you to trust me, yet I didn’t return the favor and at the first chance, I let you down. I’m so sorry for that. But why would this make it to the news here if finding you wasn’t a big deal? There’s a state between us.”

I snuggled into his hard chest. “Because they know I left the state. I’m sure they searched far and wide only hours after I fled. He was almost sure I was hiding in that house but because they couldn’t find me he figured he had to be wrong. That small window of opportunity or luck got me ahead of them. They tore apart my parent’s home. And I’m sure they then destroyed my apartment too when they came up empty with tracking me down anywhere else.” My words came out on hiccupped sobs.

“Where were you hiding, Harper?” When he kissed the top of my head, the flood gates burst open again.

An emotional pain so great surged out of every pore of my body as my mind went back to that horrible night. Sharp jabs like someone poking me with a hot ice pick in my chest along with gasping breaths accompanied the sobs racking my body as I wailed out the last moments I had with my brother.

Cannon’s arms snuggled me tighter to his chest as he rearranged himself on the floor. God it felt so good to be comforted like this but at the same time so awful because of what I had been through and the anguish of all I had lost.

When I finally gained some sense of control over the emotions gutting me wide open, I pulled away from him slightly. “I’m sorry I’m a mess.” Ugh, that was all my mincemeat of a brain could muster.

“You’re hurting after suffering something that no one should have ever had to experience.” He kissed my forehead before hugging me close again. “You are beautiful and strong and God, Harper, you walked across the entire state of Arkansas on your own and into this one, didn’t you? Not many people would help without asking questions.”

I nodded against his chest. “I didn’t dare ask many for help, I couldn’t risk it. A couple showed me pity. And I may have walked through some of Missouri too. I had no idea exactly where I was going. I just knew I had to keep moving.”

His hands continued their soothing passes up and down my spine and sifting through the strands of my hair. “Can you tell me what happened to the rest of your family?”

I swallowed hard, trying to gain some sort of control of my emotions so I could share with him. The cat was out of the bag so there was no sense keeping this part secret anymore. “They were gunned down leaving my sister’s performance one night. She was a dancer. Vincent and I had to work late that night and missed it. So we were spared that night. And because of my brother, I was spared more recently. So the people in Tennessee know it wasn’t me but in whatever other states this aired they won’t know and I doubt they’d take the time to research it and find out the truth. So they’ll just believe I’m a killer on the loose instead of someone running for my life. They’re trying to smoke me out.” It wasn’t enough that I was running from someone trying to kill me or more like sell me into slavery but now I’d have people trying to turn me into law enforcement and having to find a way to prove my innocence without getting mixed up with another dirty cop. And my poor brother had . . .

My stomach rolled and twisted in on itself as my insides tried to expel its contents. I leapt from Cannon’s lap as fast as my weary legs could move me and staggered back to the bathroom. Once tucked inside, I dropped to my knees on the floor at the toilet and vomited. Most of what came up was bile and the acid burned its way up my esophagus and throat.

Cannon had chased after me and now knelt at the porcelain bowl beside me, trying to help me hold back my hair as I heaved. I tried to swat him away. I hated having him see me like this. But he refused to budge and I was too weak to keep up the fight.

After the heaving subsided, I crumbled to the floor in exhaustion – physically, mentally, and emotionally drained.

Cannon grabbed a washcloth and ran it under warm water before wiping my face. Then he tossed it into the sink and scooped me into his arms and carried me into his room. He gently placed me on his bed before crawling in beside me and wrapping the two of us up in his covers, with my head tucked under his chin and me half draped across his chest.

The more I shivered the tighter he held me. The tears had ceased but the numb feeling that came over me left me unable to get warm.

“I’m right here, Harper. I’m not going anywhere. I promise you can count on me. You can tell me what you want me to do for you later. Right now if you want to just rest here, or go to sleep, or go eat. You tell me what you want to do.”

“Can we stay here for a moment until my stomach settles? I’m starving but my stomach feels like someone punched it and then squeezed it tight before stretching it beyond its limits.”

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