Page 55 of Where He Ended

- Chapter 22 -

Laiken

“You know you can stayif you want to,” Wyatt says, standing next to me in front of the car. The sun has barely come up, but I've been awake before it showed its crest.

I look over my shoulder at Kara sitting in the driver's seat. “I know. And I appreciate that. But where she goes, I go.”Even if I want nothing more than to drive this car back to Dominic.

Dominic.

His name creates waves through my skin like a tsunami that swallows me whole.

Looking Wyatt in the eye, I smile with half my heart. “He told me he had to stay behind to keep me safe. Do you think that's right, was it really his only choice?”

“There's something to be said about hiding among the enemy. You'll always know what they're up to. The only people in this world who want to hurt you are all living on that estate. If Dominic can keep an eye on them to ensure they don't come after you, then yes. It might just be the only way to protect you.”

I clench my body all the way down to my toes in my shoes. “Again with the saving me. That makes this number four.”

“What?”

I shake my head so fast my hair whips into my shoulders. “Forget it.” He waits a second, then digs into his pocket and hands me an envelope. “What's this?” I ask.

“It's the most that I can do. Neither of you has any cash, you'll need it if you plan to get your lives sorted and started over.”

I peek inside the envelope and gasp. There's got to be a few thousand dollars in here. “Wyatt, no, this is way too much.”

“It wasn't doing me any good sitting in the coffee can in my kitchen,” he says with a coarse grunt. “Pat would give me shit for hanging onto that for so long. What good is his internship money doing anyone by gathering dust?”

I'm overwhelmed; crashing into him, I grab on fiercely. “Thank you for everything.”

He hugs me back for a long minute, his calloused hands pressing on my spine.

I'm going to miss these hands.

****

TWENTY MINUTES PASSbefore either of us speaks to each other. “You really want to go back there?” I ask.

“There's nowhere else to go,” she replies.

Formless grief swells inside of me. She's right, and it hurts to know that she's right. No one wants us. Not our father, and not Dominic.

“Do you remember the way home?” I ask urgently.

She shakes her head. “Only vaguely. With some trial and error, though, I'm sure . . .”

“I know the way,” I say. She glances at me, eyebrows drawing together. “Dominic and I made this trip just the other day, remember?” It's burned into my head and it will never leave me. That whole trip will stay with me forever.

We stop for gas after we empty most of the tank. I go into the tiny store, filling a basket with snacks and bottles of water. Kara joins me after pumping the gas, helping me load everything onto the register counter.

She doesn't ask how I'm paying for it all. She probably figured out by watching that what Wyatt gave me in the envelope was money.

The older woman behind the register rings everything up. “Twenty-five fifty,” she says, bored.

Slipping out the envelope, I hand her two twenties. As she gets me my change, I notice her tossing look after look at Kara and me. I'm growing paranoid. “You two sisters?” she asks.

Lying seems pointless, so I push up my shoulders. “Yeah.”

The woman smiles and nods knowingly. “Resemblance is pretty clear, 'cept for the hair. How long it take you to the grow that out?”

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