Page 16 of Easy Steal

“What happened?”

I sighed, rolling my eyes, “I nearly got caught stealing a car the other day. A cop saw me trying to pick the lock. Sam just happened to be there and he stepped in.”

Rome frowned, “why were you trying to steal a car?”

I looked at her once, shaking my head.

“Dad showed up at the coffee shop.”

“Again?” she snapped.

I nodded.

“I wonder what he wants?” she said, raking a hand through her hair.

“I don’t really care what he wants. I told him to stay away from me.”

Rome nodded, and though I was staring intently at my computer screen, I could feel her eyes on me. Watching me, making sure that I wouldn’t break.

My father disappeared from my life at the same time my mother did.

After the fire, only my brother was found inside the house. Mum was supposed to be at home, but no body was found. Everyone assumed that she was dead, because of him. I was not so believing.

My brother swore that Mum was the one who carried him out of the house, everyone said he was delusional. Just a dumb kid who was now traumatised. Soon after that, he was shipped back to the Philippines to live with our mother’s sister.

I missed him dearly, and it always hurt that I didn’t get to watch him grow up.

But he was safe there.

He was safe far away from our father.

I knew that was why Mum left - to keep us safe.

She was who my father wanted, hers was the life he wanted to destroy.

She knew that he would not stop hunting her. And she knew that we would all be safer if she disappeared. I had dedicated the better part of my life to two things: making sure my brother and aunt were financially taken care of, and finding my Mum.

“Have you heard from Evan lately?” Rome asked.

My jaw hardened.

I had also dedicated my life to avoiding two things: my father, and Evan.

“Not for a few months now,” I sighed, wondering why Rome decided this was the right time to bring up my ex-boyfriend. The boy that I fell in love with at fourteen years old still haunted me nearly ten years later. I was fourteen, he was nineteen. As a starry-eyed, optimistic, naive girl - I was flattered by having an older guy who wanted me.

Now, it made me sick to my stomach.

“What about Sierra?” she asked.

“Look,” I sighed, “can we not talk about these people right now? Please, can we just not?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t even think,” Rome shook her head.

It seemed that my past loved to haunt me, it always seemed so hard to escape. These people always popped back up into my life in one way or another, and all I could do was try not to think about it.

Usually, I was pretty good at it.

“So what are you and Sammy up to anyway? What’s the plan?”

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