Page 45 of Steadfast

Cian glanced at the back seat where everyone was asleep. “What if she’s only willing to take Ro and Ash?”

“No fucking way,” I replied instantly.

“Me and Saoirse can—”

“No.”

“We’re old enough to—”

“Not a chance in hell.” I shook my head, unwilling to let him finish the thought. “We stay together no matter what.”

“It would be better to know they’re somewhere safe,” he argued. “If we have to split up.”

“Cian Sean Kelly,” I said, looking him in the eye. “If the only option is splitting up, we’ll be on the road to Mexico before anyone knows we’re gone. Got it?”

“Got it,” he replied, his shoulders losing a little of the stiffness he’d had since we climbed in the car.

“This exit?”

“Yeah.”

I took the exit and listened as he gave me the next directions on his map. I’d never been so grateful that I’d gotten him a phone with data.

“What do you think Richie did when he came back?” Cian asked a while later as he put on my sunglasses.

“Those actually don’t look that bad,” I said thoughtfully.

“I look good in everything. Do you think he went to the store to see if he could catch us?”

“Maybe.” Another semi was closing in behind us. I tightened my hands on the steering wheel and pressed harder on the gas pedal. The kids teased that my car couldn’t go more than forty-five miles an hour, but I was doing a respectable sixty-five. I ignored the loud humming coming from the engine. “I told Jasmine to tell him that it was for the best.”

“Damn, Aoife. That’s cold.”

“No, it’s not.”

“You should’ve at least let him choose.”

“Not when he was making the wrong choice,” I replied stubbornly. I didn’t want to talk about Richie. With every mile I put between us, the burn in my belly grew stronger. I missed him already.

I hadn’t even let myself think about Mom yet. Getting to Aunt Ashley and keeping the kids safe with me was my only focus. It had to be. If I let myself think of anything else, I was afraid I’d completely lose it, and we’d end up in the ditch.

We kept driving, and when the sun was finally up and turning the car into an oven that my air conditioning couldn’t keep up with, one by one, the kids in the back woke up.

“I’m hungry,” Ronan mumbled.

“Check in the cooler,” Cian said, turning to deal with him. “There’s some yogurt in there.”

“I didn’t buy yogurt.”

“I ran in while you were at the pharmacy,” he said dismissively.

“Where the hell did you get money?”

“Took it out of Mom’s purse,” he replied defensively.

“She’s gonna be so mad,” Ronan said, pausing to look at Cian in horror.

Cian looked at me, and I shook my head. It wasn’t time yet. I didn’t want Ronan and Aisling finding out when we were in the car, and there was nothing I could do for them. We had plenty of time to tell them when we got to Aunt Ashley’s.

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