Page 131 of Run Away With Me

‘I had to tell the police what had happened. To the Creep.’

‘God, Jessie.’

I’d thought a lot about whether I should be honest with her, if I ever had the chance. In the end, I’d decided lying to her wouldn’t be good for us in the long run.

‘They said I was only ever a person of interest,’ I said, not looking up to meet her eyes. ‘They never actually thought I did it.’

‘That’s good,’ she said gently.

‘It is?’ I asked.

She used her knuckle to tilt my chin up. Her big, brown eyes were filled with empathy.

‘Yes,’ she said simply. ‘I’m glad that whole chapter is over.’

‘You don’t … blame me? For everything you went through?’

I didn’t know how else to say it – to try to encapsulate all that had happened in those eleven days we were together in the Mustang, and how it had all ended.

‘No. I thought you’d blame me.’

‘What for?’ I exclaimed.

‘Taking you out of the city,’ she said with a wince. ‘When you could’ve stayed here and cleared everything up really quickly.’

‘That wasn’t your fault,’ I said, shaking my head.

‘And what happened wasn’t your fault, either.’

I couldn’t quite wrap my head around that. Brooke hadn’t done anything wrong. And she didn’t blame me, either. All of a sudden, a huge weight lifted from my shoulders. I turned my hand over again and squeezed hers, hoping to communicate all the gratitude I felt.

‘Oh, so, guess what I found out?’ Brooke asked, easily changing the subject.

‘What?’ I replied.

‘You remember Chris and Ashley?’

‘Yes. They haunt my nightmares, actually.’ I could joke about it, but it was true. I’d woken up in a cold sweat more than once, dreaming that they were still chasing us.

‘The FBI caught up with them. They were charged with abduction, drug trafficking, possession of stolen goods, the fucking motherload.’

‘Oh my God. How do you know that?’

‘I called Daniel,’ she said. ‘I thought he was going to yell at me, too, but he said he’d been really worried, and that if Tony hadn’t come to get me, he would’ve taken me in himself.’

‘Your brother?’ I asked. Brooke had barely mentioned him, apart from the fact he was studying Law at Harvard.

‘He’s a good guy,’ she said, watching the movement of my thumb across her skin. ‘Anyway, he dug into it for me and found out what had happened to them.’

‘Wow.’ It took me a second to process. ‘How … are you feeling about all of that?’

‘Good. Fucking elated, actually. They’re not getting out, Jessie. They won’t get away with it.’

‘Thank God.’

‘I know. And, I got a therapist.’

I squeezed her hand. ‘A good one?’

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