Page 36 of Pit Stop

Odette sighs and shakes her head, turning away and walking towards the front of the car. As I shut the trunk she turns back around. “You can’t say stuff like that.”

“Why?” I ask.

She throws her hands up in the air in frustration. “Because you don’t know me, yet you act like I’m some sort of perfect little angel. Newsflash, Tillman, I’m not.”

Her words catch me off guard. They are not what I was expecting at all. “I’m not acting like that or at least that wasn’t my intention.”

“How do you know I’m someone who deserves anything? I mean I literally caused my sister to have to spend eight months in jail.”

I shake my head and stalk towards her. My long legs eat up the distance with ease. I grip her upper arms when I’m within reach, forcing her to look at me. “No, you didn’t do that. Your sister didn’t even mean for that to happen, it just did. You were all doing what you thought was necessary to survive. None of you were in the wrong. Cal and the guys from the SK were wrong, but no one else.”

Her eyes brim with tears, tearing at my weathered heart. “I feel like it’s my fault,” she whispers.

I pull her into me and wrap my arms around her. She cries quietly. I smooth her hair, press a kiss to the top of her head and try to reassure her that everything will be okay. After a few minutes, she calms herself down and we get into the car. As we head back towards the hotel, we now all call home, I get an idea. Hopefully, it’ll cheer her up some.

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