Page 117 of Ruled Out

“Red nails.”

A hand wraps around my arm, spinning me around to face an older version of my boyfriend.

He looks like him, but he’s nothing like him, all at the same time.

His eyes are blue, but hold no warmth, like his son’s.

“I was looking for Jessie.” It’s the only thing I think of to say as he peers down at me.

When he releases my arm, I think about my chances of making a run for it. If Jessie isn’t here, then neither is Alice.

“Struggling with the door?” he asks, tipping his head up and over my shoulder.

“Is he here?”

Running his tongue across his bottom lip, he scans my body. The insidious tone in his voice that night on the phone is mimicked in the way he looks at me, and I take a step back into the screen.

“He’s at the hospital.”

“W-which one?” As much as I try to hold back my fear, it’s impossible to hide. I can stand up as straight as I want, but my voice gives me away.

He laughs, but there’s nothing amusing about the way it sounds. “I’d say, at this point, it really doesn’t matter.”

“Why not?”

He looks off to the side, and I follow his gaze to a picture on the wall. One with Jessie as a baby, sitting on his mom’s lap. “She died shortly after she got to the hospital. He’ll be there since I asked them to call him before I left.” He shrugs his shoulder and slides his hands into his pockets. “I don’t currently own a phone, so I couldn’t do it myself.”

“She’s dead …why aren’t you still there with her?” The question leaves my mouth before I can stop it.

He stares at me for a long second and then blows out a breath. “Did you not hear me? She’s dead. There’s nothing more I could do. Sitting by her side isn’t going to bring her back, is it?”

“I … I guess not.” I turn around to leave, praying this time, I can figure out how to get past the screen door. “I’ll call Jessie and find out where he is.”

“Not so fucking fast.” His hand comes around my arm again. “He doesn’t know you’re here, does he?”

In around half a second, my mind searches through the contents of my bag, remembering the pepper spray I stashed in there when I started college.

“He knows I’m here,” I lie. “He’s probably on his way over right now.”

With my back to him, I feeland smellhis breath fan my ear. The stench of booze is unmistakable, and I shut my eyes in the hopes that it will disconnect my other senses too.

“Come on now, Mia. He has no idea you’re here, does he? I’d go so far as to say he doesn’t even know you’re in Texas.”

A shiver licks up my spine when he says my name. As Jessie predicted, the minute we went public, Wayne would know my identity. He only needed to check the gossip sites to work that one out.

Not waiting for him to do it himself, I spin around and face him, tipping up my chin. “Why are you so bothered, Wayne? I mean, I could stay here and talk with you, but you sounded pretty busy up there.” I motion toward the stained staircase. “So, I’ll be on my way and leave you to do … whatever it was you were doing.”

Assuming he has a system full of alcohol, his reflexes take me by surprise as he reaches up and snatches my bag off my shoulder, throwing it across the room and onto the couch, the contents spilling out, including my cell.

“If he’s on his way, then there’s zero point in you leaving.”

“I don’t want to stay,” I reply, my voice significantly less steady than before.

He leans down, bringing his face inches from mine. “Why not?”

I know it’s an illusion, but I can’t help believing it’s real when I stare past Wayne’s shoulder and into the tiny kitchen behind him, seeing an image of a young Jessie climbing onto the counter to search the cupboards for food.

I wonder where Wayne beat Jessie when he was last here. Maybe right in front of the broken TV or upstairs and away from his now-dead mother.

---