Page 106 of Wicked Ends
I shot upright and nearly screamed at the pain that slammed into me from my ribs.
Wade stood outside the car. I rolled down the window.
“Morning, Anna. This is a nice surprise. I didn’t think anyone waited at the hardware store on a Sunday except for people like me, the terminally single in their forties.”
“I need to grab a few things,” I managed to get out, a huge yawn cracking my jaw.
“Well, we’ve got half an hour. I’m buying you a cup of joe at the diner. No complaints.” Wade stepped back and waited.
I didn’t have the fight in me right now to refuse him. I had only enough fight in me to end things with Dale.
I got out, not wanting to cause a scene. It hurt so much I had to breathe through my mouth, as carefully as I could. My ribs were definitely broken. I knew the feeling well, but I’d survived worse.
I walked slowly to the diner, while Wade pretended not to notice that I was basically shuffling, and kept up a running one-sided conversation at my side.
Inside the Chickadee Diner, I sank gratefully into the overstuffed booth and collapsed against the back.
A waitress bustled to us immediately, and we ordered.
“You don’t want food?” Wade asked.
I shook my head. The pain had blunted my appetite. I was hoping I could keep coffee down.
Wade continued to talk about a lecture he’d attended recently in New York by a famous writer. I pretended to listen. I couldn’t get Dale’s hateful face out of my head. He wasn’t dead. I’d never been more disappointed to find out someone was alive. At first, I’d been sure the police were about to descend on me from all sides, as I pumped gas or checked into a motel during my long slog across the country. As soon as Claire and Lulu had walked away from me in a dusty bus station in the Midwest, destined to go our separate ways to make it harder to find us, I’d been ableto breathe easier. But still, there’d been nothing from California, no sign of life, or death… just nothing.
Why didn’t I go with them to Canada? Because I’d wanted them to have a fresh start. I was pretty sure they never wanted anything to do with me or my family ever again… and if Dale ever caught up with me, I wanted to be able to keep him from them.
I was a person who could never let things pass… That was why I had pockets full of street trash. I wanted to leave the world better than I found it, and I wanted to help people. I loved Claire and Lulu, and after what they’d gone through with Dale, I’d wanted to save them. I’d felt responsible for them, and now, I was the only thing standing between them and Dale.
It had to end here, in Hade Harbor, no matter what.
“Sorry, what?” I asked Wade, when I finally noticed that he’d gone quiet and was waiting for me to answer him.
“I asked you how you’re finding Hade Harbor so far? Small towns aren’t for everyone,” he said.
“I-I love it here,” I confessed quietly. It was true. “It feels like it could have been home.”
Wade considered my words, his head tipped slightly to the side. “The professor in me is dying to pick apart that phrasing. Are you leaving, Anna?”
I shrugged. “Who knows what will happen in the future? I never know where I’ll be.”
“I didn’t take you for the nomad type,” he observed.
“Isn’t this one too old for you, Professor?” a gravelly voice said from above us.
I jumped.
A couple stood beside us. He was huge and familiar—Beckett Anderson, the defenseman for the Hellions. The girl was tiny in comparison, dark and stunning. She slapped Beckett ineffectually on the arm, and he wrapped a hand possessively around her hip, pulling her against him. Eve, I remembered her name was. Sister of Asher, another Ice God.
“Beck, behave.”
“I’m just saying. This one isn’t your usual style.” Beckett cocked his head at me. “Good morning, Professor Moore. I’ve been hearing great things about you.”
“About me?” I repeated. My brain felt like it was as bruised as my body.
Beckett nodded.
“From who?” I asked, before I could think through the wisdom of that question.
