Page 44 of Hawk
23
Maci
My body is stiff as I go and pick up Riley from school. I didn’t want her to ride the bus in case anything were to happen. I don’t think she minds me picking her up, but she doesn’t have a choice.
She runs to my car, opens it, gets inside and then slams the door.
“What happened?” I question and pull out of the carpool lane.
“I don’t wanna talk about it.”
“Yeah, you do. What happened?” I take a left to get out of the parking lot and start towards our apartment.
“I didn’t get onto the squad. They said I was too fat.”
I about hit the roof. “What?” I blurt.
My daughter is not fat and after everything we’ve been through regarding her weight, I don’t want to go through that again. Riley is gorgeous but she matured quicker than most girls in her class. They like to be assholes about it. I want to kick them in their teeth.
She leans her head against the door and starts crying lightly. “Mom, I’m trying to fit in but it’s not working. I’m always going to be the smart kid and that’s that!”
“I would rather you be the smart kid and be healthy than be a popular kid and be unhealthy.”
“Do you work tonight?” Riley asks quietly.
“Yeah, I do. Why?”
“I don’t feel comfortable being there by myself.”
My eyes about fall out of my face. “What happened?”
“Nothing happened and everything happened. Our house caught on fire and now we have to hide out? I don’t want to be alone at night.”
I smile cautiously. I know why she feels that way. “All right. I’ll see if I can move the shifts around to work mornings while you are at school. Does that work a little better?”
She nods. “Thanks!”
While I pull into the driveway, there is a black car stalling two spots down and they are looking at something and looking at me after. What the fuck is going on?
I reach into my purse to grab my taser to be ready in case this goes wrong.
“Riley, why don’t you go inside and get a snack? I’m going to call my boss about the shifts,” I lie. I lie because I want her to get out of the car as if there are no problems.
I don’t know who this man is, but I don’t want to spook Riley about it until I know what is going on.
“All right. I’m going to make pizza rolls, is that okay?”
“Sure,” I murmur and look casually to the car two spots from us.
Riley gets out of the car and starts walking to the apartment. The person in the black car rolls the window down and I have my phone aimed at them to take a picture of whoever it is.
It is a guy in the car and he’s looking at a picture and then looking at Riley’s back. It is obvious he is trying to make sure that this is the right person he’s looking for.
I snap a couple of pictures and then the guy looks at me.
My heart drops.
Holy shit. He clocked me!
