Page 143 of Songbird: Black Kite
I could hear it in his voice, the touch of resentment when he spoke about my connection to Hawk.
“Daniel, I’m sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen.” I wanted to say more. To tell him that he’d been one of the best parts of my life for the last few years. That if things had been different, the maybewecould have been different.
But I didn’t say any of that. It wouldn’t have been fair.
“I know you didn’t,” he said, and I could see the regret in his eyes, too. Daniel stared at me with a gentle kind of longing, his heart fully on his sleeve as he offered me a sad smile. “Maybe in another life, right?”
“Yeah. Maybe.”
Because in this life, there was no one for me but Hawk.
“Here,” Daniel said, grabbing his suit coat off the rack behind his desk and handing it to me. “Take my vehicle. Yours is probably surrounded out front. Keys are in the pocket.”
“I can’t—”
“You can. Your keys are in your desk, right? I’ll just take yours at the end of the day and come by to switch them out later.” Offering me another smile, Daniel gave me a little shove toward the back door. “Now, go on.”
Pausing with my hand on the knob, I turned back to him one more time.
“Thank you, Daniel. Truly.” I said, and he just nodded before turning back to the main hallway and hollering about lawsuits and trespassing charges.
Taking advantage of the distraction he was causing, I tugged his suit jacket on over my skirt and blouse in a lame attempt at a disguise and dashed out the door, hustling as fast as I could toward his Land Rover. Daniel usually parked at the back end of the lot, as far from the door as he could get, and today was no different. Looking around, I could see that there were only two photographers standing outside, the rest presumably still inside the building, trying to get a shot or an exclusive of some kind.
Perfect. Now was my chance to make a getaway. Stuffing my hand into the pocket of the jacket, I pulled out the keys and pressed the button, wincing when the horn gave a sharp honk in response, causing one of the photographers to glance in my direction.
“Hey! There she is!”
Climbing behind the wheel, I pressed the ignition button and threw the car into gear. Not having time to adjust the position of the chair, I sat with my ass perched on the very edge of the seat so I could reach the pedals. Pressing my foot down hard, the SUV lurched forward, the expensive vehicle so much more responsive than my old clunker. Swerving toward the exit, I did my best to keep my head down as a camera was now pointed in my direction again. Leaving the lot, I took a sharp left, narrowly avoiding side swiping a big brown Cadillac before I took off down the street in the direction of the school. The two photographers who had been outside had scrambled for their own vehicle and were now following me, the passenger holding his camera out the window as the driver sped through the sleepy streets of Grand Rapids in pursuit.
“Holy shit!” I squealed, slamming on the brakes as a tractor pulled out into traffic in front of me, causing me to cut hard to the right. Looking in the mirror, I could see that same car still following me, having also dodged the slow-moving tractor. “These guys never quit.”
Reaching the next intersection, I turned right, then left again, now driving parallel to the main road but still headed toward the bridge that would take me over the river and to the school. Pressing the gas even harder, I flew down the road, blowing past stop signs with a grimace, until I could go no farther. Forced to take one more left when the road dead-ended at the riverbank, I immediately found myself at the main road again, this time, right at the bridge. Mentally crossing my fingers, I zoomed onto the bridge, now finding myself ahead of the tractor that had originally cut me off.
“Yes!” I shouted, watching as the car full of photographers was immediately cut off by the lumbering tractor, unable to follow me any farther as the wide load blocked the entire bridge. “Finally, small-town living comes in handy.”
Feeling confident that they would be held up, at least for a little while, I dropped back down to a more reasonable—but still too fast—speed, finding myself in front of the school in record time.
I was just striding for the front doors when they burst open before me, a familiar face cooling my blood.
“Did you post it like I told you?” Denise hissed at Britney, her face painted in evil glee as her daughter hustled to keep up with her. They were in such a hurry that neither of them had noticed me following them back toward the parking lot.
“Yes, Mom,” Britney replied, her tone annoyed. “I made three different accounts and have been commenting all morning.” Suddenly breaking out in a little dance, Britney added, “I can’t believemyphoto is going viral on all the gossip sites.”
Soshewas the one who had taken that photo of Cooper. I should have fucking known.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Denise said, sounding thoughtful. “We need something else. Something that will really humiliate that stupid bitch, Wren. Finish that family once and for all.”
“Do you really think he’s Cooper’s dad?” Britney asked, shocking Denise into freezing on the sidewalk. “Because that would be kind of cool.”
“Are you insane?” Denise snapped, rounding on her daughter. “That wouldnotbe cool! That would be a goddamn disaster. There’s no way that disgusting witch and her filthy spawn are going to make me look like a fool and get away with it.”
“I don’t get it, Mom. Why do you hate them so much?” Britney asked, sounding honestly confused.
And for the record, so was I.
“Yeah, Denise,” I called, and they both whirled on me, shock on their faces. “Why exactlydoyou hate us so much?”
“Wren. What a surprise to see you here during the day. Don’t you a have job you’re supposed to be at?” she said instead of answering. “Or is that something you no longer need, seeing as how you’re a gold-digging groupie now?”
