Page 10 of Linebacker
“No way am I taking you anywhere near your crazy arsed father,” Mars growls, his ginormous hands gripping the steering wheel so hard that the skin at his knuckles turns white.
“Then let me out here and I’ll walk.” His head snaps around. No longer is he looking at the road ahead but casts me a dark glare. “Mars, I need my backpack. It has important things in there so, I need to get it back. Period.”
“What can be more important than avoiding the risk of coming face to face with your dad? Who, by the way looked like he was about to beat the living shit out of you.”
“Things, my things.” However much I try to hide my building emotions from him, the crack in my voice gives it away. “Pictures of my mum are in there.”
“Your mum, who left you?” he questions but I don’t sense that he’s being judgemental in any way.
“My mum didn’t leave. He killed her.”
“What?” Mars gasps before slamming on the brakes. As my body jerks forward with the sudden motion, Mars slings his arm comes across my chest, gently guiding me back into my seat. “He. You mean your dad? Jesus. I don’t believe it.”
“You saw how he was with me, is it that hard to comprehend?” Shit, what am I doing? I’ve lived with this secret for years, protected my father, played along with the lie, so why now am I spilling my guts to someone who is, for all intents and purpose, my enemy? “Never mind,” I snap, jerking the door handle trying to get it to open so I can get out of here. “Can you please open the door?”
“Hey, stop.” Mars leans across to my side of the car and catches my hand that is still trying to release the door catch. “If you tell me where it is, I’ll go get your bag.”
“You will?” I gasp out. Relief floods through me.
“Only if you promise to stay in the car, okay?” He searches my face for a sign of my acceptance, concern etched in his eyes.
“Yes, yes, I promise.”
The car pulls forward and at the first opportunity Mars makes a U-turn and we head back towards the school.
While he concentrates on the road ahead, I explain where I stashed my backpack, which closet, right in the corner at the back and behind the floor polishing machine. When he brings the car to a stop about a quarter of a mile from school, I panic, thinking that he’s changed his mind. But he turns off the engine, opens his door and jumps out.
What the hell is he doing?
“Why are you stopping here?” I ask as he stands with the door wide open and shrugs out of his jacket.
“Can’t risk going any closer in case your dad is still hanging around. By now he will have realised that I’m not who I claimed to be and will have reported it to the teachers. I can run the rest of the way, and hopefully be able to slip into the school, grab your bag and make it back without being seen.”
“Try the fire exit down the west side,” I offer, giving him the option to take the same route in that I used myself. “It’s the nearest one to the closet and hopefully no one has noticed that it’s open yet.”
“Yet?” he queries.
“Guess it’s the nominated smoking area. Someone had propped it open so they can come and go without being detected.”
“So, that’s how you slipped into the building unseen.” With a nod of his head, he glances down the street towards the school. When he snaps his gaze back at me he cracks a smile, his full lips open and he gives me a flash of perfect white teeth. Even in the limited light of the interior it’s unmissable. “Clever girl,” he chuckles.
“How do you…” Before I get the chance to finish my question he’s closed the door and all I see is his broad, imposing figure moving in front of the car and onto the pavement. I keep watching until he takes the corner and disappears out of sight. “… know that I didn’t walk through the front doors like everyone else?” I finish my sentence although he’s no longer here to answer.
CHAPTER9
We’ve been driving for about an hour before Mars pulls the car up outside a Travel Stop hotel off the M1, just outside Sheffield.
After explaining to Mars that I have no family to speak of other than an aunt in London, we toyed with the idea of going to the coffee shop or Mars’s house seeing that his parents were out of town. We decide both options were too risky as they would be the first places that my father and the teachers would look.
I then came up with the idea of driving out of the area and finding a cheap hotel to hide out for the night. I had some money in my bag that I’d been saving from my shifts working with Windy, so as long as it wasn’t the Hilton, then I could afford it, just this once. Mars agreed and followed the signs for the motorway bringing us here.
When I move to get out of the car, Mars lays a hand on my arm, holding me back.
“Let me go in first,” he suggests. “See if they have a room available.”
“I can do it,” I grumble back at him, as I jerk away from his hold. “I’m not a charity case, Mars. I do have money.”
“Hey,” he gasps back at me holding his hands up in submission. “That’s not the reason I offered. The fewer people that see you the better. Plus, I’m a big motherfucker, and look older than I am and less conspicuous. You, no disrespect but despite the dress, makeup and wig, still look young.”
