Page 9 of Wolf
Trish stares off at someone behind me. “Hang on. What about the mysterious one at the bar? He’s only been watching you since he walkedin.”
“Which one?” I ask and start toturn.
“He hasn’t been sitting there for very long,” she answers. “Don’t look. Shit, now he knows we’re talking abouthim.”
“Describe him,then.”
“Tall. Really tall. Grey eyes. Beard. Wearing all black. He ordered a gin and tonic but hasn’t touched it yet. Oh crap, he’sleaving.”
I turn, but only catch a glimpse of his back as he slips through the door to the packed outdoor patio. “Oh well. I missedone.”
“You never miss,” she remindsme.
I hold up my huge drink. “I also never had one of thesebefore.”
“Boo-hoo,” Luke teases me. “Cry me ariver.”
“She doesn’t cry, remember?” Trish says. “Which means I’ll haveto.”
She’sright.
I cried hard for four days when I was seven. It started on the night I saw my parents murdered right in front of me, and it ended on the day of their joint funeral. I shed a lifetime’s worth of tears, and then I told myself I needed to be strong, and Istopped.
All the tears and prayers and wishes in the world wouldn’t bring themback.
Tears wouldn’t save me either. That’s why I put all my energy into mysurvival.
Grams was sure that the people who took my parents’ lives would eventually come back for me. I never saw anyone’s face that night. I just remember the fear, and all the blood. But Grams grew up in a different reality. She was a paratrooper nurse during the Vietnam War. A tough cookie, my father used to say. She saw a hell of a lot and lived to tell the tale. Thank God for her. I don’t think I’d be alive if I didn’t haveher.
She walked away from her entire life to protect me. Gave up friends, sold her house. She changed both our names and moved us out of state to get away. Then she taught me the five rules she livedby.
Don’t trust thesystem.
Always watch yourback.
To survive, you have to be ready todie.
Always have anout.
A friend you share your secrets with can be an enemy waiting tohappen.
The last time I cried was on my sixteenth birthday. Grams took me to meet her trustee to go over her will, and to review everything my parents left to me. It was the first time it hit me that I might have to live in a world without her in it. That evening when we got home, I sobbed for the entirenight.
“You’re off your game, young lady,” Luke muses, pulling me from mythoughts.
“What’s with you two? Is ittag-team Rose into a cornernight?” I shake my head, but I’m not taking them too seriously. This is how we are whenever we gettogether.
Trish shrugs and relaxes into Luke’s shoulder, turning a bit somber. “You’ve never shed a tear in the entire time that we’ve known eachother.”
“Cut me some slack,” I tell them, thinking about whoever it was that was watching me. It bugs me that I didn’t notice that one person. For the rest of the evening, I have an uneasy feeling that won’t leave mygut.
I can’t afford to missone.
One wrong move and it can be all over for me andGrams.
5
Rose
