Page 82 of Hush (Fighting Fate)

I gasped and smacked him on the arm, making him laugh. Slinging his arm back over my shoulder, he nudged me towards the door. “Come on, man-hater. We’ve got some celebrating to do.”

Resistance was futile. I knew he’d probably just pick me up and throw me over his shoulder if I did, so I grudgingly went along.

As soon as we made it out to the parking lot, Corey found me.

“Hey,” he said, coming to lean on the car beside me. “How’re you going?”

I screwed my nose up a little to show my neither good nor bad answer.

He smiled a little before sighing. “I really owe you an apology,” he said quietly.

I raised my eyebrow at that. “What for?”

“Just…you know…the whole pushing you to go out with me thing…” He sighed again. “I feel so shitty about it now. You were going through so much, and I kind of added more stuff on top of it.”

I shook my head. “You didn’t know.”

“I know, but you did try to tell me.”

I gave him a warm smile and bumped my shoulder against his arm. “Believe it or not, it actually helped. It was kind of like a little ray of light when everything felt so dark. So…thanks…”

He smiled at me, but it was still sad. I knew it was probably because I looked so sad, but that was all I could manage right now.

Chapter 54

Noah

If I thought being undercover for over a year and a half was hell, I’d have to say rehab was right about on par.

I’d gone from being some sort of neurotic insomniac and puking my guts up over the first couple of days - which I don’t recommend doing while recovering from a gunshot wound to your stomach, to a depressive pitiful mess with night sweats and vivid dreams that were more fucked up than anything I’d ever seen, to an emotional lunatic that could’ve seriously rivalled any girl with pre-menstrual tension.

At some stage during my depressive phase I’d begged Adam to get me a picture of Kaeli so I’d have something to focus on and hopefully help me get through it. It was borderline pathetic, even I knew that, but like the good brother he was, he did it without complaint.

Just like he’d replaced the frame her picture was in each time I’d broken it, either from the panicked shakes I’d gotten after dreaming of her lying there, bleeding, or from the impulsive anger I’d felt when Dad had told me Aaron was still at large.

None of the month I’d been there had been fun, and none of it had been pretty.

It wasn’t just the rehab side of things either. I’d been pretty much on lockdown. With ‘Mitch’ supposedly dead, and the whole case being in the media spotlight, I had to be in hiding until my appearance was altered enough I wouldn’t be recognized.

Now, as I stared at my reflection in the bathroom mirror, I tried to see myself through Kaeli’s eyes. I knew I’d definitely succeeded in eliminating Mitch from my appearance. So much so I was worried she wouldn’t recognize me at all.

My hair, now dark instead of the bleached white I used to keep it, had grown out a good inch or so. My eyes, now free of those god awful contacts, were a dark hazel, with tiny flecks of blue. The tattoo on my neck was gone, courtesy of the laser treatment the department paid for, as were the piercings I’d had in my eyebrow and lip.

I actually looked quite normal. Well, from the chest up anyway. The new full sleeve cover up tatts I’d had inked on both arms were a bit of a statement that hardly screamed normal, but I liked them. As I did both the new piercings I’d gotten. Neither of those were visible until you got closer though. A lot closer.

Taking a deep breath, I tried to gather up some courage. After weeks of feeling like a caged animal and wanting nothing more than to be out in the real world so I could find Kaeli, now I was here, I was feeling excessively anxious about it all.

Maybe I was just overloaded. The psychologist had said my emotions would still continue to be up and down for a while, and it’d been an emotional day. It wasn’t just the relief of finally being free either. When Adam had come to pick me up just after lunch, he’d surprised me by taking me to my new apartment. My new apartment. As in mine.

When I’d asked my parents to look after my finances for me while I was gone, I hadn’t anticipated them using it to buy me an apartment. I hadn’t even known I would earn enough to be able to afford one, but apparently the department had paid me a pretty hefty bonus and then everyone had chipped in to cover the difference as some kind of thing to make up for missed birthdays and Christmases or something. Needless to say, I was overwhelmed.

It was a great apartment too. Not far from Adam and Kara’s place, and only a little bit further to Mom and Dad’s. It even had basement parking for my baby, the 1967 Chevy Impala Dad and I had done up while I’d been in high school. It was perfect.

I glanced at the clock, and saw it was just after two. I’d already searched to find when Kaeli’s school got out. If I was going to do this, I needed to go.

I knew Mom wasn’t going to be happy with me for being late. I was already supposed to be at their place for a celebratory family get-together, but I’d convinced Adam to hold them off for me. He wasn’t too happy about having to deal with Mom’s wrath, but he understood.

Glancing at the clock again, I took a deep, reassuring breath, then picked up my keys. As Adam would say, I needed to grow some balls and just do it already.

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