the subject faded away.
Chapter Six
Devon
“Shit, fuck, shit!” I stuffed the cash into an old, tattered makeup bag one of the girls had left behind a few weeks back, and shoved the bag down into the bottom of the only luggage I owned—another tattered and old piece of shit.
TJ was back early. He’d found out that I’d been doing “something” on the side, after one of the girls, Meg, ratted me out, saying I was sneaking off for hours at a time in the mornings. She was a kiss-ass and had the hots for TJ, always trying to be his favorite in hopes that someday he’d fall in love with her. As if Satan knew what love was. Barf.
I looked at the clock. It was a bit after ten at night, and I had to leave. Now or never. TJ was passed out on the couch, last I saw, having stayed the night here instead of sleeping in the guest house out back.
My face ached like a bitch from the punches he’d thrown at me an hour or so ago. And I could swear on a stack of bibles that my hip was broken from him tossing me down into the basement, down the stairs, locking me in that dark and dank room he preserved for the bad girls.
Luckily for me, I knew how to pick any lock ever made, and after licking my wounds, I broke out, using a hairpin that Mia had put in my hair that I never bothered to take out, then sneaking along the hallway to my room to pack my shit and make a run for it.
All the girls were out on calls. No one but TJ was home, and from the smell of him, he wasn’t about to wake anytime soon.
But I still had to hurry.
I looked around my little room one last time, praying I’d never lay eyes on it again. I tucked my phone into the back pocket of my jeans, opened my window, and tossed out my small suitcase onto the grass below. With a few bucks tucked into my bra, and my bag strapped against my chest, I was all set, high-tailing it down the street, sticking to the dark sidewalk as I made my way to one of the main streets to catch a cab.
Earlier, I had called Mia, so she was expecting me.
Mia. That precious girl, someone who had snuck up on me and bitten me with something I couldn’t name, something close to caring, maybe even love. Infatuation or whatever they called it, perhaps. Attraction, definitely. Whatever it was, the bug had bitten me without a doubt.
I’d never felt so much myself as when I was with her. And what we had shared yesterday, after me comforting her and wiping away her tears… I could honestly say I felt a lot for her. Something real.
When she opened the door, she gasped at what she clearly saw as evidence of TJ’s temper. I hadn’t given her any info in my text to her about what had gone down, only that I needed to see her ASAP.
She pulled me inside, carefully holding my hand and shutting the door, guiding me to the living area. There she left me, on the couch, right next to Mittens, Mia’s adorable gray long-hair cat. I heard a rattling of ice cubes and drawers shutting in the kitchen. When she came back to me, her face was red with anger, eyes on fire. She blew my breath away, and I wanted to kiss her right then and there.
Something in my expression must have communicated that, because she softened her eyes and got shy. “Oh Devon. Here, put this on your face. God, he found out, didn’t he?”
“Yep. Sure did. Pissed as hell, too.” I winced at the sting from the ice pack as I placed it against my hot cheek and the bone at my temple, eyeing Mia, wondering what she would do next. Her energy was wild right now, something I’d never seen in her before.
“But I’m done,” I assured her. “I left. I got my shit. He’s passed out, I’m safe.”
“And then what? When he wakes up? Are you really… are you leaving then?”
We stared at each other, my heart aching, her eyes searching. I wanted to stay. With her. But I knew it wouldn’t last, wouldn’t work. She and I were from two different worlds, and I’d be damned if I would be beholden to her for anything other than friendship.