Capturing Hearts - Faleena Hopkins Page 0,59
whisper, struck hard with emotion. “Don’t play with me.”
He looks at me with his eyes hard and filled with the pain of everything he’s been through since she disappeared. It takes him a moment to speak, and when he does, his deep voice breaks a little, even as he tries to control it, to be a man. “If it hadn’t been for you, this would have turned out very differently.” He kisses the side of her head, closing his eyes to gather himself. Inhaling, he looks at me. “Tommy, I owe you.”
A seed plants itself in my chest and I can’t speak either at first: Hope. I scan around the place, because I can’t look at them. I’ll lose my shit if I do. “Wow. I don’t know what to say. What are you going to tell the cops?”
Annie answers. “I’m going to tell them it was your dad. I’ll tell them you saved me and that when I escaped the house, I ran and hid. That you gave me a phone to call Brendan. That I didn’t have the number memorized so I dialed the last number in the phone.”
“Rebecca’s,” I say, following her path.
“Yes, so she’s going to have to say you called her.”
Huffing with disbelief, I struggle for words. “I really don’t know what to say.”
“Goodbye is a good start,” Brendan smiles.
I smile with him and shake my head, overwhelmed. “Goodbye,” I mumble, growing excited. “Goodbye indeed.”
Turning to the exit, I stop, and pull out something from my pocket. Walking back, I hold it out to Annie. She squints at the glinting object and her eyes widen.
“My ring! How did you get that?”
Dropping it into Annie’s outstretched palm, I smirk. “I’m a thief, remember?”
I walk out into the golden light feeling like the sun is shining just for me. Rebecca’s still here, facing the cave, standing off to the side with her hair blowing, her eyes turned toward the Bay. Mark and his girlfriend are watching from the bottom of the hill, resting on the car, looking like miniatures of themselves.
“They’re letting me go free.”
Rebecca turns, her pretty eyes rounding instantly. “Really?”
I grin, rubbing my arms for warmth. For the first time, I can feel, and it is damn cold out. “Yeah.”
Rebecca blinks, dropping her gaze to the ground, thinking. “Where are you going to go?”
“Well, it’s not a secret, anymore, I guess. They both know.” I jerk my head toward the cave. “Canada.”
A sad smile curves her lips. “Oh. That’s great, Tommy.”
“You want to come?”
She blinks, staring at me. A laugh bursts from her. “I can’t!”
Grinning, I nod, and glance to the water. “Yeah. I figured. Well, I want to get a move on. Never know what the road has in store for me.” I step over to her, “Take care of yourself, Beautiful.”
Her eyes are sad as she watches me go. “Bye, Tommy,” she whispers as I make my way down the hill, my boots grinding into the crevices quickly.
The last time I did this trek today, I was entrenched in guilt and shame. Now, I’ve got a spring in my step like none I’ve ever known. That beater will take me as far as it can go. I’m going to have to drive up to a rural part of the border, maybe in Montana, so I can cross without alerting the patrol on either side. It’s not going to be easy, but I feel like I just might have luck on my side, for once. Maybe this whole doing the right thing nonsense has its perks. But I’m going to have to make money somehow. Let’s see how long this sticks.
At the bottom of the hill, Mark holds out his hand.
“You know what they were going to do?”
He nods. We shake hands. “Good luck, Tommy.”
“Thanks, Mark. Nice meeting you,” I say to his girl.
“Nicole,” she smiles, her eyes wary.
“Nicole. Right. I heard that earlier. Nice gams. Just kidding, Mark. Take care.”
Nicole’s voice purrs as I walk away, “I think you’re forgetting someone.”
I turn around to see Rebecca running awkwardly down the hill, her shoes in her hands and a scared look in her eyes. “Tommy!”
“Well, well, well. Merry Christmas to me,” I mutter, watching her.
Mark and I share a look like we’d have given each other in the old days, when we ran into a girl at a party who was a take-home prize. Rebecca Wells, elegant and sophisticated philanthropist, clamors down the dirt, hitting the pavement and stopping to wipe her feet off,