“You believe me that I’m dying, don’t you?” I ask as I look down at my aching arm.
“Not yet. We only have fifteen minutes before the doors close for visitors.” He pulls the hood up on my hoodie before assessing me. “Keep your head down,” he says as he cuts into the parking garage. Once inside, he takes off his jacket and drapes it over my shoulders. “Let’s go.”
“With the dog?”
“You just have to look like you know what you’re doing. The nice thing is this place doesn’t have an information desk right inside, so we might not even be seen,” he says as he hurries on inside before grabbing an empty elevator and heading up.
It’s like he knows exactly where he’s going as he casually continues on his way and opens a door before ushering us into an empty waiting room. Once inside, he shuts the door before turning back to our lovely new… place? Is this where we’re hiding for the night? The room is small, with about fifteen chairs and a door that he takes me over to. He turns the light on and pushes me into the bathroom before shutting us inside.
“I take it you’ve done this before?” I ask.
“I lived on the streets for a while,” he says. “The key is looking like you know what you’re doing and to never visit the same area too many times. People don’t notice you if you look like you should be there.”
My mind flashes back to Tony reminding Shepherd that he saved him from a life on the streets—one where he had to sell himself to keep living—and I can’t help but wonder what he went through to have to live a life like that.
As Shepherd opens his bag from the pharmacy, I can’t help but stare at him. It’s hard to believe that Shepherd needed someone to save him from a life on the streets. He seems to know what the hell he’s doing and what’s going on. But I guess many years have passed since then.
He tears open a package of bobby pins and yanks the plastic off the tip of one with his teeth. “I might have been in handcuffs more than once,” he says as he sticks the metal end into the keyhole before bending it. He bends it a few different ways, then fiddles with it before the cuff springs free, then he moves on to the next.
“How do you know everything?” I ask curiously.
“There’s one thing you need to understand, Killian, I’m just the best there ever was.”
I groan because that really isn’t the right answer. “I think I died and went to hell,” I say as a surprised bark of laughter fills the small bathroom.
“Nah, with a body this good, you know it has to be heaven,” he says as he drops the handcuffs in the trash before helping me out of my shirt. He’s actually pretty careful, which I’m thankful for since my body aches all over. I’m not sure there’s a part of me that doesn’t ache. He undoes the bandage and I decide that I need to sit before I crack my head on the sink and he has more to laugh at me about. So I pick the sink to sit on and just try to think about anything else while he tends to the wound. A few times I feel a bit light-headed, but I manage to keep my wits about me as he finishes up. He cleans up and tosses a bunch of paper towels on top of the mess in the trash can before ushering me back out.
Shepherd turns to me with a serious look in his dark brown eyes. “Alright, we’re going to make a plan. We’re being stupidly risky staying in this city, so we need to decide if it’s worth it to stay. Are there security alarms on the house?”
“Yes, but I know all the codes.”
“And what if your father changed them because he’s afraid you’ll tell Tony the codes?”
I think about it for a moment before shaking my head. “I doubt it. My father’s too cocky of a man. He thinks he’s invincible.”
“And he keeps this money in a safe?”
“Yeah, in the basement.” It’s not even hard to get to from the front door.
“And you know the numbers for it?”
“I do.”
“Your dad told you?”
“If you don’t keep this a fucking secret, you don’t want to know what I’ll do, Killian. Can