another mug and sets both hers and mine on the table. She sits in the seat next to me. “How’s the leg?”
“It’s fine,” I say as Grant disappears up the stairs, probably on his way back to bed.
Her face hardens and her palms splay on the table. “Actions speak louder than words, Rob. Nothing about you is fine. I saw you at my door last night. You’re not sleeping, you’re paranoid, and you’re wound so tight you’re about to snap, which makes me really want to confiscate your gun before you shoot one of us with it. You can’t spend the rest of your life suspicious of everyone. We’re out, Rob. We’re safe. You need to figure out how to leave everything from before behind and start over, or you’re going to go crazy.”
Right in front of my eyes, she turns into someone I’ve never met before. She thinks we’re staying here. Long term. My blood starts to boil as I stare at her, trying to wrap my mind around how she can be so complacent.
She sips her coffee and continues, her voice deadly calm. “And if I think you might hurt anyone under this roof—Sherm, Ulie, or even Grant—I swear to God, Rob, I will take you down faster than you can say little sister. I get that you’re broken, and I get that it’s not your fault, but—”
“You don’t get it, Lee!” I slam my hands on the table and stand so fast my chair tips over. “You don’t get anything. It is my fault. All of it. What happened at the house, almost getting all of you killed. The whole fucking thing is on me! If I could have—”
Grant’s mocking voice cuts in. “Lee told you to watch your mouth, so I’d suggest you make a concerted effort to do so before I ask you much less nicely than she did.”
I spin as he crosses from the bottom of the stairs to the front door, tugging on a T-shirt over his jeans.
“Where the hell are you going?” I bellow as he yanks the door open.
The door slamming behind him isn’t enough to cover Grant’s “Blow me.”
I start to follow him, but Lee grabs my arm, pinning me in her intense hazel gaze. “It’s not your fault, Rob. It’s not your fault. You kept us all alive that night. You got us all out of there in one piece.”
She has no fucking clue how wrong she is. The only reason I had to get them out was because I put them in danger in the first place. The storm raging inside me churns to a head at her words, threatening to blow me apart from the inside. I need to distance myself before I inflict collateral damage as I self-destruct. I bound up the stairs two at a time to the widow’s walk, where I pace a thousand laps until the turmoil inside settles and I can breathe again. I head to my room and throw on running shorts, then hit the beach.
I can’t let all the venom I keep pent up spew out all over the very people I’m trying to protect, or none of us is going to survive this. It will all be for nothing.
Chapter 4
Adri
Unfortunately, all the mysteries of the universe are not unlocked during my morning run. I don’t know whether it’s the soothing rhythm of my breathing and the fall of my feet, or if it’s the endorphins, but running usually helps me to put things in perspective. I’m smarter when I’m running. Solutions to whatever I’m dealing with at the moment become clear when I’m alone on the road before dawn, and I come home with a better idea how to fix things.
But not today.
I have no idea how to fix the broken little boy in my classroom.
Sherm’s been with me for a week, and if I remember to phrase my questions in a way that he can’t answer with a nod or a shake of his head, he’ll speak. I also see him and Macie, the pretty brunette who sits next to him in class, with their heads together in the playground at recess sometimes. Other than that, he still hasn’t opened up.
Rob walks Sherm in and stops at the door when he drops his little brother off for school this morning. He’s looking at me with an expression I’m not sure of . . . something between curiosity and discomfort.
Probably because he’s decided I am, in fact, totally off