“We’ll be there in twenty,” he said.
I was already shaking my head. “Don’t bother,” I muttered. “She’s gone.”
“We’re still coming,” he insisted.
I shrugged despite the fact that he couldn’t see me. “Suit yourself.”Chapter 16I’m too old to care if Kiki loves me. I’m still trying to find out if Annie’s okay.
-T-shirt
Theo
Goodbyes sucked.
Goodbyes to the man that you’d fallen in love with sucked even more.
Goodbyes hours before goodbyes were supposed to have happened?
Well, that was just horrible.
After Tara’s visit, things had happened so fast.
I’d gone from having the evening left to spend with Liner to having only a few minutes to pack what I wanted to keep and take with me.
Hoax was standing there impatiently with keys to a non-descript black car with blacked out everything and tint on the windows so dark, I couldn’t see inside, and I was standing right next to the car.
I was trying to tell myself to grab the door handle and get inside, but I just couldn’t do it.
I couldn’t force myself to open the door.
But before I could turn around and inform Liner of that, a tattooed arm snaked around my side and opened it for me.
I licked my lips and turned, unsurprised to find Liner standing so close.
Rome and Hoax were talking beside the car I was about to plant my ass inside—a car that I’d already strapped Linnie into over ten minutes before—and I couldn’t make myself move.
“It’ll be okay, darlin’,” he promised.
“You’re gonna be okay,” he promised again.
I felt my resolve crumpling and all of a sudden, I started to cry.
He pulled me into his chest and dropped his chin down on my head, pulling me in so close that there wasn’t a single inch of space between us. His arms around me felt so right that I stopped crying just as suddenly as I started.
“You’re breaking my heart,” he informed me.
I licked my lips and tasted the salt from my tears.
“I’ve never felt so much…everything…as I have the past week,” I told him. “The moment you walked into my life, things didn’t seem so bleak. For once, I was thinking about tomorrow instead of trying to get through today.”
He didn’t say anything, and I continued without waiting for him to think of a response.
“I just want you to know, that no matter what happens to me, you’ve given me everything I ever wanted out of life for the last four days,” I whispered, pulling out of his arms and wiping the leather of his vest free of my tears. “For four days, everything was right in my world. And I’ll forever remember that you gave me that.”
His hands slid free of my body and when I finally got the courage to look into his eyes, it was to find his on me, looking like I’d just sucker punched him in the stomach.
“Take care of yourself, Liner,” I whispered. “I’ll never forget you.”
His eyes were haunted as I finally scrounged up enough courage to seat myself in the black car.
When Liner didn’t immediately close the door, I reached for it but paused when it was almost all the way closed. “Take care of yourself, Josiah.”
With that, I closed the door and didn’t look back up again.
Hoax fell into the car moments later and started it up with a push of a button.
“Nice car,” I murmured when it growled to life.
I would not look out the window. I would not look out the window.
“Meant to go fast,” he said. “And bulletproof. Damn near anything proof. Also cost about half a million bucks to make it that way.”
I didn’t say anything to that, hoping that we wouldn’t need to test out the bulletproof part today.
Though, saying that, bullets had never been in Tara’s bag of tricks. Electrocution, scalpels, artificial insemination? Yes. Bullets, no.
“That face was an odd one,” he said as he put the car into drive and started pulling away from the curb.
I swallowed hard and tried not to look out the window…but failed.
When I glanced to the side it was to see Liner standing in the middle of his front lawn, arms crossed tightly over his chest, staring at the car leaving like it was his soul leaving his body instead of just me.
I looked away as tears threatened to spill over my lids once again.
“I’m remembering the fact that Tara is an asshole and has helped ruin my life.” I didn’t see a point in lying, so I didn’t bother to hold my words hostage. I just let them flow free of my mouth and didn’t care that he might or might not agree with me. “I used to wish I was never born.” I paused. “But then Linnie was born, and for once in my life, I saw what pure innocence looked like.”
“Why didn’t you fight?” Hoax asked.
I thought about that question for a long time and then decided honesty was best.