I did speak up once myself, though. “You know, if you’d been able to keep going, I could have idolised you. If you’d done things differently… who knows where both of us would be now?”
Even to that, he couldn’t say a word.
Back at the happy Chalmers home, Brad got out and stomped back up the driveway without another word to me. “I’ll just wait here,” I called after him through my cracked-open window. Once he was inside I started driving around the entire block that was their property, just to make sure he didn’t have any ideas of sneaking Para out the back.
I thought I might have done about fifty laps and was starting to think about the state of my fuel tank by the time I saw a little figure stomping down the driveway, swaying a little under the weight of a gigantic camping-style backpack I was pretty certain she’d never gone camping with. I pulled up where I’d stopped before and waited for her to reach me.
She stopped in front of my window and dropped her pack. “Hi, Jess,” I said, grinning up at her. “My name’s Steven.”
It was strange hearing her voice coming to me directly through the air rather than through my headphones. “You arsehole. I can’t even take my computer with me. What if he sells it?”
I jerked my head backwards. “Chuck your stuff in the back and get in please. I’m pretty sure I can get him to send your damn computer on.”
Para slid into the back seat next to her bag. I was going to call her on it, make a joke of it, but then I realised it wasn’t so funny. Even though she ‘knew’ me, was she really going to want to sit close to me on this ride?
I wa
s too busy focusing on driving out of there without trouble to pay attention to what she was doing, but I heard a hint of a laugh in her voice when she spoke up again. “What did you say to him? I’ve never seen him slobbering with rage like that before.”
“Actually I ‘let my fists do the talking’, as they say.” And my chatty fist was still throbbing. When I looked from one to the other gripping my steering wheel, there was a definite difference in size there.
“Well I’m pissed,” Para said. Was I supposed to call her Jess now? I could barely make sense of the voice of my friend in this tiny girl. “And I’m fucking terrified about what my future will hold now, so that’s great… but still. Thank you, I think.”
I felt my lips quivering. “You watch your fucking mouth,” I said, and she busted out in a giggle. “Let’s take you to your sister.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Tamara
Whatever I’d been expecting, it was not for Steven’s car to pull up outside my house, and for Jess to be getting out of it by the time Mum dragged me out to look.
“I’m calling the police this time,” she said. “He can’t just come and—”
I put my hand up to stop her. “Mum… that’s my sister.”
That started her off on another round of gabbling. “He’s bringing her here? Does he think she’s going to stay here? He can’t—”
I left her to her manic objections and went out to meet them. “Hi again, Jess.” She was looking around her like she was still trying to figure out why she was there—which made two of us, actually. I focused on the man with all the answers. “Steven…?” Any line of questioning I’d been about to take with him died when I saw how his right hand was bruised. I didn’t need any guesses to know whose face was matching right now.
“Well, Tamara,” said Steven. “I got her.”
I didn’t know what to say to him. I didn’t even know what I was feeling at first, and then I finally pinned it down as fear—but what a strange fear, when I felt like it might have the ability to lift me up and take me somewhere I’d never even been before.
“It’s okay if you want to, you know, do something.”
Jess’s voice felt like an intrusion. I knew I was rounding on her with a full-on glare, but I couldn’t seem to help myself.
“It’s fine,” she insisted, determined to miss the point. “Like, it’s weird that my best friend and my sister seem to have something going on, and I’m aware it’s complicated, but I’ll roll with that, like whatever.”
Now I was glaring at Steven. Best friend? She was a baby practically, it was too weird.
And since he was the one who’d rescued her and brought her to me, it wasn’t the most pressing issue right now. “Is… um, is she supposed to stay here? Because I…” I didn’t want to say my mum wouldn’t want her, but it was pretty obvious Brad’s unlucky second daughter was not something she would be okay with in her home.
“Nah,” Steven said. “She’s had too rough of a time to deal with that. I… here.” His fingers seemed to work only with difficulty as he pulled his wallet out of his pocket and slipped out a credit card to hand over to me. “This should have enough on it to get you into a decent hotel for a few days. You need some time to get to know one another without… without anyone trying to get in the way. And I need to know your bank details, so I can get the rest of your blood money from Daddy dearest to you to keep you going until you can get on your feet with a job of your own.”
I had just said I needed to get out of here, but I wasn’t really prepared for things to start happening that quickly. “I… don’t know my bank details,” I admitted.
Steven turned his head a little when he rolled his eyes, as if that would keep me from noticing. “Well are we going or not? I’ll go with you, get you paid for and settled in, and then…” He shrugged.
“I’ve already said it,” Jess spoke up, “I don’t really care if you want to get up to stuff, I can deal with that.”