Fuck, I don’t want to do this, but I swing away from the window and gaze at her steadily.
She stares at me with luminous eyes. “I know you love him, and I understand, but please, please let him go. I need him. I’m not . . . strong like you.”
My brow creases at her words, at the fear on her face and in her eyes as she brings her trembling hands to her belly, now clearly pronounced against her skirt. “I need him. My baby needs him. We won’t last without him.”
Dumbfounded, I slowly nod because she’s talking about Shepherd. She’s talking about this whole fucked up situation we’re all stuck in, and I agree, Cole is the best person to see her through it, but I wonder why it can’t be me he protects. Why should I be the one to step aside? Why?
When I don’t say anything else, she turns away, a tear rolling down her cheek, and leaves. Turning back to the window, I watch them round the house and walk down the street, her hand clutched tightly in his.
???
Enzo comes by shortly after and collects me. I don’t know what the rest of the community knows about my sojourn in the hole, but I don’t get any funny looks, and mostly I’m ignored, which is fine because I have zero desire to attract unwanted attention.
We walk down a few streets in the same neighborhood as Cole and Marie before we stop at a small house with a clean yard and a single tree hanging over the sidewalk. It’s charming—or was before the end when people cared about real estate. Now it’s just a place to sleep after a hard day’s work.
The entrance leads to a long, dark-tiled hallway that opens at the end into a combined living room, dining room, and kitchen, open concept style, with a sliding glass door facing a lackluster yard full of weeds and dead grass.
The house has two bedrooms, and I check out the master, typical of its kind, with a queen-size bed and dresser, before skipping the rest and collapsing on the couch.
Enzo sits down opposite me, and we gaze at each other in silence. I’m not stupid. I know Enzo must be closer to Shepherd than I thought for him to convince Shepherd to allow me to stay. Shepherd intended to let me starve to death in that hole.
“What’s going on, Enzo?” I ask quietly.
“Nothing you can do anything about, baby doll. So, drop it,” he says harshly.
Undeterred, I raise a brow at him, and he bows his head before I say, “We need to get the fuck out of here, Enzo.”
Now I’m worried about how deep into this Enzo is, and I can’t even fathom what he could be doing, but he clearly wants to protect me from it.
“We will,” he says with a glint in his eye. “But we have to find the right opportunity. So, for now, you need to lie low and stay out of trouble.”
“Hey,” I say, offended. “I didn’t do anything.”
“I know, but you caught his eye somehow. You need to stay quiet and do as you’re told. Lie low. Please, Lola, I don’t think I can save you again,” he pleads.
“I still don’t understand how you saved me, to begin with,” I say, searching his gaze, but he’s wholly shuttered.
“It doesn’t matter,” he says, standing. “I have to go out. You have a few more days to recover before you go back to work. Rest up. You’ll need it.”
“Wait, where are you going?” Curfew is at dusk, and it’s now well past. Where could he be going?
“Out. Don’t wait up for me,” I hear as he escapes down the hallway.
“Fucker.”