Cade
If there was a God,he was ready to throw Journey and me both down to hell for what we just did. I knew she made me lose control—I had never denied that—but it wasn’t my intention to take her from behind with a fucking nun in the room.
As soon as we cleaned up and got dressed, with her sneaking glances at me with those pink-tinted cheeks, she crossed her arms and sunk her teeth into her lip. Her expression was tender and slightly naughty, which sent a heavy punch of pride straight into my chest. She’s back. I almost stormed over to her to press my lips to hers with the undeniable relief I had, but her head turned at the last second, and her jaw dropped.
“Journey? What’s wrong?”
“Cops.”
My pulse flew as the word fell from her mouth. “What?”
I rushed past her and peered down onto the street below. There were two police cars, both coloring the street with their red and blue hues. Two men in black, with guns strapped to their sides, were on the icy stoop, talking to one of the nuns. Journey’s warm body pressed up against mine, and she looked down below.
“That’s Sister Elizabeth. That’s probably why she left the room so quickly.” There was a line of worry on her forehead. “Where is Sister Mary? She would be out there if she was here.”
I shifted my jaw back and forth, grinding my teeth. The surge of endorphins from burying myself inside Journey was long gone, and now I was agitated. “Better question is why the police are here. We need to leave.”
I kept my suspicions to myself because they could have been off, but I knew not to trust a man just because he wore a uniform with a shiny badge on the front. They could have been on Callum’s payroll for all I knew, or another one of our enemies’ payroll. And if so, then one glimpse of me and the mention of my last name, and they’d be slapping me in handcuffs and throwing me in a cell with my father.
“I have a way out,” Journey said, her voice still on the brink of panic and worry. She turned on her heel and popped her thin black hood up on her head. I didn’t even hide my smirk when I did the same and followed closely behind. She froze a second later, and I ran right into her back.
“Cade.” She spun around, ignoring how I just trampled her over. “What if they know we burnt the hospital down? What if they’re here to take me away?”
I shook my head, driving my own blazing determination into her. “I wouldn’t let that happen, and they aren’t here to take us anywhere. No one knows we are up here.” I grabbed onto her face, brushing my thumbs over her hot cheeks. “Now, let’s go.”
One stern nod, and we were striding through the orphanage with quiet footsteps and leveled breathing. Once we descended down the first flight of stairs, Journey stopped at the end of the long hallway and bounced her eyes back and forth between the doors, seemingly looking for a certain one.
“Third one on the left. It’s the laundry shoot.”
I snapped my head to her. “The laundry shoot?”
She grabbed onto my hand. “Yeah, we’re gonna go down it, and we will be in the basement, which leads to the side alley. Let’s go.”
I held back my question of wondering how many times she’d used this plan of escape and let her lead me through the dark hall until we both froze at the sound of footsteps. I hurriedly pushed her behind me, backing her up to the door so she could slip in, but then she darted out from under my arm and bristled at the tiny little human standing near the stairs.
“Emerson Lynn. What are you doing out of bed?”
The look of sleep on the little girl’s face was suddenly washed away by excitement. Journey bent down low when she took off on tiny feet and wrapped her arms around Journey’s neck. “Jonry! I mish you!”
There was a hand clenched around my heart, squeezing it as I stood and looked down at Journey and the little girl in their embrace. Something warm rained over me, followed by a wake of chills. I want that, a slippery voice said from the back of my brain, buried under uncertainty and fear. I wanted to see Journey’s face light up at the sight of a little girl beaming up at her with nothing but pure love in her wide, curious eyes. I wanted to witness the moment that her guard dropped, like it just did for this little girl, and never let her put it up again.
“I miss you, too, sweetie, but you have to go back to bed, and I have to go back to school.”
The softest whimper left the little girl, and I had no fucking idea how to be a parent, but there was an undeniable snapping in my chest that made me want to steal her from the orphanage and bring her back to St. Mary’s with us.
“Can I come, pwease?”
Journey rested on the backs of her heels, wiping the little girl's face as I stood behind, unable to breathe. “No, sweetie. You have to stay, but guess what?”
The little girl hiccupped, holding her tiny teddy bear with a tight fist. “What?”
“I know that, someday soon, an amazing family is going to adopt you and spoil you rotten.”
She smiled. “Can you adopt me?”
Journey let out a little laugh. “No. I’m not old enough, Emerson.”
Emerson peeled her watery gaze from Journey and locked onto me. I almost stumbled backward, not wanting her glossy eyes set in my direction. I felt weird and, strangely enough, upset? I rubbed at my chest, trying to make the burning go away when she sniffed and said, “He looks old enough. Can’t you both just take me with you?”