“I sometimes space out. Black out. Remember with Bain at the last party? When there is panic rising and it’s too familiar to what I’ve felt before, I…”
He jutted through my confession. “You’ve run for your life before, Gemma?”
My answer came out before I could stop it. “Yes.” Then, my hands squeezed again, righting the wheel so I was in between the lines of the road. “Is that what we’re doing? Running for our lives?”
Isaiah’s hand dropped from the wheel, and instead, he rested it on my knee. My leg jumped, and little sparks flew to the very tips of my toes. He didn’t look at me, still leaving his stern gaze on the side mirror. “I shouldn’t have brought you. I’m sorry.”
It seemed the panic in his voice had lessened some. He was still glancing out the side mirror, but his jaw was no longer hard like stone. I focused back on the road, the dotted white line growing more blurred as my speed increased. “It’s okay.”
“It’s not okay.” I could feel his gaze on me like a million little spotlights. “And how the hell have you never driven before?”
I laughed—actually laughed. “Well…” I began to turn the wheel a little as the road had a slight curve. Isaiah’s hand left my knee, and he helped guide me. “No one has taken the time to teach me.” That wasn’t the whole truth. Richard didn’t want me to know how to drive. Just another way I needed to rely on him and ask for his help.
“There is no way I’m letting you leave St. Mary’s without having the skill to drive. I’ll teach you.”
Something bloomed in my chest, and although I could feel the remnants of anxiety still brewing under the surface, a smile graced my lips. “There’
s no way you’re letting me leave? I wasn’t aware that I needed your permission.”
He shrugged. “You don’t need my permission, but you do need money and a new ID, so...”
I didn’t respond because yeah, he got me there.
“We’re almost back at St. Mary’s,” Isaiah said. “Keep up on the gas, though. We’re not being followed anymore, but I don’t want a run-in with anyone.”
I nodded as my foot continued pressing onto the gas. So badly did I want to ask what exactly he was running from and why he was in a life-or-death situation from following Bain to a psychiatric hospital of all places, but I didn’t. I knew how it felt to have secrets you couldn’t reveal. Not to mention, I had my own answers that I needed to figure out. Like why that psychiatric hospital had felt so familiar to me.
“Make a left then roll into the school slowly. Switch the lights off.”
I paused, letting up on the gas and slowly turning my wheel.
“Nice work, Good Girl. You’re a fast learner.” Just as the compliment came out, he chuckled because we both lurched forward from my foot landing heavily on the brake.
“Sorry,” I said as I lifted my foot back off the pedal and inched it onto the accelerator again.
I saw the lazy half-grin appear out of the corner of my eye. “You have nothing to apologize for. In fact, I think you’re pretty fucking amazing.”
It felt like I’d swallowed my heart. Then, I stopped breathing as Isaiah reached over my body, his damp hoodie brushing over my cheek as he flipped a switch to turn the lights off. Once he was back in his seat, I managed to breathe again. “Amazing at driving? I think you’re lying to make me feel better.”
His large, warm hand rested back on my bare knee again, and he tapped the inside of it, making me see spots. “I’m not referring to your driving skills.”
My mouth opened as a rush of something hot flung to my cheeks. I caught his eye as I glanced over at him, trying to read what exactly he’d meant by that, but then his eyes widened, and he shouted, “Brake!”
Brake?
Isaiah’s hand left my leg, and he slammed it onto the middle shifter just as my foot slammed onto the pedal. We both jerked forward, but he was quick to push his arm out to my chest to keep me from colliding with the wheel.
My fingers covered my mouth. “Oh my God! Did I just wreck the headmaster’s car?!”
It only took one second for Isaiah’s loud laughter to fill the interior. His head was thrown back, his strong jaw catching devious shadows from the lack of light.
Oh my God. “Isaiah! This is all your fault!”
He laughed harder. His shoulders shook as he put his fist up to his mouth to stop himself. I stared out to the stone wall I had run into before slamming on the brake. I felt a shower of embarrassment and fear come down on me like a thousand bricks.
“You are truly fucking amazing,” he said through more broken laughter.
“Amazing?!” I shouted. “Isaiah! Never mind the fact that we just snuck out of St. Mary’s, but we also just wrecked the headmaster’s car! And…” I took a shuddering breath in between my rant. “I don’t even have a license! I’ve broken every rule possible tonight!”