Impulsion (Station 32 #1)(33)

“Meaning?”

“Meaning book a flight, a car for when you get there.”

That thought hadn’t crossed her mind. She’d only gotten as far as escape the hotel and find Wyatt.

Harley had no means to her name. Before being caught with Wyatt, she had a few credit cards, some cash that she never really used, but afterwards her mother took all of that, took her phone away, told the entire staff at the house that if they let her near a phone they would be terminated.

She looked up at Collin and moved her head slightly to the side. She was scared, but she was growing that backbone.

“The boy is not downstairs. I looked. They said they all ran away, then peeled out of the parking lot.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket. “I told the head of security he was a good friend of mine and to call me as soon as he came back, that I would come down and bring him up myself.”

Gone. Harley lowered herself on the side of the tub. Why would he just leave? Fight that hard, then leave? When she looked up at Collin, it somewhat made sense.

“I’d be hot if I was him,” Collin said.

Harley buried her face in her hands. Collin was there in a heartbeat, kneeling before her. “Tell me where to book the flight. You’ll be there before he gets back. No harm, no foul. If he doesn’t believe you, I’ll call him.”

She looked up at him in shock. “Your mother is going to kill you.”

He smirked. “Didn’t you hear your mother? I’m my father made over, meaning I don’t give a damn what my mother thinks. This is my birthday gift to you.”

The first flight Collin could find was at eight the next morning, exactly an hour before they were supposed to have breakfast with their mothers. That seemed like a lifetime to Harley. Her backbone was growing stronger by the second, though.

She had no phone numbers completely memorized, so without her phone she had no way to call Wyatt’s cell, but she looked up every number to the farm there was and called them all every few hours, hoping someone would hear the ground line ringing and come to investigate. Then she could ask for his number, or at least Ava’s. She even called the house number to Easton and Memphis’s house, but no one answered. It was like the town had vanished. It was so frustrating that it was making her sick to her stomach.

She stopped trying at 3 A.M., but planned to call hours later when she knew they would be feeding the horses, when she was on her way to the airport.

Their plan was for Collin to call his mother just after they were supposed to be at their breakfast date and tell her that he and Harley wanted to spend the day at a few art galleries, and that he had made a reservation for them that night for dinner. They both knew their mothers would be too thrilled with that notion to even question it, and it would give Harley a good day and a half to vanish.

No doubt Harley’s mother would come after her. There would be an explosion of drama, but any moment alone with Wyatt would be worth that hell.

At 5 in the morning, their plans were destroyed. Harley had fallen asleep on Collin’s shoulder on the settee in the living area. Her bags were all packed just inside her room. Harley’s mother was the one who woke them, and she actually looked horrified.

“Your father had another episode. They took him back to the hospital. There’s a car downstairs to take you to a waiting plane.”

“How bad is it?” Collin asked.

“Horrifying enough to call and wake us. He has not been well since the end of the summer.” Right then, Harley knew that the grief on her mother’s face was all fake, there for Collin’s benefit. The cold glance she threw in Harley’s direction confirmed that.

“Collin, be a dear and take Harley to the car. I’ll be just behind you. I need to notify some dear friends. If they want to say goodbye, this may be their only chance.”

When she left, Collin looked down to Harley in question. Everything inside of Harley was breaking. All night, she had been terrified and excited at the same time. Through it all, she was more worried about her mother’s threat that if Harley acted out, the stress would hurt her father. This right here told her there could be some truth to that. She had played her role to perfection thus far, and he was still sick.

“What do you want to do?” Collin asked.

“He’s my father,” she said as she grabbed her bags. Grief was ripping her apart, but all she could think was that at least he was there to protect her until she was eighteen.

In a haze, she left the hotel with Collin, sure that she was flying home to bury her father.

Her father went home a week later. He was under doctor’s orders to remain on bed rest to keep his stress low. The finest medical staff was in and out of Harley’s home constantly. All the while, Garrison was telling Harley that the vultures were lurking but they were going to starve because he wasn’t going anywhere. Harley wanted to believe that, she really did, but this entire event had aged her father. Sometimes when she caught a glimpse of him, he almost looked vulnerable.

She only had a few weeks of school left, and because of her father’s condition she only attended to take her last exams.

By the time she graduated, it was hard to tell Garrison had ever been sick at all.

At her graduation party, he found her on the side patio, staring out at the distant stables. Harley hadn’t ridden since she left the Dorans’. Every time she tried, the memories would take her will to breathe away. The dreams of Wyatt would be twice as vivid, and the pain in her chest would nearly shatter her.