Hadley & Grace(24)

Grace’s eyes dart left, then right, and Hadley watches as she tries to switch the car seat to her left hand, but the diaper bag gets in the way, so she returns it to her right.

“Please, Grace, who are they?”

Grace’s head snaps sideways to look at her. “How would I know?”

“Because you do. You freaked out when I mentioned their shoes. You know something.”

Grace’s nose flares once; then she exhales and says, “I can’t be sure, but if I had to guess, I’d say feds. Business suits with ugly shoes is kind of their trademark. They were probably watching the money.”

“The money?”

“What money?” Mattie says.

Hadley ignores her. “Someone was watching the money?”

Grace rolls her eyes. “It’s probably dirty. We stole dirty money, and they were watching it.”

“You stole money?” Mattie says, her eyes flicking between Hadley and Grace.

“Blue?” Skipper says, not following the conversation but confused just the same.

“It’s okay, buddy, hang in there.” She looks back at Grace, trying to make sense of it. Dirty money? She’s never even had a speeding ticket, and now the FBI is chasing her because she stole dirty money?

“But how?” she says. “How did they find us?”

Grace considers the question, then looks down at the diaper bag. She pulls her phone from the front pocket, walks to the trash beside the door, and drops it in the hole; then she turns back to Hadley. “Now leave me alone.”

She hurries away, racing quickly as she can toward the mall on the other side of the street.





19





GRACE


Mrs. Torelli, Mattie, and the boy are racing behind her and gaining ground. Miles’s car seat, along with the diaper bag, makes it impossible for her to outrun them. Her arm trembles from the weight of the car seat, and it feels like it’s going to snap off. The day is scorching hot, making her hand slippery, and she struggles to hold on as she races toward the Nordstrom across the street.

“I’ve got it,” Mattie says, hustling up and lifting the car seat before Grace can react.

She wants to grab it back and scream at the girl to leave her alone, but Mattie is already racing away, carrying the car seat with surprising strength and speed.

Mattie glances back over her shoulder. “Come on, Champ, keep up,” she says. “Run like you’re rounding third and heading for home. Fast, fast, fast.”

Awkwardly, the boy pumps his arms and clomps his feet to catch up. He passes Grace and leaves Mrs. Torelli huffing and puffing as she crutch-hops behind.

Grace’s heart pounds. She’s desperate for this not to be happening. She looks at Miles in his car seat and prays she has not just made the biggest mistake of her life.





20





HADLEY


It takes all Hadley’s focus not to miss a landing that will send her sprawling onto the asphalt. Mattie is forty yards ahead carrying the baby, Skipper right behind her.

After Hadley dumped her cell phone in the same trash in which Grace dumped hers, Mattie pieced things together. She ditched her own phone and took off after Grace, intuition or logic telling her that sticking with Grace was their best option.

Hadley doesn’t disagree. Grace seems oddly adept at this, whatever this is—knowing toilets conceal safes, knowing you need to flick off the safety before you shoot a gun, knowing bad shoes with nice suits add up to the FBI.

The cool air of the store smacks Hadley as she races after them into the Nordstrom. Grace has retaken the lead and now weaves in and out of the makeup department.

The heel of Grace’s left shoe flaps against her foot like a flip-flop, the sole unglued, and Hadley finds herself staring at it, the defect having a profound effect on her and making her very angry at Frank.

They dart through the shoe department and then the purses and finally into a family restroom. As soon as Hadley is through the door, Grace locks it behind them.

Hadley collapses against the wall, her breath coming in gulps, and silently she swears that if she gets through this, she is going to quit smoking for good.

She slips the backpack from her shoulders, and it thumps to the floor.

Mattie sets the car seat on the changing table and places her PlayStation console beside it; then she kneels beside the backpack and unzips the main pouch. Her eyes grow wide when she sees the bundles of cash, and she looks up at Hadley. “You robbed a bank?”

If the situation weren’t so awful, Hadley might laugh. But there is nothing funny about what is going on, and no explanation is possible, so all Hadley manages is to shake her head.

Mattie turns to Grace. “You’re a bank robber?”

Grace glances at her, then ignores her, her eyes flicking side to side as she paces. The room is small and crowded with the five of them, but Grace takes two steps, pivots, then takes two steps back, her bottom lip sucked in like she is thinking.

The baby stares wide eyed; then his mouth skews sideways, and Hadley pushes off the wall, unhitches the harness, scoops him up, and drapes him over her shoulder.

Absently, Grace hands her a half-full bottle from the striped bag, and Hadley lowers him into the crook of her arm and pops it in his mouth.

He sucks on it greedily, entirely content, and Hadley wishes she could trade places with him.