Keep Her Safe(65)

With a small nod of understanding, she turns and heads for the main entrance, patting Noah’s arm as she passes by.

I move to follow her in but Noah grabs my wrist, the heat from his hand searing my skin. “She needs to know you think she can do this,” he whispers, leaning in close. So close, the minty scent of his gum kisses my senses.

“I don’t think she can do this.”

Pleading blue eyes stare down at me. “You need to. For your own sake, as much as hers.”

“You don’t know her like I do.” He hasn’t been let down by her, time and time again. Still, for Noah, I find myself wanting to pretend. “Don’t leave without me.” I shake off his grip and march through the doors.



* * *



I step outside and exhale with relief.

Noah’s leaning against the side of his SUV, his feet crossed at the ankles, trying to convince a leashed Cyclops to sit for a treat.

And here I was, sure I’d find Cyclops and my things sitting with security, and him gone the second he had the opportunity to ditch me.

I saunter over and mimic his stance. “So, how long until she runs out, screaming at the top of her lungs?”

He chuckles. “I don’t think she’ll do that.”

“They told me you phoned this morning and paid for the first week with your credit card? And you promised to wire the rest tomorrow, after the bank opens?”

He slides on his sunglasses but says nothing. I know why he did it—because whether he wants to admit it or not, he knows that money is dirty.

Which means he’s using his own money to pay for my mom’s rehab. One part of me wants to refuse the help; the other wants to throw my arms around his neck. But we have important things to discuss.

“We should get going, then. I’ll drive the first stretch, seeing as you didn’t get much sleep last night.”

Noah chews the inside of his cheek and I ready myself for a battle.

“Are you even allowed to drive?”

“Who’s gonna stop me?”

He raises an eyebrow.

“I have my license, if that’s what you mean.”

After another long moment, and with a reluctant sigh, he dangles his keys in the air in front of me.

“What’d you do to your hand, anyway?” I noticed his bruised knuckles this morning, as he was loading the bags.

“Nothing important.” He sets the keys into the palm of my hand, the heat of his fingertips both comforting and thrilling against my skin, making me forget about bruised knuckles and heroin-addicted mothers for a split second.

“Ready?”

This is it. I’m going back to Texas.

Either I’m going to find a bunch of roads that lead to nothing but dead ends—the person or people behind my father’s murder having covered their tracks so well that no amount of digging will uncover them—or I’m going to find the truth.

All I’m certain of is that someone out there killed my dad and got away with it.

Until now.

“I’m ready.”





CHAPTER 27


Noah

Shit. I turn the volume down on the radio so I can grovel properly. “I’m sorry. I forgot.”

“You forgot about courtside at a Spurs game?” Jenson can’t hide the disbelief in his voice. I don’t blame him. They’re my favorite team and he won tickets for today’s game against the Rockets.

“I’ve been . . . preoccupied.” An eighteen-wheeler blasts its horn at another car as it speeds past.

“Where the hell are you, anyway? I haven’t seen or talked to you since Thursday.”

“Right now? At a gas station in New Mexico.” In my rearview mirror is an annoyed Gracie trying to coax Cyclops into peeing. I should have told her to take him near a sign; he’s partial to those. “I had some things to take care of for my mom.”

“For her will?”

“Nah.”

He waits a beat for me to elaborate before he starts pressuring. “Dude, what’s with all the cloak-and-dagger? It’s me.”

I sigh. Jenson’s good at keeping his mouth shut. “You remember my old basketball coach? The one who was shot in a drug deal?”

“Sounds familiar.”

“His daughter lives in Tucson. My mom left something for her, and I had to bring it to her in person. Plus I figured it’d be good to get away for a bit.”

“You could have told me.”

“Sorry, man. It was last minute.”

“Alright. Well, I guess I’m taking Craig with me. See you tonight?”

“Actually, I’m gonna crash at home.”

“Noah . . . you know you shouldn’t be sitting in that house alone.”

“I won’t be. Gracie’s coming back to Texas for a while and she needed a place to stay, so she’s staying there too.”

“Oh yeah?” A pause. “What’s she like?”

“She’s a firecracker, is what she is.” It would have been so much less complicated for me had I left her in Tucson.

“As hot as one, too?”

I chuckle. “It’s not like that.”

“So . . . she’s hot, then.” I can hear the grin in his voice. “How hot? Scale of one to your-hand-is-getting-sore.”