Losing Hope (Hopeless #2)(77)
Sky rustles in the bed, rolling over. I look down at her and lean forward to kiss her but she turns her face away and I kiss her cheek, instead.
“Morning breath,” she mumbles, sliding off the bed. She heads for the shower and I check the time. Check-out is in an hour, so I decide to gather our things.
After I’ve got most of our things packed, she walks out of the bathroom. “What are you doing?” she asks.
I glance at her. “We can’t stay here forever, Sky. We need to figure out what you want to do.”
She rushes toward me. “But . . . but I don’t know yet. I don’t even have anywhere to go.”
Her voice is full of panic, so I walk to her in order to ease her mind. “You have me, Sky. Calm down. We can go back to my house and figure this out. Besides, we’re both still in school. We can’t just stop going and we definitely can’t live in a hotel forever.”
“One more day,” she says. “Please, let’s just stay one more day, then we’ll go. I need to try to figure this out and in order to do that, I need to go there one more time.”
I don’t know how she can possibly think going back to that house is in any way a good idea. There’s absolutely nothing she needs from there. “No way. I’m not putting you through that again. You’re not going back.”
“I need to, Holder,” she says pleadingly. “I swear I won’t get out of the car this time. I swear. But I need to see the house again before we go. I remembered so much while I was there. I just want a few more memories before you take me back and I have to decide what to do.”
Jesus, she’s relentless. I pace the floor, not knowing how I can get it through her head that she can’t do this.
“Please,” she says again.
Ugh! I can’t say no to that voice.
“Fine,” I groan. “I told you I would do whatever it was you felt you needed to do. But I’m not hanging all of those clothes back up.”
She laughs and rushes to me, throwing her arms around my neck. “You’re the best, most understanding boyfriend in the whole wide world.”
I hug her back and sigh. “No, I’m not. I’m the most whipped boyfriend in the whole wide world.”
We’re sitting in my car across the street from her old house and I’m gripping the steering wheel so hard I’m afraid I might break it. Her father just pulled up into his driveway, and as mad and outraged as I’ve been in the past, I’ve never had the urge to actually kill someone until now. Just seeing him makes my stomach turn and my blood boil. I lift my hand to the ignition, knowing nothing good can come of this if I don’t drive away right now.
“Don’t leave,” she says, pulling my hand away from the ignition. “I need to see what he looks like.”
I sigh and fall back against the seat. She needs to hurry up and get what she needs because this is bad. This is bad, bad, bad.
“Oh, my God,” she whispers. I turn to her, wanting to know what made her just say that. “It’s nothing,” she says. “He just looks . . . familiar. I haven’t had an image of him in my head at all but if I was to see him walking down the street, I would know him.”
We watch as he ends a conversation on his cell phone and walks to the mailbox.
“Have you had enough?” I ask her. “Because I can’t stay here another second without jumping out of this car and beating his ass.”
“Almost,” she says, leaning across the seat to get a better look. I don’t understand why she would even want to see him. I don’t understand how she’s not jumping out of this car in order to rip his balls off, because that’s the only urge I have right now.
After her father finally disappears inside his house, I turn and look at her.
“Now?”
She nods. “Yeah, we can go now.”
I place my hand on the ignition and crank the car, then watch in horror as she swings open the door and rushes out of the car.
What the f**k?
I turn the car off and swing open my door, running after her. I chase her all the way across the front yard and halfway up the porch steps. I wrap my arms around her and lift her up, then turn back to the car. She’s trying to fight me and kick me and I’m doing everything I can to get her as far away from the house as I can so he doesn’t hear her.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I say through clenched teeth.
“Let go of me right now, Holder, or I’ll scream! I swear to God, I’ll scream!”
I let go of her and spin her around to face me. I grip her shoulders tightly and try to shake some goddamned sense into her.
“Don’t do this, Sky. You don’t need to face him again, not after what he’s done. I want you to give yourself more time.”
She looks at me and begins to shake her head. “I have to know if he’s doing this to anyone else. I need to know if he has more kids. I can’t just let it go, knowing what he’s capable of. I have to see him. I have to talk to him. I need to know that he’s not that man anymore before I can allow myself to get back in that car and just drive away.”
I take her face in my hands and try to reason with her. “Don’t do this. Not yet. We can make a few phone calls. We’ll find out whatever we can online about him first. Please, Sky.” I turn her toward the car and she sighs. She finally relents and begins walking toward the car with me.