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There is awe and fear on her face now. She did not expect for me to do a one eighty on her.
“You can’t ever come back here. You mentioned Louisiana before. You can’t go there. It’s too close to Texas.”
My eyes drop to the backpack I took from her apartment. Finding all that cash under her floorboards was stupid easy. It’s cute that she thought it was safe there.
“You have enough money to take a bus. Go west. California maybe. Or north to, I don’t fucking know, Minnesota or some shit. Anywhere but close to here, Ruby.”
Her eyes fill with tears again, and I can’t stand it.
“When should I leave?”
I run my hands through my hair in frustration.
“You should leave now,” I instruct. “I’ll sneak you out of here. I can give you a ride to the bus stop. I can’t any farther. They are waiting for me at the club.”
Her bottom lip trembles. “What about Mary?”
My mother will probably go back to being the way she was before Ruby came into her life. Hopefully, it will take her a few days to figure out her emotional support human is no longer here. I’ll just have to cross that bridge when I get to it.
“She’ll be alright,” I assure Ruby, lying through my teeth.
She looks at me like she doesn’t believe me, tears now running down and dripping off her wobbly chin. But we both know there is no other choice.
“Will I ever see you again?”
I sigh and cup the back of her head, pressing her face into my chest. I ache for this girl. If I survive tonight, I will never recover.
“I don’t think you will, sweetheart.”
This is probably the first time I am completely honest with her.
“Just know that I will never forget you. And I will always regret the fucking day when I agreed to this mission.”
Ruby’s arms come around my waist, and she squeezes me tight.
“I’m glad it was you, Hawk.”
I frown in confusion. “What do you mean?”
She shrugs and doesn’t lift her face from my chest.
“If you said no, they would’ve sent someone else, right? I don’t know that they would’ve been as nice to me as you have been.”
I chuckle at that, but only because she is smarter than I am. The thought never crossed my mind.
“I’m glad it was me then,” I squeeze her tighter. “Say a prayer for my mother as you travel, alright?”
She finally lets go of me. She takes a step back and wipes at her face, looking so much younger than her twenty-two years.
“I always will,” she promises me, fierceness lacing her tone.
I reach out and touch her on the top of her nose. “Good girl.”
She smiles but then moves around the room to grab the very few things she has in here.
“I’ll have to leave the clothes you bought me,” she says all choked up. “They won’t fit in the backpack with the money.”
I nod in understanding and bend over to lace my boots. Within minutes, we are both ready to leave. I’ve never felt this sad in my entire fucking life. It’s killing me inside that I have to send her away, and I don’t even know where she’s going.
