AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You’re pretty good at this detective stuff. Ever consider being a police officer?” he asks, and I chuckle.
“No, I like to drive way too fast for that,” I joke, but the fact that he even thought it was worth considering is interesting.
He laughs through his nose, “Who says we don’t drive fast?”
“Define fast,” I say, and he just shakes his head.
“Anyway, back to the point. I don’t feel like sending Regina and Keaton back home is a good idea. At least, it’s not a safe one, as far as I’m concerned.”
“I’d have to agree with you there. Not until this shit sorted out anyway,” I say.
“Yeah, well, now I have to figure out whether putting them in a safe house is the next step, and then convince Keaton to not fight me on it,” he says, and the defeated look in his eyes tells me just how much strain there is hanging over their friendship.
I shove my hands in my front pockets, and the jagged edge of the house keys brush against my knuckles.
That’s it!
I pull the keys out and hold them up in my open palm.
“I may have just the answer you’re looking for.”
Keaton
For the first time since I woke up, I find myself alone with my mom.
She looks like she’s aged ten years in the last week, and I know that I’m to blame for that. It breaks my heart because all I ever wanted to do was to take care of her while Eli was gone. To make life a little less stressful.
Then I go and drive off a cliff.
A lot of help I’ve been.
“Penny for your thoughts, Keaty-Kat?” she asks from the chair beside my bed. Her kind, warm smile hasn’t left her face once though all of this.
And just like that, I’m crying. Full on, ugly crying.
“Oh, sweet girl,” she says and stands, leaning down to embrace me as best she can around the number of wires still monitoring me.
“I’m so sorry, Ma,” I cry into her shoulder, sniffling and drawing in her familiar scent.
“I know, I know,” she coos, smoothing my hair back.
“I just wanted to help, but after Eli left, everything just got worse,” I say.
She pulls back, looking down at me with sorrowful eyes, and I wonder how I’m going to tell her everything I’ve been hiding. What will she think of me? Especially after knowing what got Eli was arrested. The fact that I picked up where he left off… she’s going to be so mad at me. And who could blame her?
My stubborn headed ways nearly got me killed and left my mom alone. How will she ever forgive me?
“Mom… I… I…” I can’t get the words out. I bite down on my bottom lip, reopening the split in the bottom right corner. The metallic taste of blood coats my tongue.
“Oh, Keaton,” Ma furrows her brow and reaches for a tissue, wiping away the blood before telling me to hold it in place. “Listen, Bodhi told me everything.”
“He what?” I shout, dropping the tissue and bolting up straight in bed.
Reaching for a clean tissue, she folds it into a neat little triangle and hands it to me, insisting I hold it to my lip until the bleeding stops.
“When you were still unconscious, he had just come back after spending the afternoon helping Sander try to find answers to what might have happened. He was so overcome with guilt, Keaton. He blamed himself for your accident,” she says.
My eyes go wide, holding the tissue to my lip.
