“Leave me alone, Ethan. Don’t make this more difficult than it needs to be.”
“Leave you alone? Oh, I can’t do that. I’d worry too much about my girl,” he said in a sugary sweet voice. “Especially with your plan to go to Cleveland. I heard there’s a lot of crime on the waterfront.”
I stilled for the briefest of moments, my eyes growing wide, then threw the phone against the wall as if it had burned me. Blood pulsed in my temples and I broke out into a nervous sweat. The only way he could have known about Cleveland was if he heard the conversation I’d just had with Natalia. It had never been discussed before then.
I glanced around the room nervously, then ran to the window. Pulling open the curtains, I peered outside. Looking past the fire escape, my gaze went to the parking lot. My view from the second floor revealed a few cars but that was it. There wasn’t anyone there.
A loud bang on the door caused me to jump a mile.
“Gia! Open up!” I heard Ethan yell. There was another bang, then a thud from his body—or perhaps his foot—slamming into the door to try to get in. The cheap frame on the old hotel room door splintered.
Shit, shit, shit!
Without thinking, I ran to the window and slid it open, then glanced back. The garment bag with my clothes was still in the room. So was my purse with all the cash, the phone, and my shoes. I looked at the door that was barely still intact as Ethan continued to pound. He’d be through it any second now. The clothes would just weigh me down, but I needed my purse and shoes.
“My girl! You’re fucking my girl!” he roared. A deafening crack sounded and I watched as Ethan tried to wedge himself into the room through the now busted door frame. His eyes were crazed and dried blood caked the side of his head from where Ben had hit him with the lamp.
Moving as fast as I could, I snatched my purse from the floor. To my horror, the phone and wad of cash spilled out on the floor. Twenty-dollar bills seemed to unfurl in the air in slow motion just as Ethan burst through the door. He looked murderous. If there was any doubt in my mind about what Ethan was capable of, that doubt was gone now.
He would surely kill me this time.
Abandoning the cash and the phone, I spun and raced back to the window. I pulled the latch to release the fire escape ladder, then scaled down the rusty metal until my bare feet hit the broken asphalt driveway.
Then I ran.
And ran.
Ignoring the pain in my ribs, I ran until my feet were raw and bloody and I could run no more.
I barely felt the coolness of the early autumn night air as I staggered up to a gas station located in the middle of nowhere. The bottoms of my feet were torn up, my body screamed in pain, and I couldn’t stop trembling. I needed help. I had no phone and no money. The only thing I had were the clothes on my back and my purse—devoid of all the cash I’d squirreled away over the last six months. I didn’t even have shoes. My only saving grace was a payphone at the gas station. I almost couldn’t believe my luck. I hadn’t seen a payphone in ages and prayed it still worked.
As I dialed the operator and requested a collect call, I fretted over whether or not this was yet another stupid move. Calling anyone was risky—everything would be a risk from now on but I didn’t have a choice. When Teddy’s voice finally came through the line, I couldn’t disguise my relief. I was stranded, and since finding out Ethan was somehow tracking Natalia, I needed Teddy like I’d never needed anyone else before.
“Teddy!”
“Gia! What’s wrong?”
“Ethan found me,” I choked out. Just verbalizing it caused the trembling in my hands to worsen. “I was afraid to call Nat because I think he’s watching her.”
“What do you mean? How the hell did he find you?”
“Look, I can’t explain how or why, but I had to leave quickly. All of my stuff is still at the hotel. My clothes, my phone, my cash…”
I couldn’t continue. The sobs I’d swallowed before making the call burst forth.
“That fucking bastard is crazy. Where are you? I’m coming to pick you up. I knew we shouldn’t have left you at that damn hotel. You can come back to my place and—”
“No. Not your place. He’ll know to look there too.”
“Gia, what do you want me to do?” He sounded exhausted. It was understandable after the night he’d just had because of me.
“I’m so sorry to drag you into this further…”
“No, no, don’t say that. That son of a bitch will never hurt you again. Where are you? I can’t help you if I don’t know where you are.”
Despite the fatigue in his voice, there was also an urgency that gave me the strength to carry on. I took a deep breath.
“Near some random highway,” I said, suddenly afraid because I truly had no idea where I was. It was dark and I wasn’t sure if I’d run north, south, east, or west. I just ran in a zigzagging path in case Ethan followed in the direction I took off. I quickly looked around for identifying landmarks.
“What highway, Gia?”
“Route 71, I think. Yes, I can see the road sign. I’m at a gas station with a convenience store. The sign just says mini-mart and has a huge chicken on it. It’s the only thing around as far as I can see. I can’t be more than four or five miles from the hotel where you dropped me off.”
He was quiet for a moment, as if he were trying to picture what I was describing.
“Okay, I should be able to find it. My ex-wife still has some clothes kicking around here and you’re about her size. I’ll bring what I can as well as some cash.”
“You don’t have…” I almost said he didn’t have to bring money but stopped myself. I literally had nothing. I had no choice but to accept. “I’ll pay you back.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s only money. Just lie low. It shouldn’t take me too long to find you, then we can figure out a safe place for you to go. But Gia… Nat is going to ask questions when she can’t reach you on the Tracfone. What do you want me to tell her?”
“Tell her the phone’s gone and not to attempt to contact me.” I paused, took a deep breath, and thought about how easy it had been for Ethan to track my location tonight. “That means you too, Teddy. It’s too risky. Once I figure out where I’m going, there can’t be any more contact. I need to disappear for a while. I’ll call you both once I think it’s safe.”
He sighed and fell silent.
“Okay,” he eventually acquiesced.
Tears pricked the corners of my eyes. The thought of giving up the only family I had was soul crushing.
“Thank you, Teddy. For everything.”
“I’ll see you soon. And Gia?”
“Yeah?”
“You will be okay. I promise.”
Part IV
A Fresh Start
11
Gianna
Queens, New York
Two Weeks Later
The water began to run cold and I turned off the faucet. Squeezing out my hair, I watched the clear droplets rain down onto my feet. Satisfied all the hair dye was completely rinsed, I stepped out of the shower. My eyes absently roamed the small bathroom as I pinched up my nose from the chemical smell of ammonia lingering in the air. Cream ceramic tiles in desperate need of fresh grout climbed the backsplash above the sink. Faded peel and stick tiles had begun to curl up around the edges of the floor, revealing another layer of graying linoleum. I wouldn’t consider the tiny room dingy, but it wasn’t anything like my bathroom in Indian Hill. Nevertheless, it was clean and that was all that mattered.