“Run!” I’d barely said the word when the girl twisted around and finally noticed us, her eyes widening.
“Hey! What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
We scattered into the darkness. One of the guys slammed into my back while Jaimie ran into the girl, accidently knocking her down. My foot stuck against an uneven part of the pavement, and I struck concrete with a thud. I sprang up and ran to the fence separating the house from the woods behind it.
“Stop!” The girl screamed again. “Wha-wha-what did you do?” The horror in her voice grabbed ahold of my instinct to flee.
My hands were around the top of the fence.
“Ah!” A short, high-pitched scream made me falter. “Ow, ow, ow.” The girl hissed in pain.
I stared at the fence in front of me. My heart rate steadied, and I gained control over my breathing. The girl let out another whimper, and my hands retreated to my sides.
Go. Just go.
Clenching my fists while fighting a snarl of annoyance with myself, I turned around and headed for her. Pulling my hoodie over my face, I hoped it would conceal me if I stuck to the shadows.
She held her leg while biting her lip, her jacket clinging to her curves. Her eyes narrowed and raked over me, the anger searing, making me forget for a second why I was there in the first place. Guilt held tightly to my stomach, but I pushed it away and held out my hands to let her know I wasn’t planning on hurting her.
Vance and his guys were long gone. Reluctantly, I approached her. She scooted back on her butt.
“Don’t even think about doing whatever you think you’re going to do, because trust me when I say I know how to handle myself.” She growled the words.
My steps faltered. Shit. I dropped my hand and realized how stupid I was being. Damn me for suddenly growing a conscience. Where had it been all those years before I went to jail?
“Are you okay?”
“Why the hell do you care?” She jumped up on her uninjured leg. She was several inches shorter than me but more than capable of glaring at me in a way that made me swallow hard.
She put some pressure on the injured leg as if daring me to challenge her words.
I moved my eyes to hers. “I’m sorry,” I whispered before making a run for the fence again.
My hands scraped against the unvarnished wood. I gripped tightly, the splinters digging into my skin, braced a foot against the fence, and lifted myself up and over, landing with a thump on the hard ground.
“I’m going to kill you! There’s no way you’re going to get away with this!”
The fence jolted, and I jumped up. She was trying to climb over.
“Stop! You’re going to hurt yourself.” I hit the fence with my palm.
“Why do you care?” she yelled.
Holy hell. Was I seriously having a conversation with some girl through a fence after vandalizing her house?
“Just be careful. And ice your ankle.” Apparently, yes.
“Anything else?” Her tone hadn’t lost the highest level of pissed off.
“I—I … I’m sorry.”
“Not as sorry as you’re going to be!” The fence jolted again.
That’s what I got for trying to help. I lifted my hoodie back onto my head and ran through the shadowed forest.
TESSA
Reality crashed down on me in heavy waves. If I didn’t surface soon, I might drown, so I forced myself to take a breath. Flipping on the light, I took an unsteady step to assess the damage. Our garage, which used to be immaculately laid out, sat in broken remnants—from the scattered pieces of paper and nails to the broken trophies sitting in glinting pieces. My eyes landed on Dad’s Porsche, hunkered down like a deformed centerpiece.
I squeezed my eyes shut for a second, but when I opened them the car remained posed like a monument to the destruction. My belly did a flip, and I recognized that sinking sensation puddling around my feet because I had lived with it for the better part of a year. Guilt. I may not have been the one to break the car, but I couldn’t help but blame myself for this somehow.
I stepped around the broken glass, and my heartbeat roared in my ears. The sight of the Porsche unburied memories I had tucked away, and I choked on my breath.
My body heated as the anger poured onto my skin. This wasn’t happening. Slowly the ebbs of panic stopped pulsating, giving me room to push the memory where it belonged, deep within the past, into the furthest corner of my mind.
With a better grip on my reality, I dug out my phone. My fingers trembled. Dad’s face hovered on the screen. He was at Graceland, the first vacation he’d taken since I could remember. I scrolled past him and found the number I needed, making the call.
“Tess, you okay?” Uncle Mike answered on the first ring.
“No. Someone broke into the garage and … you just need to get over here. Now.”
“I’ll be there right away.”
Sometimes it paid to have an uncle who was also a detective.
I went over to the porch steps and sat down. The warmth of my jacket became unbearable, and I unzipped it and tossed it over the railing. In my head, I went over the details of the guy who stopped to make sure I was okay after one of his friends pushed me to the ground. It wasn’t much because the shadows had covered his face, along with the ratty old hoodie he had worn, but I needed to do something until Uncle Mike got there.
I stared at what was left of the car. Dad’s baby. He’d bought it after winning his first major case over a decade ago. Looking at it made the guilt bounce around like a Ping-Pong ball in my stomach, and I darted my eyes to the motorcycle.
Pushing myself up, I approached the motorcycle and ran a hand over the front. The metal sent a shiver up my arm despite the heat of the night. The pain in my ankle receded, and I managed to make it over without wincing. I lifted a leg over the side and sank into the seat, gripping the handles, letting the familiarity of it calm my heart.
Headlights wedged away the dark driveway and flashed across my face, into the damaged garage. Uncle Mike stepped out of the car, slamming the door behind him. In the passenger seat was his daughter, my cousin and best friend, Paige. I got off the bike, hands lingering on the handles, and headed for them.
“What happened?” Uncle Mike asked, smoothing a hand over his balding head.
Paige ran the length between us and pulled me into a hard hug. “Are you okay?” she asked. Her hazel eyes were wide when I stepped away from her. She didn’t wait for my answer but instead hugged me again.
I let out a surprised wheeze.
“Paige, sweetheart, I think you’re suffocating her.” Uncle Mike put a hand on her shoulder and smiled, unable to hide the crease of worry between his brows. “She was right next to me when you called. I couldn’t persuade her to stay home.”
Paige finally let me go but kept an arm wrapped around my shoulders.
Uncle Mike sized up the damage. “Geez, this is crazy. I gotta call your dad.”
“No!” I grabbed the phone out of his hand. Uncle Mike raised his brows. “He’ll be home tomorrow. We’ll deal with it then.” I didn’t want to interrupt his vacation.
Uncle Mike sighed and crossed his arms. “He’ll kill me for it.”
“You say that every time you keep something from him, but you’re not dead yet.” Uncle Mike was Dad’s baby brother, and there was no way he’d ever hurt him. “It’s my decision. I’ll deal with the repercussions. Besides, you know how much he needs this.”