I couldn’t make any sense of her rambling. “I won’t be back at work. I have to leave town, at least for a while, and I wanted to tell you.”
“I’m so glad you’re okay,” she sniffled.
“Yeah. I got away from him.”
“I’m glad.”
“Wait.” My stomach turned over when I finally put together what she was saying. “Did you tell Dom I was working there?”
A long silence answered the question.
I’d been betrayed by my best friend. “How could you?” I screamed.
“I didn’t have a choice after Jordie stiffed me. I have to pay rent.”
“You suck,” I said, hanging up the phone.
Fucking Annie. I hadn’t seen that coming. Good thing I hadn’t told her Luke’s last name. The back-stabbing bitch had taken it literally when I’d said Dom would pay good money to find me.
Chapter 24
(Three days later)
Debbie
It had taken me three long days of driving to reach the Dallas area. I stopped in Fort Worth for the night when I found myself losing my concentration again. I’d learned after the first day of this trip that I wasn’t cut out for freeway driving. It often threatened to put me to sleep.
I looked at the map on my phone before going into the motel. If I kept going, the next few days would be a whole lot of nothing, all the way through west Texas and the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico. To avoid being roadkill, I’d need to make more stops and drive fewer miles per day. California had looked a lot closer on a map than it did now through my car windshield.
After clicking off my phone, I decided this was far enough to be safe from Dom. I made a few arrangements in the office, and a second-floor room in this seedy motel would be home base for a few days.
I finished the last of the burger and fries I’d picked up just off the freeway and propped the bed’s pillows against the headboard. Flicking on the TV, I selected the guide to find something to watch, something to lose myself in that would distract me from my awful situation, something that would tire me enough for sleep tonight.
Every night, visions of Luke invaded my brain. He’d always told me I couldn’t run from my problems and instead had to face them. Every night I went to sleep wondering which of us was right—me knowing I had to escape, or him telling me it was impossible and I had to face the demons.
It shouldn’t have been a hard choice. I’d spent forever planning this and preparing for it. But in my head, it had always seemed a lot simpler to pull up stakes and move, get a new job, get a new identity, and start a new life. I’d told myself to prepare for the shock of cold water the new experience represented and just dive in. But now that step came tomorrow, and it scared me.
I held the phone for a moment and turned it over in my hand. I’d promised to call Luke when I got settled, and I’d also promised myself not to call him until then.
Every night, I faced the same choice: call him or not. He’d been so good to me, so kind, so understanding, but calling him would only bring regrets for having made the hard choice.
Every night so far, I’d been strong enough to resist the temptation, and tonight I had to do the same. I closed my eyes, and his smile came back to me, along with his dimples. Goosebumps covered my arms as I remembered our shower together, our night together. It had been like a fairy tale, and was destined to be no more real.
I yanked my eyes open. Looking back did me no good. I plugged the phone into the charger and set it down.
I had to focus on my goal. With limited money, I couldn’t spend long looking for a job or finding a place. Finding a room to rent had to come first. Any employer would need me to put an address that wasn’t a motel on an application. But that was tomorrow. Tonight I had to relax enough to get some sleep. I scrolled through the TV listings.
None of the shows on lower channels held any interest for me, but when I got to the higher channels and the movies, I found one of my old favorites: Overboard, with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. It was just about to start.
As the movie reached the middle, I empathized with Goldie’s plight. Because of her amnesia after falling overboard, she didn’t realize the rabbit hole she’d fallen down. Living with Kurt and his kids in a ramshackle, rundown house along the Oregon coast was karma more than paying her back for how selfish she’d been in her previous wealthy life. Yet the tricks they played on her still seemed unfair.
Her plight paralleled my life, in a way. There was a time before Dad died when things had been simple and we were happy. Then, like falling overboard into cold water, I’d been forced into a life I didn’t recognize with Dominic, subject to his whims and anger. That hadn’t been any more fair to me in real life than the fictional life had been to Goldie… Although with the way she’d treated Kurt, she probably deserved it. That was the difference between us.
Then the movie took a turn, and Kurt fell for Goldie. He felt sorry for the way he’d treated her. But when her family found her and she finally got her memory back, she left him a broken man. In the end, Kurt and his family chased down Goldie to profess their love. The two of them jumped together into the cold water of what the new, honest relationship would be like. That was how a love story should end. They were together, and things would work out.
I clicked off the movie. After the screen went dark, light streamed in through the crack in the curtains. I needed to close those before I went to sleep. No peeping toms welcome here.
More importantly, I didn’t need the light of the Wendy’s sign next door keeping me up. I walked to the window and opened the curtains a bit more to take in the sign one last time. I’d always been proud of my red hair since seeing the little girl on the restaurant sign. I wasn’t her, but it still made me feel special.
Before I pulled the curtains closed, three black SUVs rolled rapidly into the parking lot and came to a stop. Men piled out, most wearing olive drab battle gear with helmets and automatic rifles, and the rest in dark suits.
Just like in the movies, the cops were here for me and heading for the stairs.
I yanked the curtains shut and stood back. A few moments later, I heard the shuffling of feet outside.
Loud pounding was followed by yells. “Frankie…” I didn’t catch the rest. Then, “FBI. Open up.”
Fuck me. I’d managed to forget I was wanted in a bank robbery.
How could they find me here? Were they looking for Dom too?
I rushed to the bathroom, closed the door behind me, and sat on the toilet. With all the adrenaline, my heart thrummed in my ears. God, don’t let them shoot me. It hadn’t been my idea to rob that bank.
The pounding and yelling were muffled now with the bathroom door closed.
“FBI. Open up. We have a warrant for your arrest.”
Boom! There was some kind of explosion, and the wall and the door shook.
I closed my eyes, leaned over, and hugged my knees. It was over for me.
Then nothing.
After a moment I heard muffled voices.
I sat up, and my breathing came in heavy pants as I opened my eyes.
The voices were coming from the room next door.
I dared to smile.
They’d raided the guy in the next room.