Page 50 of Capturing Hearts

Chapter Thirty

Tommy

My old man has always been an asshole, but the look in his eyes scares even me.

Dad jumps on top of me, straddling me as his leathery fists pound into my skull. I rotate my hips and buck upward, knocking him off balance, freeing my arms to punch him back, hard. Bruce grabs my dad around his body, yanking him up by using his own body weight for leverage and power. It’s enough to get me off my back. Kneeling in front of my father, I give him everything I’ve got. As I punch him into unconsciousness, I yell at him, “This is for ruining my life! This is for not being there in court! This is for treating Mom like shit!”

“Tommy! Tommy!” Bruce yells, keeping his grip on my old man. “You have to go get her! Someone’s going to find her!”

Panting to catch my breath, I look toward the door and nod. Glancing back to my unconscious father, I shake my head. “I can’t believe what he was about to do.”

“Remember what Rita told you? I’ve got this. You go!”

Gasping for breath, I jump up and run for the door. Looking behind me, I see Bruce pulling the ropes over my dad’s wrists. “Bruce?” He looks over to me. “Thank you.” He nods.

As I run through the hall, I hear him yell, “And by the way, Walter! I am gay, but I fucking hate being called Brucie!” A dull, loud thud follows. As I race down the stairs of the place I used to call home, I allow myself one little smile for Bruce’s redemption.

Outside, Annie’s running up the center of the street under a sun-filled Marin County sky, yelling, “HELP!”

“Shut up!” I whisper-yell at her. She turns around, then looks for where to run, not sure if she can trust me or not. She’s hobbling, and I catch up with her easily, covering her mouth and dragging her to the side of a darkened home. I grew up here. Most of our neighbors go back east for the holiday to celebrate where there’s snow and tradition. There’s probably only two houses on this street with people in them, and that’s two too many.

She gives a muffled cry against the palm of my hand. Then bites me. I yelp, shaking my hand and giving her a murderous look. “Quit it! I’m not going to hurt you unless you make me hurt you. Okay? Would I have saved you just now?”

Panting, her face bruised and wet, she shakes her head. “Take me home!”

“Okay! I’ll take you home. Come on.” She doesn’t move, too surprised to function. I motion for her to follow me and she hesitates, but then decides she has no other choice. “I’m taking you home! I promise. Okay? Look into my eyes.” I point at them. “I promise.” She relaxes. Checking out her face, I say, “Looks like he punched you pretty good.”

She nods, holding her stomach and peering at me. “You too,” she says, hoarsely.

“Yeah, not the first time,” I mumble. “My car’s just up here.” I parked it out of sight of the old house, a habit from robbing homes ever since I was a kid. But no one would have recognized this old beater, so I obviously wasn’t thinking clearly. She looks at the Colt as we walk up to it, then glances to me. “Don’t say it,” I smile, attempting to make her feel better. “I’ve gone down in the world.”

She blinks a couple times, still trying to figure me out. I unlock her door and she gets in carefully. I pull off my jacket and hand it to her. She takes it, staring up at me like I’m some sort of alien. I exhale, walking around to get in the car.

“Where are we?” she asks.

“Marin,” is all I say. She’ll see the signs as we drive back to the Golden Gate Bridge. I’m too busy thinking what to do, how I’m going to get the hell out of this state, and probably this country.

After fifteen minutes of driving in silence, her voice sounds more like normal when she asks, “How’d you get out? Did you escape?”

I nod. “And I’m not going back.” I turn my head to meet her eyes. “Ever.”

We drive in silence. What would we have to talk about? Neither of us likes the other and the truth is, she’s my ticket to freedom. But how?

After a few more miles, past Sausalito, I turn off on the last road before the bridge’s entrance. Annie looks around quickly.

“Where are we going? The bridge is that way!”

I nod again, more slowly this time. “I’m not taking you home, Annie. They’ll only throw me back in if I do that.”

Her jaw falls and she searches the one lane road. “Where are you taking me? What are you doing?” She reaches over to punch me, but I block her fist and swerve on the road.

“HEY!” I screech to a halt, swiveling in my seat. “None of that Martial Arts bullshit. You hear me? You’ve got someone there who you don’t want to get hurt, am I right?” My eyes flick down to her stomach barely hidden under my coat. She sniffles, but her eyes are fierce and ready to fight. “Now you listen to me and you listen good. There is no way I’m going back there and I will do whatever it takes. Do you understand?” Her breathing is short, so I tell her to breathe as I reach below my seat for the cuffs Bruce left me.

She sees me bring them up into the dim light of the ancient dash-console, and yells, “NO!” punching at me with both fists. A couple land, but I wrestle the cuffs onto her, leaving her gasping and screaming. I shove my hand over her face and hiss, “Don’t make me hit you.” She eyes me from the corners of wary eyelids. “If I hit you, it’s because you made me. Got it?” She nods. I release her mouth and with my attention heightened, I drive on toward the cave.

“You promised you were taking me home.”

I smile, “I’m a liar Annie, you should know that.”

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