Page 37 of The Rogue

Levi mostly grunted all morning before leaving for the ranch, and that’s fine. Grunting is better than setting more rules and expectations I’m bound to never meet.

With the kitchen sparkling, we head upstairs to rummage through his dresser.

“Dad said he’ll take me shopping closer to the school year for new stuff. Says at the rate I’m going, I might grow another six inches before then.”

I laugh. “You did get a little taller since I last saw you.”

This seems to jog a memory for the little guy. “Grandpa missed you at the Inn.”

I glance back. “How do you know?”

“I asked him.”

“You did?”

“Yeah. I said, ‘I miss Tessa. She used to give me more fries’. And Grandpa said, ‘Me too kid, but I could do without the fries’.”

I shake my head with a smile I can’t help. “Okay, take a look at these.” I toss a few things at him. “If you can live without it, I think we should add it to the donation pile.”

We pack a generous load to drop off and clean up his room.

“There, now there’s room for new stuff.”

“Cool.” He looks up at me with joyful eyes. “Ice cream now?”

I check my watch. “But we haven’t had lunch yet?”

He shrugs.

I narrow my eyes at him. “Yeah, okay.” I reach for his hand. “Let’s go rogue.”

“Come out, come outwherever you are.”

Sweat drips down my face, my neck, and hell, I’m hot everywhere. It’s fucking boiling in here. Who the hell keeps a standing wardrobeanymore?

My eyes drop to the side where my dead body is going to be a minute from now, and my last thoughts are, “Who the hell keeps a standing wardrobe?”

Footsteps grow closer, and I inch further behind the pile of clothes.

Sirens sound in the distance, but it does nothing to settle the pounding of my heart. To the undeniable truth that I am not making it out of here alive.

Those cops could be right outside and I’d still have no shot in hell.

“Eddie, we gotta get out of here.” The other voice is urgent, almost as desperate as I am for them to leave.

“She’s in here,” the voice of the guy who shot Eric grits.

“There’s no one here—let’s go.”

A nearby chair is kicked angrily. “I fucking saw her, Vince.”

I bite down a whimper.

The sirens are closer. I chew on my bottom lip as I peek through the cracks. Eddie slams the closet across the room shut. After a beat, his eyes flick across the open space to the wardrobe.

No, no, no, no.

He marches forward and I barely have time to blink before the door is pulled open and I’m thrown to the cold tile floor next to my dead boyfriend. He points the gun at me. The same one that put two bullets in Eric minutes ago.

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