Page 28 of All My Broken Dreams

Not just anyone–her. The one person who would understand the meaning behind those words. Harry was sending her a message.

Thus began our longest journey.

It was fromTo Kill a Mockingbird.Scout says it in reference to the walk home from the highschool with her older brother, Jem, where they had appeared in a pageant.

On that walk, Jem was attacked and very nearly killed

Harry didn’t forget the mug. He knew she would come looking for him and he placed it there on purpose as a sign.

He was in danger.

“Find anything?”

Deacon spoke from behind her, scaring the wits out of her. Robbie was about to tell him about the mug but changed her mind at the last second. Mrs. Cameron’s warning kept her from speaking.Mind how you go with that one….

She moved to the kitchen and put the mug in the cupboard. “No joy. But the good news is I can stay here until December. Mrs. Cameron gave me the all clear.”

Deacon’s eyes narrowed like the light was bothering them. “That’s great, Robbie. I brought your bags down just in case. I had a feeling she’d say yes.”

“Did you?”

“She’s not a hard woman.”

He opened his mouth as if to say more and then changed his mind and lifted her backpack and suitcase into the room. Deacon paused, hands on his hips, and then in a shy and yet sexy lift of his chin, he faced her.

“I guess this is it then. The end of the road. I hope it works out for you, Robbie.”

“Deacon–wait. Thank you for everything. I don’t know what I would have done without you … if you hadn’t come along when you did….”

His eyes clouded. “Maybe you’ll do the same for me one day.”

“I will. You can count on it.”

Robbie moved to stand in front of him, rose up on her toes and kissed him on the cheek.

Deacon’s eyes closed and she felt the warm exhalation of his breath against her lips. They didn’t touch but stood at a slight distance from one another, unable to move. Unwilling.

“See you around, Robbie,” he said in a husky voice.

Then he stepped around her and was gone.

Chapter Fifteen

Robbie’s eyes adjusted to the dark enough to see the clock on the mantel. Midnight. She’d been asleep for nine hours?

She had lit the gas fire in Harry’s room to drive out the chill and musty smell, and then spent most of the afternoon cleaning the flat and unpacking. When that was done, her shoulder was killing her so she laid down on the sofa, bone weary, and dropped off to sleep.

It was dark when she woke, startled out of a dream by the sound of footsteps on the creaking stairs. The steps paused outside her door and she instinctively knew they belonged to Deacon. The front door opened and closed with barely a whisper.

Wide awake, Robbie flung back the throw and leapt from the sofa. She had taken off her jeans to clean the bathtub. They were hanging on the hook on the back of the bathroom door. She pulled them on, grabbed her duffle coat and reached for the doorknob.

Robbie hesitated, trembling, sweat cooling her palms.

He was still in the street. She could hear his footsteps echoing along the cobbles. Deacon Wake knew where herbrother was, she could feel it. He was possibly going to him right now. Possibly shielding him from the organization that Mrs. Cameron had talked about.

Harry could have any number of reasons for skipping out and disappearing. He had a better relationship with their mother than Robbie did, but Sarah smothered him. He used to complain about it when he was a teenager. Their mother became hyper-vigilant when he turned sixteen, seeing danger around every corner. Her biggest fear was that her only son would be abducted. Since Harry was over six feet tall and a linebacker in school, Robbie thought Sarah was being paranoid.

But she wasn’t being paranoid because Harry actually did disappear.

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