Page 108 of Ordinary Girl

“But I – I only made the decision to come back last night? How – how could he have found out so quickly? How is this moving so fast?”

Joel drops his head, his shoulders sagging, and when he looks back up I suddenly realize how tired he looks. How exhausted he is. “It just is, Ana. Because your father is a fuckingdangerous bastard. But so are we, and we have more people looking out for us than he realizes, and that is why this is moving so fast.” He pulls himself to his feet, takes one last drag on his cigarette and drops it to the floor, grinding it into the ground with the heel of his boot. “I’m taking you to one of our safe houses.”

“Hang on… Joel, I don’t want to go–”

“Get on the bike.” He tosses me a helmet and climbs onto his bike, but I hesitate, because I’m still confused, still trying to get my head around what the hell is going on here. “Get on the fucking bike, Ana!”

I pull on the helmet and climb on behind him, holding tightly onto the grab rail as he pulls away. I have no clothes, nothing with me, he didn’t give me any time to grab anything, and all I’m feeling now is numb.

It feels like we’ve been on the road for ages when we pull up outside an ordinary one storey house on a residential street somewhere in the suburbs, but when I check my watch I see we’ve only been on the road for about twenty minutes.

“This is the safe house?” I ask, frowning as I climb off the bike.

“Better to put you somewhere out in the open. Makes it less likely he’ll try to do anything on a street like this, it’s too public.”

“My old house was on a street like this. It didn’t stop you and Skip coming forhim.”

He ignores that and strides up the front path, opens the door and goes inside. I follow, closing the door behind me.

“Cady will be here soon with some things for you, clothes, toiletries, all that stuff.”

“Thank you,” I whisper, looking around the bright and airy hallway. It’s a small house, but it’s incredibly cute.

“Listen, Ana…” He comes toward me, but stops before he gets too close. “All of this, it’s fucking with my head because I amtired of losing you. I’m tired of not having you here, and the fight is exhausting but I will keep on doing it until you are safe. Do you hear me? I will never stop fighting for you, whether you want me or not–”

“I want you.” The words spill out of me before I have any time to think about it, but I mean them. I absolutely mean them. “I want you,” I repeat, just to make sure he heard. And then he smiles, and for a brief moment the weariness in his eyes disappears, the exhaustion dissipates, and he pulls me into his arms and holds me, and I cling onto him. I don’t ever want to let him go. When he kisses me I forget everything, for a second, and I wish we could stay this way, just for a little while. But we can’t, I know that, this fucking nightmare isn’t even close to ending. And as tears start to fall down my face I’m both angry and scared and there’s a part of me that just wants to run, again. But I can’t. I won’t. It’s time to stop being rebellious and let Joel take the lead.

“Hey, don’t cry.” He smiles again and gently wipes my tears away with his thumb, and now I’m scared for him, too. Scared my dad is going to do something to this man because he’s protecting me. “It’s going to be okay, Ana, I promise you. And this time that promise won’t be broken.” He rests the palm of his hand against my cheek, his forehead against mine, and I close my eyes and breathe him in and realize I’ve missed him so much more than I was ever going to admit. “This time I mean it,” he murmurs, his thumb stroking my skin, and again I grasp at another moment of peace with this man. A moment that’s short lived as a knock at the door brings us crashing back to a harsh reality.

“Hey, guys, it’s Cady!”

Joel lets go of me and opens the door to let Cady in.

“You okay, kiddo?” She smiles at me and drops a holdall down on the floor.

“Why didn’t you tell me any of this last night?” I ask her, and I don’t mean to sound accusatory, but I probably do.

“Because it wasn’t my place. He didn’t want it to come from me.” She jerks her head in Joel’s direction. “Besides, we didn’t have all the information until the early hours of this morning. I have to say, though, Ana, your timing couldn’t have been better.”

“So I’ve been told.”

“Cady’s going to stay with you,” Joel says, his tone back to being matter-of-fact. Our moment is well and truly over.

“What about the store?” I ask.

“There are plenty of people who can look after that place for a few days.” Cady heads off down the hallway toward the kitchen, and I follow her. “I’ve brought a couple of the other club girls in to take over, temporarily, of course. Hannah and Daisy have both got retail experience, they know what they’re doing… I could do with a drink, have we got any whiskey in here?”

The small but modern kitchen is all decked out in the best Ikea has to offer. It’s warm and cozy with sage green walls and under cupboard lighting and just enough space for a foldaway table and two chairs. Cady finds a bottle of whiskey in one of the cupboards, opens it, and takes a couple of glasses from a shelf on the wall. I hear Joel out in the hall, it sounds like he’s going from room to room, making sure everything’s safe…?

“Do you want one?”

Cady’s voice makes me jump, I guess I’m more on edge than I thought, and I look at her. “Sorry?”

“Whiskey. Do you want one?”

“No. Thanks. I’m good.”

Cady pours herself a drink and takes a sip. “It’s all going to be okay, Ana. Joel has everything under control.”

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