Page 21 of The Chance

He was good enough to screw with, but she acted like she didn’t want to go out in public with him.

“Maybe I am.”

There was a vulnerable look in her eyes. She got that way sometimes, when something was really hurting her.

Justin didn’t stop to think that someone could see them. They were in a public hallway, after all. He just wrapped his fingers around the back of her neck and pulled her closer. She wasn’t a tall woman at all, more average height than anything. She fit.

Right against his chest. He smelled her shampoo. Justin wanted to just bury his face in her hair.

And forget how shitty the world could really be.

“Mamaw’s Place?” she asked. “I really want to see the band. Who knows… maybe there will be dancing. I wouldn’t mind dancing with a hot guy named doctor.”

Justin just held her close for as long as he dared.

19

Aubrey was tired,hurting, and afraid. But there was still so much she had to get through before she could go home—if she went home at all. She wanted to stay with Genny, but she suspected that wasn’t going to happen. For one thing, Ayla couldn’t stay in the chair in the waiting room all night.

Her sister had been up on her feet too long already; Aubrey knew it with one look. Ayla had a limit to what she could do physically. Stress just made it worse.

As Aubrey listened to the Hiller family deciding who was going to stay in the room with Genny, Ayla winced and twisted in the seat. That was all it took. Aubrey made her decision. She was getting her sister home. Genny would be well taken care of here with her family. Well, Aubrey was going to take her family home and take care of her.

She stood and looked at Genny’s mother next to her. Gayle was going to stay with her daughter overnight. Genny’s brothers were preparing to leave now. George’s wife had been driven home by her own brother—one of the police who had responded to the attack—an hour or so earlier.

“I need to get Ayla home now.”

Guthrie stood. “I’ll drive you.”

“I’ll need my car. I can drive. We’re not that far away.” Less than ten minutes. She could drive for ten minutes—the pain meds had lessened the ache in her cheek and her arm. It wasn’t her dominant hand. “Thank you, but I can drive us home.”

“Or, I can,” Ayla said from right beside her. “I can drive a car, you know. I just don’t do it very often.”

“I’m good,” Aubrey said firmly. “If I didn’t think I should, then I wouldn’t take the risk.”

She just wanted to get home. Where she could have two minutes to herself to put her thoughts into perspective, to deal with all of this. Somehow.

She had hit her limit. She just needed to get away.

“I’ll walk you to your car,” Guthrie said. His hand wrapped around her arm, pulling her closer. For a sharp moment, she just wanted to press against him and let him hold her. To keep the darkness away.

“Do you have your bag?”

She did. She’d grabbed it when she’d changed clothes, giving her bloody clothes to the TSP. She bit back the nausea.

Home. She was going to get home.

Someone called Guthrie’s name. It was one of the men from the TSP. Guthrie still had his hand wrapped around her elbow, holding her. Guthrie didn’t want to leave her. He was hovering—probably because he couldn’t get in there with Genny yet. Aubrey understood. He couldn’t be in with his sister—but he could take care of Aubrey now.

But she had to get home. She just needed a place where she could feel safe again.

If she ever could.

“I’ll follow them home, Guth,” a voice very much like Guthrie’s said from behind her. Aubrey turned a little. It was the brother that looked the most like Guthrie. George. The mayor.

“I’ll make sure they get there okay. I need to get home to Veronica and the girls.”

He lived three blocks from Aubrey and Ayla. Just three blocks.

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