Page 154 of Ink Deep Devotion

I lunge forward and hug her, needing the contact before she escorts me to my car. Once inside, the car takes off, ramping up my nerves to unsafe levels. I look up and study the driver, he’s older and…“Why do you look so familiar?”

“I’m a janitor at the school.”

“Oh,” I look out the window and grab my seat belt. He speaks briefly, telling me so many details that I will never remember.

I’m given a backpack with two phones. One is for regular use, and another I’m to keep on me at all times. If it rings, that means one of us was found, and then we must resort to Plan B, which is running away again, escaping to a new town, preferably a small one. A backup location isn’t given to us in case they find out. He tells me to put some money in my new back account but to keep enough cash on me to start a new one if need be.

Tip upon tip on how to survive and stay hidden, how to hide money in a different location in case I can’t return home, how to do this and not that.

My world starts to spin.

Why did it have to come to this?

Why couldn’t Dash conquer his fear and love me? Why did he crave swallowing his fear more than my cries of passion instead?

Chapter 56

Dash

There is a density in the air that clogs my nose. Freshly cut grass and morning dew intertwine with the silence of the dead.

Each step I take crushes the newly cut blades of grass, causing a squeaking sound as the moisture is compressed under the sole of my boot.

Saturated green fills my eyes, renewing the energy in my sleep-deprived body. I stop at the stone with fresh moss clinging to the bottom edges. The etched letters are no longer pristine. Now, they have specks of dirt and the decay of time filling them. My mom is now just a solid stone, weathering the dawn of each day. Eventually, the stone will crack, then crumble, and the earth that claimed her flesh and bones will swallow her memory.

I look at Dad’s grave. His stone is still immaculate. The letters are clean, having not had to bear the burden of each day the living must endure.

I rub my jaw, fingers tracing over my lips.“I…” My gulp is so loud it silences the birds chirping.

I bite my lip till it bleeds. I taste nothing. Feel nothing. Mila took every ounce of me when she ran.

She fucking did it!

I’m proud of her.

I hate her.

I love her.

I wish I could have gone with her.

I need her back in my life.

“I fucked up, mom.” My whisper floats to the headstone; the porous stone slowly absorbs my words. I don’t know if it will reach her. Maybe it shouldn't.

“That’s no surprise to you, Dad.” I avoid looking at his grave.

My head tips back to the point of pain, and a bright blue sky floods my vision, mocking me. It’s clear and hopeful; a new day filled with optimism, one might suggest.

Mila is under this sky somewhere.

Somewhere.

“I’ve lost everything.” I scoff.“I didn’t think she would ever do it. I thought her love for me cemented us together. I felt her love shackled around my ankles; some days, it slowed me down; other days, the iron grip was a comfort. It bruised me and bound me, but I knew no matter what, we were stuck together. So I kept pushing and pushing, but love has its limits.” I feel my heart now. It’s beating loudly. Painfully chugging along like an outdated steam train.

“I just wanted to keep her safe.” I look at dad’s grave now, remembering the shock of his death. The great Marcus King was shot dead. If someone could kill Dad, then Mila would be an easy target.

In the days I’ve been gone, my brothers have tried to find me. Like Mila, I don’t aspire to be found.

---