Page 3 of Rear View
A gasp snapped my head up. Ma stood in the doorway, hands over her mouth. The wind from outside flipped thestrands of her bleach-blonde hair around her face and blew the papers at her feet across the floor. “Xavier,” she breathed. “What are you doing?”
I eyed the bruise over her collarbone—the one she’d done a decent job covering with makeup. Practice made perfect, and all that.
“What no one else will, Ma,” I said. “He’ll never hurt you again. This ends tonight, yeah?”
Her emerald-colored eyes darted between us, then turned red and glassy, her terror rooting her feet. It always did, but too much was on the line. I couldn’t let her freeze. It wasn’t like she’d tell the cops everything he’d done. She never did. But she couldn’t let me down again. Not this time.
I stepped in front of her to cut her off from Dad and force her attention my way. “Take the SUV. Start a new life. There’s a folder with everything you need on the passenger seat.” One Alec would’ve slipped there by then. Directions to a safe house. Cash. A new identity. All of it.
Something like hope filled her eyes until she scurried closer, and it flickered out. “Are you coming too?”
“I gotta handle things here first. You go, I’ll catch up.” I wouldn’t, and even if I tried, sure as hell, my old man would rat me to the cops. My fate was sealed, but hers… I needed her to move, and the lie was the only way she would.
She reached for me, palm settling over my wrist. “I can’t ask you to do this, Xavier.”
“You didn’t.” I shook my head. “He killed Fallon, Ma. I won’t let him kill you too.” My father tried to break free, papers crinkling as he struggled. I planted my foot on his chest and drove him back.
He cursed. “Your brother made his own choice.”
Sirens rang in the distance.
“Nah,” I said. “You made it for him.”
Mom bit her lip and those tears spilled over.
“You gotta go, Ma. Please.”
Dad spit and thrashed. “Don’t you fucking dare, Lorelei!”
The same words he used every time he wanted to shut her up. Remind her that when the cops left, he’d still be there, and she’d pay.
A sob broke from her as she threw her arms around my neck. I crushed her in my hold ’cause Christ only knew when I’d see her again—orif. Pulling back, I tipped my head outside. “You got the keys?”
“They’re still in the ignition,” she said.
“Good.” I gave her a peck on the cheek. “Run.” I turned back toward Dad. “I got this.”
“LORELEI!” Dad roared.
She sniffed and there was a brief silence, like she was hesitating, before the click of her heels echoed through the open door as she fled. The sound of the SUV’s engine fading away eased some of the pressure on my chest. But not all, ’cause I wasn’t done. Not yet.
Dad lifted his head, glaring at me through his brows. “Some mother, just leaving her kid like that.” His front tooth was broken. Blood leaked from his mouth and the gash I’d put across his forehead.
It looked good on him.
“It ain’t me she’s leavin’, old man.”
“I’ll find her,” he said, the threat heavy.
“No.” My stare locked with his when I vowed, “You won’t.”
“You piece of shit! You have no idea what you’ve started. You’ll regret this, boy!”
Fallon’s dead and bloodied body flashed across my mind. I shook my head. “Nah. I’m good.” There were a lotta things I regretted. Dealing with my old man wasn’t about to be one of them.
The sirens got closer.
Ma just needed a minute. Just one minute to get ahead. “You’re fucked now,Peter.”
