Page 45 of Clean Slade
“The frog,” he answered, and relief washed over me.
He may have laughed at the time, but it had been a good idea to establish a code word in case things went south.
“We’ll make our way back. But we won’t be there until tomorrow if we can catch the morning ferry.”
“The morning ferry? Wh-where are you?”
“Albany.”
“What? What are you doing in Albany?”
“I’ll explain when we’re back. We’re gonna need to go back to the yurt retreat and pick up all our stuff too. Do you want to speak to your daughter?”
Mac’s eyes lit up when she heard me, and I passed her the phone so she could talk to her daddy and put her at ease.
As she did that, I returned to the driver’s seat and took us back to Massachusetts and Mayberry Holm. It’d be a long ride, and I hoped to get some answers.
How had everything changed so quickly? Had he lied about his father-in-law wanting to kill him? Was there more happening than he’d let on? And would he let me in when I got there?
Mac fell asleep in the car, and to my surprise, we managed to catch the last ferry to the island. I left the car at Hyannis and carried Mac onboard.
King was waiting for us at the port when we got there.
“Sweetie, I’m here,” he told his daughter when we found him, and Mac went from me to him with sleepy eyes, clutching the stuffed crocodile as if it was her lucky charm.
“Daddy, I missed you,” she mumbled as he put her in the backseat and I drove us to his home.
The poor thing was so exhausted that she barely woke up when we exited the car or King placed her in bed and tucked her in.
I watched him the whole time, and I knew something had changed. Something was different. There was a shadow over his face that hadn’t been there before, but I couldn’t tell what could be worse than being hunted by your relative.
It was midnight by the time we sat in his kitchen with a cup of coffee each.
“What were you doing in Albany?” was the first thing he asked.
“Running. I should have listened to you. We should have ran in the first place.”
He cocked his head and blinked.
“What do you mean?”
“I was trying to get as far from Tony as possible. I was going to buy train tickets for somewhere on the West Coast and disappear. Isn’t that what you wanted to do with her?”
He squeezed his eyes shut and tears ran down his face without warning.
“You were gonna do that? You were going to sacrifice your life, your friends, your family for my daughter?”
More tears streamed down his face, but he wiped them away.
“I couldn’t let them take her. I wouldn’t let an innocent girl get dragged into this world.”
He put his coffee down, and his hand covered mine. It stole my breath.
“You’re…” he started, and I waited as if my life depended on it. “Thank you.”
My shoulders sank, but I tried not to let it show on my face.
“What happened? How are you still here? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love that you are…”Did I really just say love? “But how?”
