Page 1 of Exhale
Ginny didn’t stop to think, she ran.
After Billy Danner killed her boyfriend, Mark Gumball, in cold blood, she wasn’t going to stick around to see if Billy was going to shoot her, too.
“Mommy!” Her five-year-old son, Elliott, cried, and she held his hand tighter.
She shifted his twin brother, Weston, on her hip and kept running, dragging Elliott with her. Weston whimpered, but for once kept his mouth shut. The younger twin was normally a chatterbox, but today, thank god, he stayed mute.
Her mind raced.
If she could get to Lou’s house, she might be able to borrow her car and leave town. She didn’t have her stuff or the boys’ things, but she could pick up shit on the road.
First, though, she needed money.
Lou might have some cash she could borrow, even though she already owed her.
“Gin!” Billy’s shout followed her as she ran.
She regretted the day she and Mark had met Billy several months ago at a drug buy. He had been nothing but a soulsucking demon, but he kept the drugs coming in for them at a steady stream.
Cutting down an alley, Ginny placed Weston on his feet and picked up Elliott. They were both small enough to carry because they had been born underweight and a month early.
But Elliott was lighter than Weston, and she was grateful for the easier load.
Ordering an Uber to pick her up a few blocks away, she kept running.
She made it to Main Street in the afternoon heat. It could have been much hotter if not for an off day when the temperature had reached a whopping 101 degrees yesterday.
All she could hope for as she jogged through the hot morning was that it would cool down some, but that was wishful thinking. Arizona was never cool in the summer.
So far, though, her phone app showed it was 85 at the moment. Which was typical for Phoenix, Arizona, at this time of the year.
Neither boy had a jacket, so they wouldn’t really feel the heat yet. Weston was winded, and they needed to get off the streets fast.
With perfect timing, the Uber pulled up, and she shoved the boys into the car.
“Where are we going, mommy?” Weston asked, buckling his seatbelt himself like a big boy.
“To visit Auntie Lou,” she murmured, fastening Elliott’s belt.
“Yay!” Weston clapped, but Elliott only tucked his body close to hers.
Lou’s house was dark when they pulled up forty-five minutes later, but she figured her friend was probably still sleeping.
It was only seven twenty in the morning.
She snatched the key from beneath the flower pot and opened the front door, ushering the boys inside.
Shutting the door, she flipped the lock and the deadbolt for good measure and gave a relieved sigh.
A noise drew her gaze to the kitchen doorway.
“Hello, Gin.”
The sight and sound of Billy turned her blood cold.
“Billy, I didn’t see anything,” Ginny said, her voice trembling.
“Take the kids in the other room,” Billy told his right-hand man, Cody.
