Page 47 of Safe
“Wait, what?” I thought for a minute. I was racking my brain trying to come up with a time when she was alone or didn’t have cash with her.
“Shit. Breakfast yesterday. She must not have had enough cash on her. It’s the one time I wasn’t with her.”
“Get her the fuck out of there. Find somewhere else to go.”
“Relax. We’re not there. We’re in Colorado Springs. I’ll find a reason for us to stay here longer. But I’m not going to tell her what you just told me. She doesn’t need to worry.”
“You better fucking hope so.”
I hung up and worked quickly to pull up the number for the zoo and dial it.
“Hello?”
“Hey, this is Cody Morgan. Listen, that thing I was planning, we’re going to have to move it up. Can you have it ready in an hour?”
“Are you serious? You want me to shut the park down earlier?”
“I’ll throw in an extra thousand, now, can you do it or not?”
“Yes…fine.”
I hung up the phone and went back inside, trying to pretend like I wasn’t crumbling to pieces on the inside. I didn’t reallyneedto move the plans up, but I didn’t want to linger inany one place for long anymore at this point, and if the timing I had calculated was correct, Landon was already in Colorado.
I was flying by the seat of my pants at this point, already trying to figure out what to do next and how to move us again without Danielle being suspicious.
“Everything okay?” Danielle was awake now, sitting on the bed, picking at a muffin.
“Yeah, he was just checking on us. Hey, when we’re done here, I have one more surprise for you.” That was the first lie I ever told her, and it tasted like vinegar leaving my tongue. I didn’t want to lie to her ever again, and I hated that I had to do it now, even if it was to protect her peace.
“Really?”
“Yeah, but we have to leave now.”
She cocked her head as a small crease formed between her eyebrows. “I thought we didn’t have plans until later today.”
I shrugged my shoulders, hoping the casualness of my voice would keep her from questioning the sudden changes further.
“Change of plans. You’ll just have to wait and see.”
I made the choice then and there to not tell Danielle a word of any of this. Perhaps it was a flawed decision, a morally gray path, but my priority was absolute. I wouldn't be the one to send her back into the abyss of fear because of that fucking piece of shit. No, I was going to offer her the joy she deserved. And if the price of that sanctuary was my own life, if I had to become an unbreachable wall between her and the bastard intent on ripping everything away from her, then so be it. I'd make damn sure she stayed safe, even if it killed me.
23. THOMAS
I’d been hunched over this computer for weeks, trawling through dead-end leads and empty search results, with no sign of Danielle. The whole thing was starting to piss me off. My own life had ground to a halt while Landon spiraled, obsessed with tracking her down. At this point, fuck the friendship; the only reason I hadn’t quit was because I was desperate for the money. That, and the idea that it was possible Landon would kill me, too, at this point.
Landon had been gone for hours again, driving around the city without a set plan, convinced he would spot her or stumble on a clue. He was getting nowhere. Her car hadn’t moved from its spot. There were no credit card transactions, no phone records, not even a blip. It was like she’d vanished right off the face of the earth.
Lost in frustration, I heard the faint sound of a key card sliding through the door until Landon walked in, a pizza box in hand, looking like shit.
“Let me guess. You didn’t find her.” The question came out sharper than intended, but I wasn’t sorry about it. We both knew the answer; it hadn’t changed in weeks.
He tossed the pizza on the bed beside me, glaring. “I’m getting fucking sick of your shit, Thomas.”
I lit a cigarette and lay down on the bed, shoving the laptop aside with a tired sigh. I needed a break more than I needed the money at this point. We’d been living like fugitives for months, worn down to the bone, with not a single trace of Danielle. Supplies were running low, cash was running low, andevery day, Landon seemed to lose a bit more of his grip on reality. He was growing erratic, reckless, and unpredictable.
I’d stuck by him for years out of loyalty, but now I found myself questioning if I could take much more. I never knew what he might do next, and the things I had already seen him capable of left me uneasy. If I were being honest, I was starting to think I didn’t want to be around to witness whatever came next.
Smoke from my cigarette curled upward toward the ceiling as I mustered the balls to say what I’d been chewing on for the last few days. “I’m over this bullshit, Landon. Just let it go, man.”
