Page 53 of Safe
I was on the cusp of saying those three words when a sudden thought came to mind, and a feeling of unease crept in and took over everything else.
“Um, Cody?” I hesitated, half afraid to ask. “How much of the living allowance did you use for all this?”
Cody's eyes shot wide, his pupils dilated like a deer caught in headlights. Alex had been generous, providing us with funds weekly for food and necessities, and even more for clothes and other needs. I might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I knew this must have come at a significant cost.
“I didn’t use the allowance, I used the other money Alex has been giving me,” Cody admitted, lowering his focus to his glass as if the answers were floating to the surface of his champagne. Regret crossed his face the moment the words came out of his mouth.
“What money from my brother?” I demanded, feeling the flush red of anger rising to the surface of my skin.
“Nothing,” he retorted, dismissing my interrogation. “Forget I said anything. He just thought I needed some income for the trouble.”
“Trouble? Oh, so what? So now I'm a fucking trouble?” My fears were validated. I felt reduced to nothing more than a burden, a job to him. The trust and care I'd been cultivating, pouring my heart into, workingreallyhard to give him, felt like it all just shattered into pieces at my feet. All I wanted was to erase the time, the energy, the emotions I had invested. He didn't deserve an explanation, nor my patience after referring to me as trouble, and I was ready to walk away without looking back.
"Come on, Danielle, you know it isn't like that." Cody reached for my arm, but I flinched back before he could touch me. I could feel the walls rising again.
“I mean, it might have started that way, but everything's different now. You don’t understand—you’ve got me in a chokehold.” He paused, searching for words.
“I don’t know what I’m doing, or why you’re the first person who’s gotten through to me, but I do know I love you.”
“No, don’t do that. Don’t say it now to save yourself.”
“Danielle, I’m not saying it to save myself. I see you. All of you. Even the parts you don’t see yourself. I accept the hard parts right along with the easy parts. But it’s in the hardest, most painful parts of you where I see what I love the most. And I’m sorry it took me this long to admit it.” He waited, hoping I would forgive and forget. But I couldn’t.
“Oh, really?” I shot back, hearing the pain in my own voice. “Did you stop taking the money when you figured that out?”
A sad silence filled the space between us as Cody let me fill in the answer myself. I searched his eyes, and all I saw was an undeniable mix of pain and regret that begged forunderstanding. Yet, I couldn’t feel any sympathy. I wanted him to feel my hurt, to see it in every tear. I chose to trust him in a time when nothing on this Earth deserved my trust, and no one could have blamed me for closing myself off. All I wanted back was honesty. Now, I questioned everything. Were his feelings real? Was he lying about anything else?
Giving in to my emotions, I acted on impulse. In one quick motion, I snatched the car keys off the blanket and backed away, moving fast enough that he had no time to intervene.
“That’s not why he still pays me, Danielle,” Cody swallowed hard, struggling to keep steady. “I’ve been honest about everything else. I shared things with you that I’ve never told anyone, not even Alex. Even if it hurt me, even if I couldn’t sleep after because I was so scared of opening up to someone and being looked at differently. Life is different with you in it. You make it more than I could ever feel before.”
“You know, Cody, maybe I could have believed you loved me if you’d stopped taking money to be with me.” The words flew from my mouth, fueled by a hatred that was growing too fast to contain. Shutting people out was a skill I knew all too well.
I bolted from the building, weaving through the zoo as fast as my legs could carry me. I could hear Cody’s footsteps a ways behind me as he begged me to stop. His footsteps pounded the pavement, closing the gap fast, but I refused to pause or look back.
I reached the car, sliding into the driver's seat just as Cody arrived, out of breath and pleading for me to open the door. With tears clouding my vision, I looked at him one final time, my own unspoken goodbye, and drove away, leaving him standing alone in the parking lot.
26. LANDON
I drove straight back to our apartment, ensuring I went unnoticed, and packed up more of my belongings. I also grabbed the last of the cash I had hidden around the place. Just as I was about to leave, an idea stopped me. I returned to the bedroom, pulled a duffel bag from the closet, and filled it with whatever clothes of Danielle’s were left. This way, neither of us would ever have to come back from Colorado.
After double-checking I had everything, I headed to the airport, calling Hunter on the way. Getting to Colorado without drawing attention would require cashing in numerous favors I had saved up for months. Setting up there on short notice with no plan would be even more challenging.
“Yeah?”
“You remember the favor you owe me? I need your plane ready. Now.”
“You got it, Landon. We can go wheels up in 20.”
In my pocket was a slip of paper with an address for a convenience store in Grand Junction, CO. I would never have figured out on my own that Alex would send her there. I had assumed she would either be somewhere around here or somewhere familiar to them. Thankfully, Danielle was fucking stupid.
I wasn’t sure how I’d find her, but I was prepared to stake out at that store’s parking lot indefinitely if I had to. If she were staying nearby, there were pretty good odds that she’d return to the store at some point, and I'd be there.
During the flight, I mapped out a plan, ironing out as many details as possible. Gonzalez arranged to meet me at theairport with a car to expedite my movements. I had already started checking out satellite views on Google Maps, cross-referencing with a list of abandoned properties provided by someone who worked for Gonzalez.
Alex would end up chasing the Charger down a dead end at the airport—if he managed to trace it at all. I had plenty of cash to stay off the radar and do whatever was necessary.
I double-checked a particular property with Gonzalez, and after some digging, he located the foreclosed house on fourteen acres just outside town. It was in decent shape and isolated enough that no one would question our presence or notice anything unusual.
