Page 12 of Until Tomorrow Comes
“It’s not going to be easy, there’s going to be a lot of rough days ahead. But when all else fails, remind yourself of one thing. You got out.” Her voice breaks off and my breath catches in my throat as I meet Cori’s gaze.
My eyes slide shut and I feel a single tear slide down my cheek, but her words hit their mark. Words that I know will be on repeat for years to come. Because despite the physical and emotional pain that I had to endure to get here, I did it.
I got out.
5
Kat
“I’m sorry, what?” I repeat.
Alan sighs heavily, glancing at me for a second before turning back to focus on the road.
“You heard me, Kit-Kat,” he deadpans, but I only blink in response. When I don’t say anything, he shakes his head and indulges me. “I want you to get out of the city. No one has seen Zack since that night. He could be laying low, biding his time, and getting ready to do something much worse. Until he is behind bars, I don’t like the idea of you being somewhere that he can find you.”
Bile creeps up my throat. When I messaged Alan asking for help, I hadn’t thought about where I would go past that night.
But I know he’s right.
Considering Zack knows where my parents live, I can’t stay with them. Plus, after the shitshow at the hospital, there’s no way I’ll be ready to see them any time soon. All my friends are people I have met through Zack. If I asked any of them for a place to stay, he would know immediately.
My palms start sweating and a heavy pit forms in my stomach. All I can do is stare out the front windshield, thoughts racing as I try to figure out what to do. Given the time, connections and money he has, Zack could make this whole thing disappear. Once it’s swept under the rug, there would be nothing stopping him from finding me.
There’s no doubt that in his mind, he feels as if I have embarrassed him. Which is something he’s punished me for, many times before.
I shouldn’t have left. When he finds me, everything he just did will seem like a warm up act. I can’t escape him.
“I have nowhere to go.” My words come out in a rush as I gasp for breath. The corners of my vision begin to blur while I try to steady myself. I can hear my heartbeat in my ears, and the feeling of impending nausea makes my head spin.
Hands grip mine tightly, pulling my blurred gaze from the road. Somewhere in my panic, I missed the fact that Alan pulled over. Facing me now, his thumb traces circles on the top of my hand as he mumbles incoherent words of encouragement.
“I’ve got you Kat. I’m right here. Breathe with me.” He takes an exaggerated deep breath in and then lets it out. Tears stream down my face while I force myself to copy him. After a few minutes, the pounding in my chest begins to ease and my breathing gradually steadies. As my mind begins to clear, I pull my hands out from beneath his.
Hastily, I flip the visor down, and using the mirror, I wipe my face off. At the sight of the cut above my eyebrow, my teeth grind and heat flashes through my body. I have never been one for crying in front of others. Given everything that’s happened over the past two years, I thought I had perfected the art of not acknowledging my emotions.
However, the tears falling down my face prove otherwise.
I suck in another deep breath, pushing that thought away. After all that Zack has done, it shouldn’t surprise me that everything is finally bubbling to the surface. The incident three nights ago was simply the tipping point. Considering my college thesis was centered around the negative effects on the body when repressing emotions, it’s almost shocking how much I have kept to myself. A manic laugh slips out as I continue to stare at the stitches above my eye.
“I knew better. I always said that I would never be in this position, that I would never allow something likethisto happen to me.” My gaze tracks the next tear that slips down my face. There’s no point in wiping it away yet, not when I can feel others about to break free. Massaging the ache in my chest, I continue. “Hell, I broke up with a guy in college because he tried telling me what I could and couldn’t wear! Yet this time I didn’t even realize I was falling down the rabbit hole until I landed flat on my face at the bottom.”
I finally break my gaze away from the mirror to turn toward my brother.
“I have nowhere to go.” I repeat.
His jaw clenches as he watches me, shaking his head slowly. He reaches over the center console again, clutching my hand firmly in his own as he speaks.
“Yes there is, Kat. You messaged me to help you, so let me. I have a friend, Jackson, we were in the same unit. He said you can stay with him while the police track that asshole down.”
I rack my brain trying to remember the guys he’s been deployed with. Alan must see the question on my face.
“You sent him the box full of thin mint Girl Scout cookies because he wouldn’t shut up about how much he missed them.”
A surprising chuckle escapes as the memory hits me.
“That’s right! It made all the other guys jealous!” I shake my head, brows furrowing. “But he had a baby on the way, didn’t he? I can’t intrude on that space.”
I used to love sending boxes to my brother and his unit to help make them smile. That specific box was one of the last ones I sent, so Jackson’s kid would be just over a year old. These next few months are going to be rough as I figure out how to cope with everything. Being thrown into a living space with a toddler is not the ideal place to be.
