Page 77 of Stay Baby Stay

Austin smiles. “I’m pretty sure they have plenty of that where you’re headed.”

Chapter Twenty-eight

Holly

I don’t realize that Cal is following the gray sedan until it pulls into the police station’s parking lot. Rather than turn, we slow to a crawl. It’s early enough that there isn’t anyone behind us to piss off.

The driver steps out of the sedan, and I catch a quick glimpse of Lieutenant Harris pulling a plastic container out of his trunk just before Cal drives off.

“Why were you following him?” I ask quietly.

“Wanted to make sure the evidence didn’t take any detours.”

I glance into the backseat at Kenzie staring out the window. I’m sure she can hear us, but wherever she is in her head, she’s not listening.

“You don’t trust your boss?” I ask Cal.

“Can’t trust anybody right now.” He flips the turn signal and traces the road’s gradual curve onto the highway.

“No one at all?” Slowly, cautiously, I rest my hand on his thigh. It feels like it’s been days since he kissed me. Weeks since we had a moment to ourselves.

I’m starving for a drop of affection from the man beside me. He’s been busy; we both have. I need to know he still feels the way he did the night he took my virginity. That even though everything around us is changing at the speed of light, his feelings for me remain.

His self-possession cracks like candy coating, revealing a sweet, nougaty center. He brings the back of my hand to his lips. “Nobody but you, sweetheart.”

I relax into my seat to watch the city flying by. I’m about to drift off when Cal breaks the quiet.

“How’d your chat with the lieutenant go?”

“Fine, I guess,” I say. “He asked a lot of questions about you.”

“Oh yeah? What’d you tell him?”

“The truth. Minus a few...personal anecdotes.”

He gives my hand a gentle squeeze.

We hit a McDonald’s drive-thru for breakfast, which we eat in the car en route to wherever it is we’re headed. It’s about a forty-minute drive into the country, on dirt roads, past fields peppered with horses. We turn into a small gap in a thick copse of trees, continue down a slim driveway, through an overgrown orchard, then emerge onto a field with a large farmhouse.

“Whose house is this?” Kenzie asks. I’m genuinely startled to hear her voice.

“Austin’s,” Cal says. “We thought it’d be wise to get you girls out of the city.”

I glance around frantically for a barn or barn-like structure—anything that might trigger Kenzie—but the only outbuilding is a detached garage. As soon as we’re parked next to Austin’s truck, I climb out to help Kenzie down from the backseat. She sucks air through her teeth as she steps down from the truck, wincing in pain.

Austin comes out to greet us on the big wraparound porch.

“How’d you get here before us?” I ask him.

“I took the long way,” Cal says. “Just to make sure we weren’t followed.”

Austin takes my bag from me. We follow him inside, and I instantly fall in love with the hardwood floors and wooden beams on the ceilings.

“Sorry the place is still a work in progress,” Austin says. “I’m hoping to have it mostly finished by the fall.”

I have no idea what the house looked like when he bought it, but if the downstairs is an indication of the work he’s done so far, it’s impressive.

“I’ve set McKenzie up in the main bedroom upstairs, with its own bath,” Austin says. “There’s the pull-out couch in the living room, and one of you can take the twin bed in the gym.”

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