Page 95 of Break for Me

I nodded, but he shook his head.

“No, I need you to answer me,” he said.

“I hear you.”

His right hand shifted in between us for a moment and then he took my hand in his. He pressed something into my palm and squeezed my hand closed around it.

“I need you to get Memphis out of here, Triss. Get her back to the car, and drive. You drive until you feel safe. Don’t stop for even a second before then. Tell me you understand.”

I was shaking my head through every word out of his mouth.

“What about you?” I managed to squeak out.

“You don’t turn around for any reason once you’re outside. You don’t stop. You take Memphis. You keep moving,” he paused to drag his thumb across my lips. “Memphis can get anything you might need. You know how to run, how to hide. You know how to survive. Stay together.”

“Jersey —.”

He slammed his hand against the wall beside my head to interrupt me. “Just listen. Please. Get her out of here. Keep her alive. Stay alive. Do you hear me?”

I nodded. “I hear you, but J, please —.”

His mouth crashed into mine to shut me up that time, and after a brief, paralyzing high that made me forget entirely what we were doing just then, he stepped back again. He slid his flashlight into my other hand.

“Back out the way that we came in. You remember?”

“I do.”

“Triss?”

“Yeah?”

“Be nice to Seph.”

“The fucking car? That’s what you’re worried about right now?”

Jesus. Was I crying? When did that start?

He smirked and kissed my cheek, before he turned back to Memphis. She had her arms around his waist again before he was even able to fully face her.

“I’m so sorry, boss lady,” he whispered into the top of her head. Her body started to shake then, and I watched every muscle in his back tense under his shirt when he squeezed her harder. He pulled her face from his chest to wipe her tears from her face and that fucking duct tape. She pushed his hands down quickly and pulled the front of her shirt away from her body. She stuck her other hand right down the front of her shirt and fumbled around in it for a second before she held her palm out flat in front of him. He chuckled and took the tiny tracking device from her hand.

“Stay with her,” he said to Memphis. “She’s fucking crazy. And her whole existence is like nails on a chalkboard. But she’ll keep you safe.”

He looked at me as he said the words. It wasn’t a question this time though. He wasn’t asking if I understood. He was threatening me. He was warning me that he was charging me with her life now. I about vomited.

sixty-six

TRISTA

“Go,” he said and looked between the two of us. “I’ll be right behind you.”

The strangled sobbing sound that came out of me brought his eyes back to me.

“You’re lying,” I managed to say. I could hear movement from somewhere inside the house again.

“We’re out of time, baby. I need you to get moving,” he said and started to move both of us toward the hallway where we’d first made it inside. “You can’t be here anymore. You’re the only thing I see when you’re around. You’re constantly in my fucking way.”

This asshole.

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