“You’ve worked here for barely a year,” Craig spat.
“Cap saved my ass. I was working at a dead end job, fucking hating every aspect of my life. He took me in and gave me a purpose when I had none, and now you want me to spit in his face? Fuck no. Florrie, I’m sorry. I wish I could help you, but this isn’t helping anyone.”
Knight spun quickly, disarming Coop who couldn’t do much of anything with a gun pointed at his head. I felt deflated. My chances of getting out of here were slipping away. If I didn’t get Reid into that tunnel, we had no chance of getting out of here, and he would be lost to me.
Knight raised his arm, pointing his gun at us once again. “Back to the living room.”
I glanced at Craig, who hadn’t had a chance to pull his gun. Neither of us had. If we had tried, one of us could have been shot, and with Reid right next to us, that wasn’t a chance we could take. With no other choice, we turned and headed back to the living room. Knight stopped us just down the hall from the suite I used to share with Alec.
“Reid, go wait in your room.”
Reid turned to me and I nodded, letting him know it was okay. He headed for the door and slowly pushed inside. Knight motioned for us to continue down the hall. What I found there was nothing short of my worst nightmare.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREEReid
When I shoved the door open, I expected to see Alec on the floor, but he was gone. I glanced around inside, thinking he would come out of his old room or out of the bathroom, but it was silent. There was no one here. I shut the door and stood there, hands in my pockets, trying to figure out what to do. Everything was all wrong. When Florrie said that we were leaving, I figured it would be with Alec. I had thought that we would just slip out and no one would know any better. But that wasn’t what happened.
This was all my fault. Florrie and Alec would still be together if it wasn’t for me. They would have their family and their friends and they would be happy. Instead, for the past few months, I had torn them apart. I knew that this wasn’t just because of me. It was because they disagreed on what to do about me. If only I hadn’t tried to hold them up that night. If only I had stuck to the shadows, but I had been so hungry and I just wanted something to eat. I could still remember the desperation I felt. My stomach growled and ached with a hunger that I knew from my time stuck in the senator’s basement. I just wanted it all to end. And when they walked by, I saw my chance. I never would have thought that this is what it would all come to.
The door opened and Caitlin slipped inside, shutting the door quietly behind her. “What’s going on out there?”
“They’re all fighting over what to do with me.”
“What did the judge say?”
“He said that I had to go live with the Fullers.”
“No,” she said firmly. “You can’t go. You belong here.”
“Newsflash, even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t be staying here. Florrie was going to run with me, but now they’re all fighting.”
She sat down on the couch, pulling me down with her. “What are you going to do?”
I looked into her fierce eyes and decided right there and then that there was only one thing I could do. “I’m going to tell Florrie that I want to live with the Fullers.”
“Why?” she asked in shock. “Why would you do that? Do you actually want to live with them?”
“They’re not too bad,” I shrugged. “It wouldn’t be that bad.”
“But you don’t want to go,” she insisted.
“Well, I can’t stay here. That’s not an option and going on the run with Florrie is going to ruin her and Alec.”
“What do you mean?”
I sighed in frustration. “Alec doesn’t want her to run with me. He tried to stop us. None of this would have happened if it wasn’t for me. They’re supposed to be together. They were going to get married, and then I came along and ruined all that.”
“No, you didn’t,” she said, snatching my hand. “They want you. I know they do.”
“But that’s not what the judge said,” I explained. “The point is, if I tell Florrie that I want to go live with the Fullers, then she and Alec can get back together. They won’t be fighting about this anymore.”
“You don’t know that.”
“This all happened because of me. I have to try and fix this. Alec and Florrie have done so much for me. I have to try and get them back together. I think this could work.”
“But I don’t want you to go,” she said tearfully, slipping her hand in mine. Caitlin had become my best friend over the past few months. I hardly realized it until right this minute. She was always there when I needed someone, and the kissing wasn’t too bad either. But what made Caitlin so special was how she stormed into my life and demanded that I be her friend. I had never had anyone fight to be my friend before, and I knew that when I left here, I wasn’t just leaving behind Alec and Florrie, I was leaving behind my best friend. And I didn’t know if I was ever going to see her again.
“I’ll miss you,” I said, pulling her in for a hug. She held me tight and her tears slipped onto my shoulder. I didn’t cry
