“Well, can I at least give you a ride out of here? Fallon will never forgive me if I let her injured mother walk out of here alone. I’m going to catch enough hell as it is that I wasn’t here every day checking in on you. But from the looks of all the magazines and girly stuff lying around, my sister took care of that.” I point to a bag of nail polish that looks oddly familiar.
“Yes, she did. She’s a good girl, too. Strong and independent. You Callaways are a strong team. I’m glad Fallon has found that with you. But yes, you can give me a ride. I’ll allow you that peace of mind.” She sighs. “The doctors say I can leave in about a week if the burns on my legs continue to heal at the rate they are. I figure I’ll get a hotel while I look for a new home. Preferably one that won’t have a crazy man trying to burn it down.”
I chuckle. “Cheers to a normal life.”
“Nothing about Fallon will ever be normal. But she’s my girl, and I love everything she brings to my world,” she says with all the love of a mother shining from her eyes. “I need some rest. Go. Get our girl back.”
I nod at the pity in her smile. She thinks she pities me for my future, but if she knew what my future really looked like, she’d take her daughter and run. But as it is, I’ll focus on getting her home for now.
Darla is snoozing before I’m out in the hall trying to shut the door as silently as I can. It’s time to go home and prepare myself. It’s time to get back the one person I’ve always known absolutely belongs in my life.
I walk down the hall of Cherry Creek High, the school I came to in search a safe haven. I chuckle to myself sardonically. There is nothing safe about this place, but it still turned out to be so much more than I’d bargained for.
I’m stopped in the hall by someone grabbing my hand. I turn back to find the mischievous grin I adore.
“Come with me,” Jesse says. I don’t need any more prompting than that. I’d go anywhere with him.
He continues to pull me by my hand down a few halls until we are in an empty one. It used to be the old art hall, but the rooms were upgraded to actual studios. Now this hall is left bare. There are no classes held here, so no one usually comes down this way.
Jesse leans back against the wall and pulls me close enough to put his lips on mine. I smile into his kiss and ask, “What are you doing?”
“I’m kissing you,” Jesse says as he kisses me again. My heart beats faster with every move of his lips.
“You kissed me last night, all through the night, and again this morning,” I say. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t giddy. He makes me this way. His lips fit perfectly to mine, and his body molds to me. I’m almost bothered by how well this works.
He wraps his arms more tightly around me, causing my bag to fall off my shoulder. Papers scatter across the floor. “Crap. Sorry, let me get that for you.”
“No, no, it’s fine. I can get it.” I reach down hurriedly, but he’s already picked up a few pages. I pause, because I know exactly what he’s looking at.
“What is this?” Jesse asks from his crouch on the floor. “Did you do this?”
He flips through the pages and continues to pick the rest up. “Fallon? Did you draw these?”
I can see in my peripheral vision that he’s looked back up ,and I’m afraid to make eye contact. I nod my head. “It’s nothing. I just like to sketch sometimes.”
I go to grab the papers from him to shove them back in my bag, but Jesse pulls them away too quickly. “Nothing? These are really good.”
He looks down at the pages again. He carefully brings his other hand up and lightly traces his finger over the drawing. “Is this you? She looks so real.” He looks up at me. “And so alone.”
I reach for the papers again, and this time I’m fast enough to grab them out of his hands. I stuff them back into my bag. “It’s not. It’s just some girl I drew,” I say.
Marcus enters the room and slams the door behind him. He can’t seem to close the door like a normal person, and every time I find myself thinking of Jesse, he finds a way to interrupt. Those thoughts are the closest thing I have to peace in this nightmare, and they’re interrupted. Every. Single. Time.
“What were you doing?” he asks. He’s tense.
“Well I certainly wasn’t sleeping, was I? It’s impossible with you stomping in here like someone just pissed in your cornflakes,” I snap.
“You were thinking about him, weren’t you?” Marcus demands angrily.
“So what if I was? What else should I do? I can’t do anything else cuffed to the bed like this.” I gesture to the bedframe with my uncuffed hand.
“I told you, Fallon. I told you if you pushed back that I would hurt them,” he says, and my world turns. I literally feel drunk with panic as his words echo in my head.
“What do you mean? What have you done?” I say. He doesn’t answer me right away. “What have you done?” I yell. “Marcus! Answer me!”
Marcus tilts his head and gives me an evil smile. “He just couldn’t turn down a chance to prove that he was still in control.”
Jesse. Oh God, Jesse . . .
He laughs and then says, “It was easy really. Jordan wants to take power away from Jesse. Jesse can’t show his control is slipping.
