Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 66580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
“Well, at least you were alert enough to notice the rumors,” I told her, feeling utterly exhausted and wrung out. “I was oblivious with Trevor. I mean, I knew he was drinking a lot, but I honestly didn’t figure out the rest until the defense attorney told me.”
“It’s one thing to be stupid and screw yourself over, but to expose your kids? I’m a mother. I can’t afford mistakes like this, Mandy. What are we going to do? That is a shitload of drugs, and meth is poisonous. The girls could’ve died. How will we ever know if the place is safe again?”
I reached down, catching her hand and giving it a squeeze.
“It is what it is,” I said steadily. “So don’t waste time beating yourself up. We have to focus on the next step.”
“We need to leave town,” Hannah said abruptly.
“What? I thought maybe we could rent an apartment—”
“No,” she continued. “You don’t know Randy. In his mind, he owns these kids and he owns me. He won’t leave us alone. He’ll never leave us alone. I thought I could handle it, but I can’t. Not if I have to worry about them finding poison in their bedroom. The girls will never be safe in Violetta.”
“What about Heath?” I asked, my voice low. “Maybe he could help you.”
She shook her head slowly. “Randy has rights, you know. And his family doesn’t have much money, but they’ve lived in this town for a hundred years. His parents may like me fine, but at the end of the day I’m just white trash who slept with their son. And Heath? Sure, he’s a nice guy… I’m not the kind of girl someone like him sticks with, though, and you know it. Neither of us are.”
She held my gaze steadily and I swallowed, because she was right. We weren’t the kind of girls who had happy endings. We were the kind of girls who worked shit jobs to support shit men, and when we got arrested, everyone talked about how they’d seen it coming.
“Okay. With the five hundred bucks Bone is holding onto for me, I have six hundred and twenty total. I won’t get another check until next week, but if I tell him it’s a family emergency, he might cash me out early. Sara can give us a ride to Cranston and we can catch a bus from there. We’re strong, Hannah. We’ve survived worse.”
“You can’t come with us,” she said. “It’s a violation of your probation.”
“Okay, then you and the kids go. Maybe Sara will let me crash with her. Or Bone. I’ll finish probation and then join you. That might be better anyway— I can keep working and send you money.”
She rolled her head toward me, sighing.
“This is really happening, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it’s really happening. Unless…” I swallowed, trying to wrap my head around it. “Unless you want to try talking to Heath, Hannah. Maybe you’re wrong. He might be willing to help. He likes you a lot.”
“I like him a lot, too,” she said slowly, and from the pain in her eyes I knew it was true. “I might even love him. But I don’t know him well enough to be sure, and once we talk to him then it’s all on the record. He’s a straight and narrow kind of guy. Takes his job seriously. Even if he believes us, I don’t know if the prosecutor would take our side. I could lose the girls.”
I sighed, my head starting to throb.
“Not only that, you’d probably have to testify against Randy,” I admitted. “Assuming they believed you. Which they totally should, but…you’re right. We’re not the kind of girls people listen to.”
“I wouldn’t mind testifying against Randy,” she said quietly. “But they’d ask me about the others, too, and they threatened Callie. I suppose we could try the Reapers. Do you think Shade would help you?”
“I have no idea,” I replied. “I mean, he helped with Rebel. Sort of. But he also said he didn’t do it because of me—it was about the fact that Rebel tried to cheat the club. I’m not sure this falls into the same category.”
“I can’t think anymore,” Hannah said softly. “I think we need to sleep on this. Maybe tomorrow we’ll have a better idea of what to do.”
“Things will look better in the morning,” I agreed. “In the meantime, we should probably do something with all this shit.”
I gestured to the pile of drugs and paraphernalia, wondering how the hell we’d been so clueless.
“We could flush it,” she said. “There may be more we haven’t found, but we can get rid of this, at least. So long as it’s here, we’re technically in possession.”
“It’s as good a plan as any,” I said, sighing. “Tonight I’ll sleep in with the twins. That way if they wake up, I’ll be right there to keep an eye on them. I don’t feel like this trailer is safe anymore.”